Marching the Burnhams past predominantly Muslim villages in the southern Philippines, the Abu Sayyaf came across a Christian chapel. "There used to be a cross there, but we destroyed it," one of the rebels proudly told the missionaries. "We hate the cross. Any time we see a cross we destroy it if we can."

Burnham says she was never "a real cross fan" before her abduction. "I was raised a Baptist, and that always seemed to be Catholic to me. But I love the cross since my captivity, and I have it everywhere," she says. "My mind has changed because the Muslims hated it so much, what it stands for."

The Burnhams tried to explain it to their captors (they were hostages, but still missionaries), but to no avail. "I don't want anybody paying for my sin," said one. "I'll do my own paying."

What to call the Abu Sayyaf? Militant Muslims? Militant, yes. Muslim, maybe not. "In Islam, if you're a thief, they cut off your hand. That's how things ought to be," one of the leaders told the Burnhams—mere minutes after stealing Martin's wedding band.

Only two men in the entire group of about 100 bandits had actually read the Qur'an, but they didn't understand it. They didn't know Arabic, and translating it into Tagalog, they believed, would have corrupted it. All, however, knew that the Qur'an permitted taking hostages as "war booty." And they were shocked when Martin Burnham suggested it might be wrong.

"I hope my children don't take up the same attitude you have," he told them. "I hope my kids back home in the States don't ever get a gun and shoot some Muslim because of what you have done to us."

"Done to you?" said one. "What's my sin against you? I've never done anything to you!"

Such blindness shocked the Burnhams. "They would come to us and say, 'Are you ready to convert to Islam?' And I would look at them like What on earth have I seen here that would ever make me want to convert?" Gracia says. "All I've seen is a lot of double talk and a lot of people who don't really know what they believe."