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Posted on 04/12/2005 10:11:46 AM PDT by robowombat
Mon, 11 Apr 2005 20:30:05 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Islamic Honour Killing in Broad Daylight: Woman walking with fiance murdered
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Hamas has begun operating a "vice and virtue commando" in the Gaza Strip to safeguard Islamic values, Palestinian security officials and residents told The Jerusalem Post.
The new force, called the Anti-Corruption Unit, is believed to be behind the gruesome murder over the weekend of Yusra al-Azzami, a 22-year-old university student from the northern Gaza Strip.
Her "crime" was that she was seen in public with her fianc .
Although "honor killings" are not a new phenomenon in Palestinian society, the perpetrators were almost always relatives of the victims. But this is the first time that one of the Palestinian groups has openly acted against a woman suspected of "immoral behavior."
Hamas's "morality" patrolmen first spotted the young couple strolling along the beach in Gaza City, together with Azzami's younger sister. After enjoying the spectacular sunset over the sea, they got into the future husband's car and started driving towards Azzami's home.
According to eyewitness accounts, five masked gunmen who were in another car gave chase, opening fire at Azzami, who was sitting in the front seat next to her fianc . She died instantly.
The fiance and sister were later brutally beaten and moderately injured by the attackers.
The incident took place at a busy intersection in Gaza City.
What happened immediately afterwards left many passersby traumatized.
The assailants dragged the young woman's body out of the car, pouncing upon it mercilessly with clubs and iron bars.
"It was the most horrific crime I've seen in my life," said a university student who witnessed the attack. "What they did to the body while it was lying on the ground was barbaric. This does not represent Islam." The student, who asked not to be named, said he and several other people at the scene were too afraid to interfere. "We waited until the gunmen left the area before we called the police and an ambulance," he added.
The Palestinian Authority police, who have since arrested two suspects, confirmed that the attack was carried out by Hamas vigilantes who have been waging a campaign of intimidation against people exhibiting un-Islamic behavior.
"They are behaving like the Taliban in Afghanistan," a senior police officer told the Post. "We won't allow them to take the law into their own hands, because we are not in Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia or Iran." Both Saudi Arabia and Iran have special "vice and "virtue" police who roam through parks and public places to upbraid and sometimes beat unrelated couples.
The police officer said the identities of the other three accomplices were known and efforts were being made to apprehend them. "They all belong to a Hamas unit that claims it wants to enforce Islamic values in the Gaza Strip," he said. "We hope Hamas will help us track down the murderers and bring them to trial."
However, Azzami's family and political activists accused Hamas of harboring the murderers and called on the Islamic movement to hand them over to the police. A statement signed by various political groups, including the ruling Fatah faction, condemned the murder and urged Hamas to disown the culprits.
"We are demanding a public apology from Hamas for this heinous crime against an innocent woman," said a cousin of the victim. "We have also appealed to the Palestinian leadership to impose the death penalty against the murderers. We are living in a jungle and this has to end."
The cousin noted that Azzami was planning to get married next month and that her family had permitted her to see her fiance that day only because she was accompanied by her sister.
Diab al-Lohe, a senior Fatah operative in the Gaza Strip, called on all factions not to provide political backing for murderers and bandits. He also urged the PA security forces to work toward restoring law and order in the Gaza Strip, which, he said, has been hit by an unprecedented wave of crime in recent months.
Hamas initially denied any link to the murder, but later admitted that the assailants belonged to one of its groups. It also admitted that the murderers were responsible for cracking down on men and women who defy Islamic teachings by appearing in public together.
Another police officer involved in the investigation said the two suspects who were detained shortly after the murder had confessed to belonging to Hamas's Anti-Corruption Unit.
He said the suspects and their three accomplices were all from the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City and that they had been instructed to conduct surveillance of the beach to assure that unrelated men and women were not mixing.
"The murderers thought that Azzami and her fianc were on a date," the officer explained. "They had no idea that they were engaged and were planning to marry soon."
The tramp obviously had it coming...
so... for the sake of HONOR are they going to kill themselves or turn themselves in?
The leftest feminists would say "see, if she were only a good little lesbian this would have never happened."
These thugs are using Islam as a defense for evil.
Too bad Islam breeds extremists. That Islam is to blame is obvious to anyone who listens to them explain themselves.
This murder is so horribly wrong! That is so obvious to everyone except these slimy little weasels and their ilk.
What would happen in this country if a Christian group murdered and mutilated a woman in public for not going to service on Sunday?
A vice and virtue Anti-Corruption Unit. Just what a budding democracy needs. Hope GWB and Condi are paying attention.
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I don't understand this old time religion.
'But--no singing!'
Well isn't that special.
That's right, it does not. After they beat the everliving daylights out of the poor woman they SHOULD'VE cut her throat. THEN, it would've represented Islam.
I love when Islam eats its own.
Yeah! And besides, these fine Anti-Corruption Squads are just looking out for their people. We all know that people need government enforced morality or else they get all crazy.
Yeah, instead of enjoying time with her guy, she should have been training to blow up the Empire State Building for the Religion of Peace.
There is no taming these barbarians. Bush and Sharon are rushing in where angels dare to tread.
Hamas statement: "Mistakes were made."
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