BRITAIN: A radical British Islamist group yesterday branded a Briton facing a horrific execution by beheading at the hands of his kidnappers in Iraq as part of an invading force who deserves his fate, writes Lynne O'Donnell in London
Mr Ken Bigley (62) has been threatened with decapitation by a gang linked to al-Qaeda that kidnapped him a week ago and has already murdered his two American colleagues and dumped their headless bodies.
Khalid Kelly, an Irish convert to Islam who is a spokesman for the extremist London-based, Islamic organisation Al Muhajiroun, said it looked likely the Briton would be murdered.
"He has no one to blame but himself. I've no sympathy with him whatsoever," Mr Kelly told The Irish Times. "All non-Muslims have been asked to leave all Muslim countries, a couple of months ago Sheikh Osama bin Laden asked them to leave. So any foreigner in a Muslim country is a legitimate target. He [Mr Bigley\] shouldn't be in the country."
Calling the leader of the kidnappers, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who is Osama bin Laden's military chief in Iraq and carries out the beheadings himself, "my Muslim brother", Mr Kelly said: "It's an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Anyone who says terrorism is not part of Islam is wrong. It's an Islamic responsibility to fight. We are all terrorists."
The decapitations of Mr Eugene Armstrong and Mr Jack Hensley, which were filmed and posted on the Internet, drew mixed reactions from other Islamic leaders.
The chairman of the Liverpool mosque and Islamic institute, Akbar Ali, joined with the city's Anglican bishop, the Right Rev James Jones, to issue a statement calling on the kidnappers to show mercy to Mr Bigley and, before his murder, Mr Hensley.
Mr Ali stopped short of a blanket condemnation of Islamist violence, categorising hostage-taking as a type of terrorism.
"This sort of terrorism, taking hostages and murdering them, is completely and utterly un-Islamic and they have no right to use the name of Islam or say they are doing it in the name of God,
"It is making me very angry that they should use the name of a religion which stands for peace for such horrific acts of cold-blooded murder. This is nothing but cold-blooded murder. In the history of Islam in the past, no prisoner of war has ever been executed in this manner, and these people are not even POWs, they are completely innocent civilians engaged in reconstruction work," he said.
No distinctions existed for Mr Dilwar Hussain, a research fellow at the Islamic Foundation charity, who said "condemnation of violence should be unconditional".
"I can understand that if people are attacked they have the right to defend themselves. It is common to most civilisations and beliefs. I couldn't rule out self-defence but Islamic teachings are absolutely clear that you do not transgress, which mean don't go beyond what has been done to you," Mr Hussain said.
"Some of these Muslim groups that are perpetrating this violence have forgotten some of the very precious teachings of Islam. "The prophet said that even in battle, you should be cautious not to harm innocent bystanders, people in monasteries, old women, children.