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Vekril
RealPoor Guru
Joined: 15 Oct 2002
Posts: 2525
Location: Jersey
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 Posted: 04/11/05 - 22:15 Post subject: Islam, religion of peace (and honor killings)
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| Quote: | Hamas has begun operating a "vice and virtue commando" in the Gaza Strip to safeguard Islamic values, Palestinian security officials and residents told The Jerusalem Post.
The new force, called the Anti-Corruption Unit, is believed to be behind the gruesome murder over the weekend of Yusra al-Azzami, a 22-year-old university student from the northern Gaza Strip.
Her "crime" was that she was seen in public with her fiance .
Although "honor killings" are not a new phenomenon in Palestinian society, the perpetrators were almost always relatives of the victims. But this is the first time that one of the Palestinian groups has openly acted against a woman suspected of "immoral behavior."
Hamas's "morality" patrolmen first spotted the young couple strolling along the beach in Gaza City, together with Azzami's younger sister. After enjoying the spectacular sunset over the sea, they got into the future husband's car and started driving towards Azzami's home.
According to eyewitness accounts, five masked gunmen who were in another car gave chase, opening fire at Azzami, who was sitting in the front seat next to her fianc . She died instantly.
The fianc and sister were later brutally beaten and moderately injured by the attackers.
The incident took place at a busy intersection in Gaza City.
What happened immediately afterwards left many passersby traumatized.
The assailants dragged the young woman's body out of the car, pouncing upon it mercilessly with clubs and iron bars.
"It was the most horrific crime I've seen in my life," said a university student who witnessed the attack. "What they did to the body while it was lying on the ground was barbaric. This does not represent Islam." The student, who asked not to be named, said he and several other people at the scene were too afraid to interfere. "We waited until the gunmen left the area before we called the police and an ambulance," he added.
The Palestinian Authority police, who have since arrested two suspects, confirmed that the attack was carried out by Hamas vigilantes who have been waging a campaign of intimidation against people exhibiting un-Islamic behavior.
"They are behaving like the Taliban in Afghanistan," a senior police officer told the Post. "We won't allow them to take the law into their own hands, because we are not in Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia or Iran." Both Saudi Arabia and Iran have special "vice and "virtue" police who roam through parks and public places to upbraid and sometimes beat unrelated couples.
The police officer said the identities of the other three accomplices were known and efforts were being made to apprehend them. "They all belong to a Hamas unit that claims it wants to enforce Islamic values in the Gaza Strip," he said. "We hope Hamas will help us track down the murderers and bring them to trial."
However, Azzami's family and political activists accused Hamas of harboring the murderers and called on the Islamic movement to hand them over to the police. A statement signed by various political groups, including the ruling Fatah faction, condemned the murder and urged Hamas to disown the culprits.
"We are demanding a public apology from Hamas for this heinous crime against an innocent woman," said a cousin of the victim. "We have also appealed to the Palestinian leadership to impose the death penalty against the murderers. We are living in a jungle and this has to end."
The cousin noted that Azzami was planning to get married next month and that her family had permitted her to see her fianc that day only because she was accompanied by her sister.
Diab al-Lohe, a senior Fatah operative in the Gaza Strip, called on all factions not to provide political backing for murderers and bandits. He also urged the PA security forces to work toward restoring law and order in the Gaza Strip, which, he said, has been hit by an unprecedented wave of crime in recent months.
Hamas initially denied any link to the murder, but later admitted that the assailants belonged to one of its groups. It also admitted that the murderers were responsible for cracking down on men and women who defy Islamic teachings by appearing in public together.
Another police officer involved in the investigation said the two suspects who were detained shortly after the murder had confessed to belonging to Hamas's Anti-Corruption Unit.
He said the suspects and their three accomplices were all from the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City and that they had been instructed to conduct surveillance of the beach to assure that unrelated men and women were not mixing.
"The murderers thought that Azzami and her fianc were on a date," the officer explained. "They had no idea that they were engaged and were planning to marry soon
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Kudos to most Palestinians in the article who called it what it was, murder. But the fact is that in most countries in the Arab world there are still honor killings, and men and women cannot safely mingle in public.
What values... if you read the reactions more carefully, especially the last line, it seems that many of them would have accepted the killing if they were just on a date, and not engaged.
Ultra-religious Christians and Jews may have some backwards ideas about the **** and other things, but they sure don't condone murder as the punishment.
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Occulis
RealPoor Jedi
Joined: 11 Oct 2002
Posts: 13293
Location: Moral Relativity Central
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Posted: 04/11/05 - 22:32 Post subject:
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It's like that in Scrabler's home town when the only non-fattie goes out with a guy other than a future ROTC member.
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Scrabler
RealPoor Guru
Joined: 11 Oct 2002
Posts: 2660
Location: Mobile, AL
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Posted: 04/12/05 - 00:36 Post subject:
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| Occulis wrote: | | It's like that in Scrabler's home town when the only non-fattie goes out with a guy other than a future ROTC member. |
Uh huh..
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khrath
RealPoor Master of Posts
Joined: 11 Oct 2002
Posts: 8750
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Posted: 04/12/05 - 01:36 Post subject:
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Jew
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Silvermouse
RealPoor Jedi
Joined: 12 Oct 2002
Posts: 11015
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Posted: 04/12/05 - 01:46 Post subject:
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These people need a job or something, or some sort of fighting sport that lets them get these agressions taken care of.
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Manuva
Banned
Joined: 12 Oct 2002
Posts: 2536
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Posted: 04/12/05 - 02:07 Post subject:
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Don't care.
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kbarr
RealPoor Jedi
Joined: 05 Oct 2004
Posts: 11239
Location: New York, now go fuck off...
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Posted: 04/12/05 - 02:33 Post subject:
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| Silvermouse wrote: | | These people need a job or something, or some sort of fighting sport that lets them get these agressions taken care of. |
They have a killing sport.
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shinja mayoke
Luke Warm
Joined: 04 Jan 2003
Posts: 434
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Posted: 04/12/05 - 12:13 Post subject:
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I was gonna respond with something like 'yeah, f**k that' but again I lose my train of thought when Kbarr's avatar threw its balls at me.
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