NEWS REAL BLOG
If you want to predict what the Muslim Brotherhood will do to Egypt, just take a look at what Hamas — the organization they sired — is doing to the Gaza Strip. What most people know is that Hamas has been using the Gaza Strip as a staging ground for terrorist attacks on Israel. The big secret the American media doesn’t tell you is Hamas is trying to ethnically cleanse Gaza of not only non-Muslims, but of Muslims who are not fundamentalist enough.
I know what some of you are thinking, how can that be true? After all, Hamas is part of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says that the Muslim Brotherhood is a secular organization. As for Hamas specifically, look, they have been vouched for by former President Jimmy Carter who says they are not a terrorist organization; he even told President Obama to take them off the terrorist list.
For those of you who exist in the real world the charges are not surprising.
Soon after Hamas took over the Gaza Strip, they announced that they will be governing via strictIslamic law.
Hamas has announced that Gaza will now be ruled according to Islamic Law, all women must wear the head scarfs, no alcohol missionaries face death you know the usual stuff that you see in countries such as Iran and Saudi Arabia. That Missionary Law is interpreted broadly so a Christmas tree or a printed gospel can get your head separated from the rest of your bodies.
As Hamas solidified its power in Gaza a series of attacks was directed toward Christians whose purpose was to “encourage” them to leave. In rapid fire a YMCA, school, and internet café were bombed. One would have thought that attacks against the Christian minority would have made big news in the United States, but outside of reports in the Catholic Press the mainstream media has been silent.
The latest news comes from the British paper The Telegraph. It seems Hamas is now terrorizing all people who are not “Muslim enough.”
Hamas has bullied men and women to dress modestly, tried to keep the sexes from mingling in public and sparked a flight of secular universitystudents and educated professionals. Most recently, it has confiscated novels it deems offensive to Islam from a bookshop and banned Gaza’s handful of male hairdressers from styling women’s hair.
Some argue that the case of Gaza could also be a warning sign for those pushing for quick democratic reforms in the region. Hamas rose to power in part by winning internationally backed parliamentary elections held in 2006.
Unfortunately The Telegraph is romanticizing history; Hamas did win the parliamentary election but became sole owner of the Gaza Strip via a military power grab In June 2007.
Hamas officials say that they are not trying to Islamize Gaza. Their claim is that these latest charges are meant to help deter the international community from recognizing Hamas rule.
But the truth is before Hamas took over Gaza was largely secular in nature where you could find many westernized entertainment venues such as bars and movie theaters. But as the fundamentalist Hamas began to build its power those venues became the target of attacks.
In recent years, hardliners have burned down the cinemas. Their charred remains are still visible in Gaza City. Militants blew up the last bar in 2005.
Gaza women, whose attire once varied from Western pants and skirts to colorful traditional embroidered robes, began complying with the 2007 dictate, donning ankle-length loose robes, face veils, once rarely seen in Gaza, are now a common sight.
Today, plainclothes officers sometimes halt couples in the streets, demanding to see marriage licenses. Last year, the Interior Ministry banned women from smoking water pipes in public. Islamic faith does not ban women from smoking, but it is considered taboo in Gaza society.“In the end, the people who think differently are leaving,” said Rami, a 32-year-old activist in one of Gaza’s few secular groups. He refused to give his last name, fearing retribution.
Why is any of this important, after all the Gaza Strip is just a tiny bit of land with a little over 1.6 million residents?
There are a few reasons why it is important to understand Gaza.
- It is a reflection of the farce under which the United Nations operates. As the Human RightsCouncil presents its Anti-Israel resolution of the week, it is Hamas who is making the human rights violations against the Gaza residents.
- Land for Peace. Israel began to withdraw from Gaza on August 15, 2005 and was totally gone by September first of the same year, totally removing the argument Hamas gave for terrorism from Gaza. Within weeks of the withdrawal Hamas expanded its use of Gaza as a launching pad for terrorism. Proving that for the fundamentalist Hamas it’s not really about Gaza, it’s about removing all of the “infidels” from Muslim lands. What they are doing to Gaza is what they want to do to all of the disputed territories and eventually all of Israel. Do we really want to encourage Israel to abandon Judea and Samaria?
- Egypt. For those in the leftist media (such as the progressive NPR) who still believe that the Muslim Brotherhood is a moderate, secular organization one need only look at Hamas to know what life in Egypt under a Muslim Brotherhood-influenced government would be. For proof that Hamas is still part of the Brotherhood, one need only look at article two of the Hamas Charter.
- The Islamic Resistance Movement [Hamas] is one of the wings of the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine. The Muslim Brotherhood movement is a global organization and is the largest of the Islamic movements in modern times. It is distinguished by its profound understanding and its conceptual precision and by the fact that it encompasses the totality of Islamic concepts in all aspects of life, in thought and in creed, in politics and in economics, in education and in social affairs, in judicial matters and in matters of government, in preaching and in teaching, in art and in communications, in secret and in the open, and in all other areas of life.
The Gaza Strip has gone from a westernized, secular piece of land to a population that has been intimidated into the fundamentalist Islamic way of life. With a growing influence in the remaining territories under the Palestinian Authority, given the opportunity, Hamas will turn Judea and Samaria into an Islamist dominated area and a terrorist staging ground.
Keep in mind that the terrorist group is part of the global Muslim Brotherhood movement so by looking at how Hamas is “behaving” in Gaza, we can see how the Muslim Brotherhood will act if it is allowed to take control of Egypt.
