Prominent U.S. Muslims urge Hamas to release Shalit
A group of prominent Muslim Americans, led by Democratic Reps. Keith Ellison of Minnesota and Andre Carson of Indiana, has written to Hamas leader Khaled Mashal to ask for the release of an Israeli soldier who has been held by the group for five years.
The letter acknowledges Palestinian complaints about Israeli detention of Palestinians but cites the holiday season and a religious teaching to “repel the evil deed with one that is better.”
“The struggle for Palestinian human rights and self-determination must be based on this ethical and moral code,” write the American Muslims, who also include several academics, an official at the Islamic Society of North America and the Cordoba Initiative’s Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. “Hamas’s inhumane detention of Shalit undermines the Palestinian people’s legitimate aspirations for human rights and a state of their own, existing in peace of security beside Israel.”
The Shalit captivity, which many Israelis continue to hope can be resolved through a prisoner exchange, has been one of many factors prompting Israeli suspicion about any reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah.