Woman walking with fiance murdered

[drdon326]

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 fiance.

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 fiance. She died instantly.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1113186250438

..................................................................

oh super !! vice and virtue police !!

The sign of things to come. Can you say "TALIBAN" ??

[Scurrilous]

1. Hamas apologizes for murder of Gazan

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/563729.html

<snip>

"Hamas published an unprecedented statement yesterday apologizing for the murder of a young woman by its gunmen near the town of Beit Lahia in the Gaza Strip.

According to Palestinian sources, several armed Hamas gunmen stopped a car with four passengers at around 9 P.M. last Friday. The gunmen, who apparently were attempting to rob the couples - two brothers and their girlfriends - suddenly opened fire at the car and killed Yusra al-Azami, 20, a student at Gaza's Islamic University.

Hamas issued a statement several days later admitting that its people were responsible for the murder, calling it "an isolated act by irresponsible people, from which Hamas dissociates itself."

[drdon326]

2. Super....

"sorry we killed you"

[Montauk6]

3. Yeah, right?

OOPS!... No hard feelings...

[Violet_Crumble]

12. According to Ha'aretz it wasn't an honour killing...

It was a robbery carried out by thugs and not some 'vice and morality' patrol or an honour killing as JPost appears to falsely claim. The idea promoted by JPost that any crime that happens in the Gaza Strip is only happening because it's related to religious extremism is kind of ridiculous. Crimes like this one happen for other reasons, and it ought to be remembered that not everyone who is involved with Hamas is a religious extremist. There's other reasons why the vice and morality police story falls apart on inspection, but I guess the Ha'aretz article wouldn't carry the appeal that the JPost one does to folk who are looking for anything to paint the Palestinian population as a bunch of religious fanatics who shouldn't be trusted with their own state...

*disclaimer for those who need this sort of stuff explained clearly to them. In no way am I saying that Hamas isn't a religious extremist group whose aims for the Palestinian people if and when Israel clears out leave a hell of a lot to be desired when it comes to women, gay, and secular Palestinians. What I'm saying is that in this case the motive for the murder appears to have been robbery and not religion...

Violet...

[drdon326]

4. So seriously....

how are they going to blame israel for this ??

[Scurrilous]

9. "Hamas issued a statement several day later....

... admitting that its people were responsible for the murder,"


I don't see Hamas blaming Israel for this. Maybe I'm missing something.

[Violet_Crumble]

13. No, yr reading it right...

The Ha'aretz article you posted (and thanks for posting something from a credible source rather than the swill from JPost) said that the motive for the killing was robbery and not an honour killing, and also didn't say anything about Hamas blaming Israel. Unless both of us are stuck in an alternate reality where there's a different article being read, I suspect the Ha'aretz article you posted hasn't been read at all by some folk now commenting on it...

Violet...

[Colorado Blue]

5. Now, this is bad. Forgive me, but I think this insular attitude,

which argues against any kind of secular thought, democratic virtues or rights for women, is part of the problem here. This ISN'T just a struggle against Israel, or against Israeli aggression, and so forth.

This is a force that is working against modernization, against the rights of free association, freedom of religion, ethnic and social diversity.

And, this is what I've been trying to point out in other threads, has been working against peace since the 30's, at least. It's more than just a resentment against Jewish settlers, or a movement toward Arab nationalism.

Don't you think? This is a philosophical strain that is an enemy of ALL who want to support diversity, permit secular and scientific thought, free expression?

[centristo]

6. this is why moral relativism ultimately fails

in foreign policy. Islamic fundamentalism is as ugly and terrible as Christian or Jewish fundamentalism. If a Palestinian state emerges and is run by ultra-religious yahoos it will fail. The reason Israel survives is that the ultra-conservative faction, although very influential, does not run the whole show. I think this gets overlooked by many in the pro-Palestine camp and it worries me.

[drdon326]

7. "If a Palestinian state emerges and is run by ultra-religious yahoos.."

what do you mean "if" ??

[Colorado Blue]

10. This is why we MUST try to reach people, not just in the

region but around the world, for example here, and who support the Palestinian cause.

It is SO important that people separate the cause of Palestinian nationhood, from these reactionary forces.

They really are NOT the same thing, but they've become identified almost inextricably with one another. And the people here on DU, with whom we speak all the time, need to see this and try, #1, to understand why we are freaked out by the violent forces, and #2, try to argue within their own (proPalestinian) community, for progressive forces.

It worries me, that people somehow have become attracted to violent, repressive, pseudo-religious forces. These are not really freedom fighters, are they, if they deprive people of their freedom and their lives? And this is not a new argument within the Palestinian community, either - it goes back decades.

