Hamas, for its part, says "We respect freedom." They hope listeners in the West will project their own sensibilities on that term, but of course, the official means "freedom" only as defined within the strictures of Sharia law.
One could compare it to the now-amusing statement in the '80s, dubiously attributed to Bill Gates, that "640k [of RAM] ought to be enough for anybody." Those who demand the implementation of Sharia believe that, as Allah's own law, it "ought to be enough for anybody." In both areas, the rest of the world has moved on and left those prior benchmarks of "achievement" in the dust. But in Gaza and anywhere else Sharia can gain a foothold, its outdated and backward treatment of human rights will not only be "enough," but above criticism.
"Gaza's elected Islamist rulers crack down on secular community," from the Telegraph, February 25 (thanks to Zulu):
Hamas has bullied men and women to dress modestly, tried to keep the sexes from mingling in public and sparked a flight of secular university students 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.
Another cautionary tale that will be ignored:
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.
It's a plot, of course:
Hamas officials say claims that they are trying to Islamise Gaza are meant to help deter the international community from recognising their rule. "This isn't true," said Yousef Rizka, a senior Hamas government official. "We respect freedom."
Gaza, a tiny sliver of land squeezed between Egypt and Israel, always had a significant Islamic flavour, but once tolerated bars and cinemas, especially during Egyptian rule from 1948 to 1967. A conservative religious movement began to take hold in the 1980s, as part of a larger, region-wide religious awakening.
The trend accelerated with the first Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation in 1987, which coincided with the founding of Hamas. In June 2007, Hamas seized control of Gaza after ousting forces loyal to Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
The trend toward religious fundamentalism preceded the Hamas takeover. 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.
The severity of veiling in a given location continues to be a bellwether of the encroachment of Sharia, the support for, and strength of those who would wage jihad to impose it:
Gaza women, whose attire once varied from Western pants and skirts to colourful traditional embroidered robes, began donning ankle-length loose robes. Women with face veils, once rarely seen in Gaza, are now a common sight.
After winning the 2006 election, Hamas vowed it wouldn't impose Islamic law. But within two years, bureaucrats began ordering changes that targeted secular Gaza residents.
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.
Jihad causes poverty: the people Hamas is chasing off are taking their educations and skills with them:
"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.
Like Iran, their people are hating this death cult everyday. theie young people will soon demand more to life than bowing down 5 times a day. it works well with some deranged people, but it create havoc with most of the people most of the time.
"In the end, the people who think differently are leaving,"
Many end up coming to the West, where they become promoters and abettors of Islamic causes. The contradiction is staggering.
Hamas vowed it wouldn't impose Islamic law.
Beware of any Mahoundian who says that...You would think that the 'Palestinians' who are almost all Islamic, would know that this was a song and dance routine right off...It is their duty to impose Islamic law...
you are absolutely right, cornelius.
"Many end up coming to the West, where they become promoters and abettors of Islamic causes. The contradiction is staggering."
i think that it is time we stop making life sooooo easy for those that wish to do us harm.
i really think that bush was an idiot, but at least he got ONE thing right:"you are either WITH us or AGAINST us"...
in this zero sum game, there is no room for second place...
so the ONLY way, a muslime may be allowed into the west is with the understanding that he is running away FROM islam and therefore he will do EVERYTHING in his powers to fight it and expose it for the fraud that it is...
i would say, then, he should be welcomed with open arms and helped to find gainful employment etc and none of this welfare bs given ad lib and ad infinitum to muslimes in the west ...
if the SLIGHTEST indication to the contrary is shown (fill in the blank: us to accomodate to him.....he should be deported so fast that he cannot finish saying 'la allah illa...' and he 's on his way back.
Proof yet again that the more Islam you have, the less liberty you have. Islam and freedom are inversely proportional. There's no exception to this rule, even for those who impose Islam on themselves in free nations, let alone having it imposed upon them in Islamic countries. Islam knows nothing about freedom. It is indeed all about submission.
""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."
Islam does indeed stifle "thinking"...
"In the end, the people who think differently are leaving,"...
But can they understand why they are leaving? Is it because they really understand democratic freedoms? Or is it because they have a visceral revulsion of what their islamic Sharia is about to do to them? I wrote earlier on how all the Islamic beliefs are inimical to our modern 21st century freedoms.
... etc.Will the future youth of Islam understand this? Or will they repeat the errors of their ancestors, and repeat the oppressions... ad infinitum?
"Freedom" in Islamic terms=
1) freedom to establish Sharia Law
2) freedom to practice Sharia Law
3) freedom to IMPOSE Sharia Law via any means
the deluded west needs to get their collective heads out of the butts and understands this simple concept.
"Freedom" in Islamic terms=
1) freedom to establish Sharia Law
2) freedom to practice Sharia Law
3) freedom to IMPOSE Sharia Law via any means
the deluded west needs to get their collective heads out of their butts and understands this simple concept.
Gaza: Enforcement of Sharia increasingly aggressive, intrusive
......................
And you almost *never* hear about this in the West, even among those who decry Hamas' belligerence toward Israel.
More:
One could compare it to the now-amusing statement in the '80s, dubiously attributed to Bill Gates, that "640k [of RAM] ought to be enough for anybody." Those who demand the implementation of Sharia believe that, as Allah's own law, it "ought to be enough for anybody." In both areas, the rest of the world has moved on and left those prior benchmarks of "achievement" in the dust...
