Members of the Islamic community in Houston denounced the kidnapping of U.S. journalist Jill Carroll in Iraq, saying that threats to kill her contradict the Islamic religion.
"We all have the same feeling of outrage," said Nabin Oladi, a Muslim resident of the Clear Lake area. "It doesn't go along with our religion and we are praying and hoping that she will be released."
Oladi spoke at a press conference at the Islamic Dawah Center in downtown Houston, organized by U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, and local Muslim leaders.
Carroll, 28, is a freelance reporter for the Christian Science Monitor newspaper. She was on her way to meet Sunni Arab politician Adnan Dulaimi in Baghdad’s western Adel district when she was kidnapped on January 7.
The conference convened as the world waited for word on Carroll’s fate after her kidnappers threatened to kill her unless all Iraqi female detainees are released.
Houston City Councilman M.J. Khan urged people of all religions to pray for the journalist’s release, demanding her captors to heed international calls for mercy.
"In the name of Islam, I appeal to you to release Jill Carroll," Khan said. "It is the Islamic thing to do. It is the right thing to do. It is the human thing to do."
Tarek Hussein, head of Houston's chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Carroll's kidnappers are violating the Islamic religion.
"It is absolutely against Islamic teachings for any civilian to be targeted anywhere in the world," Hussein said. "It will not further their cause. She is a journalist who came there wanting to help a country in turmoil."
Rodwan Saleh, president of the Islamic Society of Greater Houston, also said that American Muslims sympathize with Carroll's family. “We stand with you in your time of difficulty and we pray with you," he said, addressing Carroll's family.
Jackson Lee said the kidnapping is poignant to Americans who believe in freedom of speech and a free press. "Jill Carroll embodies that freedom," Jackson Lee said. "She wrote stories in the Christian Science Monitor to tell the story of the Iraqi people."
Source:
www.chron.com