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 ...
I get an emotional numbness -- not resignation, but more like an anger so deep that I don't feel pain anymore. This is how I used to win fights at school: after the fight began, I couldn't feel pain anymore, and thus became "invulnerable" to the blows of the school bully.
That's how I used to be. Only difference is, I challenged the bullies when they started on some helpless kid, including my retarded brother. Boy or girl it didn't matter to me. I used to sorta black out when I fought them. Never felt handfulls of my hair being pulled out, but, I left them with black eyes and busted noses. I can't abide bullies, never could-never will.
It "may" be widely accepted, but that is not true in my case. I enjoy reading religious works for their literary value.
So why are you here to debate religion? Do you believe that Humanism is a religion?
I'm not debating anything. I disagree with how antonia said Islam was not a religion. And, to answer your question, I have to ask you a question. Which humanism do you have in mind? Secular humanism is not a religion; Religious humanism has humanist ideas in the context of a religion.
Think Darwin. The appeal of Humanism is that you get to be the dominant one, or the dominant species due to a supposed intellectual superiority or "enlightenment". It’s the same with racism or bigotry, but less obvious. Humanism is the same as any other competing universalism – Humanists want to lord humanism over the world, and you want humanism to be lord don't you? Bingo...Religion.
Umm...I go by Abd al-Rahiim here. I do, however, highly respect the works of Darwin and his contribution to biology.
And, that is not the appeal of humanism. Definitely not. Self-actualization is but one appeal.
It appears that you like making assumptions. We humanists do not want to "lord" our beliefs on anyone else. Your conclusion is null because its premise is based on an incorrect acceptance.
So you are saying that you prefer that the world not think as you do? Interesting.
As a humanist of sorts myself, I find that position to be quite unnatural and extremely uncommon.
You can quote, Job all you want but it is baseless until you answer my question.
That's an awesome story. I remember a priest talking about how people tend to just lie down and take whatever Satan dishes at them, but if they would just fight back with an ounce of faith, they would discover that he'd be more than willing to go and bother someone else.
Isn't the 'prodigal son' about a father and his two sons...not Christ The Father?
Can you create a faith which is the same as the faith of God? No man is able to do so, but we may exercise a faith which is the same as that of the Son. Beware, there is a malevolent deceiver who seeks to be worshipped as God although he is not Him. Only God can create and provide that faith to us by His revelation, which is through faith in Jesus Christ.
I think I'm done with this thread. You guys are close to the same level as the Islamofacists who believe that only their interpretation of their whacked out religion is the only way.
Once again you guys are the ones who give Christians a bad rap. How you are all so hateful is beyond me. Instead of rejoicing that Centanni and Olaf are free, you guys are condemning them to hell.
Doesn't seem to follow the example of Jesus.
You sure do get your panties in a knot easily, don't ya? I asked a simple straight forward question. Oh well, no skin off my nose.
To declare you have no faith at all is purely to say you have no consciousness.
Every man creates his own version of reality by placing faith in what he knows.
Even the most praised sociological, theological and scientific geniuses of our time have simply authored their own thoughts and/or "revelations" based on the limited information humanity has to offer.
All theories and "realities" are simply an opinion.
In other words, there are no guarantees of anything, only faith in something.
OK, I give up.
As far as I know, these conversions are valid under Islamic law, and apostasy merits execution.
So you are saying that you prefer that the world not think as you do? Interesting.
I find the phrasing of this question to be awkward. I certainly would not want everyone to think like I do. I like diversity.
Is that so? I am quite aware of my being when I am typing this message to you; I am conscious of my actions at present.
All theories and "realities" are simply an opinion.
In the case of theories, they are "opinions" that can be repeatedly experimentally verified.
In other words, there are no guarantees of anything, only faith in something.
There's a guarantee that I'll die sometime in the future. I hope I peacefully die of old age, but that's a hope, not a guarantee.
Yeah...
Is Islam an evil empire?
No, but Islamism (radical, totalistic/totalitarian Islam) is.
Your analogy is like saying the evil nature of the Soviet Union was solely the consequent of its being a Russian empire, and therefore that all Russians, and everything Russian, is suspect. (Analogy being to: All of Islam is suspect, as are ALL Muslims, because Islamism is an Islamic movement.)
Now there may well have been (indeed I think there were and are) cultural characteristic of Russia that facilitated the development of the communist evil.
Likewise there may well be (indeed I think there are) characteristics of Islam that have facilitated the development of violent, totalitarian movements within it, and the grossly inadequate marginalization thereof.
But this does not mean that Islamism is a necessary or universal consequence of being Muslim, any more than communism (or being a communist) was a necessary or universal consequence of being a Russian.
There are many Muslims who are consciously and absolutely opposed to the totalitarian movements within Islam. All I'm asking is that we not nullify them, and undermine their efforts, and marginalize them thereby putting them at even greater risk, with the bigoted lie that they don't exist.
Great post. (#414)
Maybe..maybe not. Like your grandchildren and the Mammoth, you may be iced. Just saying... :)
Really? What faith do you have that tells you this conversation exists at all? If the Mods delete it and your hard drive is erased..what faith do you have now that we had this conversation? Witnesses? Well that is all that Christ had. So now we are again at a stalemate.
I actually find your post to be quite Orwellian in nature; in short, it kind of scares me.
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