“There is no compulsion in religion”
So states the Qur’an 2:256. Despite the fact that innumerable Muslims keep telling us that conversions to Islam never come, or came, at gun or sword point, the kidnappers of the two Fox newspersons apparently are a bit confused about this particular verse. News reports indicate that before the kidnappers of Steve “Khaled” Centanni and Olaf Wiig released their prisoners, they made them record a video in which they denounced the United States and swore their allegiance to Islam. Admittedly, they were given other choices—paying the jizya or facing a jihad—but in my book this was a coerced conversion.
This incident is probably over, although it shouldn’t be. I hope that CAIR posts a piece condemning this coerced conversion as un-Islamic. I hope that the authorities in Gaza prosecute the kidnappers. And I hope that if Centanni and Wiig repudiate their “conversions,” they are not targeted for death as apostates.
Edited at 2010 eastern: You can watch the video here at Charles Johnson's Little Green Footballs web blog. We need to wake up and understand that the jihadists, if they had the power, would place comparable pressure on every non-Muslim in the world. Note that Steve "Khalid" Centanni affirms that Islam is meant not just for some people, but for all people at all times. Changing American policy in the Middle East will not alter that fact!
This incident is probably over, although it shouldn’t be. I hope that CAIR posts a piece condemning this coerced conversion as un-Islamic. I hope that the authorities in Gaza prosecute the kidnappers. And I hope that if Centanni and Wiig repudiate their “conversions,” they are not targeted for death as apostates.
Edited at 2010 eastern: You can watch the video here at Charles Johnson's Little Green Footballs web blog. We need to wake up and understand that the jihadists, if they had the power, would place comparable pressure on every non-Muslim in the world. Note that Steve "Khalid" Centanni affirms that Islam is meant not just for some people, but for all people at all times. Changing American policy in the Middle East will not alter that fact!
