This past weekend, the world applauded the release of “unharmed” Fox journalists in Gaza. One of the many twists in the dramatic story is that the members of the Holy Jihad Brigade forced Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig, at the point of the gun, to convert to Islam prior to their release. I think it’s fair to say that this story encapsulates what this conflict between the West and Islam is all about, a reality that few in the mainstream press seem willing to discuss at the risk of making certain people uncomfortable. Consistent with centuries of Islamic customs, members of the Holy Jihad Brigade offered Centanni and Wiig the traditional options given to a conquered people or civilization of either conversion to Islam, the payment of discriminatory taxes for infidels, or war (death). Centanni and Wiig staged a conversion, replete with new Muslim names, which they recanted and disavowed soon after being released from captivity.
Enlightened society sees an individual’s religious beliefs as the most precious inner sanctum of the person. Pope John Paul II repeatedly stressed that a person’s religious beliefs must be protected from any external coercion. For an act to be truly human, it must be freely chosen by the will. How much more does this axiom ring true when applied to the weighty decisions of the conscience with regard to religion? Encroachments on the person’s spiritual journey by violent acts of force constitute a grave offense against his dignity. In the media however, there was offered merely the superficial observation that the two men were released “unharmed”. So little priority does the media give to the person’s spiritual dimension and to religion in general that this conversion-at-gunpoint was for the most part, swept under the rug, as of scant importance. I would suggest that, far from escaping “unharmed”, the journalists’ valuable gift of freedom was seriously violated by the forced conversion and subsequently, they were indeed harmed in a profound, personal way.
No comments:
Post a Comment