‘Please, please don’t kill him’: British Muslims offer pleas for IS hostage

LONDON, UK — The Islamic State’s public executions of Western hostages have drawn condemnation from Muslims around the world since they began last month.

But the most recent threat — to British taxi driver Alan Henning, who was in Syria for the purpose of providing aid for Muslims — has drawn deeply personal and heartfelt pleas from Muslims in the UK.

“Please, please, please, please show him some mercy,” said Majid Freeman, 26, a Leicester man who was part of the humanitarian  aid convoy from which Henning was kidnapped, in an appearance on the BBC. “Please, please don’t kill him. Please spare him. Just let him come back home.”

Known as “Gadget” for his fix-it ability, Henning, 47, is from the working-class north England town of Eccles. Moved by the accounts of civilian suffering in Syria, he began raising money for victims of the country’s civil war and eventually made four separate trips to join humanitarian missions there.

Last December, he volunteered to drive an ambulance into Syria with an advance team of aid workers. Thirty minutes after crossing the border, he and the group of Brits with whom he was traveling were kidnapped at gunpoint.

All were released soon after except Henning, the only non-Muslim. Earlier this month, he appeared dressed in an orange jumpsuit in an IS video showing the beheading of UK aid worker David Haines. The militants warned Henning would be the next victim.

After unsuccessful attempts to secure his freedom in Syria, Henning’s colleagues returned to the UK, where officials requested that they not speak publicly about the kidnapping.

Since Henning’s appearance in the video, those who were on the convoy with him have blitzed social media with concerns for their friend’s life.

“#Islam teaches us to speak the #truth, even if it’s against ourselves!” Freeman wrote on Instagram. “Islam is about #JUSTICE! Alan shouldn't have to face the consequences for British #ForeignPolicy.”

The threat to his life has prompted condemnation from many in the UK who more frequently speak out against government policy in the Muslim world.

“I personally vouch for Alan Henning,” said Manchester imam Ustadh Abu Eesa, in a YouTube address directed at IS. “However strongly we feel about Western foreign policy, this killing will not help anyone bring closer a solution to their grievances.”

“I have stood outside Belmarsh Prison in solidarity with our brothers who are detained without trial,” said Shakeel Begg, an outspoken London imam often branded a radical cleric in British media, in the same video. “I have campaigned for the release of our brothers in Guantanamo Bay. For those same reasons today, I stand with Alan Henning.”

The London-based organization Cage, which campaigns for the rights of people affected by the war on terror, issued a statement decrying Henning’s detention.

“Alan Henning went to Syria with Muslims and is known to have been helping the people of Syria. He is not involved in any hostility to Islam or Muslims. Therefore, he cannot be considered a prisoner of war under Islamic law and should be released immediately,” research director Asim Qureshi said.

This weekend, the Foreign Office released a statement from Henning’s wife Barbara asking IS to spare a “peaceful, selfless man.”

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The day before his abduction, Henning was filmed by one of his fellow aid workers at a food court somewhere in Turkey.

"It’s all worthwhile when you see what is needed actually get to where it needs to go. That makes it all worthwhile,” he told the camera. “No sacrifice we do is nothing compared to what they’re going through every day on a daily basis.”

“Respect, Gadget,” his colleague said.