AMMAN, Aug 30 (AFP) - Muslim leaders on Monday denounced the kidnapping of two French journalists in Iraq as un-Islamic and exhorted their abductors to release them, saying that France had always been a friend to the region.
The so-called Islamic Army of Iraq, which is holding journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, has given France until Monday night to revoke a controversial law banning the Islamic headscarf from state schools.
Even Muslims hostile to the French ban appealed for the release of the journalists, highlighting France`s fierce opposition to the US-led war on Iraq, although a straw poll on an Islamic website found most wanted the pair to be executed.
Abdelwahab Belkaziz, secretary general of the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), warned that the abduction could cause "irreparable damage to Islam".
"Islam and the entire Muslim world prohibit abducting or terrorising innocents and reject the easy amalgam between the issue of the hijab (Muslim scarf) in France and the current situation in Iraq," he said in a statement.
French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier is in Cairo on an emergency Middle East mission to try to secure the release of the two men and to explain his government`s reasoning on the headscarf issue.
Lebanese Shiite fundamentalist leader Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, who has described the French law as tantamount to religious persecution, joined the chorus of condemnation over the kidnapping, saying it was "contrary to the rules of Islam".
"Ulemas and Muslim thinkers across the world have said that the scarf ban must be dealt with through an objective dialogue with the French authorities," said Fadlallah, whose influence extends beyond Lebanon.
The committee for interfaith dialogue of Al-Azhar, the highest authority in Sunni Islam, said in a statement by its vice-president Ali El Samman in Paris that the abduction was an "assault on the human and the individual`s freedom".
"The committee clarifies that Islam rejects firmly and truthfully the attack on the innocent," the statement added, quoting a verse from the Koran.
Yasser al-Serri, head of the London-based Islamic Observatory whose institution defends Muslims around the world and had opposed the French law, called for the journalists to be released.
"The two journalists are civilians who are trying to uncover the savage acts of the American occupation forces. Their work serves Iraq and the Iraqis."
In Gaza City, the radical Palestinian movement Islamic Jihad made a similar appeal.
"They are friends of the Palestinian people and visited Palestine many times," Mohammad al-Hindi, a senior Jihad political chief, told AFP.
"The issue of the scarf cannot be solved in this manner, particularly since the France distinguished itself, compared to other European nations, in its position on the American occupation of Iraq."
In Cairo, Amr Mussa, head of the 22-member Arab League, held talks with Barnier to discuss the fate of the hostages.
"I urge everyone to resolve this matter as rapidly as possible and to free (the hostages) as quickly as possible to spare us the consequences which we could do without," Mussa said.
Muslim leaders in France called for a demonstration to press for the release of the pair and vehemently rejected any attempt to interfere in France`s democratic process.
Al-Jazeera television, the Qatari based satellite channel which broke news of the abduction, demanded their release so that they could "pursue their mission in conveying the truth to people everywhere".
The Doha-based pan-Arab channel reported Thursday that the same group had executed Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni after holding him for a week.
However, dozens of people took part in a poll posted on an Islamic website (www.ansarnet.ws/vb/showthread.php?t=13660), with most saying the pair should be executed.
One respondent who identified himself as Mohammed al-Jazairi said the pair should be killed because France sent troops to Afghanistan to track down terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.