Woman walking with fiance murdered
Back to the WWIII: The Moslem Terror War Page
Khaled Abu Toameh, THE JERUSALEM POSTApril 12, 2005
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.
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 fiance were on a date," the officer explained. "They had no idea that they were engaged and were planning to marry soon."
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1113186250438&p=1101615860782
Copyright 1995-2005 The Jerusalem Post - http://www.jpost.com/
Comments:
This article has much more information than the one that (the leftist, appeasementite rag) Haaretz posted...
Taliban morality police coming soon to the next arab terrorist state.
Reply 1 - Posted by: amereagle, 4/11/2005 7:58:22 PM
Murder used to enforce Islamic values.
I mean, how much more perfect does this get?
Reply 2 - Posted by: LAW428, 4/11/2005 8:00:57 PM
Hamas knows much about vice, nothing about virtue.
Hamas is now judge, jury, and executioner of morals crime in the Gaza strip...oh, how rich!
Reply 3 - Posted by: 1940s guy, 4/11/2005 8:07:30 PM
I'm waiting for a strong public denouncement by the female professors at
Harvard...................
Reply 4 - Posted by: mindermast, 4/11/2005 8:12:02 PM
these fanatics are just the Islamic world's version of the geek losers we all went to school with - creeps who can't form/sustain relationships with women - using religion as a high-falutin' facade for their personal shortcomings & inadequecies
Reply 5 - Posted by: Frank G, 4/11/2005 8:16:22 PM
Yeah guys this will get you into heaven.
Don't mind that guy with the horns laughing at you.
Reply 6 - Posted by: TeacherNet, 4/11/2005 8:17:38 PM
My posted comments were directed at the paper Haaretz... not the (often brilliant) LDotter who posted the earlier story.
< g >
Reply 7 - Posted by: mean Gene, 4/11/2005 8:40:36 PM
I feel so sorry for the college student who witnessed this murder and said that this was not Islam.....yes, it is Islam. Read the Koran and you'll see.
Reply 8 - Posted by: just wondering, 4/11/2005 9:04:05 PM
Murder is a Palestian family value. It is just a preemptive honor killing.
Reply 9 - Posted by: Heil Liberals, 4/11/2005 9:19:17 PM
Ah, I look forward to the day Europe is "civilized" with the Religion of Peace. After all, all behavior is relative to the culture acting it out. How non-judgemental will they be when it is their daughters and sons being murdered for non-Islamic behaviors?
Reply 10 - Posted by: cap MarineTet68, 4/11/2005 9:32:34 PM
#7 has it. This is not "splinter group" or "extremist" behavior for Msulims. Read history. It is merely the beginning.
Reply 11 - Posted by: Marillion, 4/11/2005 9:39:15 PM
Ahhhhh yes...........the "ROP" never changes.
And the "LSM" will ignore the daylights out of this and other stories like it.
Poor girl. I'm sure her parents feel the killing was the "will of allah"??
Reply 12 - Posted by: guy, 4/11/2005 9:40:50 PM
These guys aren't getting any and it drives them nuts to think someone is.
Reply 13 - Posted by: slickwillie2001, 4/11/2005 10:05:10 PM
Why all the nice titles, let's just call them the Gestapo so the whole situation is cleared up?
Reply 14 - Posted by: Shucky, 4/11/2005 11:19:33 PM
psycho killers driven by their 'religion' and by sexual frustration to horrific brutal murder
islam is a dangerous mental illness that needs a radiation cure, the sooner the better
