One of the virtues of freedom and democracy, is our ability to have fun. Aww, such a simple concept. But, in the Islamic world, fun is banned.
And to make sure the people are stopped, from having fun, you have the moral police. Is there any wonder Muslims are so angry. Hell, it's the only emotion allowed.
They accused me of laughing in public
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
A Palestinian female journalist complained over the weekend that Hamas policemen attempted to arrest her under the pretext that she came to a Gaza beach dressed immodestly and was seen laughing in public.
The journalist, Asma al-Ghul, said that the policemen instead confiscated her passport. Since the incident, she added, she has been afraid to leave her home, especially after receiving death threats from anonymous callers.
"They accused me of laughing loudly while swimming with my friend and failing to wear a hijab," Ghul told a human rights organization in the Gaza Strip. "They also wanted to know the identity of the people who were with me at the beach and whether they were relatives of mine."
In a phone interview with the Dubai-based Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news Web site, the journalist said that the policemen who stopped her belonged to the Hamas government's Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice security force.
The special force reports directly to the Ministry of Waqf Affairs and is said to be a copy of units that have long been operating in Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan.
The Hamas government, according to local reporters, has refrained from publicly admitting that the force exists out of fear of being branded fundamentalist.
The Hamas force consists of dozens of plainclothes police officers who patrol beaches, public gardens, restaurants, hair salons and coffee shops to make sure that males and females are not mixing together and that the women are dressed modestly.
Ghul said that many Palestinian women have noticed the presence of the police officers at the beaches and other sites. She said that the talk in the Gaza Strip these days was about Hamas's intention to impose the hijab on all female school children from first to 12th grade.
She said she was astonished by the fact that the Hamas security forces were providing security to hotels that are frequented by women wearing miniskirts while at the same time targeting "common people" who go to the beaches and public parks.
Ghul said that Hamas has banned men in the Gaza Strip from swimming topless. "And as in my case, Hamas has banned women from laughing while swimming," she added.
She and her friends were stopped by Hamas policemen while swimming in the sea. She said that the policemen confiscated her passport and laptop after accusing her of laughing loudly and appearing in immodest clothes in a public place.
Two of her male friends were detained for questioning for three hours. They said the police officers beat them and abused them verbally before releasing them.
Hamas security commanders initially said that the journalist and her friends were stopped because they were having a mixed party at the beach. Later, one of the commanders said that Ghul was stopped because she was not wearing a hijab while swimming. Another commander claimed that the journalist and her friends were stopped because they had been seeing smoking nargilas and partying in a public place.
Islam Shahwan, spokesman for the Hamas security forces, said that policemen have been deployed at the beaches at the request of the Ministry for Waqf Affairs. He said the policemen's task is to impose law and order and prevent harassment of families picnicking and swimming at the beaches.
"We are there for the safety of the people," he said. "We operate there to prevent men from harassing women. We've received many complaints about these negative practices."
Shahwan said that Hamas does not interfere with the way women want to dress. However, he stressed, "we must preserve our Islamic culture and traditions. If there's a woman who wants to dress as she wishes, she must go to a private swimming pool and not to a public place."
And to make sure the people are stopped, from having fun, you have the moral police. Is there any wonder Muslims are so angry. Hell, it's the only emotion allowed.
They accused me of laughing in public
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
A Palestinian female journalist complained over the weekend that Hamas policemen attempted to arrest her under the pretext that she came to a Gaza beach dressed immodestly and was seen laughing in public.
The journalist, Asma al-Ghul, said that the policemen instead confiscated her passport. Since the incident, she added, she has been afraid to leave her home, especially after receiving death threats from anonymous callers.
"They accused me of laughing loudly while swimming with my friend and failing to wear a hijab," Ghul told a human rights organization in the Gaza Strip. "They also wanted to know the identity of the people who were with me at the beach and whether they were relatives of mine."
In a phone interview with the Dubai-based Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news Web site, the journalist said that the policemen who stopped her belonged to the Hamas government's Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice security force.
The special force reports directly to the Ministry of Waqf Affairs and is said to be a copy of units that have long been operating in Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan.
The Hamas government, according to local reporters, has refrained from publicly admitting that the force exists out of fear of being branded fundamentalist.
The Hamas force consists of dozens of plainclothes police officers who patrol beaches, public gardens, restaurants, hair salons and coffee shops to make sure that males and females are not mixing together and that the women are dressed modestly.
Ghul said that many Palestinian women have noticed the presence of the police officers at the beaches and other sites. She said that the talk in the Gaza Strip these days was about Hamas's intention to impose the hijab on all female school children from first to 12th grade.
She said she was astonished by the fact that the Hamas security forces were providing security to hotels that are frequented by women wearing miniskirts while at the same time targeting "common people" who go to the beaches and public parks.
Ghul said that Hamas has banned men in the Gaza Strip from swimming topless. "And as in my case, Hamas has banned women from laughing while swimming," she added.
