Hamas in Gaza says it's learning from Arab Spring

[P F Tinmore]

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Bans on women smoking water pipes in public and male coiffeurs styling women's hair are no longer being strictly enforced in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, apparent signs of greater tolerance as the Islamic militant group acknowledges mistakes in seeking to impose a religious lifestyle.

In explaining the change, several senior members said Hamas has matured in five years in power and learned lessons from the Arab Spring. Islamic groups that have scored election victories in the wake of pro-democracy uprisings in the region now find themselves trying to allay fears they seek Islamic rule.

In recent months, there's been a change in atmosphere, say rights activists and even political rivals of Hamas.

"Things are freer than before," said Nasser Radwan, whose family restaurant is one of the places where women again come to smoke water pipes.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said "some mistakes were made" under Hamas rule, though he blamed individual security commanders and overzealous activists, not the government, for heavy-handed tactics.

"They don't represent the ideology and policy of the Hamas movement," Barhoum said. "Our policy is that we are not going to dictate anything to anyone."

Hamas in Gaza says it's learning from Arab Spring - Yahoo! News

 

[JStone]

The Economist Magazine: Arab World Self-Doomed To Failure

WHAT went wrong with the Arab world? Why is it so stuck behind the times? It is not an obviously unlucky region. Fatly endowed with oil, and with its people sharing a rich cultural, religious and linguistic heritage, it is faced neither with endemic poverty nor with ethnic conflict. But, with barely an exception, its autocratic rulers, whether presidents or kings, give up their authority only when they die; its elections are a sick joke; half its people are treated as lesser legal and economic beings, and more than half its young, burdened by joblessness and stifled by conservative religious tradition, are said to want to get out of the place as soon as they can.

One in five Arabs still live on less than $2 a day. And, over the past 20 years, growth in income per head, at an annual rate of 0.5%, was lower than anywhere else in the world except sub-Saharan Africa. At this rate, it will take the average Arab 140 years to double his income, a target that some regions are set to reach in less than ten years. Stagnant growth, together with a fast-rising population, means vanishing jobs. Around 12m people, or 15% of the labour force, are already unemployed, and on present trends the number could rise to 25m by 2010.

Freedom. This deficit explains many of the fundamental things that are wrong with the Arab world: the survival of absolute autocracies; the holding of bogus elections; confusion between the executive and the judiciary (the report points out the close linguistic link between the two in Arabic); constraints on the media and on civil society; and a patriarchal, intolerant, sometimes suffocating social environment. The great wave of democratisation that has opened up so much of the world over the past 15 years seems to have left the Arabs untouched. Democracy is occasionally offered, but as a concession, not as a right. Freedom of expression and freedom of association are both sharply limited. Freedom House, an American-based monitor of political and civil rights, records that no Arab country has genuinely free media, and only three have “partly free”. The rest are not free

Knowledge. “If God were to humiliate a human being,” wrote Imam Ali bin abi Taleb in the sixth century, “He would deny him knowledge.” Although the Arabs spend a higher percentage of GDP on education than any other developing region, it is not, it seems, well spent. The quality of education has deteriorated pitifully, and there is a severe mismatch between the labour market and the education system. Adult illiteracy rates have declined but are still very high: 65m adults are illiterate, almost two-thirds of them women. Some 10m children still have no schooling at all. One of the gravest results of their poor education is that the Arabs, who once led the world in science, are dropping ever further behind in scientific research and in information technology. Investment in research and development is less than one-seventh of the world average. Only 0.6% of the population uses the Internet, and 1.2% have personal computers.

Women's status. The one thing that every outsider knows about the Arab world is that it does not treat its women as full citizens. How can a society prosper when it stifles half its productive potential? After all, even though women's literacy rates have trebled in the past 30 years, one in every two Arab women still can neither read nor write. Their participation in their countries' political and economic life is the lowest in the world.

http://www.economist.com/node/1213392

 

[destroythedome]

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Bans on women smoking water pipes in public and male coiffeurs styling women's hair are no longer being strictly enforced in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, apparent signs of greater tolerance as the Islamic militant group acknowledges mistakes in seeking to impose a religious lifestyle.

In explaining the change, several senior members said Hamas has matured in five years in power and learned lessons from the Arab Spring. Islamic groups that have scored election victories in the wake of pro-democracy uprisings in the region now find themselves trying to allay fears they seek Islamic rule.

In recent months, there's been a change in atmosphere, say rights activists and even political rivals of Hamas.

"Things are freer than before," said Nasser Radwan, whose family restaurant is one of the places where women again come to smoke water pipes.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said "some mistakes were made" under Hamas rule, though he blamed individual security commanders and overzealous activists, not the government, for heavy-handed tactics.

"They don't represent the ideology and policy of the Hamas movement," Barhoum said. "Our policy is that we are not going to dictate anything to anyone."

