Abbas' government tries to counter the influence of Hamas, not by trying to boost its ever-undeserved "moderate" credentials, but by demonstrating its zeal for Islamic law. Sharia Alert. By Dalia Nammari for the Associated Press:
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - A new squad of morality police has begun detaining Palestinians who eat or drink in public during Ramadan in the West Bank, where the Islamic month of daytime fasting was always widely observed but never imposed.
The 12-member squad appears to be an attempt by President Mahmoud Abbas' West Bank government to challenge the monopoly on religious righteousness claimed by the militant group Hamas, the rival ruler of Gaza.
The sudden deployment of Ramadan police was unexpected in Ramallah, the seat of Abbas' government and the most cosmopolitan and well-to-do of the Palestinian cities. Ramadan squads have not been set up in other West Bank towns.
Watching observers arrive at one of the town's main mosques one recent afternoon, vice squad Lt. Murad Qendah got a radio call telling him a suspect has been spotted in the street imbibing "karoub"—a local soft drink made from carob pods. He ordered his six-man squad to seize the man's papers pending investigation. Police say violators are usually held for 24 hours."If anybody violates respect for Ramadan in the street, we take their identity papers and hold them for investigation," said Qendah, 27, whose officers wear red shoulder badges reading "morality police."
Police spokesman Adnan al-Damari said police have arrested at least 50 alleged public morality offenders in Ramallah since the start of Ramadan, but would not be going after people who break the fast in their own homes.
"The duty of the morality police is to preserve public manners in public places, and to preserve the feelings of the people who are fasting," he said. "Violating the holiness of Ramadan is a violation of people's freedom."
[...]
Writer Hassan Dandees, 58, said the government was right to seek to uphold religious standards.
"This is not a violation of anybody's freedom," he said. "Ramadan has a holiness every person should respect."
But Ruba el-Mimi, 21, said she opposes the police action.
"It interferes with the privacy of the individual. People are free to fast or not," she said. "If somebody is not fasting, he's not doing harm."
In addition to booking smokers, snackers and carob juice drinkers, Qendah is also on the alert for young men whistling at girls or drivers playing their car stereos too loud.
Although the piety squad has government sanction, Cabinet minister Ashraf al-Ajrami, said he is uncomfomtable with the operation and the impression that the government was trying to be more zealous than Hamas.
"We are studying this issue, and there's a possibility we shall end it," he said. "We don't want to change the order of things and appear as if we are following in the footsteps of somebody or imitating somebody."
"Violating the holiness of Ramadan is a violation of people's freedom."
Now that is twisted lol
This madness will never stop until either the only Muslims left alive are the Mullahs and their enforcers, or every Cultural/Unicorn Muslim becomes a Unitarian.
This current episode should be interesting. Two groups trying to prove that they are more faithful in their beliefs than the other. All this means is that there will be more and more bruised heads and abused women.
This is their mantra, "I'm going to make sure that you are a good Muslim even if it kills you."
"Violating the holiness of Ramadan is a violation of people's freedom."
-- from the article above
Islam is a collectivist faith. The individual must not get in the way of the collective, the umma.
Similarly, apostasy is viewed not as an act of free exercise of conscience by an individual Muslim, but as an act of treason to Islam, especially if the apostate dares to speak to Infidels truthfully about Islam.
Sneaky Zionist and Hugh:
Before I even read your posts, I was disgusted by the logic presented by this supposed "authority":
"Violating the holiness of Ramadan is a violation of people's freedom."
but someone else chimes in -
"This is not a violation of anybody's freedom," he said. "Ramadan has a holiness every person should respect."
As Hugh notes, Islam is a collectivist faith.
The Reverend Jimmy Jones had the right answer to his problem. Is the Koran now the collective "kool-aide"?
I've began reading all of the essays found at Faith Freedom. Folks, if have the time, please be serious and read just one-quarter of those essays found there.
They are extremely potent, coherent, and damaging to the case of Muhammed and Islam.
I find myself disturbed (to say it mildly) that 1.x billion people on this planet actually believe this tripe!
Read on. And arm yourself with the Truth.
http://www.faithfreedom.org/Articles.htm
Footbath at NYU alert:
http://media.www.nyunews.com/media/storage/paper869/news/2007/09/24/Features/Muslims.Lacking.A.Place.To.Cleanse-2987000.shtml
What is truly sad about this story is that Ramallah used to be a 100 percent Christian city.
Ramallah, a suburb of Jerusalem, was founded in the mid-1500s by the Haddadeens who were Jewish-Christians from Yemen who decided to make aliya to their ancestral homeland. Their tribal leader, Rashed Haddad, bought the land from the Turks to give Christians a safe-haven from Muslim persecution.
The Haddadeen were among the Jews, Christians, and Jewish-Christians who were expelled from Arabia by Muhammed's deathbed fatwa. They tried to make aliya then but were forbidden by Abu Bakr and ended up in Transjordan (Idumea) where the Jordanian town of Shobak is today. Later they invited the Crusader King Balwin I to build a fortress (Montreal Castle) in the Shobak area. After the Crusaders were expelled, the Haddadeen found themselves under the rule of local Muslim emirs.
