BAGHDAD, Aug 29 (AFP) - A strict Wahhabist group in Iraq and the most senior Sunni Muslim scholars in the country on Sunday urged kidnappers holding two French journalists to release them immediately.
"We call on the Islamic Army in Iraq to release the two French journalists in recognition of France's stance during the war and in tribute to French journalists who report the crimes committed daily against the Iraqi people by the American occupation forces," the Irshad and al-Fatwa Committee said.
At the same time, it called on Paris to overturn its ban on Islamic headscarves in state schools, which the kidnappers have demanded the French government do within 48 hours.
The Committee of Ulemas also called for the journalists' immediate release.
"We are against these kidnappings, particularly of journalists because they are our voice in Iraq," member Sheikh Abdul Sattar Abdul Jabbar said.
"The veil is a domestic affair for France. But perhaps we can ask it to pay attention to Muslims and modify its policy," he added.
If the kidnappers are true Muslims and respect Sharia (Islamic) law, they must release the hostages, he said.
Radio France Internationale correspondent Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot of Le Figaro newspaper went missing on August 20, the day they were to have left Baghdad for the central holy city of Najaf, then the scene of fierce fighting between US forces and Shiite militia loyal to radical cleric Moqtada Sadr.
Late Saturday, Al-Jazeera television broadcast images of Chesnot and Malbrunot along with an ultimatum from the Islamic Army in Iraq, the same group that killed Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni after kidnapping him.
The group also executed two Pakistanis it said were working for the US military in Iraq and detains an Iranian diplomat.