[From the diaries by susanhu, a finely written diary by Spiderleaf. FP’d with prayers and hope. I’ve been heartened that so many Muslim leaders — including one in the UK who’s in prison for his Al Qaeda connections — are calling for the hostages’ release. Please keep us posted, Spiderleaf.]

I have refrained from posting about the four hostages being held in Iraq as it not only hurts me to the core, but I have held out hope they will be released soon. But time is running out. The deadline is now hours away.

The hostages are members of the Christian Peacemakers Team and are two Canadians, an American and a Brit. They were in Iraq to document human rights abuses and to help the Iraqis. They were all adamently opposed to the occupation.
I apologize if this post focuses mainly on the Canadians, but hey, that’s where I live and who I am and it’s the news I’ve been following. Unfortunately, it appears at this point that their nationality may be what saves them vs. the American and Brit. The most recent videos released by the kidnappers showed the Brit and American bound and blindfolded and the Canadians were not shown at all. According to journalists following the story, that does not bode well for the non-Canadians. My heart hurts for that. I know we stayed out of the war but these people were all just there to help.

The international outcry has been inspiring. From the streets of Palestine to the mosques of Canada and Iraq people of good conscience have been asking for their release.

American Tom Fox, 54, and Briton Norman Kember, 74, are shown in orange jumpsuits with their hands chained and eyes taped over, a scene that has reminded British viewers of pictures of Ken Bigley, a Liverpool engineer who was kidnapped in Iraq last year, before his captors beheaded him.

The Canadian hostages – James Loney, 41, of Toronto and Harmeet Sooden, 32, who has lived in Montreal – are not seen in the video, which was broadcast on the Arabic satellite channel Al-Jazeera.

BBC correspondent Caroline Hawley said it was “pretty disturbing” that only two of the four men, all members of a Christian Peacemaker group, were shown.

“I think the hostage takers are clearly trying to differentiate between them because Canada doesn’t have troops here in Iraq and Britain and America do,” she said.

In Baghdad on Friday, a cleric at a the al-Imam al-Aadam mosque, in the northern neighbourhood of Azamiyah, said the hostages should be released immediately.

“I stress on the necessity to release the four kidnapped foreigners who have helped the residents of Azamiyah,” cleric Ahmed Hassan Taha said.

“We ask those who have authority and power to do their best to release the four.”

Outside the mosque, similar sentiments were expressed by residents holding signs and banners.

“We demand the release of the abducted peacemakers,” one sign read.

Also in Baghdad on Friday, an envoy from the Canadian Islamic Congress continued his attempts to free the hostages.

Lotayef, a Canadian of Egyptian origin, is said to be trying to enlist local support and to get his message through to the hostage takers.

Mohammed Ayash of the International Solidarity Movement for Palestine, said the hostages are peacemakers, friends of Muslims and defenders of Iraqi detainees “because they are working there as human rights [supporters] and are against the occupation,” he said.

A British former prisoner of the US at Guantanamo Bay has called for the release of Briton Norman Kember and three other hostages held in Iraq.

Moazzam Begg told BBC Newsnight that seeing Mr Kember in an orange jumpsuit reminded him and his fellow ex-inmates of their ordeal at the US base in Cuba.

…

Mr Begg said seeing these orange jumpsuits had prompted him to make the appeal.

He said: “When we were first granted release by Allah’s mercy we came home to find that there were people who opposed the government in their brutal war waged against Afghanistan and Iraq and stood on the side of justice, and they were not Muslims.

“It is our sincerest belief that Norman Kember, the 74-year-old Briton and those with him are amongst those people, the many people who opposed this war from the beginning and were only in Iraq to promote human rights for the oppressed.”

He added that he hoped these words would encourage the hostage-takers to show mercy to the men and set them free.

Mr Begg was held for almost three years by the US at its naval base in Cuba.

He was eventually released without charge and sent back to the UK with his fellow inmates in January.

This story has cut to the core of so many in Canada. We oppose this war. We oppose Bush. We stand for peace and freedom for all. But we understand why these men were there and we do not want better treatment for them than for the British and American peacemakers. We just want the madness to stop.

I can only hope that the pleas reach the kidnappers and they find it in thier hearts to release them unharmed.

This war needs to end. The Iraqi people deserve their country back. And the families of these men deserve them back too… although the family of James Loney said recently that he would probably be back in Iraq within weeks of being released because that is his calling. Peace & stopping injustice is his life.

Please light a candle today for these men and for all around the world who live with death and destruction around them.

Namaste.

Iraq War Grief Daily Witness