As the Muslim holy month of Ramadan comes to an end this week, Akbar Ahmed, a prominent Islamic scholar living in Philadelphia, is asking Iran’s supreme leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to show “Islamic compassion” by releasing three Americans arrested more than a year ago. They are accused of illegally entering Iran.
Josh Fattal, 28, of Pennsylvania; Shane Bauer, 28, of Minnesota; and Sarah Shourd, 31, of California were hiking in a mountainous resort area of Iraqi Kurdistan and may have accidentally crossed Iran’s unmarked border, their supporters say. They were arrested July 31, 2009, and are imprisoned in Tehran.
Ahmed, who has advised Gen. David Petraeus and State Department officials on Islam and foreign policy, said he was “one Muslim appealing from his heart to another Muslim.”
