Well, that's a fine how do you do...

Who knew the Army of Islam had a Complete Etiquette Guide to Hostage Taking?

It seems that certain members of the Army of Islam have their kaffiyehs in a knot at Alan Johnston's for not being sufficiently grateful to them for being held captive at gunpoint for four months. "He didn't even say thanks," they grouse.

The kidnappers expressed bizarre resentment that Johnston, 45, had done nothing to thank them for their hospitality while they held him at gunpoint in a tiny cell.

“We used to give him everything he wanted,” Abu Zobayer, an aide to Dagmoush, said.

“We spent £70 on his food every week. The Matouk restaurant [one of the best eateries in Gaza] got rich because we had to feed him.”

Johnston has said that he fell ill from the food he was served. Zobayer commented: “It’s not our problem that we gave him everything and he only ate a little.”

Although they did not torture him physically, the kidnappers seemed to have no concept of the psychological torture they were inflicting on the BBC correspondent.

“We had people with him all the time to try to help him to relax,” said Zobayer.

“We gave him a radio so that he could listen to his own channel. I myself sat with him to try to make him feel comfortable and feel that he will be released.”

Palestine: Iran's fingerprints are all over it.

Palestinian Intelligence fingers Iran in Gaza Seizure. Why are we not surprised? Why are we even less surprised when Iran issues denials and blames it all on the Zionists and America?

Iran played a "big role" in Hamas's seizure of Gaza from Palestinian security forces earlier this month, Palestinian intelligence chief Tawfiq al-Tirawi charged on Sunday.

The Islamists swiftly dismissed the accusation as "lies".

"According to our information, Iran has played a big role in what happened in Gaza. Dozens of members of Hamas have been trained in Iran, and Hamas smuggled in weapons through tunnels not to fight Israel but against the Palestinian Authority," Tirawi told a news conference.

"The whole plan has been carried out in coordination with Iran, and Iran has been informed of every step," he added.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas previously accused "foreign elements from the region" of orchestrating Hamas's bloody takeover, but it was the first time that a senior official explicitly blamed Iran.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri retorted that "Tirawi's accusations are lies", while acknowledging that Hamas enjoys good relations with the Islamic republic as well as other Muslim states. "It is known that Hamas has balanced relations with all Arab and Islamic countries," he told AFP. "Hamas is proud that it enjoys this strategic depth in the Arab and Islamic world at a time when Tirawi's friends are vaunting their relations with the (Israeli) occupation and the United States."

Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit last week levelled similar accusations against Iran, charging that it had encouraged the Palestinian Islamist movement to seize the neighbouring Gaza Strip.

Iran hit back against the minister's comments on Sunday, insisting that it, unlike Egypt's Western allies and Israel, had been careful not to fan the factional conflict. "It is surprising that some Arab countries ignore the Western countries, the United States and the Zionist regime... and point an accusing finger at us who have had the most responsible approach," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said.

Iran is one of the most vocal backers of the Islamic Resistance Movement and pledged millions of dollars in 2006 to help the Hamas government through a funding drought caused by Western aid cuts. But Hosseini said Iran supports Hamas "politically and spiritually" and that the "humanitarian aid would be provided through channels that benefit all Palestinian people."

Tehran has always insisted its support for Palestinian militant groups is moral in nature and does not extend to arming or training fighters.

Moral in nature? Don't make me laugh.

Whirling dervishes and spinning Christians

Middle East News has got the spin machine working full time for the Christians in Gaza.

Compare this piece of dhimmitude from the head of the Catholic community in Gaza, Father Mussal. (He's sounding like a battered woman to me)...

"We have solid relations with Hamas and they intend to compensate us for the damage," Mussal said. Bassem Naim, a minister in both Hamas-led governments, "promised that such an incident would never happen again and that Hamas will be the guardian of the Christians and their holy places," Mussal added.

With this from the Islamist leader of an Islamic "outreach" group (the group who shot up a UN school last month because girls and boys were on the same sports teams)...

Christians can only continue living safely in the Gaza Strip if they accept Islamic law, including a ban on alcohol and on women roaming publicly without proper head coverings, an Islamist militant leader in Gaza told WND in an exclusive interview. Christians in Gaza who engage in "missionary activity" will be "dealt with harshly."Abu Saqer accused the leadership of the Gaza Christian community of "proselytizing and trying to convert Muslims with funding from American evangelicals.""This missionary activity is endangering the entire Christian community in Gaza,"

Listen to these poor deluded souls:

"I don't really think our situation will change much or that Hamas will try to impose Islamic practices on us, because they'll be frightened about causing a worldwide scandal," said Iyad. Issa Tarazi, a doctor, said that his fellow Christians "will adapt to the new order. I don't think they will impose restrictions on the Christians."

