They’re Free!

And it sounds like it was none too soon.

They were not treated well as they claimed in their video and they were often tied up in painful positions. They were also forced at gunpoint to “convert to Islam” and if they denounce it after release they would face death in any country that practices Sharia law. It is one thing to be a Westerner or a Christian in a country where Sharia law is observed and quite another to have converted to Islam and then to have denounced it. (Even if that conversion was at gunpoint.)

In a phone call with Fox News, Centanni said they were abducted Aug. 14 by four masked gunmen on a side street in Gaza City. He said the assailants covered his head with a black hood, and crammed him and Wiig into a small car.

Their possessions were taken, and their wrists were bound behind their backs. “I still have some sore wrists,” he said. “It was digging into my wrists really badly.”

In captivity, Centanni said, he was laid face down in a dark garage and tied up in painful positions.

“If we tried to get up and sit up, which I did do a few times, they would eventually just force us back down with something stuck to my head,” he said. “I don’t know if it was a stick, a flashlight or a gun or what. We couldn’t see. We were forced to lay face down again in the dirt with blindfolds on.”

Before their release, a video was released showing Wiig and Centanni dressed in beige Arab-style robes. Wiig delivered an anti-Western speech, his face expressionless and his tone halting. The kidnappers claimed both men had converted to Islam.

“We were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint,” Centanni told Fox. “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.”

Wiig, who has covered some of the world’s most dangerous conflicts, including Afghanistan and Iraq, said at the news conference that he also was worried the kidnapping might scare reporters away from Gaza.

“My biggest concern really is that as a result of what happened to us, foreign journalists will be discouraged from coming to tell the story and that would be a great tragedy for the people of Palestine,” Wiig said. “You guys need us on the streets, and you need people to be aware of the story.”

The release of Centanni and Wiig ended Gaza’s longest crisis involving foreign hostages, but left unclear who was behind the kidnapping and what led them to free their captives. Palestinian militants have seized more than two dozen foreigners the past two years, usually to settle personal scores, and generally released their captives unharmed within hours.

I am so glad that Centanni and Wiig are free and that they are with or will soon be with their families. There are still so many questions about what happened. And will we ever know who the people in this Holy Jihad Brigade really are and what they truly wanted?

AP By Ibrahim Barzak
h/t: Castle Argghhh!