Posted on 08/28/2006 9:00:41 AM PDT by mgbgun2
"We were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint," Centanni told FOX News. "Don't get me wrong here. I have the highest respect for Islam, and I learned a lot of good things about it, but it was something we felt we had to do because they had the guns, and we didn't know what the hell was going on."
Centanni's brother, Ken, spoke to FOX News directly after the news was released.
"It's just a tremendous amount of relief, overwhelming relief," he said.
Later Sunday, Centanni and Wiig appeared before reporters, then traveled to the Erez crossing into Israel to leave Gaza.
"I want to thank everybody. I am happy to be here. I hope that this never scares a single journalist away from coming to Gaza to cover the story because the Palestinian people are very beautiful and kind hearted," Centanni told reporters. "The world needs to know more about them. Don't be discouraged."
Cheri Brigance Livingston, Texas
He'll now report as Steve Sistani.
They should put their self-respect up on eBay, starting bid $0.02.
real easy to say .. you didn't have a gun pointed at your head
I'm really disappointed. They gave up their souls to save their lives.
Nothing that George W. Bush hasn't said.
don't think he had gun to head when he talked about "what a beautiful and kind people they were..."
Nothing you would've done in their situation, of course.
He wasn't talking about the terrorists
BTW, welcome to Free Republic. Pretty edgy topic for a first post.
They didn't give up anything ..
Did you happen to hear his statement ... he didn't convert to anything
They are saying they were forced to convert to Islam.
But, has either renounced his 'conversion' since they have been freed?
Oh but when a teenage girl in middle America has a gun at her head and is killed...she is what?
Rachel Joy Scott (August 5, 1981 – April 20, 1999) was the first victim of the Columbine High School massacre. She has since been the subject of several books. Some Christians in the United States consider her a martyr.
Scott lived near Littleton, Colorado, where she attended Columbine High School (which is actually located in an unincorporated area in Jefferson County) along with her younger brother, Craig.
She played the lead in a student-written school play. She was also active in Celebration Christian Fellowship church. She was "made for the camera," according to her father, and was an aspiring writer and actress. "There's nothing I can add or take away from what she gave us," her mom said. "In those short 17 years, it was complete." She had just performed in Columbine's Smoke in the Room and was writing a play for her senior year.
Rachel was shot in front of the school cafeteria while she was eating lunch on the grass with friend Richard Castaldo. She died from gunshot wounds to the head, chest, arm and leg. Her car was turned into a memorial in the parking lot of the school.
In the aftermath of the massacre, it has been claimed that the gunmen, after having shot her in the leg while she was eating lunch, just outside the school, but before killing her with a point-blank shot to the temple, asked Scott if she believed in God, and that she had answered "You know I do." This question was also famously attributed to deceased victim Cassie Bernall, although there is only substantiation in the case of Valeen Schnurr.
An official investigation into the shootings, published eight months after the event, substantiated the claim that another student, Valeen Schnurr, had been asked that question and responded 'no' then 'yes', looking for the "right" answer. She who had also been shot previously in the library, was not shot again and survived her injuries. It is possible that Rachel and other students were faced with the same question or, as often happens, one conversation was attributed to someone else or multiple people. In the meantime, Scott's parents authored a book entitled Rachel's Tears: The Spiritual Journey of Columbine Martyr Rachel Scott (ISBN 0785268480). The martyr sobriquet has stuck, especially amongst devout Christians in the Bible Belt, and the reports remain in wide circulation. The same story attributed to Cassie Bernall was also the subject a similar book She Said Yes: The Unlikely Martyrdom of Cassie Bernall (ISBN 0743400526).
Rachel's Tears is presented as a Christian meditation on the life, death, and faith of Rachel as seen through the eyes of her parents and through writings and drawings from her journals. The book also attempts a spiritual point of view on the Columbine tragedy and a vision for preventing youth violence.
Following her death, Scott's father Darrell, a devout Christian and son of a pastor, co-authored three books about her spirituality. He also resigned his job as a salesman and set up the Columbine Redemption, a non-profit organization whose mission is to "motivate, educate and bring positive change to many young people." As part of this work he tours the United States speaking at churches, high schools and youth centers. Scott's mother participates in similar programs.
During her life, Scott produced a number of drawings and writings which some believe to have predicted the Columbine Massacre and her death. On May 2, 1998, she wrote in her diary; "This will be my last year Lord. I have gotten what I can. Thank you", and in a poem she referred to the "Halls of Tragedy", perhaps referring to the halls of Columbine Highschool. [1]
A drawing produced two hours before her death portrays a pair of eyes and tears dropping onto a rose and turning into blood. The thirteen tears shown are said to correspond to the thirteen fatalities of the Columbine Massacre.
I wonder if they will get a friendly note from the local Imam inviting them to the next potluck supper at the Mosque
You're assuming they believe as you do, in which case, they probably would have made a more hearfelt renunciation of their "conversion" after they were free. We actually discussed this issue in our church yesterday, among people who have been in all kinds of stressful situations as missionaries. The consensus was that they had families to think about, and what they have in their hearts is between them and God.
Here is my thinking on this. We don't need to judge what Centanni and Wiig said to get out of the situation they were in. I for one won't because I don't know what I'd do if a gun were pulled to my head. I have 2 small boys who would be without a mother if I didn't do what these guys did. Words are meaningless anyways. God knows my heart. He knows I am his child and if I were in that situation I might do the same these guys did, than why I were released I'd shout to the world I didn't mean a word of it and that I am a Christian. So, I won't judge cause I think it is wrong since none of us have been there.
great point!!!! Why is being true to faith and country (with out murdering innocent victims)sooo politically incorrect? What credibility that one statement gave to a people who's main purpose is to wipe us from the face of the earth. Yet lets not offend no matter what the cost!!!
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