A renowned jihadi ideologue has urged the Islamic State group to release British aid worker Alan Henning, saying Islam forbids harming non-Muslims who work with relief agencies.
Abu Mohammed al-Maqdisi, who was released by Jordan in June after serving a five-year sentence on terror charges, said in a statement posted on his website and by a militant forum today that non-Muslims who help weak and poor Muslims should be respected and protected.
Al-Maqdisi, also known as Essam al-Barqawi, was the mentor of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq who was killed in a US airstrike in 2006.
The Islamic State group, which has beheaded two American journalists and a British aid worker, has threatened to kill Henning in retaliation for US and European military action against it.
