“France is a friend of the Arab world,” said Qaradawi

Additional Reporting By IOL Correspondent

BAGHDAD, August 31 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Prominent Muslim leaders joined Tuesday, August 31, a global chorus of condemnation over the kidnapping of two French journalists in Iraq as the captors gave Paris another 24 hours to scrap a ban on hijab at state schools.

Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Mohammad Sayed Tantawi demanded the abductors to immediately release the two journalists, holding them responsible for their safety.

“Islam is totally against the kidnapping of innocent civilians and taking them hostages. It is unacceptable and unethical,” he said in a press release.

The committee for interfaith dialogue of Al-Azhar, the world’s highest Sunni authority, also said in a statement by its vice-president Ali El-Samman in Paris that the abduction was an "assault on the human and the individual's freedom".

"The committee clarifies that Islam rejects firmly and truthfully the attack on the innocent," the statement added, quoting a verse from the Noble Qur’an.

Late Saturday, August 28, Arabic-language Al-Jazeera television broadcast images of Radio France correspondent Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot of Le Figaro newspaper along with an ultimatum from a group calling itself "the Islamic Army in Iraq", the same group that killed Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni after kidnapping him.

Friendly France

“It is unacceptable and unethical,” said Tantawi

Revered Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, president of the International Association of Muslim Scholars (IAMS) and the European Council for Fatwa and Research, added his voice to the condemnation, describing France as a “friend” to the Muslims and the Arabs.

Speaking to reporters following a meeting with French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier in Cairo, the prominent Muslim scholar exhorted the kidnappers to set the two journalists free in the name of Islam.

Abdelwahab Belkaziz, secretary general of the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), warned that the abduction could cause "irreparable   damage to Islam".

"Islam and the entire Muslim world prohibit abducting or terrorizing innocents and reject the easy amalgam between the issue of the hijab in France and the current situation in Iraq," he said in a statement carried by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Lebanese Shiite leader Sheikh Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, who has described the French law as tantamount to religious persecution, said the kidnapping was "contrary to the rules of Islam".

"Muslim scholars across the world have said that the hijab ban must be dealt with through an objective dialogue with the French authorities," said Fadlallah.

In Gaza City, the Palestinian resistance movement Islamic Jihad made a similar appeal.

"They are friends of the Palestinian people and visited Palestine many times," Mohammad Al-Hindi, a senior Jihad political chief, told AFP.

"The issue of the scarf cannot be solved in this manner, particularly since the France distinguished itself, compared to other European nations, in its position on the American occupation of Iraq."

Deadline Extended

The two French journalists plead for their lives

The group has initially given Paris 48 hours to meet its demands, describing the ban on hijab (the Muslim headscarf) in state schools as “an injustice and an attack on the Islamic religion”.

But on Monday, August 30, the deadline was extended to another 24 hours, while the two journalists have pleaded for their lives.

Al-Jazeera said the kidnappers had extended their ultimatum by 24-hours, giving France a little more time to continue its regional consultations.

"Failure to revoke it might cost us our lives. It's a question of time -- maybe minutes -- before we are among the dead," Chesnot said in a video broadcast by Al-Jazeera Monday.

Al-Jazeera itself demanded their release in a press statement so that they could "pursue their mission in conveying the truth to people everywhere".

The new tape left Paris in an uncomfortable position after it insisted it would not yield to the kidnappers' demands and that the ban would indeed come into effect when the school year starts Thursday, September 2.

France stepped up its efforts to win the release of the two men, with Barnier in Amman Tuesday to seek Jordan's help while Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin was to hold a crisis meeting in Paris.

The meeting is to be attended by Education Minister Francois Fillon, Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin, Communications Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres and government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope.

On Monday, Barnier told a news conference in Cairo that the men had been doing their job to explain the realities of Iraq to the outside world.

"These two men of goodwill have always shown their understanding for these people and their fondness for the Arab and Muslim world.

"I call for their release in the name of principles of humanity and respect for the human being which are at the very heart of the message of Islam and the religious practices of Muslims."

The abductions have shocked France, which was vocally opposed to the war on Iraq and is regarded as a friend to the Arab world.

Mass Rallies

Hundreds of Parisians gathered in the Trocadero square in solidarity with the two journalists (AFP)

Meanwhile, hundreds of Parisians gather on the Trocadero square in Paris Monday to protest against the kidnapping of two French Journalists.

Muslim leaders in France participated in the rally to press for the release of the pair and vehemently reiterated their rejection to the blackmail of the abductors.

Many Muslim women in headscarves joined the protests for the journalists' release, the BBC News Online reported.

The Muslim community in France vigorously condemned Sunday, August 29, the kidnappings, saying it was “shattered” by the extremists’ “unworthy and odious blackmail”.

“The kidnapping of the two journalists is absolutely unjustified, badly harm the interests of the Muslim community in France and stir up anti-Muslims' sentiments,” the chairman of the Union of French Islamic Organizations (UOIF), Althuhami Ibriz, told IslamOnline.net.

Leading Muslim groups and governments added Monday their voice to those denouncing the kidnappings and called for their immediate release.

"We call on the abductors to free the two journalists... who had been denouncing the American crimes in Iraq in their work," said Yasser Al-Serri, the head of the London-based rights watchdog Islamic Observatory, Yasser Al-Serri.

Describing French President Jacques Chirac as "a good friend of the Palestinian people", Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said the "journalists were helping the Iraqi and the Palestinian causes".