TORONTO, December 29, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) - Canadian Muslims have issued an appeal for the release of four Christian peace activists, being held hostage in Iraq since November 26.

"It is a tragedy that these humanitarian aid workers, who have stood in solidarity with the Palestinian and Iraqi people, should be subjected to this suffering," the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN) said in a statement issued on Thursday, December 29.

"CAIR-CAN again calls on the hostage takers to abide by the Qu'ranic principle of mercy, and release the four hostages immediately."

American Tom Fox, 54; Briton Norman Kember, 74; and two Canadians, James Loney, 41 and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, were kidnapped in Baghdad on November 26.

In a video that appeared on Al-Jazeera television, kidnappers threatened to kill the four unless all detainees in Iraqi and US-run prisons were released by December 8, , but there has been no word on their fate since then.

The four are associated with the US and Canada-based Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), a pacifist organization that sends volunteers to conflict zones and is opposed to the US-led occupation of Iraq.

"I appeal to the moral conscience of those holding these peace activists to realize their religious duty and release them honorably," said Sheikh Kutty.

Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior Canadian Muslim scholar, has also issued an appeal for the release of the four hostages.

"I appeal to the moral conscience of those holding these peace activists to realize their religious duty and release them honorably," he said.

"It is ironic that the very people who have only empathized with the Iraqis in their time of suffering - often placing their own lives in danger – are being targeted," noted Kutty, a senior lecturer at the Islamic Institute of Toronto.

On December 6, twenty five prominent Muslim leaders from around the world, included Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, Chairman of the International Association of Muslim Scholars (IAMS), have appealed for the immediate release of four Christian hostage.

"Such peace activist should have been welcomed into Iraq and treated as honorable guests instead of being kidnapped and used as a bargaining chip," they stressed.

CPT was established in 1984 with the goal of carrying out unarmed interventions in armed conflicts worldwide.

The group’s motto is "Getting In the Way” and its stated mission is to "embrace the vision of unarmed intervention waged by committed peacemakers ready to risk injury and death in bold attempts to transform lethal conflict through the nonviolent power of God’s truth and love."

It has worked for over three decades, in various parts of the world, as a non-missionary, independent humanitarian aid and violence reduction organization.

CPT has worked in Iraq since October 2002 opposing the US/UN economic sanctions policy, the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, and the continued occupation of Iraq by Western military forces.

The group has blamed the United States and Britain for the kidnappings due to their "illegal acts" against the Iraqi people.

• IAMS Vigorously Condemns Kidnapping, Killing Civilians

• Islam Forbids Kidnapping, Killing Civilians: Qaradawi