. . .
After he saw Lynch slapped, the lawyer slipped into her room at the Saddam Hospital in Nasiriyah and told her, "Don't worry." Then he walked six miles to the nearest U.S. Marines and told them where she was.
He later returned to the hospital, at the request of U.S. commanders, to map the facility and count how many Saddam Hussein loyalists were there.
. . .
The man slapped her, Mohammed said. "One, two," he added, making single slapping and back slap motions with his right hand. She was very brave, he recalled.
"My heart cut," Mohammed added, meaning stopped, putting his hand over his chest and grimacing. "There, I have decided to go to Americans to give them important information about the woman prisoner."
He walked into her room with his doctor friend. "I said 'Good morning.' She thought I was a doctor. I say, 'Don't worry.' She smiled," he recalled.
Fedayeen raided his house the next day, he said, taking away all his possessions and even his car, a Russian-made Muscovitch Brazilia 680. He said a neighbor was shot and her body dragged through the streets just for waving at a U.S. helicopter.
"Very bad people," he said. "There is no kindness in my heart for them."
. . .
"Believe me, not only I, all the people of Iraq, not the people in the government, like Americans," Mohammed said. "They want to help the Americans, but they are all afraid."
Thought you folks would appreciate this remarkable story.
The article doesn't mention Mohammed's faith, but one doesn't need "the gift" to figure it out. Or to recognize that Jessica Lynch's rescue would not have been possible without the courage and compassion of this Iraqi lawyer who risked his life and family to save her. She was a complete stranger to him, she was of a different faith, and she wore the uniform of a country he was taught to hate. Yet somehow Mohammed saw her as a fellow human being, wounded and beaten by cruel captors, and he risked everything to save her life.
Stories like this never cease to amaze, even as similar stories continually unfold in every corner of the world where evil tries to conquer good.
But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion, and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.' Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?" He said, "The one who showed mercy on him." And Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."
Luke 10:29-37
I don't know to what extent, if any, Mohammed's religious beliefs influenced his decision to help Jessica. But I do know this: by his actions, this Iraqi Muslim proved himself a better neighbor to Jessica and a better Christian than many who profess to follow Christ while preaching a gospel of hate toward people like Mohammed.