TWO leading imams have made a video in which they appeal to Islamic State to free British hostage Alan Henning.
Shakeel Begg and Haitham al-Haddad said in a YouTube video, that there was no justification for holding the 47-year-old aid worker, who was captured in Syria.
The clerics said holding him captive was "totally haram [forbidden]" under Islamic law.
Henning, a taxi driver from Salford, was delivering aid when he was taken hostage last December.
Begg, imam at Lewisham Islamic Centre in south London, said he had campaigned for the release of Muslims from Belmarsh and Guantanamo Bay prisons.
"For the same reasons today I stand with Alan Henning," he said.
"I urge you to understand the nature of this prisoner you are holding – a man of peace."
Al-Haddad, an imam from the Islamic Sharia Council, describes Henning as an "innocent, humanitarian aid worker".
"Executing this man is totally haram," he said. "Impermissible, prohibited according to sharia for a number of reasons.
The imam appealed directly to IS fighters to "adhere to the sharia ruling on this matter".