In the 1500s, their leader Rashed Haddad's brother Sabri Haddad was once hosting the local Muslim Emir Ibn Kaysoom, the head of a powerful tribe in the region, when Sabri's wife gave birth to a baby girl. According to tribal customs, the Emir congratulated Sabri and asked for the infant's betrothal to his own young son once they both came of age. Sabri believed the request to be in jest, as Christian-Muslim intermarriage was forbidden by Haddadeen tradition. However, Sabri agreed to the request in what he likewise considered a joke. Many years later, the Emir came to the Hadadeens and demanded they fulfill their promise, which they refused to do. War then broke out between the Haddadeen and their Muslim rulers with many clashes during the following months, and assassinations occurring on both sides.
To avoid further bloodshed at the hands of the more powerful Kaysoom tribe, the Hadadeens fled west, and settled on the hilltops of Ramallah, which was only very sparsely populated at the time. Subsequently, the Hadadeen family elders, along with heads of a few other Christian tribes that arrived in Ramallah afterwards, became the heads of eight clans to whom modern-day Ramallah natives can still trace their ancestry. All were Christians and absolutely no Muslim can claim to be a native of Ramallah.
However, because of their Jewish-Christian culture and stress on education, Ramallah became one of the most prosperous towns in Palestine. Starting in the late 19th Century, many Muslims arrived seeking work. The Haddadeen elders forbad any of their Muslim employees from settling in Ramallah so the Muslim slum of Al-bireh quickly grew up next to Ramallah.
In 1946, the British authorities inaugurated the "Palestine Broadcasting Service" in Ramallah, the staff of which was trained by the British Broadcasting Corporation to perform daily broadcasts in Arabic, Hebrew, and English. The Hebrew name of the station became known as "Kol Yerushalaym", or "The Voice of Jerusalem".
After Israel was established in 1948, the Jordanians began settling in Ramallah many of the Muslims that the Jews forced out of Jaffa and Lydd. The influx of Muslims in a town with a history of religious plurality led some Christians to fear they would be treated negatively by their new neighbors.
Even before the establishment of Israel, Ramallah's native inhabitants began moving out of the area, primarily to the United States. By 1946, about 1500 of Ramallah's 6000 natives (or about a quarter) had emigrated to America. People from other towns and villages around Ramallah, particularly Hebron, began to buy and take up residence in the houses left behind by the natives.
By 1953, Ramallah's population had doubled and the town's economy and infrastructure were not equipped to handle such a rapidly growing and increasingly impoverished population. The discontent amongst the unemployed homeless refugees worried the privileged classes. The Christians also feared the establishment of kibbutzim in Israel might engender a socialist-collectivist ideology among Palestinians and that their personal wealth might be confiscated and redistributed.
After Israel took the West Bank in the 1967 war, many of the remaing Christians hoped that Israel would annex Ramallah and reverse the Muslim population increase. They were shocked and disappointed when the Israeli occupation authorities adopted policies that favoured Muslims over Christians even more than did the Jordanians. By the time Israel withdrew from Ramallah, the last vestiges of its ancient Jewish-Christian heritage appeared to be almost completely extinguished. The corrupt regime of Arafat and his Palestinian Authority put the last nails into the coffin of Christian Ramallah. Today, there are only a few hundred of Christians left in Ramallah and most have applied to immigrate to Israel or the West.
"In addition to booking smokers, snackers and carob juice drinkers, Qendah is also on the alert for young men whistling at girls or drivers playing their car stereos too loud.""
.
.......soon they will be searching for those who dare to breathe....
Pelayo: This madness will never stop until either the only Muslims left alive are the Mullahs and their enforcers...
That wouldn't stop the violence. As we see today, the victorious Mullahs would only divide up into factions, excommunicate one another and their followers, and begin battling among themselves. These are a people who can't seem to keep their own hands from committing assault and murder.
Thanks for the history lesson, Provoslavni. It's fascinating and disturbing. I did not know.
Thanks ElderlyZionist,
What is even more tragic is that because of its heritage Christian Ramallah was generally considered the most affluent and cultural as well as the most liberal, of all Palestinian cities. It was home to a number of popular Palestinian poets, artists, and musicians. One hallmark of Ramallah is Rukab's Ice Cream, which is based on the resin of chewing gum and thus has a distinctive taste. Another was the First Ramallah Group, a boy- and girl-scout club that used to hold a number of traditional dance (Dabke) performances and was also home to men's and women's basketball teams that competed regionally.
During the annual "Saturday of Light" religious festival (which occurs on the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday to commemorate the light that tradition holds shone from the Holy Sepulcher), the scouts would hold a parade through the city streets to receive the flame from Jerusalem. (The flame is ignited in Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulcher and is passed on through candles and lanterns to regional churches.)
