Gaza Islamists Eager to Start Chopping
Charles Johnson
Tue Jun 10, 2008 at 12:56 pm PDT • Views: 196
Hamas has turned Gaza into an abominable hell-hole of Islamist fanaticism and terrorism—but it’s still not barbaric enough for some: Qaeda groups active in Gaza after year under Hamas.
GAZA (Reuters) - Abu Hafss is not happy.
A year after Hamas Islamists seized control of the Gaza Strip, Abu Hafss is waiting impatiently to see a sword remove the hand of a thief or a woman stoned to death for adultery.“Hamas does not implement the rule of God,” the Palestinian ally of al Qaeda said. “We have seen no one have his hand cut off for stealing. We have seen no one stoned as an adulterer.”
Yet for all Abu Hafss’ disappointment with the approach Hamas has adopted since it routed secular rivals in Gaza a year ago, some analysts believe smaller, more radical groups like Abu Hafss’ secretive Jaysh al-Ummah (Army of the Nation) have benefited from the Hamas takeover to expand their membership.
Despite an official Hamas policy of respecting the rights of Gaza’s small Christian minority, there has been an increase in attacks on Christians in the past year, apparently by Islamists not content with the extent of Hamas’s “Islamisation” of Gaza.
Frank says: