And with good reason, since a Hamas official is on record saying that the organization intends to reinstitute the jizya for dhimmi Christians unfortunate enough to live within its domains. “Liberal Palestinians fear Hamas win,” from the Globe and Mail:
RAMALLAH, WEST BANK — Jasser Jasser watches quietly as the parade of green flows by his pharmacy. What he sees is unnerving for him, perhaps enough to make him want to leave his home and move elsewhere.
Walking at the front of the parade is a boy, perhaps in his early teens, carrying the banner of the Hamas movement — the Islamic militia-cum-political party that opinion polls suggest is poised for a breakthrough in today’s Palestinian parliamentary election.Then come the drummers, dozens of them, pounding a martial beat. Some of the drummers look to be no more than five or six years old.
That Hamas was able to hold such a large march in the centre of Ramallah, long considered the most liberal Palestinian city and a stronghold of the secular Fatah movement, in the final hours of the election campaign speaks to the momentum the Islamists have heading into today’s vote.
Some opinion polls now have Hamas within just a few percentage points of the long-governing Fatah, sparking speculation that Hamas, on its first foray into national politics, could win a plurality of seats in the next Palestinian Legislative Council.
For Mr. Jasser, a 43-year-old pharmacist, that would be the final straw. Christian and liberal-minded, he said a Hamas win would have him packing his bags.
“I would leave the country,” he said simply, moments before the parade of tiny drummers drowned him out.
“We’re all afraid. We’re worried about the future, that we’ll become a second Iran.”
It’s a common sentiment in Ramallah, especially among the city’s dwindling Christian community. Where Christians once made up an about 10 per cent of the population of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the share is believed to have fallen to less than 2 per cent as many left to escape both the rising Islamicization of society and the constant violence….