Many foreign groups, whether musical or dance troops, used to perform in Ramallah in usually their only stop in Palestinian territories, while some others (such as renowned Israeli pianist Daniel Barenboim) would perform often. The Khalil Sakakini Cultural Centre was founded in 1996 and was a popular local venue for various artists. I assume that, with the Islamization of Rasmallah, all of that has been extinguished.
In celbration of Ramalamadingdong:
9/28/2007 ( Tank, Pakistan ) - Talibanis kill a Pakistani soldier with a remote-controlled bomb.
9/28/2007 ( Pattani, Thailand ) - Three policemen assigned to protect teachers are murdered by Muslim militants.
9/28/2007 ( Mogadishu, Somalia ) - Four local soldiers are murdered in an RPG attack by radicals screaming 'Allah Akbar.'
9/27/2007 ( Pulwama, India ) - The Mujahideen abduct and torture two civilians. One is then shot to death and the other released.
9/27/2007 ( Riyadh, Iraq ) - Two brothers are shot to death by sectarian rivals.
9/27/2007 ( Baghdad, Iraq ) - At least two women are among fourteen Iraqis murdered by Freedom Fighters.
At least they were'nt seen eating in public!!!
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/index.html#Attacks
Y'all have probably seen this, but if not it is well worth a daily visit.
Achmewd, how many times do we have to tell you? You cannot blow up buses and kill children until AFTER dark? Its Ramadan!
As a punishment you will muck out the camel stall for a week - and if we catch you on the stool behind the camel again - no more C-4 for a month!
ElderlyZionist,
There is one small silver liningh to the dark cloud of Ramallah. Daniel Barenboim who I mentioned above, despite being a musical genius, is a real sellout and arch-dhimmi.
Since Islam forbids music and since there are no more Ramallah Christians to invite him to perform, maybe if he tries to perform in Ramallah again, he'll get a personal experience of what Sharia is all about. The majority of Palestinian Christians have been violently shocked out of their dhimmitude. I only wonder what it will take to wake up dhimmi Jews like Barenboim or that even worse dhimmi, Ehud Olmert.
"We don't want to change the order of things and appear as if we are following in the footsteps of somebody or imitating somebody."
They aren't? I thought they were. That guy from the 7th century.
Pravo, the Arabs were not driven out of Jaffa [Yafo] in 1948. Arab irregular forces in Yafo, based in the Hassan Bek mosque, were shooting from the minaret at Jews on the streets of Tel Aviv. When Jewish forces [the Irgun/Etsel in this case] counterattacked, most Arabs in the city fled while the battles were still going on. But the Jews did not drive them out --unless self-defense against Arab attack means driving them out. However, there were Arabs who stayed in Yafo and their families are still there. Some Arabs were expelled from Lod during the war and not allowed back. However, there are still many Arabs living in Lod. Relations between Jews and Arabs in Lod are not good, as far as I know.
About the origins of Ramallah, one of the few towns in the Land of Israel which actually has an Arabic name, unlike the nearby village of Sinjil, for instance, which is named after the Crusader family of Saint Gilles. The NYTimes ran an article about Ramallah in the early 1970s. It did mention the Shubak connection but not any Jewish or Yemenite connection. I don't know what the Christians in Ramallah expected from Israel in 1967. I agree that Israel was often stupid, awkward, ignorant, etc. Bear in mind that the US State Dept was habitually working for pan-Arab & pan-Islamic interests [as was the British Foreign Office & Colonial Office], and wanted the Christians in this country to feel pan-Arab loyalty. I have already cited to you the case of Bethlehem.
Eliyahu,
You're correct that they weren't technically expelled, except that's what the Jordanians called it. Notice that Jordan resettled these Muslims in a completely Christian area rather than in Amman.
As for the Yemenite connection, this is well known. The Ramallah are almost purely Jewish in their ancient ancestry and thus among the very first Christians. There was even a Yemeni Jewish ruler named Dhu Niwas who tried to force their Ebionite ancestors to return to mainstream Judaism but failed. After their expulsion from Arabia they all became maintream Orthodox Christians (Today they are overwhelmingly Orthodox and Melkite)but still maintain some archaic Jewish customs that have long ceased among Jews, such as giving small sons a temporary vow where his hair is not cut. Except for the Falasha, I don't believe any modern Jews still have this custom. This is just one example among many.
As for the Israeli policies being stupid, that's beyond debate. Most Christians would have welcomed Israeli annexation after 1967 but the Labour governments wouldn't consider it. I suspect they knew that adding these Christian voters would have given Herut/Likud an early victory. Older Christian Palestinians will tell you that the Haganah just lumped them all together (wrongly) as Arabs while the Irgun carefully distinguished between Christians and Muslims. They also remember fondly Menachem Begin's failed but heroic attempt to restore the Christian villages in the Galil such as Kafr Bir'im and Iqrit, which are the main cause of Christian resentment toward Israel.