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 ...
Amen
Walk a mile in their shoes...I agree
Absolutely.
Centani never denied Jesus, that is all in your mind. Just why is that in your mind?
Oh. OK. Then in my "rightous judgement" I think you might possibly be one of the people Christ was talking about in Matthew 7:21-23
Ta ta, have a nice life.
Not nearly as sickening as your reading comprehension.
My original post simply challenged the readers here to reflect on the stregnth of their own faith, if they were in a similar situation.
Which "it" am I supposed to figure out?
Your reasoning?
Well, because it's true. You can't convert to Islam without denying Jesus. Sorry, that's the way it is.
How about addressing the issue of martyrdom now. Why are martyrs given high honor in Heaven, if one can convert under duress and it's not really a denial of Christ? Wouldn't that make the Christians in Rome and the Sudan a bunch of dummies?
What has led you to believe that Christians in Communist countries have had to deny their faith?
They may not be able to practice it openly, but that is not the same as pronouncing that they don't believe.
What is that saying "Pride goeth before a fall".
We could only hope and pray that we would be strong enough, and we could only hope and pray that God would forgive us if we were not.
I do believe St. Peter was forgiven.
Is Islam an evil empire?
And exactly how is it that you are so intimately familiar with what is involved in converting to Islam? Or is your knowledge merely conjecture? Are you basing your judgement on personal experience, or might you be bearing false witness against an innocent man?
I don't disagree with you except your assignment of pride.
I'm not sure that I would have the strength under those circumstances.
My post was intended to prompt people to examine their faith and encourage the prayer you suggest.
What you said. This taqqiyah stuff works both ways.
And this guy is working FOX News? My reaction would have been just the opposite.
I can't comprehend why ANYONE would EVER convert into this craphole of a belief system!!!
So, care to have a run at any of the questions about martyrdom your posts have raised? If it's OK to convert to Islam under the threat of death, why are the Christians martyred by the Roman persecutions so highly praised for refusing to deny Christ?
You accusations make my spirit moan.
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