BAGHDAD, 26 September 2004 — A two-man delegation from Britain’s biggest Muslim group arrived in Iraq yesterday on a quest to free British hostage Kenneth Bigley, seized by Islamic militants nine days ago and threatened with death.

After arriving in Baghdad, the men admitted they faced a tall order to secure the release of the 62-year-old engineer, but said they had faith something could be done.

“Miracles do happen,” Musharraf Hussain, a representative from the Muslim Council of Britain, told reporters in Baghdad. “We believe in the power of prayer turning people’s hearts and we can only have that trust and reliance in our God ... If (the captors) have faith in their hearts and the seeds of true submission to God then there will be some change.”

Hussain and fellow delegate Dawud Abdullah arrived on a flight from Kuwait, where they told reporters earlier they believed Bigley was still alive.

Bigley and two American colleagues were seized from their home in Baghdad last week by militants led by Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, the United States’ prime enemy in Iraq.

The militants have already executed the two Americans — Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley — after their demands to have all female prisoners released from Iraqi jails were not met. The kidnappers are threatening to kill Bigley too, but have set no deadline.

An Islamist website, which has posted unsubstantiated claims about hostages in the past, said yesterday Bigley had been killed. The British Foreign Office said it believed the website lacked credibility and could not confirm such a claim.

Speaking in Kuwait, Abdullah said the delegation hoped to meet religious leaders and scholars, including the leadership of the High Association of Muslim Scholars. In Baghdad, he said he hoped their message would get through to Bigley’s captors.

“Whoever is holding Mr. Bigley, we are endeavoring to get a message through to those captors,” he said.

The Muslim Council of Britain is the country’s largest lobby group for Britain’s 1.8 million Muslims.

In Britain, Prime Minister Tony Blair, blamed by many for the hostage crisis because of his decision to go to war in Iraq, praised Bigley’s family, who have been holed up in their house in Liverpool waiting for news of his fate. “I think everyone is amazed at how dignified they have been over the last few days and we will continue to do whatever we can,” Blair said as he arrived at the annual conference of his ruling Labour Party in southern England.

British Foreign Minister Jack Straw spoke by telephone to Bigley’s Thai wife, who is in Thailand. Terry Waite, the former Church of England envoy who was held hostage in Lebanon for five years, visited the Bigley family home in Liverpool.

Shortly after his visit, Bigley’s 86-year-old mother was taken to hospital for the second time this week, suffering from the stress of the ordeal.

“Unfortunately, the strength of spirit which she has, and shows, is not matched by her physical strength,” said Waite, who spent three hours with the family to console them.

The Muslim Association of Britain, an affiliate of the Muslim Council, said it appeared on Arabic TV station Al Jazeera to make a direct appeal to the kidnappers for Bigley’s release.

The pleas came after the British government said it had distributed 50,000 leaflets in Baghdad, at the request of Bigley’s family who want to exhaust all means possible to save him from Zarqawi and his militant followers.

Meanwhile, MCB released yesterday a new pocket guide which said Muslims have a duty and responsibility to ensure they do everything they can to prevent a terror attack.

Some 500,000 copies of the “Know Your Rights Responsibilities Pocket Guide” have been published by the council containing several numbers of anti-terrorist police, with a direction that it is “an Islamic imperative” for any suspicious behavior to be reported.