Faith of Our Fathers
MTS at Tip Jar on Aug 30 2006 at 7:39 am | Filed under: Feature Article, The War on Terror
Faith of our fathers, living still
In spite of dungeon, fire, and sword;
O how our hearts beat high with joy
Whene’er we hear that glorious word!
Faith of our fathers, Holy Faith!
We will be true to thee till death.
When I was a kid hearing that song in church about the distant olden days, who would’ve thought, decades later, that the lyrics to the song would once again ring current in my ears for the West, for our own front door. How far we have come from our safety, back into the lion’s jaws, in less than a generation.
But ignoring it will not make it not so. I’m afraid we must all ask how we will face this in our less than brave, politically correct, “situation ethic”-ally driven new world. Who knows how we will act if we also were in this situation. Held captive by Muslims, offered the choice of freedom via forced conversion, or punishment. I hope that I can emulate the example of one of my modern day heroes, Fabrizio Quattrocchi. Or, at least I can remember that whoever has hold of me physically in this world doesn’t have sway over me in the next, as long as I exercise my Free Will to resist, no matter how my end comes.
Fabrizio Quattrocchi, 36, a baker from Italy went to Iraq to work as a security guard for a contracting firm. He and three other Italians were taken hostage by the Green Battalion, who demanded that Italy release some of the Muslim extremists they are holding, and that Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi apologize for statements he made that allegedly insulted Islam. They showed the hostages on video, and threatened to kill them if their demands were not met. To demonstrate they were serious, they took Quattrocchi to a field, and had him dig a large hole. They then put a hood over his head and forced him to kneel by the grave, preparing to murder him. But Fabrizio did not cooperate. He stood and tried to pull off the hood, shouting, “Now I’ll show you how an Italian dies!” The terrorists shot him in the back of the neck. Al Jazeera, which obtained the videotape of the killing, chose not to air it, saying it was “too gruesome.” Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said, Fabrizio “died a hero.”
[read more and discuss with MTS over at Tip Jar]
