“I’M NOT what people usually expect from a local vicar,” laughs Andrew White.
It’s nothing if not an understatement from the man nicknamed the Vicar of Baghdad.
Kent-born Canon White speaks in Liverpool this weekend.
It is a timely visit, although tragically so, as he has revealed his part in trying to save the life of his close friend, hostage Jason Swindlehurst – the Skelmersdale father-of-one who was kidnapped in Iraq two years ago, and whose body was handed over to British authorities last week.
As well as his clerical duties at St George’s Church, just outside the city’s Green Zone, Canon White is an expert in radical Islam, has published five books about Iraq, and has been involved in nearly 150 hostage negotiations.
“When religion goes wrong, it goes very wrong – and here, we have seen it going wrong,” he said.
But his expertise has been instrumental in many inter-faith projects, as well as the tense world of hostage negotiations.
The case of the five British men taken last May, including his close friends and security guards Jason Swindlehurst and Jason Creswell, has been particularly hard.
“It was impossible to get the story out there,” he said. “Until the Jasons were killed, the public didn’t even know their names.
“I have been involved in 149 hostage cases and only got back 46 people alive.
