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Posted on 06/26/2007 3:31:54 PM PDT by West Coast Conservative
Broken crucifixes and shards from a statue of Jesus have been swept up, but Gaza's tiny Christian community says the violent warning sent by Islamic militants cannot be erased.
The ransacking of a Catholic convent and an adjacent Rosary Sisters school during Hamas' sweep to power broke more than wood and plaster. It signaled the end of a relatively peaceful, if sometimes uneasy, relationship between Gaza's 1.4 million Muslims and 3,000 Christians.
Despite promises of protection by Hamas leaders, Christians fear more attacks, and some say they want to leave. Gaza's flock already has been hit hard by emigration in recent years, and a new exodus could remove what is left of one of the Arab world's oldest Christian communities.
"We don't trust them. Our time is coming," said a Greek Orthodox Christian, who in the current climate of fear asked not to be identified.
No one has claimed responsibility for damaging the convent and school, and Hamas vehemently denied involvement.
However, signs point to Muslim extremists rather than ordinary vandals. A statue and picture of the Virgin Mary — who is held in high esteem by Muslims — were left untouched.
At a Tuesday meeting with a Catholic priest, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was fired as Palestinian prime minister by President Mahmoud Abbas after Hamas seized control in Gaza, promised to find the perpetrators. However, he played down the attack, referring only to damage to the school, not the convent.
The assailants struck toward the end of Hamas' five-day battle with rival Fatah forces loyal to Abbas. The school and convent are close to a pro-Fatah security compound besieged by Hamas gunmen, who pounded it with rockets and mortars before capturing it on the last day of fighting, June 14. The destruction at the Catholic buildings was discovered a day later.
In the convent's chapel, two wooden crosses were broken and a golden cross was twisted out of place. The face of a ceramic Jesus was smashed and prayer books littered the floor.
Three nuns living in the convent were on vacation, deputy school principal Hanadi Missak said. A rocket had slammed into a bedroom, scorching walls, but other areas appeared to have been deliberately burned by setting fire to curtains.
The school's administrative computers and laptops also were stolen. Missak said Hamas officials returned the stolen computers, but didn't explain where they found them.
Missak suggested the vandals were acting on their own. "They were ignorant people. They don't represent all Muslims," he said.
Other Christians blame Hamas — at the least for not preventing the destruction. One woman said only Hamas militants could enter the convent during the fighting, when Gaza's civilians were pinned down in their homes.
The attack marked a watershed for Gaza's Christians, crushing the belief that a shared Palestinian identity would override Muslim-Christian differences.
Bernard Sabella, a researcher who has conducted surveys among Palestinian Christians, said the problem needs to be dealt with urgently because it tears at the fabric of Palestinian society. "People think seriously about migrating after such sectarian acts," he said.
Christians have held a unique place in Gaza's society as respected members of the territory's small elite, running schools, hospitals and businesses. Yasser Arafat, the late Palestinian leader, courted Christians, assigning them top posts in government and his Fatah movement.
Hamas, too, is mindful of Palestinian Christians. The Hamas-led coalition government fired by Abbas included a Christian Cabinet minister, and a prominent Gaza Christian, Hussam al-Tawil, was elected to parliament on the Hamas slate.
In September, after extremists hurled several pipe bombs at Gaza's Greek Orthodox Church during the uproar over Pope Benedict XVI's comments about Islam, Hamas militiamen protected the church.
Many Christians were shaken at the time, but optimistic about relations with their Muslim neighbors. But the tone has changed.
Eight Greek Orthodox congregants, meeting in a church rectory after Sunday services, agreed to discuss their concerns, but only on condition their names not be used, fearing reprisals from Islamic militants.
"We don't know what's coming, and I don't trust them (Hamas)," said one woman. "So far they aren't doing anything to us. But I don't know how sincere their intentions are or how long this will last."
Another said she had been harassed for not wearing a head scarf.