Gee. Ya think?

Gaza: Christians must accept Islamic rule

Christians must accept Islamic rule. Hey, I thought there was no compulsion in Islam...

Christians can only continue living safely in the Gaza Strip if they accept Islamic law, including a ban on alcohol and on women roaming publicly without proper head coverings, an Islamist militant leader in Gaza told WND in an exclusive interview. The militant leader said Christians in Gaza who engage in "missionary activity" will be "dealt with harshly."

The threats come two days after a church and Christian school in Gaza was attacked following the seizure of power in the territory by the Hamas terror group.

"I expect our Christian neighbors to understand the new Hamas rule means real changes. They must be ready for Islamic rule if they want to live in peace in Gaza," said Sheik Abu Saqer, leader of Jihadia Salafiya, an Islamic outreach movement that recently announced the opening of a "military wing" to enforce Muslim law in Gaza.

Jihadia Salafiya is suspected of attacking a United Nations school in Gaza last month, after the school allowed boys and girls to participate in the same sporting event. One person was killed in that attack.

"The situation has now changed 180 degrees in Gaza," said Abu Saqer, speaking from Gaza yesterday.

"Jihadia Salafiya and other Islamic movements will ensure Christian schools and institutions show publicly what they are teaching to be sure they are not carrying out missionary activity. No more alcohol on the streets. All women, including non-Muslims, need to understand they must be covered at all times while in public," Abu Asqer told WND.

"Also the activities of Internet cafes, pool halls and bars must be stopped," he said. "If it goes on, we'll attack these things very harshly."

Abu Saqer accused the leadership of the Gaza Christian community of "proselytizing and trying to convert Muslims with funding from American evangelicals."

"This missionary activity is endangering the entire Christian community in Gaza," he said. Abu Saqer claimed there was "no need" for the thousands of Christians in Gaza to maintain a large number of institutions in the territory.

About 2,000 Christians live in the Gaza Strip, which has a population of over 1 million.

Abu Saqer said Hamas "must work to impose an Islamic rule or it will lose the authority it has and the will of the people."

Blames church attack on Fatah.

Abu Saqer claimed he had "good information" that the attack really was a robbery aimed at the church's school computers, even though bibles and Christian holy objects were destroyed.

Which pillar of Islam do rocket propelled grenades fall under?

Gaza's Christians fear for their lives.

Father Manuel Musalam, leader of the small Latin community in the Gaza Strip, said masked gunmen torched and looted the Rosary Sisters School and the Latin Church.

"The masked gunmen used rocket-propelled grenades to storm the main entrances of the school and church," he said. "Then they destroyed almost everything inside, including the Cross, the Holy Book, computers and other equipment."

Musalam expressed outrage over the burning of copies of the Bible, noting that the gunmen destroyed all the Crosses inside the church and school. "Those who did these awful things have no respect for Christian-Muslim relations," he said.

He estimated damages at more than $500,000.

Fatah officials blamed Hamas militiamen for the attack on the church and school. However, Islam Shahwan, spokesman for Hamas's Executive Force in the Gaza Strip, denied responsibility.

He nevertheless admitted that a large group of Hamas militiamen had been near the area during the attack. "We have instructed all our men to withdraw from the area," he said. "We will punish anyone who targets churches and public institutions."

Unh-huh.

Killing, looting and praying: The Religion of Peace in action

(H/T The Religion of Peace.)

Hamas (the party of "Islamic Resistance") parades several Palestinian men through the neighborhood before shooting them to death in front of their wives and children. Afterwards, the gunmen kneel in prayer to Allah!


Killing, looting and praying.

Wear Hijab or face death!

Sonia Verma in Ramallah.
photo courtesy of Times Online.

Woman broadcasters told to wear hijab or face death.

There is no compulsion in Islam, but there is compulsion in Islamofashion. Evidently.

As one of Gaza’s most seasoned television news correspondents, Lana Shaheen has braved everything from Israeli airstrikes to Palestinian sniper fire to get her story. But in ten years of reporting from one of the world’s most dangerous war zones, she has never felt fear like the kind that gripped her when a chilling text message was sent to her mobile phone.

“You are without shame or morals,” it read. “We will cut your throat from vein to vein if needed to protect the spirit and moral of this nation.”

