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 ...
Let's see: this guy was forced to convert to a religion for which he has the "highest respect" and knows a "lot of good things about." If someone tried to force me to convert to another religion, I'd have NO respect for that religion. They probably just pretended to convert, to save their lives, and I can't blame them for that. But now that they're back, you'd think they'd denounce what happened to them.
A good question. I would be more afraid of offending God than saving my life (I pray for that strength). What a statement if he hadn't done that, even if the world never knew of it. I must suppose that he will always regret collaborating, and his reporting will be colored by that guilt, i.e. he will become more sympathetic to Islam to justify his action. PS I notice the NZ guy didn't have to do it.
Well said!
Remember the screams from The Left - and Islam (that Great and Peaceful Religion That Has Been Hijacked By A Few [a few million, it seems]) when Ann Coulter said we should covert them all to Christianity?
I know clergy who have had to sneak into Islamic countries as "teachers" and smuggle sacramental wine in for Mass on Friday (the Muslim day of worship) and chaplains who have had to conduct liturgies with no music so has not to offend the religious majority of the country we're liberating.
And what about the Iraqi PM's remarks about Israel when Jewish-American men and women have died to liberate his sand-dune of a country.
Pathetic!
The MSM is already burying this story.
Bump away, Freepers!
The headline says it all.
And a "religion" so rotten to the core that the only way they can get converts is to kidnap them and hold guns to their heads.
Was he brainwashed as well?
You go watch that video and come back and tell us all just where they denied Christ.
Islam abjures the idea of 'free will' and has no Golden Rule. It could be a wonderful faith for those in it, but it is a physical and spiritual danger to all others on the planet.
Ultimately, the planet will win.... And don't give me the 'Christians did it too'--that was a thousand years ago....
I think he truly believes that. And it's still BS.
At gunpoint?
So will we all if the world doesn't get serious about this threat to humanity.
You must be very very young,
If I were Steve or Olaf I'd still have my fingers crossed.
F$%k Islam; F$%K Muslims. This cute of murder should be driven from the face of the Earth. Muslims are lower than scum.
Now, isn't that special.
"Peaceful religion", my @ss. You'll see no condemnation by anyone whose mug is on the world stage. This current Third World War isn't clearly defined with enemies 'over there and friends over here'. This business is going to spiral out of control and we'll be lucky if half the world population survives it and we're not digging roots from the forest ground to feed ourselves when it finally ends.
That should be "cult" of murder. Funny how anger produces typos.
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