The abduction in Iraq earlier this week

of two French journalists has outraged Arab and Muslim intellectuals, journalists and religious leaders as well as many ordinary citizens.

Many Muslim intellectuals are worried that the incident will harm the interests of France's five million Muslims and fuel Islamophobia, already rampant in many sections of Western society.

In the event of their execution, the damage will be far more severe, they caution.

Small wonder, then, a number of prominent religious leaders in the Arab world are pulling out all the stops to get the two journalists freed.

Shaikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, one of the Muslim world's most respected scholars and theologians, has appealed to the captors to release the journalists immediately, saying that hostage-taking is "incompatible with Islam".

"This act is unacceptable and inadmissible in light of the Sharia. Hence, I appeal and urge those who kidnapped the two French journalists to free them immediately and refrain from harming them in anyway," Qaradawi said on Aljazeera television on Monday.

Having succeeded in getting the United States to invade and occupy Iraq, Israel is now making efforts to instigate the Bush administration to deal with the "Iranian threat".

This week, a high-ranking Israeli official urged the US "and the rest of the free world" to deal with the "Iranian threat before it is too late".

The remarks - reminiscent of the vitriolic propaganda campaign against Iraq prior to the Anglo-American invasion of the Arab country last year - coincided with the publication of an article by a leading Israeli military historian Martin Van-Creveld, suggesting that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon might very well order an attack on Iranian nuclear plants.

Writing in the Paris-based International Herald Tribune on 21 August, Creveld opined an Israeli or American (or a joint Israeli-American) attack on Iranian nuclear plants might be carried out before the US November elections.

Israel reportedly possess a big arsenal of nuclear weapons - estimates range from 100 to 400 weapons and bombs - along with efficient delivery systems, including a fleet of long-range American-supplied F-15 fighter bombers as well as the medium range ballistic missile Yeriho.

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