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October 27, 2004
Jeremy Reynalds
P O Box 27693
Alb., NM 87125-7693
www.joyjunction.org
Iraqi Christians Pray for Hostage
Christian worshipers in Iraq prayed on Sunday for the release of kidnaped humanitarian aid worker Margaret Hassan.
Parish priest al-Khori Rufaeel, deputy head of the Syrian Catholic Community, condemned her abduction, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported, saying it did not serve the country's interests.
Preaching in Baghdad, he emphasized Hassan's long track record of humanitarian work for Iraq and its people.
Hassan works for CARE, a non-governmental charitable organization that has assisted in Iraq for the last 14 years.
Reuters news agency reported, the BBC said, that insurgent commanders in Falluja said they were not holding Hassan.
One of five guerrilla commanders, quoted by Reuters said, "The resistance did not kidnap her because this would have left a bad impression of the resistance in the world."
Another commander told Reuters, "This woman works for an humanitarian organization - she should not have been kidnaped."
They said there was no evidence that Jordanian militant Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group - which abducted and beheaded British hostage Kenneth Bigley - was involved.
In a video released on Friday, Hassan - who has dual Iraqi and British citizenship was seen tearfully pleading British Prime Minister Tony Blair to withdraw troops to save her life.
However, Arabic News reported that interim Iraqi prime minister Eyad Allawi will not give in to the kidnapers demands.
In an interview with Fox News broadcast Sunday, Allawi said "we should stay very tough and not to give up the issue of bringing terrorists before the judiciary."
Allawi expressed hope, Arabic News reported, that Hassan would be released.
In the first British official reaction to the appeal, Arabic News reported that British foreign office secretary Jack Straw said that the video taped appeal is shocking. He called for Hassan's release and asked for all Iraqis to join a call to see Hassan immediately released.
The BBC also reported that Hassan's husband Tahseen Ali Hassan in a televised appeal pleased with captors to release his wife.
"I beg you, in the name of Islam and Arabism," he said, "while we are in the holiest Islamic month, to return my wife."
Tahseen Ali Hassan reiterated his wife's Iraqi links, the BBC reported.
"Margaret is an Iraqi national and has been living in Iraq for more than 30 years. She considers Iraq her homeland. She loves Iraq and its people," he said. "She considers my family to be her own. This is why she devoted herself and her life to help her people in Iraq."
A statement on the CARE web site read, "In light of the latest video of Mrs. Hassan, CARE continues to be deeply concerned for her welfare. CARE joins with the many Iraqi people who Mrs. Hassan has helped over her decades of charitable work in Iraq in calling for her immediate release. Mrs. Hassan is an Iraqi citizen and holds the people of Iraq in her heart. Her tremendous dedication to the Iraqi people has been demonstrated through overwhelming public support in Iraq for her release. We call on the people who are holding Mrs. Hassan to be aware that she is an Iraqi and to release her to her family, her husband Tahsine and the Iraqi people who love her."
For additional information on this situation, go to www.care.org
http://www.cnsnews.com//ViewCulture.asp?Page=\Culture\archive\200410\CUL20041027a.html
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By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com Morning Editor
October 27, 2004
God bless her and keep her safe.....