Hamas in Gaza says it's learning from Arab Spring - Yahoo! News

Since hamas is in such a spirit of change why not go whole hog and hunt down and kill or capture all those (overzealous activists) terrorists, inact a real eqaul rights policy for women,
and out law child abuse(teaching islamic hate and murder to children)and punish those responsible for it. Show the world hamas is truely interestted in change denounce any enactment of sharia law. Do this and one day hamas might even be considered legitament.
Oh and heres the big one actualy work with Israel to find a workable compromise.

 

[P F Tinmore]

Issam Younis of Gaza's human rights group Mezan said that in recent months he's seen a drop in complaints about harassment by Hamas security forces and that restrictive rules are no longer being enforced.

At the beginning of the school year, when some high school girls complained about being ordered by principals to put on headscarves, the Education Ministry told schools that the girls are free to choose, he said.

Hamas in Gaza says it's learning from Arab Spring - Yahoo! News

 

[JStone]

Hamas Bans Gaza Students Studying Abroad

Gaza's militant Hamas rulers have banned eight teenage students with scholarships to study in the U.S. from leaving the territory, a Palestinian rights group said Wednesday.
The move appeared to be part of an intensified Hamas campaign against independent groups that they view as a challenge to their rule and against activities that believe promote a Western lifestyle.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights said the eight students were granted AMIDEAST scholarships, a program that educates talented teenagers from the Middle East and North Africa for a year in the U.S. At the end of the year, students return to their home countries to finish their education. The students were granted scholarships based on their academic achievements.

In a statement, the rights group said Hamas' education minister rejected a travel request by the teenager's parents for "social and cultural reasons." It also accused Hamas of breaching the parents' right to educate their children as they choose.

Hamas would not confirm the order, much as it has in the past with similar orders travel bans on Gaza residents.

But the parents of 15-year-old Aboud Alshatari said their son was traveling to the border Wednesday when Hamas police turned him away, saying the Education Ministry refused to let him leave Gaza. Alshatari was slated to attend school in North Carolina.

The ban comes a day after a network of aid groups in Gaza criticized Hamas for forcing aid workers and employees of civil society groups to register with them before traveling for work outside the Gaza Strip. And last week, Hamas shut down the U.S.-financed International Medical Corps after it refused to submit to a Hamas audit.

The Iranian-backed Hamas overran Gaza from the secular Palestinian Fatah party in bloody street battles in 2007. Since then, Hamas has slowly imposed its radical interpretation of Islam on residents of the Gaza Strip — a world view that is even more stern than what traditionally religious conservative Gazan's follow.

Other Hamas crackdowns include trying to ban male barbers from cutting women's hair and forbidding women from smoking in public and outlawing scantly clad female mannequins.

Hamas Bans Gaza Students Studying Abroad - ABC News

They're young, they're smart and they are Gaza's future generation. These teenage high school students won a scholarship to study in the /United States for one year, but the Hamas government decided against letting them travel to America"

"I feel so frustrated, so sad.and so angry because we have worked really hard to get this scholarship. It's not an easy scholarship to get."

"This scholarship means like a new door to my life, a new experience, a new adventure, to meeting new people, to know their culture..."

Human rights groups say there is no reason for Hamas's decision and that it's a violation of their basic rights"

"No one has the right to prevent us from going to the US to have a better education and a better life"

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8VWza6lnKM]HAMAS BANS STUDENTS ON SCHOLARSHIP FROM TRAVELING TO USA - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Sunshine]

Women can smoke hookahs in public. They've come a long way baby!

 

[Trajan]

I am sure they are- S mines or commonly known now as Spring loaded mines make great anti- personnel weapons.....

 

[JStone]

Arab Author Anwar Malek

The Arabs are afflicted with fantasies and obsolete bravado. False, empty bravado, which does no good to anybody. The Arabs invented or discovered the zero--but what did they do with it? Some of them sat on it, some put it on their heads, while others wore it around their waists and began shaking their hips, their belies, and their breasts in order to sell to the world the idea that modern Arabs are doing something

Today, the Arabs constitute nothing but thousands of zeros to the left. The Arabs have lost their worth, their humanity, their culture, and everything. There is nothing to suggest that the Arabs can be relied upon to produce anything. This false bravado is deeply rooted in the Arabs to an unimaginable degree. It is so deeply rooted that the Arabs believe they can go to the moon. If you asked your viewers whether the Arabs would be able to reach the moon by 2015, they would say, "Yes, the Arabs will get to the moon" By Allah, the Arabs will not go more than a few hundred kilometers from their doorsteps.

In all honesty, the Arabs are backward and are not fit for civilization at all. I am talking about the Arabs of today who have begun to export shawarma, falafel and lupin beans to Europe and they purport to be bringing something Arab to Europe

the reality of the Arabs is one of defeat, hitting rock bottom We are defeated, politically and militarily and economically, socially, and even psychologically. We have a discourse of conspiracy, and we blame everything on others. Take Egypt--What does Egypt--that superpower--have to offer? Nothing, it is incapable of doing anything. It has nothing but lupin beans. It is incapable of anything.

