Iraq Crisis Resources

[6 Dec 2005, 7:00CST]

"We are very concerned about our friends. We would very much like to know that they are in good condition.  It is our most sincere wish that you will immediately release them unharmed.

While we believe the action of kidnapping is wrong, we do not condemn you as people. We recognize the humanity in each person, and respect it very much. This includes you, our colleagues, and all people.

We believe there needs to be a force that counters all the resentment, the fear, the intimidation felt by the Iraqi people. We are trying to be that force: to speak for justice, to advocate for the human rights of Iraqis, to look at an Iraqi face and say: my brother, my sister...

Perhaps you are men who only want to raise the issue of illegal detention. We don't know what you may have endured.  As you can see by the statements of support from our friends in Iraq and all over the world, we work for those who are oppressed.   We also condemn our own governments for their actions in Iraq.

Please, we appeal to your humanity to show mercy on our brothers and let them come back safely to us to continue our work.   May God spare our friends, and all the people of Iraq any further suffering."

September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows

September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows represents family members of those killed in the brutal attacks of 9/11. Our experience of loss has led us to call for an end to the cycle of violence and an end to the targeting and killing of civilians. We realized that the terrorism of September 11th would lead to the terrorism of war, and that these acts of violence would continue to grow until ordinary people from all nations, joining together in solidarity, recognized their common destiny and demanded an end to violent conflict. The members of the Christian Peacemaker Team are a part of this people's movement. We ask their captors to choose the moral path and break the cycle of violence. Your compassionate action will earn you the respect of the world, and will support the efforts of ordinary people everywhere to create a safer and more peaceful tomorrow for all.

Yemen Statement by Al-Quds International Foundation, a gathering of Middle East religious leaders
We, the undersigned, call for the immediate release of the four Western peace activists who were kidnapped in Iraq last week. We have been saddened by the kidnapping of these peace activists whose only mission in Iraq has been to express solidarity with the Iraqi people and see for themselves the devastating effects of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. They were intending to return home to inform the public opinion in their own countries about the destruction and havoc brought about by the invasion of Iraq by the United States of America and its allies.

We have come to learn that the Christian NGO to which these four activists belonged is a peace-loving organization that is well-known for its support for the just causes of oppressed nations around the world and particular for its sympathy with the Palestinian and Iraqi peoples and its support for their struggle for emancipation from the shackles of occupation.

Such peace activist should have been welcomed into Iraq and treated as honourable guests instead of being kidnapped and used as a bargaining chip. Neither the hostages nor the organization they represent possess the means of forcing the occupation authorities to free the Iraqis held in its detention centres across Iraq.

While fully supporting the right of the Iraqi people to resist occupation with all legitimate means, we denounce as illegitimate any act of aggression against innocent civilians irrespective of their religion or nationality. We therefore call for the immediate release of these four hostages and of all other Western civilians kidnapped in Iraq and urge whoever has the ability to play a role in the endeavour to secure their release and their safe return to their countries to spare no effort in this regard. All illegitimate acts of aggression against innocent civilians, including kidnappings, indiscriminate killing or other forms of harm inflicted upon non-combatants, only harm the just cause of the Iraqi people and their legitimate struggle for freedom and independence.

Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, Chairman of Al-Quds International Foundation
Sheikh Faysal Mawlawi, Secretary General of the Islamic Group in Lebanon
Sheikh Harith Al-Dari, Head of Association of Muslim Scholars, Iraq
Khalid Mishaal, Head of Hamas Political Bureau, Palestine
Musa Abu Marzuq, Deputy Head of Hamas Political Bureau, Palestine
Maan Bashur, Secretary General of the Arab Nationalist Congress
Hasan Hudruj, Hezbollah, Lebanon
Mahmud Al-Qumati, Hezbollah, Lebanon
Father Antwan Dhao, Lebanon
Sheikh Abdulhadi Awang, Islamic Party, Malaysia
Professor Aleef-ud-Din Turabi, Kashmir
Dr. Mohamed M. O. Jamjoom, Businessman, Saudi Arabia
Dr. Khalid Abdurrahman Al-Ajami, University Professor, Saudi Arabia
Dr. Muhsin Al-Awaji, Islamic writer and thinker, Saudi Arabia
Dr. Abd Al-Quddus Al-Midwahi, Yemen
Muhammad bin Ali Ijlan, Yemen
Dr. Abdullatif Al Mahmud, Islamic Society, Bahrain
Abdulmunem Jalal Al-Mir, Palestine Solidarity Association, Bahrain
Dr. Muhammad Al-Sheikh Mahmud Siyam, former Imam of Al-Aqsa Mosque, Palestine
Khalid Mahmud Khan, Pakistan
Dr. Zafrul-Islam Khan, India
Dr. Azzam Tamimi, Muslim Association of Britain, UK
Haitham Yassin Abu Al-Raghib, Jordan
Saud Abu Mahfuz, Jordan
Engineer Boulafaat Abdulhamid, Algeria

