Posted on 08/27/2006 8:48:04 AM PDT by TaxachusettsMan
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Two FOX News journalists were released by their kidnappers Sunday, nearly two weeks after they were taken hostage in the Gaza Strip.
Steve Centanni, 60, and Olaf Wiig, 36, left Gaza and have since crossed into Israel after their release. The men left Gaza through the Erez border crossing.
The freeing of Centanni, a correspondent, and Wiig, a cameraman, ends the longest-running drama involving foreign hostages in Gaza.
The two journalists were dropped off at Gaza City's Beach Hotel by Palestinian security officials and appeared to be in good health. A tearful Centanni embraced a Palestinian journalist briefly as he entered, then rushed upstairs as Wiig followed.
Centanni, in a phone interview shortly after his release, said "I'm fine. I'm just so happy to be free."
He recounted how he and Wiig were pulled out of their car on August 14 and taken at gunpoint into another car. The kidnappers blindfolded them and handcuffed their hands behind their backs with plastic ties. They were then transferred to another car and driven to a building that they later learned was a garage.
"We were pushed down onto the dirt-covered concrete floor and we were forced to lie face down with our handcuffs on," Centanni said.
"Olaf was in the same room with me. Our shoulders were wrenched back, very painful."
Both of the men were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint, Centanni said.
"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."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
At gunpoint?
And this from that gang that is always ranting and raving about "human rights" violations and the anti-Muslim offenses and policies of "Crusaders" and "Zionists"?
We anxiously await the outpouring of condemnation from MANY AND MULTIPLE Muslim clergy and laity, individuals and groups:
1. REPUDIATING ALL FORCED CONVERSIONS TO ISLAM;
2. PROCLAIMING MODERN ISLAM'S UNCONDITIONAL ACCEPTANCE OF THE BASIC HUMAN RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF RELIGION.
What do you think we're likely to hear?
A deafening chorus of mullahs or of crickets?
I fart in Islam's general direction!
Hey Steve, you can stop the BS now.
Muslims sure have a way of showing us just exactly what they are.
"A bunch of cowards that get their power by holding a gun to innocents".
Steve Centanni told Sheperd Smith this morning Live per phone that they were forced per gunpoint to convert to Islam. He said Thank God we are free. He did not say thank Allah
No doubt significantly better than having your head handed to you.
Each of us (Christians) should ask ourselves:
Do I have the strength to proclaim my faith and NOT deny Christ?
This is excellent news to hear on a bight Sunday morning. For once, let's thank God in our prayers this morning that these two were released alive and well. I certainly feel that my prayers have been answered.
Religion of Peace ?
.
I'm not the martyr type and am not that strong in my own religion, but I don't believe Islam is right. Forced conversions are an abomination. Period.
How can he say they are good and kind people when they did that to them, maybe they were bluffing, maybe it was a condition of their release? I can see where they might do it for the sake of their families. That one guy was 60 years old. He doesn't have that long left in this world one way or another. Maybe if you have no religious beliefs at all, it doesn't matter, just the pragmatic thing to do.
Does anyone have any idea about what 'world opinion' would be if American forces in Iraq were forcing Iraqis to convert to Christianity, at gunpoint?
Obviously it was.
Not long to live at 60?
Former President Ford just had a pace maker and another heart procedure in his mid 90's. Steve could live another 35 years.
"Do I have the strength to proclaim my faith and NOT deny Christ?
"
Oh, I suspect these guys weren't really converted, don't you? It's what's in your mind that counts, not lies told to captors, I'd guess.
"Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faiths, but to become dominant. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth."
Omar Ahmad, Co-founder of CAIR
"Well shi'ite Abdullah, nobody gives a crock about us.How abouts we convert the infidels at gunpoint and call it a day?"
I cringe when I hear our President characterize Islam as one of the world's great religions.
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