She and her friends were stopped by Hamas policemen while swimming in the sea. She said that the policemen confiscated her passport and laptop after accusing her of laughing loudly and appearing in immodest clothes in a public place.
Two of her male friends were detained for questioning for three hours. They said the police officers beat them and abused them verbally before releasing them.
Hamas security commanders initially said that the journalist and her friends were stopped because they were having a mixed party at the beach. Later, one of the commanders said that Ghul was stopped because she was not wearing a hijab while swimming. Another commander claimed that the journalist and her friends were stopped because they had been seeing smoking nargilas and partying in a public place.
Islam Shahwan, spokesman for the Hamas security forces, said that policemen have been deployed at the beaches at the request of the Ministry for Waqf Affairs. He said the policemen's task is to impose law and order and prevent harassment of families picnicking and swimming at the beaches.
"We are there for the safety of the people," he said. "We operate there to prevent men from harassing women. We've received many complaints about these negative practices."
Shahwan said that Hamas does not interfere with the way women want to dress. However, he stressed, "we must preserve our Islamic culture and traditions. If there's a woman who wants to dress as she wishes, she must go to a private swimming pool and not to a public place."
24 comments:
Although I sympathise, but lets get them facts straight. Those people, the GAZZAN people elected Hamas with land slide majority. So, I appreicate if they don't come to us crying. You chose it live it.
Sometimes I wish it were possible to stage a bit of "educational street drama" as I watch people happily spending a day at our beach any way they damn well please. What would my sheltered blue-state townies think if a crowd of harassing "Asian youths" followed by a squad "morals police" with batons (all identifiable as Muslim by word and/or dress), suddenly descended on swimmers and sunbathers and all hell broke loose with attempted rapes, where's-your-hijab beatings, arrests for laughing, and dozens of people being hauled away for necking on the sand with an unrelated person of the opposite sex?
Well, knowing my lot --
first they would stand around with their jaws hanging open
then a lot of them would run
there would be numerous fistfights of the get-your-hands-off-my-wife/kid/girlfriend/boyfriend/dog variety
there would be at least a half dozen moms standing at the water's edge screaming at their kids to come out "and I mean NOW!" while the kids ignore them
everyone in line at the clam shack would wait for their orders and then run
several of the more "liberally" inclined would attempt to "dialogue" with the attackers
the local cops would show up followed by fire engines from 6 surrounding towns and a half dozen ambulances
the town newspaper would run a story 3 days later about police having to break up a "disturbance" caused by "loitering youths" in the parking lot and the time would be moved up to 10 pm
Muslims? What Muslims?
RRA,
LOL
Exactly.
RedJupiter is absolutely right.
The Palestinians voted for this. This is what they deserve.
However, we all need to know the truth of just how extreme Islam is.
It's one thing to be stoned to death for adultery, or beaten for not wearing a hijab, but when one has to live under threat of death FOR LAUGHING, that will really drive it home to Americans.
Americans can not even conceive of the fact that laughing could cause offense. Laughing is a virtue to Americans. It is part of our most basic beliefs,
"We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS."
Also, if you think about it, the fact that we are not owned by anyone, even the King or the religion, means that everyone and everything is naturally the subject of humor for us.
And, of course, that is the way we behave, and the way free human beings OUGHT to behave.
Placing sacred value on anything, God, or individual is a personal choice, and not a choice for the public purview. Therefore, no one can tell us what is sacred, and therefore, we can and ought to laugh at anything we feel like laughing at.
That's America.
To all comments, precisely.
This is so ridiculous, it's laughable. :-)
Pasto: Hear, hear!!
It really is unimaginable for anyone living in mainstream American society to imagine being yanked out of the water at a beach for laughing. It will probably take experience in some form at that level to make most people recognize the nature of the enemy.
Christine,
And there are people in this country who think the religious right is puritanical, and the biggest threat to freedom in this country! They maybe extreme at times, but Pat Robertson is a religious libertarian compared with these theocratic fascists.
Good point, Damien. I hadn't thought of that perspective. Yes, there are people on the religious right who would shun laughter as mockery of things they hold sacred, but they would never even think to attempt a legal remedy for such situations. They would simply use their voice to condemn the "mockery". Because, for the most part, even the most extreme of the religious right understand the concept of Freedom of Speech.
Pastorius,
Well there is a radical group of Christian fundamentals known as Christian Reconstructionists, that wants to replace the constitution with their interpretation of biblical law, and they would most certainly outlaw all criticism of Christianity. Its the closest thing that exist to a Christian Taliban, but they are hardly mainstream. They are not even anywhere near mainstream within the religious right.
As Pastorious said, the religious right may hope all they want, but in the end, we have the right to laugh in their face & they can't do anything about it.
Imagine what would happen if the people in ME laughed at the moral police.
Somehow, the actual inhumane & downright asinine behavior of islam has got to get out to the mainsteam. The above suggesstion, hold a play on the beach, incorporate mini plays in protests. Something to visually reveal what life is like under islam.