The threat was an excerpt from a longer letter sent by a radical Palestinian group to more than a dozen women television broadcasters working in Gaza and the West Bank.

More background on the incident here.

Suicide Sisters With the Managing Misters...

(title h/t: Steely Dan)

"We will turn our bodies into living bombs..."

The suicide sisters ready to die for their country.

(Correction: "Make that The Homicide sisters ready to kill innocents for their cult.")

Clad head to toe in black and clutching sub-machine guns and automatic rifles, they vowed to die killing Israelis. The women, at once sinister and yet awkward in their long dresses and munitions belts, say they will blow themselves up in attacks on Israeli soldiers if the Gaza Strip is invaded.

They gathered as Israel pounded the Strip with airstrikes yesterday - in response to weeks of rocket attacks from Palestinian fanatics. "If the Israelis try to invade northern Gaza Strip, we will defend our land and our homes," one of the women declared as the group gathered at the Jabalya refugee camp north of Gaza City.

"We will turn our bodies into living bombs against the Israeli army," she added and demanded revenge against Israeli "crimes" carried out against the Palestinians. The women belong to the military wing of Palestine's ruling Hamas party.

A day earlier rival militants of Islamic Jihad released a video in which dozens of women said they were "eagerly awaiting" the chance to become suicide bombers.

So sad. What is wrong with these people?

Where is the rest of the Muslim world?

Why aren't they speaking out about this blatant act of aggression?

More at the link here.

PA pulls Mickey Mouse Jihadi

From: Haaretz:

PA pulls Hamas TV children`s program with mock Mickey Mouse advocating violence

A program using a Mickey Mouse-like character to urge Palestinian children to fight Israel and the West and work for world Islamic domination has been pulled off Hamas' television station for review, the Palestinian information minister said Wednesday.

Mustafa Barghouti said the use of the cartoon character in such a role represented a mistaken approach to the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation.

Barghouti said that following a request from his ministry, the program was pulled from the Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV and placed under review.

More at the link.

Sickening beasts.

From No Pasaran: Islamist Porn Snuff Film to be Released Shortly

A Jihadist Palestinian militia claims to have killed BBC Gaza reporter Alan Johnston. Apparently they can’t control themselves. Those who claim to have killed him say Britain is somehow responsible, inspite of the fact that they kidnapped him, (or appropriated him from a ringer,) and claim to have murdered him.

"The whole world knows of our just cause in demanding the release of our prisoners, who are waiting under the fire of the occupation," the statement began. "Our demand was that all of those who are responsible for the journalist... release our prisoners who are being held in the prisons of the occupation," it continued.

Despite the fact that these groups are notorious liars about their claims, they may have actually taken his life. Either way, it’s your fault. Islamist porn to follow:

"We will disseminate a video in which we show his killing soon to the media outlets," the statement said.

In closing, it captured the limit of the depth of their moral underpinning: Allah is great, for it is either victory or martyrdom," it concluded.

Lesbians = Fatal Cancer per Israel's Islamic Movement

Palestinian Lesbians draw fire.

A conference scheduled for the end of March by a group of Palestinian Lesbians has drawn fire from a number of Islamic groups for the conference’s supposed impropriety. At the top of the list of those decrying the planned gathering is Israel’s Islamic Movement, who says that the conference, set to held in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, should be stopped since "We must not let this fatal cancer spread in our community," according to Haaretz.

The Lesbian group planning the event, calling itself “Asawat”, is comprised of nearly one hundred members from Israel and Palestine. The "Home and Exile" conference, scheduled for March 28, is meant to spark discussion of homosexuality among Israel's 1 million Arab citizens, explained Roula Deeb, a prominent Arab feminist, according to the AP. The conference also aims to mark the five-year anniversary of the group’s establishment.

Head of the Islamic Movement, MKs Ibrahim Sarsur and Abas Zakoor published a statement which called on "all respectable people from all communities and streams to stand up against preaching sexual deviance among our women and girls." Homosexuality is strictly forbidden by Islam.

"Lesbians...need treatment—they don't need to spread their strange ideas in the Arab community," said Mohammed Zbidat, a spokesman for the Islamic Movement.

Ironically, the Islamic Movement has teamed up with its rivals in Israel’s Orthodox communities for similar reasons in the past. A recent Gay Pride parade, held in Jerusalem, drew the ire of both religious Jewish and Muslim communities, when the Islamic Movement’s southern branch aligned itself with the Jewish Orthodox community in protest of the planned event.