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| Middle East |
| Hamas Urges Muslims to Hit Back |
| 2003-02-07 |
| The founder of the militant Palestinian group Hamas urged Muslims on Friday to attack Western interests around the world if the United States launches a war on Iraq. "It's a Crusaders's aggression, a Crusaders's war and an occupation," Sheikh Ahmed Yassin said of a possible U.S.-led military campaign against Iraq. "Muslims will have to threaten and strike Western interests, and hit them everywhere," Yassin wrote in an open letter. "As they fight us, we have to fight them and as they threaten our interests, we have to threaten their interests," he said. Hamas, a fundamentalist Islamic group on the U.S. government's list of terrorist organizations, has killed hundreds of people in suicide bombings in Israel during the 28-month-old Palestinian uprising for statehood. But the group insists it only operates in Israel and in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, and that it does not target Westerners. Gee, it sure sounds like you're targeting us now. Yassin, who brands the United States an enemy, called upon Muslims in the U.S. armed forces to disobey any order to attack Iraq. "It is forbidden for them to participate in the killing of other Muslims," he said. "But our muslims will kill your muslims if they don't obey me" After Friday prayers in Gaza City, the wheelchair-bound Yassin led a rally against any U.S. war on Iraq over its alleged weapons of mass destruction. Some 1,500 Palestinian demonstrators marched through the city, holding green Hamas flags and posters of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Loudspeakers sounded a call for Iraqis to emulate Palestinian suicide bombers by donning explosives belts "to fight the invaders." Palestinians hold regular rallies in Gaza Strip and the West Bank in support of Iraq, whose financial aid to families of those killed by Israel during the uprising has boosted Saddam's image in the two areas. Worried about losing your funding? Yassin also called on Arabs and Muslims to boycott U.S. goods and "close their doors" against the United States and its allies and not to offer them assistance in the war against Iraq. "Any regime that does that is a sinner," Yassin said in a copy of the letter obtained by Reuters. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #10 Yasser's pretty old now, sooner or later he'll have a heart attack or something |
| Posted by: anon 2003-02-08 04:03:31 |
| #9 Can somebody please kill Yassin sometime soon? Like now? |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2003-02-07 16:00:24 |
| #8 Fertilizer bombs sure do sound like hamas. |
| Posted by: flash91 2003-02-07 13:43:30 |
| #7 Here's a conspiracy theory for you. David Shippers, Bubba's prosecutor, was interviewed in Chicago Mag last October. He actually hooked up w/Jayna Davis, who has put together circumstantial evidence that there was Iraqi involvement in Okla. City. Shippers thinks Hamas also had a hand in it. And Jayna's site still doesn't say that the FBI has turned over the tape of John Doe #2(?) to Specter's committee (I am assuming he's still head of it.) |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-02-07 13:14:40 |
| #6 Ya know, it is easy to shoot off one's mouth when the other person is not shooting back. When things heat up, there are at least two countries that will make Hamas a smoking hole in the ground and that will be the end of it. No words needed. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-02-07 11:08:14 |
| #5 Three good things would come from Hamas rule: 1. Embarrass the Europeans who now send money to the PA based on the myth that it is not for terrorism (similar for Saudis). 2. Several hundred fatah thugs will likely be killed or banished 3. Hamas will fairly quickly lose credibility because they won't be able to fix infrastructure or destroy Israel, etc. so they'll eventually descend into the kind of govt. doublespeak that every other govt. tends to go to. Also, for those who doubt it, Israel has agents in Hamas, too. Not as many as in Fatah, but partly that's because Fatah people are so cheap to bribe. |
| Posted by: mhw 2003-02-07 10:59:56 |
| #4 Hamas urges moslems to attack. Ho hum. same old same old. The real big headline will read "Hamas urges moslems to give hugs and flash toothy smiles" |
| Posted by: flash91 2003-02-07 10:34:05 |
| #3 "It is forbidden for them to participate in the killing of other Muslims," he said. Guess I must have misread that stuff about the Iran-Iraq War. |
| Posted by: Dreadnought 2003-02-07 10:30:18 |
| #2 Oh, yeah, we want these mooks in place of Fatah. You betcha. Right after hell freezes over... |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-02-07 10:22:11 |
| #1 Yasser's pretty old now, sooner or later he'll have a heart attack or something |
| Posted by: anon 2/8/2003 4:03:31 AM |