The Humanity of Islam

British computer programmer Peter Moore, held as a hostage for two years and seven months was eventually released by his captors. The three bodyguards assigned to his safety and taken hostage with him were far less fortunate, they did not survive their dreadful ordeal. And while Mr. Moore lived to tell the tale, he too suffered horribly, describing what he and the three men taken with him had to endure, as "absolutely terrifying".

Mr. Moore, was in Iraq to install accounting software. As in forensic accounting. For the purpose of tracking the billions of dollars' worth of foreign aid. And his purpose there was to teach the Iraqi bureaucrats who would be using it, precisely how to use it. His three bodyguards, all former soldiers, were working for a Montreal-based security firm, GardaWorld, when they were all taken hostage.

The four men, Jason Creswell, 38, Jason Swindlehurst, 39, Alec MacLachlan, 30, along with 36-year-old Peter Moore, were in a walled compound within the "red zone", near Sadr City. The three security guards had taken up watchful positions while the subject of their concern was engaged in his lecture. A convey of 20 vehicles ostensibly carrying uniformed Iraqi soldiers and police arrived.

Identity documents were presented and the armed troops made their entrance past guards at the gate, heading for the inner office of the building where Mr. Moore was engaged. His three bodyguards were disarmed and powerless, were taken away with Mr. Moore. They were missing, and no one knew for two years where they were, by whom they were taken, and the purpose of their disappearance.

Mr. Moore was accused by his captors of "deliberately lying to spoil the reputation of the Islamic resistance". This would be the Shia faithful of Iraq, League of the Righteous, an off-shoot of the main group, under the spiritual and political leadership of Moqtada al-Sadr, and his virulently anti-Western Mahdi army, another useful tool of Iran's power play.

When he was released in December of 2009 as a "good will gesture", Mr. Moore graphically described the famed Muslim courtesy he was exposed to: feet burned with a cigarette lighter, strangled until loss of consciousness, hung by arms from a door, doused with water, pistol-whipped, forced to endure repeated mock executions.

They were all, he said subjected to mock executions. This saw them "placed on their knees, blindfolded, a gun pointed to their heads and a different gun firing off elsewhere in the room. This caused immense trauma. It was absolutely terrifying." As well, the captives had been "chained by their feet to a rail or bar and blindfolded for long periods", beaten often and pistol-whipped.

When American security arrested the leader of the League of the Righteous, demands for his release by his followers commenced, and with those demands, offers for exchange. Eventually Laith al-Khazali was handed over to Iraqi police, representing a "good-will gesture". The terror group responded with their own good-will gesture, releasing the bodies of two of the bodyguards.

One had two gunshot wounds to his head and chest, the other had been shot three times at close range in the chest and abdomen, kneeling with hands on head. A recent inquest revealed he had twice been stabbed before being killed, had a broken rib, and had been shot around his legs while being "intimidated".

Radio-carbon dating of the bodies revealed the three were killed in 2008. Puts one in mind of the Israeli Defence Forces soldier Gilad Schalit who was abducted in 2006 by Hamas, when they also killed two other soldiers. Israel has been attempting for years to broker a deal with Hamas to release the Israeli soldier, prepared to reciprocate with the release of thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

Little is currently known of the status of Gilad Schalit, whether he is alive. The International Committee of the Red Cross has demanded that Hamas provide proof of life, after having repeatedly had their request for humanitarian access to the soldier denied them. When this request also was denied the ICRC characterized Hamas' conduct as "totally unacceptable".

Of course the world at large has small regard for the conduct of jihadist terror groups, given the examples of Islamist manoeuvres in the past. It's difficult to accept that the anti-human activities pursued by militantly violent Islamists are not condemned outright by the entire Muslim community who claim themselves to be moderates and who insist that Islam be recognized as a religion of peace.

The religion of peace, through the teachings of the Koran and the blighted interpretation of its mullahs, imams and other clerics condemns the international community for practising "Islamophobia". This is a religion whose fundamentalist faithful have been readily led to the belief that violence for the sake of advancing Islam is not only permissible but a sacred duty with its own rewards for shaheeds.

This is a religion where the Taliban, spreading good tidings of Islamic virtues and values, has mounted yet another attack on civilian Afghans. This time striking a hospital in the country's east, destroying the facility, burying people beneath the rubble, with so far 27 counted dead and 53 hurt, representing women, children and elderly among the casualties ... and counting.