PARIS, Aug 31 (AFP) - One of France's senior Muslim leaders, Paris mosque head Dalil Boubakeur, on Tuesday called for the release of two journalists kidnapped in Iraq and offered to send a delegation to Baghdad.
"In this solemn and serious moment, we call on those who are holding our two countrymen to do everything possible to spare their lives and release them without delay," Boubakeur told a prayer meeting at the mosque.
"We, the Muslim community, an integral part of the French nation, want to explain that Islam, religion of France, is a religion of peace that thrives in the full exercise of its rights and freedom of expression," he added.
Boubakeur, the president of the French Council for the Muslim Religion (CFCM), was joined by French Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin and Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe at the event, which unfolded before a bank of television cameras.
The brother and girlfriend of Le Figaro journalist Georges Malbrunot, who is being held hostage along with Radio France correspondent Christian Chesnot, also were in attendance.
Boubakeur added that his organization, France's first officially recognized Muslim body, was prepared to send a delegation to Baghdad to help negotiate the release of the two men.
"France is not a country that can be punished because of its attitude toward Islam -- quite the contrary," Boubakeur said before the meeting.
The Islamic Army in Iraq, which has kidnapped the two men, has demanded that the French government rescind its ban on Islamic headscarves and other "conspicuous" religious insignia in state schools, due to go into effect Thursday.
An original 48-hour ultimatum issued late Saturday by the shadowy Sunni Muslim group was extended for 24 hours until late Tuesday.
The French government was scrambling to secure the release of the two hostages, with Foreign Minister Michel Barnier shuttling between Egypt and Jordan for meetings with top officials.
The death threat hanging over the journalists has set off a wave of outrage across France, uniting left and right, Muslims and non-Muslims. The Arab and Islamic worlds have also condemned the kidnapping.
Among those who have denounced the hostage-taking most vocally are leading opponents of the headscarf ban, who say that now that the law has been passed democratically it must be obeyed.
"We are all hostages in this affair," said Lhaj Thami Breze, president of the Union of Islamic Organizations of France.