Free Republic

The fighthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Deletion_review/Log/2007_March_13#.5B.5BWikipedia:Deletion_review.2FLog.2F2007_March_13.7C13_March_2007.5D.5D The Article 'deleted' (so far) As a slogan short cut used by those in the west that take seriously Islamists actions and words as such of forcing to convert non Muslims or face death.In the global war on terror, the phenomenon of forced conversion, Islamization goal by Jihadists, is a fundamental part, just as bin Laden wants to restore an Islamic caliphate[1], as well as radical Islamists as a whole, their ultimate goal of is not to secure westerners' withdrawal from Afghanistan or Iraq, or even only to destroy Israel, but to reestablish the caliphate and the rule...

JERUSALEM – Palestinian terror groups and security organizations in the Gaza Strip received $2 million from a United States source in exchange for the release of Fox News employees Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig, who were kidnapped here last summer, a senior leader of one of the groups suspected of the abductions told WND. The terror leader, from the Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committees, said his organization's share of the money was used to purchase weapons, which he said would be utilized "to hit the Zionists." He said he expects the payments for Centanni and Wiig's freedom will encourage Palestinian groups...

JERUSALEM – Palestinian terror groups and security organizations in the Gaza Strip received $2 million from a United States source in exchange for the release of Fox News employees Steve Centanni and Olag Wiig, who were kidnapped here last summer, a senior leader of one of the groups suspected of the abductions told WND. The terror leader, from the Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committees, said his organization's share of the money was used to purchase weapons, which he said would be utilized "to hit the Zionists." He said he expects the payments for Centanni and Wiig's freedom will encourage Palestinian groups...

The release of the Fox News personnel brings up what I think is an interesting moral question. If you give in and 'convert' so you can get back to your family etc., are you violating your true faith? I don't think anyone can say for sure what they would do under such prolonged duress and I wouldn't judge someone harshly for having a breaking point, but I hope I would resist even to death any effort to force me to deny my faith. I started a poll on this at FreeDominon, and thought you might want to have a go...

Did you see that video of the two Fox journalists announcing they'd converted to Islam? The larger problem, it seems to me, is that much of the rest of the Western media have also converted to Islam, and there seems to be no way to get them to convert back to journalism. Consider, for example, the bizarre behavior of Reuters, the once globally respected news agency now reduced to putting out laughably inept terrorist propaganda. A few days ago, it made a big hoo-ha about the Israelis intentionally firing a missile at its press vehicle and wounding its cameraman Fadel...

Say Anything to Live I've been struggling all this week to find the right words regarding Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig who were released after being forced to convert to Islam. Many Conservatives are defending it including Captain Ed who writes: Warren wants kidnapped hostages to die for Christianity and the West rather than jolly along their kidnappers to gain their own freedom. That may be a splendid sentiment, but it results in dead Westerners rather than dead Islamists, and I fail to see how that represents any kind of victory. One of the reasons why Western culture is superior...

This is one case where silence isn't golden and ignorance isn't bliss. They are dangerous and dumb It's not easy to be shocked by jihad these days, five years and numberless atrocities after the Twin Towers imploded on almost 3,000 fellow citizens. That said, I admit my own jihad-fatigue was broken — shattered, really — by the "conversion" to Islam of Fox journalists Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig videotaped during their two-week ordeal as captives of Palestinians in Gaza. Why? Andrew G. Bostom, writing at Frontpage mag. tells us forced conversions to Islam "have been the norm, across three continents...

IF YOU WERE one of the journalists kidnapped in Gaza last month and ordered at gunpoint to become a Muslim, what would you have done? Fox News reporter Steve Centanni and photographer Olaf Wiig announced their acceptance of Islam on a videotape released by their kidnappers -- ``because they had the guns," Centanni later said, ``and we didn't know what the hell was going on." Whether their acquiescence was an act of cowardice or of prudence, reasonable people can debate. Clearly it wasn't their only choice. If I were ever told, with a gun to my head, to recite the...

Chestlessness - August 30, 2006 The case of the two Fox News journalists, held hostage in Gaza, is worth dwelling upon. They were released after their captors had made tapes of them dressed as Arabs and announcing they had changed their names and converted to Islam. Lately I have been looking at the large -- at how the West is proving unable to cope with a threat from a fanatical Islamic movement, that it ought to be able to snuff out with fair ease. (See my column last Sunday.) But the large is often most visible in the small. The...

Did you see that video of the two Fox journalists announcing they'd converted to Islam? The larger problem, it seems to me, is that much of the rest of the Western media have also converted to Islam, and there seems to be no way to get them to convert back to journalism. Consider, for example, the bizarre behavior of Reuters, the once globally respected news agency now reduced to putting out laughably inept terrorist propaganda.