Damien,
If you read the Wikipedia link on Christian Reconstructionism which you provided you will find that there are several streams of Christian Reconstructionists, and most do not agree with the idea of the government enforcing moral law through coercion, but instead believe that Clergy and Church leaders should provide the guidance within the body of the Church.
The reality is, this is how it is already done in Churches throughout the nation.
For instance, if I were caught having an affair, my Pastor would come to me and chastise me, and try to lead me back onto track. If that did not work, he would come to me with several of the Elders of the church and attempt the same thing again. If that did not work, theoreticaly, they would kick me out of the Church, though I have yet to see that happen.
This is according to New Testament Biblical Law.
Not that I claim to know much about Christian Reconstructionism, but from what I read at the Wikipedia link you provided, it seems there are few who would actually advocate that the state get involved in issues of morality, such as homosexuality, apostasy, or idolatry.
The Wikipedia link itself says that most Christian Reconstructionists believe in the separation of church and state.
I like the play idea too, RRA.
A little bit of street theater.
Pastorius,
Well maybe its the most extreme form of Christian Reconstructionism that wants to overthrow the constitution, but I have read somethings and maybe heard one or two people calling themselves christian reconstructions calling for getting rid of the constitution. That said, I can't believe I didn't read that Wikiepida article more carefully. I should do some more research on the subject.
Any Christian Reconstructionist who wants to get rid of the American Constitution deserves the title American Taliban, and they are just as guilty of sedition as a Jihadist. They ought to be arrested, tried, and sent to jail for life.
As far as I'm concerned, we've had enough of this theocratic bullshit in our country. There should be no tolerance for religious fascists agitating against the foundational values of our nation.
Pastorius,
Agreed, and let's leave it at that for now.
I hope it doesn't seem like I'm being rude. Here's the thing, Wikipedia changes it's articles all the time. So, if you read a week ago that Christian Reconstructionists did or said this or that, it could have changed by now.
I don't think I caught you in a mistake.
However, from what I know of Christian Reconstructionism, that article is relatively accurate.
There certainly are more radical Christians. I have met some.
Are you kidding? We'd all get arrested for "hate crimes" if we tried staging a mock "morals police" raid. Tempting, though. I wonder if a flash mob version would work...
Most people don't take the oppressiveness of Muslim culture seriously because they assume it will never directly affect them. Unless they live next to a Muslim enclave they don't encounter it on a daily basis. In some areas of the country a hightened sensitivity to Christian Reconstructionists and the like is understandable. But as far as I know, no one in this country has to deal with the sort of nonsense that goes on in the streets of Iran and the beaches of Gaza in terms of direct harassment by state officials. That would be a real eye-opener.
That's exactly what I was thinking, RRA.
A flash mob.
We can do that. That can be arranged.
This cracked me up:
"We are there for the safety of the people," he said. "We operate there to prevent men from harassing women. We've received many complaints about these negative practices."
That woman's laughter must have been scary for it to be a safety issue!
It is considered an insult for a woman to laugh in public in Afghanistan as well. Chalk up another insult to the Islamic culture?
No wonder Islam does not get along with the rest of the world very well.
YOU ARE RIGHT ABOUT THE POLICE ROAMING AROUND THE BEACH LOOKING AT WOMEN WITH THEIR JAWS DROPPED. IT IS ALSO TRUE THAT THERE ARE DOUBLE STANDARDS IN ARAB CLASSES. LOOK AT PRINCE IN SAUDI ARABIA. THEY HAVE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS. ONE OF THEM HAS OVER 600 CARS EACH WORTH MORE THAN $100,000 THATS ATLEAST $60,000,000.
BUT THAT IS A PROBLEM THAT HAS BEEN IN EVERY COMMUNITY AND WILL BE. THE FACT THAT YOU SIDE WITH WOMEN WEARING MINISKIRTS DISGUST ME. I AM A GUY AND I KNOW THAT ALL MEN HAVE DESIRES, EVEN PIOUS PEOPLE HAVE DESIRES. INSTEAD OF WEARING THESE LECHEROUS CLOTHES, JUST SCREAM OUT COME AND "**** ME," THATS MUCH MORE EFFICIENT AND CHEAPER. YOU GUYS WANT PEOPLE TO LOOK AT YOU SO DONT COMPLAIN WHEN THEY DO. IT IS THEIR FAULT THAT THEY ARE NOT SUPPOSE TO BE GETTING HORNY OF YOU BUT YOU ARE AT FAULT TOO. IF I WERE A POLICE MEN AND SAW YOU ON THE CORNER OF A STREET, SMOKING, WEARING SKIRTS, I WILL PICK YOU UP.
Anonymous,
That's not fair. Your still blaming the victim. If a man rapes a women, she is an innocent victim regardless of how sexy she dressed. Police should not be going around arresting people for how they dress. The only real exception is for indecent exposure.
If man can't control himself when he sees a scantily clad woman he belongs behind bars in or in a mental hospital.
Anonymous,
The fact that you would even partly agree with the Jihadist's depraved thinking on this disgusts me.
Post a Comment