http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/20...afes_being_attacked/



Palestinian Internet cafes being attacked
By Diaa Hadid, Associated Press Writer | March 7, 2007

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip --A note stuck to the door of Mohammed al-Shaer's tiny music shop warned him several months ago that selling tapes and CDs of popular Arabic music was "haram," or forbidden by Islam.

He paid no heed until a bomb went off outside his business this week -- apparently the work of what Palestinian security officials now suspect may be a secret "vice squad" of Muslim militants.

"If they cared about their religion, they would (instead) stop people from killing each other," Al-Shaer, 19, said angrily.

In recent months, about three dozen Internet cafes, music shops and even pharmacies have been attacked, with assailants detonating small bombs outside businesses at night, causing damage but no injuries.

The bombings started in October, a new phenomenon even in violent Gaza, where more than 130 people have been killed in factional fighting between Hamas and Fatah in recent months. The attacks could point to a further spread of religious extremism in Gaza, where poverty and lawlessness have been on the rise.

There has been no credible claim of responsibility for the attacks, police said.

Police initially believed the attacks were part of local business disputes but increasingly came to suspect an orchestrated campaign by religious extremists, said one law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject.

There have been no arrests, but Gaza police spokesman Ramzi Shaheen noted that the method of operations was the same in all cases. "We can't exactly say who is behind this, but the repeated nature of the attacks leads us to certain conclusions," he said, without elaborating.

In the town of Rafah on the Gaza-Egypt border last week, a huge bomb wrecked a pool hall in a building owned by Ramzi Abu Hilao, blowing out the front wall and littering the interior with metal scraps. He said there was no warning before the blast.

"I received a written message after the bombing from a group called 'The Swords of Truth' that began with a verse from the Quran and said they wanted to correct the bad behavior in Palestinian society," he said.

In deeply conservative Gaza, devout Muslims would consider Internet cafes to be dens of vice because young men are known to view pornography there. Music shops could be a target because some believers fear pop music distracts from prayers. The targeting of pharmacies remains a mystery, though, officials say.

Fears of an Islamic cultural crackdown have risen since the Islamic Hamas took over the government a year ago after winning an election. On Monday, Education Ministry officials said they removed an anthology of folk tales from school libraries because of explicit sexual language, destroying 1,500 books.

Entertainment in Gaza is extremely limited -- there are no movie houses or theaters. Surfing the Net and listening to music are among the only outlets for the young, and hundreds of small Internet cafes and music shops operate across Gaza, some even near mosques.

Several music shops in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, have received warnings in recent months not to sell pop music.

Khamis Abdeen, 20, said he removed most tapes and CDs but left several dozen tapes with the latest songs on the shelves of his family's shop, hoping he could sell them quickly. At the beginning of the year, the shop was attacked, damaging $5,000 worth of merchandise, he said. Abdeen has stopped selling tapes.

In Gaza City, Shawki Abdel Karim, 39, said he recently blocked access to adult Web sites on the 24 computers in his Internet cafe, but he can do little else to stop attacks. The cafe is separated by gender -- girls upstairs, boys downstairs.

"After I go home, all I can say is to pray to God to protect my place," he said.

The bombings are the latest sign of a society buckling under the pressure of more than six years of fighting with Israel, internal strife and deep-rooted poverty, said Anwar Wadi, a psychologist at the Gaza Community Mental Health Center.

"This is a poisoned society," he said. "Since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip (in 2005), hidden problems have come to the surface."

Shaheen, the police spokesman, said solving problems by violence has become the norm.

"Everybody has guns. There's no rule of law," he said. "We've reached a stage where a person is a hero by how he can break the law."

The sad state of a besieged people...

crazy people who don't seem to have anything better to do

they need hobbies or something

http://bbsnews.net/article.php/20070306235910656

Unsolved Gaza Attacks Targeting Women
Tuesday, March 06 2007 @ 11:59 PM EST


Unsolved attacks in Gaza may be work of "Swords of Islamic Righteousness" seeking to eliminate signs of Western culture.

Rafah Today via BBSNews 2007-03-06 -- By Mohammed Omer. A number of sudden, unsolved attacks in the Gaza Strip have left unexplained the bodies of three Palestinian women, allegedly executed by unidentified militants.

Last week, the body of a 31 year old woman was found close to the Salatin area, west of Beit Lahi. The second, 45 years old, was left in the Al Darraj area of Gaza City. And a third victim, 40 years old, was found on Al Nafaq street in Gaza City.

Officials say that the three women were killed all in the same methodical way: One bullet to the head and another to the chest. Investigators say the women were prostitutes, and that, while no group has claimed responsibility, officials are investigating whether the women were killed by the Swords of Islamic Righteousness, an obscure group whose alleged aim is to rid Gaza of Western influence which, according to statements attributed to the group, may been seen as a corrupting influence.

A leaflet accredited to the Swords warned: “Go back to Allah and away from all these dirty, corrupting behaviors, otherwise you will never endure the fires of hell and the torture at the end of your life.” The admonition was left after an unidentified attack, also accredited to the Swords, on a Gaza City Internet cafe.

A Palestinian board-member, who prefers to remain anonymous, was obviously worried by such crimes saying: “This is affecting a lot of people, and we fear that if this continues, then it will be a hidden war by militants.”

The bombings attributed to the so-called Swords have mainly been closed Internet cafes, music and DVD shops, clubs and other Gaza Strip modern cultural targets.

No one knows for certain who the Swords of Islamic Righteousness are, but the attacks on wedding parties, and on different celebrants, have increased markedly. Gazan eyewitness Abu Mahdi, 43, related one of the incidents: a group of militants attacked a wedding venue where, among the celebrants, 11 people had received financial aid by benevolent organizations in the Gaza Strip. He doubted that this could be linked to any political party, but he insisted that the attack could be related to the financial aid.

These vague and unknown incidents occur, but all Gazans learn is that one was killed here, another injured there; an internet café was bombed here, a CD shop targeted over there. Or we learn of the kidnapping of the owner of an internet café where young people sit and pass the time. These events are all still nebulous and unknown, but they bring to mind the ‘80s before I was even born, when the situation were more or less similar. The aim is to make Gaza more conservative than it currently is and to vehemently prevent any Western culture from entering Palestinian culture.

Despite the warnings which have been attributed to the Swords of Islamic Righteousness, it is worth considering the uncertain nature of the group’s identity and who stands to benefit from further chaos in already shell-shocked Gaza. The Palestinians I know yearn for calm and peace, are open to change, and simply want to get on with their lives, as much as they can in the present circumstances. Yet further disruption, attributed to this unidentified mystery group, only prolongs the process of achieving peace, giving fodder to those who would find reasons not to end the economic sanctions on Gaza.

These events fall during a media blackout in Palestine which leaves journalists finding it difficult to report, first because circumstances are unclear and vague, and second, because a journalist reporting on this risks putting his/her life in the dead centre of the target.

quote:

Yet further disruption, attributed to this unidentified mystery group, only prolongs the process of achieving peace, giving fodder to those who would find reasons not to end the economic sanctions on Gaza.

Israelis