Rescued hostage says he was told to convert to Islam for food

Rom Braslavski, one of the freed hostages, says the Hamas captors told him to convert to Islam if he wanted food:

According to her son's testimony, which she revealed, Tami said Rom's captors abused him psychologically, told him that Iran bombed Israel, that his parents weren't at the protests in the square, and chose to show him specifically only the Kaplan protests, while lying to him that his parents forgot about him.

Not only that, his mother said his captors tried to convince him to fast during Ramadan or read chapters from the Quran and convert to Islam, in exchange for food and improved conditions, but he refused. As evidence of the mental crisis he experienced as a result of the psychological manipulations his captors operated on him, the mother recounts, "And now when he returned, he keeps saying all the time 'I'm Jewish.'"

"I didn't understand why he keeps saying 'I'm Jewish,' 'I'm a strong Jew.' It was so important to him to preserve his Jewish identity because they asked him to convert to Islam and tempted him, if you fast in Ramadan we'll give you food, soap, all kinds of things that for us are banal, but Rom didn't break, and however he came he put on tefillin, we brought him the tefillin to the hospital and he put them on."

Here's more info about this abominable case:

His captors weaponized food, turning starvation into a weapon to break his faith. “They asked him to convert to Islam and tempted him — if you fast during Ramadan we’ll give you food, soap, all kinds of things that for us are banal — but Rom didn’t break,” Tami said, adding that guards dangled extra rations and hygiene items if he would read from the Quran.

It's remarkable he held firm. But will this teach any left-wing Israelis why the Religion of Peace is a bad thing? Who knows? That's another serious issue that has to be raised, whether anybody in Israel is going to learn from this.

TEXTBOOK CHANGES IN THE UK

Changes being made to reflect the "Muslim heritage."

From the Jerusalem Post, with a hat tip to A New Dark Age Is Dawning:

An educational foundation in the UK has announced plans to distribute to high schools a free book that highlights the scientific and cultural legacies of Muslim civilization.

1001 Inventions: Muslim Heritage in Our World is the creation of the Foundation for Science Technology and Civilization (FSTC), a Manchester-based organization set up to raise awareness of the contributions of the Muslim world to modern civilization.

FSTC said the contribution that Muslim and other civilizations have made to the modern world has been widely overlooked and that its team of academics has focused on debunking the myth of the so-called "Dark Ages of Civilization."

"The period between the 7th and 17th centuries - which has been erroneously labeled 'the Dark Ages' - was in fact a time of exceptional scientific and cultural advancement in China, India and the Arab world," Prof. Salim Al-Hassani, chief editor of the book, said.

"This is the period in history that gave us the first manned flight, huge advances in engineering, the development of robotics and the foundations of modern mathematics, chemistry and physics."

The foundation said it hoped to distribute 3,000 copies of the book to UK schools by October and is seeking public support for the campaign through a sponsorship scheme.

Last month, British evolutionary biologist, popular science author and outspoken atheist Richard Dawkins announced plans to distribute free DVDs to high schools across the UK....

Of course, similar drivel is already in many of the textbooks being used right now in the United States. Bad as those books are now, they could be propagandized even more. And at the rate the dhimmitude is proceeding amongst the elite leftists here in the States, we will see a similar development here - as a supplement to use in the classrooms.

Also note the echoes of similarity in the words of BHO at the White House dinner celebrating Ramadan:

President Barack Obama highlighted the contributions made by Muslims to American culture and the “dynamism and diversity” of the Islamic community.

“Islam, as we know, is part of America,” Obama said at a White House dinner celebrating the Islamic holy month of Ramadan....

The White House dinner celebrating Ramadan was held on the fifth anniversary of the barbarous attack on the school in Beslan. Talk about a disgusting irony!

DHIMMITUDE IN TENNESSEE

Video - Tyson Replaces Labor Day With Muslim Holiday (hat-tip to The Tedland Daily):



YouTube Link

The MSNBC story is here.

And what is Eid al-Fitr?

Read the rest at Always On Watch.

BARNEY FRANK'S MISTAKE

STOP THE PRESSES! POLITICIAN ADMITS MISTAKE!

According to this December 22, 2007 item in the "Religion" section of the Washington Post, Barney Frank regrets two of the votes he recently cast:

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) says he was wrong to vote different ways on House resolutions recognizing Christmas and Ramadan.

Instead of voting for the Muslim holiday and abstaining on the Christian one, Representative Frank says he should have abstained on Ramadan as well....

In my experience, politicians don't make such admissions unless constituents have applied some pressure. Of course, it is possible that Representative Frank realized all on his own that his differing votes evidenced a double standard.

Why do I have doubts about his revised view, just in time for Christmas? I've become highly skeptical about the integrity of all politicians — the result of my observing politicians' ambivalence and their lack of integrity as they jockey for power and votes.

Returning now to the remainder of the item in the Washington Post, Representative Frank further explained about his change of mind:

Frank says he's Jewish and doesn't observe either holiday, but adds that he wouldn't support a Yom Kippur resolution, either. He says Congress should stay out of religious matters and let Americans worship as they wish. In the future, Frank says he'll abstain on all such resolutions.

I've never quite understood why politicians abstain from voting — unless, of course, they aren't educated enough about a certain matter to vote responsibly. Isn't our elected representatives' job on Capitol Hill to make decisions?

Why do politicians abstain from a vote, anyway?