Israel Matzav

Islamic Human Rights Commission calls for Johnston's release

I'll bet many of you would regard the term "Islamic Human Rights Commission" as an oxymoron. This is the first I have heard of there being one. But English blogger Little Bulldogs notes that the Islamic Human Rights Commission, which is based in England, has awoken and called for the release of BBC reporter Alan Johnston nearly two months after he was kidnapped. Here's an excerpt from their press release:

The Islamic Human Rights Commission is very concerned about claims on al-Jazeera news that BBC journalist Alan Johnston’s kidnappers are demanding the release of Muslim detainees in Britain in exchange for his release.

IHRC calls for the release of British journalist Alan Johnston and condemns any attempt to link his plight to that of Muslim detainees in Britain.

Tony at Little Bulldogs is aptly named, and he doesn't let the IHRC off easily:

The point of this statement was to try and remove the link between the kidnapping and the "plight" of Muslims detained in Britain. Why? Well, because the IHRC spends a lot of its time working towards having Muslims released from British prisons, including Abu Qatada who's name was mentioned by the kidnappers.

The IHRC wouldn't like to be seen to be campaigning for the same goals as terrorists. But, that is what they are doing. And this statement will not be able to remove that fact.

Now I understand why there's an Islamic Human Rights Commission - it's only to protect Muslims.

But as an Israeli, I found the second part of the IHRC statement even more interesting:

Chairman of the IHRC, Massoud Shadjareh, stated:

“We are calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Alan as there can be no justification for the kidnapping and detention of innocent people in any part of the world.”

I suppose it would be too much to expect the IHRC to apply that statement to kidnapped IDF soldiers Gilad Shalit, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.

But there's more bad news on the Johnston front. Arab blogger Amal A. cites a report in al-Quds al-Arabi (link in Arabic) which says that we may soon see Johnston in an orange suit:

Al Quds al Arabi reports that the thugs (my word not theirs) of the Army of Islam are preparing a video they will soon post of Alan Johnston wearing an orange suit, as a threat that they will execute him if their demands are not met.

But let's just give them a state reichlet and all the world's problems will be solved.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:48 AM