Christian bookstore bombed by terrorists*

Sword of Islam group takes credit at shop funded by U.S. Protestants

Posted: April 15, 2007
News From Israel

TEL AVIV – A Palestinian group today bombed a Christian bookstore in the
Gaza Strip in the latest targeting of Christians in territories
evacuated by Israel and now controlled by the Palestinians.

A group calling itself the Sword of Islam claimed responsibility for the
blast, which targeted a store funded by American Protestants that
exclusively sold Christian books. Two nearby Internet cafes were also
bombed.

The Sword of Islam has previously stated it is allied with al-Qaida and
is seeking to impose an Islamist theocracy in the Gaza Strip. It has
taken credit in recent months for the bombings and attempted bombings of
Internet cafes, music stores, pool holes and other establishments
considered secular. Palestinian security officials say the Sword of
Islam is an offshoot of the Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committees
terror organization.

Sheik Abu Saqer, a prominent Gaza-based preacher and leader of the
Jihadia Salafiya Islamic outreach movement, claimed that the Christian
bookstore was "proselytizing and attempting to convert our people."

"As a principle we believe that Jews and Christians will always do
everything in order to keep Muslims far from their religion," Abu Saqer
said.

Christian persecution trend in West Bank, Gaza

The bookstore bombing was the latest targeting of Christians in
Palestinian cities evacuated by Israel. In November, a church in the
Gaza Strip was badly damaged in a fire security officials attributed to
local Islamist groups.

In September, Palestinian gunmen attacked and set fire to the Young
Men's Christian Association headquarters in Qalqiliya, a large West Bank
city controlled by Hamas. Qalqiliya was previously administered by
Israel, but was handed to the Palestinian Authority as part of the 1993
Oslo Accords.

One political source in the city said that at the time of the attack,
"the identity of the attackers is well known to Hamas. We don't expect
the Hamas-controlled police, the Hamas city council or the Hamas
Interior Ministry to do anything about this attack."

The source called the arson a "warning to YMCA's and Christian groups in
the Palestinian areas that they are not safe."

One Christian leader, an aide to Jerusalem's Latin Patriarch Michel
Sabah who asked his name be withheld out of fear of Muslim retaliation,
called the threats against Qalqiliya's YMCA part of a general trend of
Christian persecution in Palestinian areas.

"It's been happening all over the West Bank and Gaza," said the aide.

There have been rampant reports of abuses and persecution in several
West Bank towns taken over by the PA.

Anti-Christian riots have been reported in Ramallah, Nazareth and
surrounding villages, as well as in towns in Gaza. In Bethlehem, local
Christians have long complained of anti-Christian violence. The city's
Christian population, once 90 percent, declined drastically since the PA
took control in December 1995. Christians now make up less than 25
percent of Bethlehem, according to Israeli surveys.

Some analysts called the recent bombings of secular and Christian
institutions in Gaza recent indications Hamas may be seeking to impose
Islamic rule on the Palestinian population.

Israeli officials say Hamas in the Gaza Strip has established hard-line
Islamic courts and created the Hamas Anti-Corruption Group, which is
described as a kind of "morality police" operating within Hamas'
organization. Hamas has denied the existence of the group, but it
recently carried out a high-profile "honor killing" widely covered by
the Palestinian media.

A Hamas-run council in the West Bank came under international criticism
last year when it barred an open-air music and dance festival, declaring
it was against Islam.

Hamas chieftain: West can learn from Islamic values

In response to the uproar, Hamas chief in Gaza and the group's former
foreign minister Mahmoud al-Zahar said: "I hardly understand the point
of view of the West concerning these issues. The West brought all this
freedom to its people but it is that freedom that has brought about the
death of morality in the West. It's what led to phenomena like
homosexuality, homelessness and AIDS."

Asked if Hamas is seeking to impose hard-line Islamic law on the
Palestinians, al-Zahar responded, "The Palestinian people are Muslim
people, and we do not need to impose anything on our people because they
are already committed to their faith and religion. People are free to
choose their way of life, their way of dress and behavior."

Al-Zahar said his terror group, which demands strict dress codes for
females, respects women's rights.

"It is wrong to think that in our Islamic society there is a lack of
rights for women. Women enjoy their rights. What we have, unlike the
West, is that young women cannot be with men and have relations outside
marriage. Sometimes with tens of men. This causes the destruction of the
family institution and the fact that many kids come to the world without
knowing who are their fathers or who are their mothers. This is not a
modern and progressed society," al-Zahar explained.

The terror chieftain said that the West can learn from his group's
Islamic values.

"Here I refer to what was said in the early '90s by Britain's Prince
Charles at Oxford University. He spoke about Islam and its important
role in morality and culture. He said the West must learn from Islam how
to bring up children properly and to teach them the right values."