Attacks on internet cafes and music shops in Gaza continue. The attackers bomb these "dens of vice" because they deem them un-Islamic. Internet cafes provide access to porn and music shops sell pop Arabic music which undermines morals. They should only sell Koran, anasheeds, and sermons (and many of them do). While this article doesn't mention it, but an early statement by the group doing the attacks also threatened women who wear make up and don't wear veils. I'm not hearing much resistance to these attacks, which is disgusting. If these people are not stopped now, they will not be stopped later.
And as the banning of the Palestinian folk tales demonstrates, these people leaving the threats and planting the bombs have not come from outer space. They are home grown al right. It's the same ideology that unites all of them, but they may use different methods: Hamas will use the powers they got through democratic process to impose their social agenda, while the "swords of bateekh el sham" will use bombs and acid. The result is the same: the talibanization of Palestine.
2 comments:
Hi Amal,
An FYI: I did mention the earlier statement from the Swords of Truth, but it was edited from the article you read. I kept it down in the story, simply because the statement said it had thrown acid on women's faces, however a thorough search of hospital records showed no recorded incidents. Security officials her don't think the group really exists (yet, I add).
Gaza's a small place. We should have heard about it if it really happened. If it DID happen and we don't know, you are always free to write to me on
diaa_hadid2@yahoo.co.uk
Diaa,
I only know what the two articles I link to said. In the statement, the group mentions that they will throw acid on women who don't veil and brag that they did through acid on a woman or women who didn't veil. So what you are saying is that your research of hospitals showed that no women reported acid attacks. I mentioned that no Palestinian papers reported the attacks either (which is not evidence of much since this kind of attack may or may not be of priority to them depending on their agendas). I wasn't implying a criticism of you for not mentioning the acid. Just making a reference to the group's earlier statement as a way to give context to the post.
Whether the group exists or doesn't it is a bit of a joke. What does it to take for a "group" to exist? Some poeple are going around bombing internet cafes and music stores and issuing statements threatening unveiled women. Do they need to have links with Al Qa'eda before the police gets worried and take them seriously? Does a group need to get official papers before it is considered a group? Are all the militias that pop up in Gaza really "groups" in an official way?
What I mean to say is that I don't like the police's attitude. It's dismissive. To say such a group doesn't exist is a way to not do much about it. Do you think it matters to the people that got their businesses attacked that there is no existing group? Just whenever the police and the PA don't want to take responsibility for something they underplay it by saying either "jihat mashbouha" is doing it or just a bunch of zu3ran.
fine. Go arrest them and punish them.
As to contesting the acid, they don't need to throw acid on women's faces. It's enough that they are threateing to do that. That should be the story.
Do keep reporting this stuff (i'm concluding from your post that you wrote the article I linked to. If not, sorry for the confusion).
Post a Comment