......................
I take your point, Marisol, but I don't think it holds. It's not as though Shari'ah law predates the code of Hammurabi—it came after ancient Jewish law, Roman law, and its successor in the Christian Byzantine Empire—each certainly imperfect, but each vastly superior to the barbarism of Shari'ah.
More:
The trend toward religious fundamentalism preceded the Hamas takeover. 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.
......................
And it's all becoming increasing worse under Hamas—despite their vow, as noted by Duh Swami, that they would not impose Shari'ah law.
Just as there has been unrest in much of the rest of the Muslim world, there is a call on Facebook for protests across the "Palestinian territories" for March 15.
Is it a call for an end to Shari'ah law under Hamas? A call for an end to the "kleptocracy" of Fatah? A call (ha ha) for peace with Israel?
Of course not. It is a call to "End The Division" between Fatah and Hamas, so that the "Palestinians" can present a united front against Israel:
"They are not demanding the overthrow of the Hamas government in Gaza nor the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. What they want is the parties to overcome their bitter rivalries and unite to fight their common enemy: Israel."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/24/palestinian-young-people-protests
Scary, scary stuff. I'm sure we'll be hearing much more about this in the weeks to come.
What's amazing about the overtly honest Jew-hating Public Sector Union leaders in canada is that they have endorse Hamas and even Boycot israeli goods, some even banned Jewish proffessors from Campus unless they denounce israel's treatment of the Shariah law Muslim run hamas in Gaza.
Oh the irony, Canadian Unions used to ban non-whites from the good jobs,they supported a pro-Eugenics NDP Leader just because he wanted Social Medicine that would have benefitted the Union workers as a quasi-raise.
So today we hear very little from the same Unions as the Meddle East implodes by protests but the Tyrants are killing civilains in public.
The Ontario Human Rights Commission under Barbara Hall has allowed more and more Shariah Compliant Workplaces and Schools in the guise of Tolerance and Human rights. But the HRC never went after a Egyptian Muslim in canada that is in a youtube video( Muhammad elmasry) stated that "All Isreali's over 18 are valid targets for muder by suicide-bombers", Elmasry dod NOT say they had to be inside Israel so this was worse as Elmasry was a Prof. at a University with a Pro-hamas MSA group of foreign stundents on Visas to get Educated.
Poor Barbara Hall, she'll be the first one of the female Infidels rounded-up by the Shariah Police because of the support for the Gay parade with Naked men exposing themselves to little boys and girls,she also is a feminist that supported the topless lesbians in the Dyke March in Toronto.
Canadian Public Unions still spend our Tax dollars in Cuba to prop up a Communist thugs and misogynist,and the useful idiots on Campus here wear Che T-shirts and pro-hamas scarfs even when they are pro-gay students with no clue about Che's murders or Hamas executing gays in public as a favour to Allah.
The good news is that the Islamofascists will kill-off these yahoos first and help purge the gene-pool of the weak moron with no Survival-gene to preserve Liberty and freedom for the children's future. Imagine that, those enlightened nabob's on Campus will be led to the slaughter house by taqqiyah crumbs that promise Peace and Freedoms inside because the Quran is a book "To Serve Man" .
Funny how muslims flee like rats off a sinking ship from a pure Islamic state yet (as someone else mentioned), they come to free countries and ram it down our throats.
They should put giant gates around pure Islamic states so no one gets in or out and they will eventually self-destruct. But in truth it is the women who'd suffer the most.
I (and I'm sure most of the people here), know all I need to about Islam. I'm just waiting till the rest of the world catches up to us and realizes what must be done. That freedom/democracy must be aggressively defended and Islam must meet the same fate that Nazism/fascism did.
Reading through the Hamas Charter of 1988 is recommended:
http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/www.thejerusalemfund.org/carryover/documents/charter.html
http://middleeast.about.com/od/palestinepalestinians/a/me080106b.htm
and with comments:
http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/pdf/hamas_charter.pdf
http://www.mideastweb.org/hamas.htm
Notice that the pompous language - heavily propped up by religious quotations - seems not to be unusual in those areas, be it putting forward an ideology or reciting poetry. I think here of Muammar's recent speech to the Libyans, about "the honor and glory of the Libyans".
It is bad news indeed for other former Muslim areas such as Spain and Portugal or the Balkans.
BOYCOTT:
The University Bank in Ann Arbor, Michigan is now going "Sharia" compliant. Do not do business with this bank and here is why:
http://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/2011/02/22/shariah-compliant-credit-cards-more-common-as-sharia-spreads/
South Dakota putting forward legislation to STOP Sharia compliant banking in their state:
http://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/2011/02/22/south-dakota-lawmakers-unite-behind-anti-sharia-bills/
Freedom as defined in Islam cont'd:
4) Freedom to subdue and/or kill infidels;
5) Freedom from criticism;
6) Freedom from questions and critical thinking;
7) Freedom from individual accountability;
8) Freedom from conscience;
9) Freedom from choice;
10) In a nutshell, freedom from freedom.
I would be very interested to hear what this senior Hamas member has to say about the status of women, as one of the common lies I hear repeatedly is: "women are treated like queens."