| Cut his head off anyway... |
An Islamic militant group claiming to have kidnapped two Indonesian women in Iraq demanded the release of a jailed Indonesian cleric, but the cleric Saturday refused to be freed in an exchange, saying hostage-taking is not in keeping with Islam. Cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who Washington says is a terror mastermind in Southeast Asia, has been in prison since 2002, accused of heading an al-Qaida-linked group. He was arrested three weeks after the Bali bombings killed 202 people that year. On Saturday, the slender, white-bearded preacher — an admirer of Osama bin Laden — castigated the captors as un-Islamic and said he would not be part of any exchange. "I cannot justify this kidnapping. I demand that they be freed as Islam does not condone taking hostages of Muslim sisters and brothers," Bashir said in response to questions by The Associated Press. "If the captors are Muslim, they truly do not understand Islam." Bashir's voice was recorded and a copy of the recording was smuggled out of prison. |