I was planning to maintain a tasteful silence about the forced conversion of Fox newsmen Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig. I expressed my gratitude at their release, and was going to let the humiliating subject lie.Others haven’t, however, so let’s go: Centanni and Wiig -- abducted, bound and blindfolded by armed Islamic terrorists in Gaza -- were told they had to convert to Islam.They did so.They later said nice things about the Palestinian cause while still in the custody of Palestinian terrorist leaders. There was some premature debate among armchair heroes on the Internet about whether they should have done...

DUBAI - The militant Palestinian group which kidnapped and freed two Fox News Channel journalists last month vowed on Saturday to target all non-Muslims who enter the Palestinian territories. In a statement posted on the Internet, the Holy Jihad Brigades said all non-Muslim foreigners it captures could face death unless they convert to Islam or Muslim prisoners be freed in exchange for their release. “God ordered that we fight all infidels as they fight us all ... the blood of any infidel who comes to the land of Palestine has no sanctity,” said the group, unknown before the journalists’ kidnapping....

It's not easy to be shocked by jihad these days, five years and numberless atrocities after the Twin Towers imploded on some 3,000 fellow citizens. That said, I admit my own jihad-fatigue was broken, shattered, really, by the "conversion" to Islam of Fox journalists Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig videotaped during their two-week ordeal as captives of Palestinians in Gaza.

The two Fox News staffers who were kidnapped in Gaza earlier this month were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint, according to news reports. Fox's Steve Centanni said on Wednesday that he didn't know if he was officially a Muslim—"I don't know enough about Islam to know if it was official, or recognized." Well, is he a Muslim, or isn't he?

"... disbelievers will be cast into an eternal fire. But Allah is also ever merciful, and the West can change its ways and turn to the purifying power of Islam ..." -- Kidnapped Fox reporter Steve "Khaled'' Centanni, channeling his captors. We don't often get to watch our media people convert to Islam, so the footage of Fox News' Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig has been riveting. Some people can't get enough of watching planes fly into the World Trade Center towers; I can't get enough of Centanni and Wiig pledging allegiance to Muhammad, Peace Be Upon Him. The common...

'I Can't Hate Them for What They Did,' Olaf Wiig Says Aug. 31, 2006 — - Despite being taken hostage at gunpoint in Gaza by a jihadist group and held captive for 13 days, Fox News cameraman Olaf Wiig says he can't condemn his captors. "It's really complex," Wiig said on "Good Morning America." "In some ways, I feel such sympathy for the Palestinian cause. You know, in my heart. You know, I can't hate them for what they did. I resent on behalf of my family what they did. But there's a funny bit of me that's sympathetic to...

Journalists' Forced Conversion Not Contrary to Islamby Robert Spencer Posted Aug 30, 2006 The most bizarre element of the two weeks of captivity suffered by Fox News reporter Steve Centanni and photographer Olaf Wiig was the video that surfaced depicting their conversion to Islam. Even before the journalists revealed that their conversions had been coerced, there were indications that they were not acting freely. While reading a statement he himself had ostensibly written, Centanni stumbled over words, appeared to puzzle over the handwriting, and seemed to grimace after pronouncing the words “peace be upon him” after the name of the...

Being a Kiwi saved me, says Wiig 31 August 2006 With NZPA Olaf Wigg says his status as a New Zealander was vital in his release. The Wellington cameraman, abducted from Gaza with United States reporter Steve Centanni earlier this month, drew a map of the world and pointed to New Zealand as he tried to talk his kidnappers out of harming them. "They were accusing both of us of being Americans and I stood up and said, 'Dude, I'm not American, I'm a New Zealander,' " Wiig told TV1's Close Up. The two men, freed on Sunday after...

The most bizarre element of the two weeks of captivity suffered by Fox News reporter Steve Centanni and photographer Olaf Wiig at the hands of Gaza’s Holy Jihad Brigade was the video that surfaced depicting their conversion to Islam. Even before the journalists revealed that their conversions had been coerced, there were disturbing indications that they were not acting freely. While reading a statement he himself had ostensibly written, Centanni stumbled over words, appeared to puzzle over the handwriting, and seemed to grimace after pronouncing the words “peace be upon him” after the name of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Their...

Muslims to journalists: "Convert or Die!"Convert or die. That is the message that Muslim terrorists sent by freeing two kidnapped journalists only after they “converted” to Islam on videotape at the point of a gun. The International Herald Tribune reported, The two journalists from Fox News—Steve Centanni, 60, an American, and Olaf Wiig, 36, a freelance cameraman from New Zealand—were held for 13 days in an abandoned garage in the Gaza Strip as hostages of a previously unknown group calling itself the Holy Jihad Brigades. “I’m really fine, healthy, in good shape and so happy to be free,” Mr. Centanni...