End Headscarf Ban, Iraq Hostage Takers Warn France
By Miral Fahmy
DUBAI (Reuters) - An Iraqi militant group has kidnapped two French journalists and given the French government 48 hours to end its ban on Muslim headscarves in school, Arabic television station Al Jazeera said Saturday.
Jazeera identified the hostages as reporters George Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot. Last week, the French Foreign Ministry said the two men had gone missing in Iraq.
The channel aired a brief video showing what it said were the two journalists standing in front of a black banner bearing the name of the Islamic Army in Iraq. One man told the camera: "I would like to tell my family that everything is OK."
[...]
The Al Jazeera announcer said the Islamic Army in Iraq issued an ultimatum to France to abandon its "unfair and aggressive" ban on Muslim headscarves in state schools within 48 hours. It did not say whether the group threatened to kill its captives if France did not comply.
[...]
Activist groups have branded the headscarf law discriminatory and defended what they said was the religious obligation of all Muslim women to cover their hair.
Earlier this year, senior al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri lambasted France's ban on Muslim headscarves, saying in an audio tape that Paris was displaying "Crusader hatred" toward Islam.
[...]
By Miral Fahmy
DUBAI (Reuters) - An Iraqi militant group has kidnapped two French journalists and given the French government 48 hours to end its ban on Muslim headscarves in school, Arabic television station Al Jazeera said Saturday.
Jazeera identified the hostages as reporters George Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot. Last week, the French Foreign Ministry said the two men had gone missing in Iraq.
The channel aired a brief video showing what it said were the two journalists standing in front of a black banner bearing the name of the Islamic Army in Iraq. One man told the camera: "I would like to tell my family that everything is OK."
[...]
The Al Jazeera announcer said the Islamic Army in Iraq issued an ultimatum to France to abandon its "unfair and aggressive" ban on Muslim headscarves in state schools within 48 hours. It did not say whether the group threatened to kill its captives if France did not comply.
[...]
Activist groups have branded the headscarf law discriminatory and defended what they said was the religious obligation of all Muslim women to cover their hair.
Earlier this year, senior al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri lambasted France's ban on Muslim headscarves, saying in an audio tape that Paris was displaying "Crusader hatred" toward Islam.
[...]
I always warned that once you give in to terrorist demands, you legitimize the use of terrorist tactics in their eyes.
I always claimed that terrorism must be disclaimed inllegitimate and no demands must be ever met.
Some here have claimed that terrorism will stop once we take away its justification. I always warned, that terrorism must be stopped regardless of justification, because it will end up using as a political tool regardless of justification.
Some here have even claimed that terrorism is a legitimate measure because of the justification the groups exclaimed cause gives them. "Freedom fighting" it was called.
Well how is this any different?
These are just "poor opressed muslems" fighting against "european colonialist opression".
Next we will see anti-globalization activists kidnapping and executing people during WTO meetings. And this will also be labled "freedom fighting" against "evil capitalist opression".
as I always claimed:
Terrorism is just another method of political bartering.
It is wrong and should be clearly made illegitimate.
It should always be condemned. It should always be fought.
Demands by terrorists should never - ever be met. This only legitimizes terrorism as "a method that works".
The same people that use terrorism today to demand things which you think they deserve, will end up demanding what ever they think they can achieve.
STOP TOUTING TERRORISM NOW.
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