Woman's Willpower Committee

Woman's Willpower Committee

Member of the National Iraqi Constitutional Conference Women's Bureau 

            In the name of peace, freedom and justice:

           Woman's Willpower Committee calls on human conscience, which has striven for peace, for human beings, for putting an end to the ongoing bloodshed Iraq has been going through under the occupation. In the name of detainees, those who have gone missing, and victims, we call for the release of the four CPT workers, who were kidnapped on November 26, 2005. 

         Since the early days of the invasion of Iraq, the CPT have strenuously worked on helping the detainees and missing people. They have been looking all over Iraq for missing persons inside detention camps.

         Woman's Willpower Committee condemns the kidnapping for the four CPTers and calls on the human conscience of the captors to release them.

Saint Louis Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, Saint Louis, Missouri

"On November 26, 2005, Tom Fox, a US-born Quaker from Virginia, was taken captive in Iraq with his three colleagues from Christian Peacemaker Teams, Norman Kember of England and Canadians Harmeet Singh Sooden and James Loney. The four came to Iraq to document human rights abuses by both US and Iraqi forces, to provide training in nonviolent intervention, and to provide independent reports on the current situation in Iraq.
           To those unfamiliar with the history of Quaker witnesses for peace, our Friends' presence in Iraq might seem foolish, or even suspicious. But their presence in Iraq is part of a tradition of direct peacemaking that our Religious Society of Friends (the Quakers) has engaged in since our founding in the 17th century.

          We actively worked to avert the US invasion of Iraq, as we have always repudiated the use of war as a means of resolving disputes. We understand that this war has inflicted suffering on innocent victims, that it has devastated the infrastructure on which the civilian population depends, and that it has poisoned the environment, littering landmines, depleted uranium and other hazards which will remain long after US forces have left. We understand that no people can be free under a foreign occupation. Moreover, the war and occupation have left psychological scars, both on those who have experienced suffering and on those who have inflicted it. Our Friends saw it as their calling to try and heal those scars, to rebuild relationships, and to remind all whom they encountered in Iraq of our common humanity.

          To you who have taken our Friends captive, we say that you are not our enemies. We know that we must respond to your action by redoubling our efforts for finding peace, for ending torture and unjust imprisonment, and for taking responsibility for the destruction that this war and occupation have caused. We are confident that by now you have found that the only weapon these four carry with them is love. We ask you to take their weapon and employ it in your struggle. We ask you for their safety, and their release back to their homes and families.

        To those of you who, like us, are praying for the safe release of these four peacemakers, we say let us take their actions as a guide. In whatever ways we are able, let us risk ourselves for peace. Let us root out violence in every facet of our lives, in our family relationships, our communities’ response to crime, our stewardship of the earth, and our foreign policies. Let us eradicate prejudice and bigotry, economic inequality, resource domination and other injustices lest they plant the seeds for future conflicts. Let us, above all, answer to that of God in every person.

           And to Tom, Norman, Harmeet and James, we thank you for your courage and integrity. We are holding you in the Light."

Fariel Abu Haikel, Headmistress at Qurtuba Girls School, Hebron, Palestine

“We still remember the nice moments while we were under curfew with the CPT members who we have known since 1995. They came and gave food to people under curfew and showed their love and solidarity with our schools and our children. We will never forget these moments, because the CPT were the only people standing with us at that time. As a women who works with them, I send my call for the Iraqi resistance to release these people because CPT are very important people for us. To Bush I say that democracy is not imposed - democracy is given by people, not given by armies. We are sending our call for the faction that kidnapped these people in Iraq to release them immediately because we need them here.”