Look at how the Arabs live in the West. By Allah, they are a bad example. If you hear about thieves, they are always Arabs. Whenever a young man harasses a girl on the streets of London or Paris, he turns out to be an Arab. All the negative moral values are to be found in the Arab individual

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYgrziadQIo]Algerian author Anwar Malek talks about the arab world. - YouTube[/ame]

 

[JStone]

Washington Post: Arab nations lag behind rest of world economically, despite oil and natural gas

Amid a massive shift in the politics of the Arab world, the countries of the region are now confronting an economic challenge that is just as steep: how to engage with a global economy that in many ways has passed them by.

The nations of the Arab Middle East sit atop perhaps half of the planet's oil and a third of its natural gas reserves, yet the economies of the region are among the most stagnant.

Hundreds of billions of dollars in hydrocarbon wealth and other receipts - for instance, in the case of Egypt, revenue from the Suez Canal and U.S. foreign aid - have propped up undemocratic governments and subsidized swollen public sectors. But little has been done to create globally competitive economies or employment for a burgeoning number of young adults.

The reasons for this poor record are varied, including repeated wars with Israel and each other, widespread corruption and the overwhelming presence of ruling cliques in the economy.

"We are at a crossroads in terms of governance, but also at a crossroads in terms of the economic agenda," said Tarik Yousef, head of the Dubai School of Government and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Like other scholars, he noted that many other parts of the developing world have sped ahead of the Middle East.

Economists cite a long list of statistics that point to chronic under-performance, sometimes masked by the flow of oil and other wealth but corrosive in the long run.

Even if Arab countries begin to energize their economies, they are late to the global competition and will face a tough battle vying for international capital and business. It is a world in which China has staked its place as the global manufacturing hub, other developing countries from Malaysia to Brazil have established themselves as international players, and modern logistics have made the Middle East's proximity to Europe less of an advantage.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/23/AR2011022303586.html

 

[docmauser1]

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Bans on women smoking water pipes in public and male coiffeurs styling women's hair are no longer being strictly enforced in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, apparent signs of greater tolerance as the Islamic militant group acknowledges mistakes in seeking to impose a religious lifestyle.

That's hysterically funny bull, of course, considering hamas losing it to jihaders there.

 

[JStone]

A 27-year-old mother of five was bludgeoned to death with an iron chain by her father last week in Gaza in what human rights groups report was an honor killing.

According to police in Gaza, the father, Jawdat al-Najar, heard his daughter Fadia, who had divorced in 2005, speaking on the phone with a man. He believed she was having a relationship with him. Police say al-Najar became enraged and beat her to death; her body was brought to a hospital where officials said she died of a skull fracture

The woman was beaten to death in the northern Gaza neighborhood of Jebalya on Thursday night. The father called police and confessed to the murder.

According to investigators for the Gaza-based Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, the father and his three sons were taken into police custody. They said the killing "was carried out on grounds related to 'preserving' the honor of the family."

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights, another Gaza-based organization, said hospital forensic reports show the woman's body showed signs of torture and that she suffered a skull fracture from being hit by an iron chain.
Rights groups decry Gaza 'honor killing' - CNN

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxAKFlpdcfc]Applause - YouTube[/ame]

 

[JStone]

Palestinians: Other Arabs Who Can't Accomplish Anything In Life And Would Rather Wrap Themselves In The Seductive Melodrama Of Eternal Struggle And Death

Historian Sir Martin Gilbert, Official Biographer of Winston Churchill

I cannot stress enough the importance of the few days Churchill spent throughout Palestine in 1921. The contrast between the extraordinary negative points of view put forth by the Palestinian Arabs and the equally positive ones put forth by the Zionists struck him enormously. Churchill didn't like negativism and he couldn't comprehend why the Palestinian Arabs were being so negative. It's quite curious. If you have a look at what the Palestinian Arabs told him, you'll find that three or four are actually in the Hamas Charter today, such as the world Jewish conspiracy and so on and so forth. That said, the Palestinian Arabs just made a bad impression on him and subsequently, he became very negative toward them; in modern terms, almost racist. When Churchill spoke to the Palestinian Arabs, he actually said to them, 'You've got to help the Zionists. They're people of quality and inasmuch as they'll succeed, you'll succeed. Without them you won't succeed.'

 

[P F Tinmore]

the Palestinian Arabs just made a bad impression on him and subsequently,

What natives ever left a good impression on that ass?

 

[JStone]

the Palestinian Arabs just made a bad impression on him and subsequently,

What natives ever left a good impression on that ass?

Where's your Nobel Prize, Scooter? Winston Churchill - Biography

 

[docmauser1]

What natives ever left a good impression on that ass?

Jews, of course!