By the same token, I'll bet a lot of people on the outside of the struggle have the same view, think the Arab cause in general is monolithic, reactionary and violent.

That POV is equally dangerous, resulting in people calling for the persecution of Muslims here, and for war on Arab people.

[drdon326]

8. Well said and sadly so true.

This is a force that is working against modernization, against the rights of free association, freedom of religion, ethnic and social diversity.

welcome to a sad future.The very antithesis of progressive thought.

[Colorado Blue]

11. That's why we have to keep on trying! How many tragedies

have occurred because a FEW people have dragged the rest of us with them?

[drdon326]

14. vice and virtue commandos.

now we know where the Taliban disappeared to.

How come they murdered the woman and did nothing to the guy ?

[Violet_Crumble]

21. Try reading the Ha'aretz article...

Scurrilous posted the link to it in this post. If you disagree with the version of events in Ha'aretz, feel free to explain why. But to totally ignore that article in favour of ths 'vice and virtue commandos' crap, while predictable, looks kind of silly...


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=124x89162#89164

[Scurrilous]

25. Ummm...

"How come they murdered the woman and did nothing to the guy ?"

According to your own link:

"The fiance and sister were later brutally beaten and moderately injured by the attackers."



Another version:

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.j...

<snip>

"The masked Hamas gunmen shot dead Yusra Azzami as she sat in the front passenger seat of her fiancé's Mitsubishi after they had forced it to stop. They went on to beat up her fiancé, Ziad Zaranda, and his brother, Rami, before escaping in the victims' car. Yusra's terrified sister, Magdalen, who was engaged to Rami, ran away before she too was beaten."

More:

"A Hamas spokesman said the woman was shot because there was a mistaken "suspicion of immoral behaviour" by the couples. But it was not clear yesterday whether inter-factional rivalry had also played a part since Yusra Azzami was a Hamas member at the Islamic university while her fiancé was in Fatah."

And:

"The Zaranda family was sceptical about whether "morality" was the motive saying that the stolen vehicle had Palestinian Authority markings and that it might have been an attempt to blame Fatah for mounting chaos in Gaza."


So...

JPost: Honor killing by 'vice and virtue commandoes.'

Independent: Honor killing? Or inter-factional rivalry?

Haaretz: Robbery by Hamas criminals.

Keep in mind, the couples had just withdrawn some cash from an ATM and their car (a Mitsubishi) was stolen after the killing.

[Darranar]

15. "There is no compulsion in religion." n/t

[drdon326]

16. From the lead article....

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.

[Darranar]

17. I do not believe my comment was defending Hamas...

or its members in any way - quite the opposite in fact.

[drdon326]

18. So......

what do you think of the "VICE AND VIRTUE COMMANDOS"??

[Darranar]

19. What do you think I think of them?

Do you think that I am sitting here at my computer cheering them on, praising every strike as a great victory for God?

That I utter constant praise for those who murder women for walking alone with their fiances?

That I strongly believe in using force to coerce people into following strict religious codes, whatever their wishes and whatever their personal beliefs?

Or that, alternatively, like every decent human being should, I view them and their aim as a disgusting perversion of any kind of virtuous code, and view their actions as viciously oppressive?

Post 15 really made the answer to that question rather clear.

[drdon326]

20. Thanks.....I think I got it.

lol

[Violet_Crumble]

22. Darranar...

The problem for me is that after reading the article that Scurrilous posted, that's not the reason why that woman was murdered. It was a robbery, and there appears to have been nothing gender or religious related to it. If the Haaretz version of events is true (and I tend to think Haaretz is much more credible than right-wing swill like JPost), those who are trying to turn it into some example of women being abused due to religion should be ashamed of themselves as I strongly doubt they give a shit about women to start with...

Anyway, am I the only one who noticed that the two articles are giving two different motives for the killing?

Violet...

[Darranar]

23. I noticed that. But the circumstances of this particular incident...

do not absolve Hamas, its members, or its ideological allies of their violence and oppression in the name of their religion.

It was on that violence and oppression that I commented.

[Violet_Crumble]

24. Yeah, that's why I put a disclaimer in my initial post in this thread...

Because it doesn't absolve Hamas from the religiously fuelled violence that they do commit, and I suspected that pointing out that this incident was a robbery rather than an honour killing may possibly confuse one or two participants in this thread and lead them to believe that pointing out a fact like that equals support of Hamas..

Violet...

[drdon326]

26. Hamas admitted that the "VICE AND VIRTUE" squad

were responsible for cracking down on men and women who defy Islamic teachings by appearing in public together.