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Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > Kidnapped Fox journalists forced to 'convert to Islam or die' "they had the guns -we didn't know what was going on"

Kidnapped Fox journalists forced to 'convert to Islam or die' "they had the guns -we didn't know what was going on"

August 28, 2006

http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=centanni82806%2Ehtm

Kidnapped Journalists – Centanni And Wiig - Forced To Convert To Islam At Gunpoint

August 28, 2006 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org – One of the preconditions for release demanded by Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig's captors was that they "convert" to Islam.

The two were held for two weeks by a previously unknown Gaza based Islamist group, the "Holy Jihad Brigades."

The revelation came in an interview given to the journalists' employer Fox News. Centanni told the cable news network that he and Wiig were threatened with guns to their heads to make videotaped statements. He claimed, "We were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint…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."

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Olaf Wiig receives a hug as Steve Centanni, right, looks on after the kidnap ordeal of the Fox News journalists comes to an end. (PHOTO: ABID KATIB / GETTY IMAGES)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,251-2331622,00.html

Freed journalists forced to embrace Islam at gunpoint

By Ian MacKinnon in Jerusalem


TWO Fox News journalists freed yesterday after a long- running kidnap drama in Gaza told how they were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint by the Palestinian militants who seized them 13 days ago.

Hours before Steve Centanni, a 60-year-old American, and his cameraman, Olaf Wiig, 36, from New Zealand, were dropped outside a Gaza hotel, they had appeared in a six-minute video wearing loose- fitting Arab dress and adopting their new faith.

The Washington-based Mr Centanni said later that they were coerced into converting by their armed abductors, who had handcuffed and blindfolded them, and pointed pistols at their heads. The band of up to ten kidnappers told the hostages that they had been seized on behalf of Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a US air raid in Iraq in June.

The Fox News correspondent, dispatched to report Israel's incursions into Gaza while the Lebanese conflict with Hezbollah raged in the north, said that he thought several times during his captivity by the unknown Holy Jihad Brigades that he was about to die.

Yet soon after they unexpectedly walked into the Beach Hotel, met Ismail Haniya, the Palestinian Prime Minister, and thanked him for his efforts to secure their release, they urged other journalists not to be dissuaded from covering the suffering in Gaza.

The Prime Minister denied that any of the Palestinian militant factions were involved in the kidnapping. But it was unclear whether a deal was struck with the kidnappers to win the pair's freedom. Mr Haniya was evasive when asked whether arrests would be made.

A New Zealand police hostage negotiator assisted by an American team has been in Gaza for three days, bolstering the efforts of the Palestinian Interior Ministry to end the crisis. Mr Wiig's wife, Anita McNaught, a Briton and a former BBC World presenter, also pressed the Palestinian Prime Minister and officials.

The video released yesterday was a montage showing the men in different sets of clothes reading statements denouncing President Bush and Tony Blair. It also carried Koranic verses and showed scenes from Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.

The footage was circulated less than 12 hours after the expiry of a three-day deadline for the release of Muslims held in American prisons, imposed in a previous video. The US Administration dismissed the demand and said that it refused to negotiate with terrorists.

As the pair prepared to leave Gaza for Jerusalem, Mr Centanni told how they were seized at dusk by four gunmen as they drove down a narrow street on August 14. They were driven away, their heads pushed to the floor, and ended up at a camp where their telephones and electronic equipment were seized. The journalists were turned over to another kidnapper. The men — still blindfolded — were driven to a pitch-dark garage where an electricity generator roared. In the following days, they were instructed to write their life stories.

FORCED CONVERSION
In the videotape released earlier on Sunday, Centanni and Wiig were shown separately sitting cross-legged, reading statements announcing that they had converted to Islam. At times in the video they were wearing long Arab robes.
"I changed my name to Khaled. I have embraced Islam and say the word Allah," Centanni said.
John Moody, a Fox senior vice president, said he was not aware of any conditions agreed for the release of the reporters, although the video appeared to play a factor.
"I'm not sure about the reliability of what was said on that video," Moody said on the Fox Channel.
The Holy Jihad Brigades claimed responsibility on Wednesday for the kidnapping and warned the United States to free Muslim prisoners to prevent the two captives facing unspecified consequences. That deadline expired on Saturday.
The United States said it would not make "concessions to terrorists".
A statement from the captors before the men were freed had said the two journalists had to choose either Islam, a tax imposed on non-Muslims to be paid to a Muslim ruler, or war.
"They chose Islam and that is a gift God gives those whom he chooses," the statement said.
Previous kidnappings of foreigners usually ended after a few hours, or at most a few days, of captivity.
(Additional reporting by Peter Cooney in Washington)
Source: Reuters

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