There haven't been any attacks on Christians since the ransacking, but many said they feared it was simply a matter of time.
"Many say the easiest thing is to migrate if they can't feel safe," Sabella said. "But if we all leave, what is left for the nation?"
Well, DUH!
According to Surah 2:177, A Muslim must accept all these things:
It is not righteousness that ye turn your faces to the East and the West; but righteous is he who believeth in Allah and the Last Day and the angels and the Scripture and the prophets
The Last Day is the most important thing after belief in Allah.
The Last Day consists of the coming of the Imam Mahdi along with the appearance of the Muslim Jesus. For the Last Day to come, the Muslims must go to war and slaughter the Jews
The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews.
But the Muslims don’t stop there.. once that’s accomplished:
al-Mahdi will receive a pledge of allegiance as a caliph for Muslims. He will lead Muslims in many battles of jihad. His reign will be a caliphate that follows the guidance of the Prophet. Many battles will ensue between Muslims and the disbelievers during the Mahdi’s reign…
Harun Yahya, a moderate and very popular Muslim author refers to the Mahdi’s invasion of numerous non-Muslim lands:
The Mahdi will invade all the places between East and West.
In today’s world.. non-Muslims are not killed or forced to convert if they pay the Jizya in Muslim lands and agree to live as dhimmis. Well apparently even that wonderful option will be eliminated during the Muslim Last Day. I’m assuming the pigs in this quote means Jews.
Volume 3, Book 43, Number 656: Narrated Abu Huraira:
Allah's Apostle said, "The Hour will not be established until the son of Mary (i.e. Jesus) descends amongst you as a just ruler, he will break the cross, kill the pigs, and abolish the Jizya tax. Money will be in abundance so that nobody will accept it (as charitable gifts).
Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri (d. 1368) from The Reliance of the Traveller, the classic Shafi manual of Islamic jurisprudence states:
"... the time and the place for [the poll tax] is before the final descent of Jesus (upon whom be peace). After his final coming, nothing but Islam will be accepted from them, for taking the poll tax is only effective until Jesus' descent (upon him and our Prophet be peace) ..."
Ayatollah Ibrahim Amini clearly articulates this vision:
The Mahdi will offer the religion of Islam to the Jews and Christians; if they accept it they will be spared, otherwise they will be killed.
Sheikh Kabbani, Chairman of the Islamic Supreme Council of America clearly articulates the Islamic perspective regarding Jesus’ evangelistic role when He returns.
Like all prophets, Prophet Jesus came with the divine message of surrender to God Almighty, which is Islam. This verse shows that when Jesus returns he will personally correct the misrepresentations and misinterpretations about himself. He will affirm the true message that he brought in his time as a prophet, and that he never claimed to be the Son of God. Furthermore, he will reaffirm in his second coming what he prophesied in his first coming bearing witness to the seal of the Messengers, Prophet Muhammad. In his second coming many non-Muslims will accept Jesus as a servant of Allah Almighty, as a Muslim and a member of the Community of Muhammad.
Al-Sadr and Mutahhari, likewise articulate this same expectation:
Jesus will descend from heaven and espouse the cause of the Mahdi. The Christians and the Jews will see him and recognize his true status. The Christians will abandon their faith in his godhead (sic).
the Gazan Christians would be well-served to speak to the Christians of Bethlehem — except they are pretty much long gone since the Israelis moved out. no room at the inn in Muslim-dominated countries for the infidel, Christian or Jew.
Having crazy Islamists running around executing people would unsettle me.
The World Council of Churches, which deigns to call itself a Christian organization, says the problems are all Israel’s fault.
What you have posted is really what the times of the anti-Christ at the end of the age is going to be like, as said in the Holy Bible.
The Gaza Christians should do as what the Christians of Bethlehem did, LEAVE. There is no future in Gaza for them.
I made a thread before that you might be interested in
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1854703/posts
Revived Islamic Caliphate - Empire of the Anti-Christ?
Thank-you and God Bless.
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