Canadian Hosted Hamas Internet Site Advocates Killing Israeli Prime Minister
By Jeremy Reynalds (04/18/05)
The terrorist group Hamas is displaying graphics on its web site that openly praise martyrdom and advocate the killing of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
The Hamas site is hosted by the Canadian-based hosting company UB Hosting (www.ubhosting.net).
Asked about the Hamas site, UB Hosting's Hussain Baig said in a telephone interview that while he is a Muslim he is not a supporter of terrorism or the Hamas, and he was unaware that his company was hosting the site.
"I provide web site hosting and I run a business," Baig said. They are one of my customers (but) I didn't know what kind of site they were hosting. (For example). Back in November last year I sold a server to a guy, and he had 40 phishing sites. Because of him the FBI shut down all my servers (and) I moved to Canada. I guess these guys are targeting (small people like me).
Baig said he would remove the Hamas site, but at the time of writing it was still on line.
The only other Internet site being hosted at the same numerical Internet address (64.86.25.14) being used by Hamas is www.econocaronline.net.
Baig said the econocaronline site is the site for his brother's business. However, at the time of writing the site did not appear to be finished, as only 10 files could be found on the entire site.
HAMAS "ANTI-CORRUPTION UNIT" REPORTEDLY KILLS WOMAN ON GAZA STRIP
In another incident concerning the Hamas, the group is operating a so-called Anti-Corruption Unit on the Gaza Strip to safeguard Islamic values, Palestinian security officials and residents told The Jerusalem Post (JP).
The unit, is believed to be behind the gruesome murder over the weekend of Yusra al-Azzami, a 22-year-old university student from the northern Gaza Strip.
Her "crime," the Jerusalem Post (JP) reported, was that she was seen in public with her fiance.
According to the JP (www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1113186250438),
while so- called "honor killings" are not a new phenomenon in Palestinian society, perpetrators have almost always been relatives of the victims. This incident is the first time that one of the Palestinian groups has openly acted against a woman suspected of "immoral behavior."
Hamas's "morality" patrolmen first spotted the young couple strolling along the beach in Gaza City, together with Azzami's younger sister, the JP reported. After watching the sunset over the sea, they got into the husband-to-be's car and started driving towards Azzami's home.
The JP reported that according to eyewitness accounts, five masked gunmen who were in another car gave chase, opening fire at Azzami, who was sitting in the front seat next to her fiance . She died instantly. The fiance and sister were also beaten and injured by the attackers.
The incident took place at a busy intersection in Gaza City.
What happened immediately afterwards left many passers by traumatized, the JP reported. The assailants dragged the young woman's body out of the car, beating it with clubs and iron bars.
"It was the most horrific crime I've seen in my life," a university student who witnessed the attack told the JP. "What they did to the body while it was lying on the ground was barbaric. This does not represent Islam."
The student, who asked not to be named, said he and several other people at the scene were too afraid to interfere. "We waited until the gunmen left the area before we called the police and an ambulance," he further told the JP.
The Palestinian Authority police, who have since arrested two suspects, confirmed to the JP that the attack was carried out by Hamas vigilantes who have been waging a campaign of intimidation against people exhibiting what they consider to be un-Islamic behavior.
"They are behaving like the Taliban in Afghanistan," a senior police officer told the JP. "We won't allow them to take the law into their own hands, because we are not in Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia or Iran."
The JP noted that both Saudi Arabia and Iran have special "vice and virtue" police who roam through parks and public places to scold and sometimes beat unrelated couples.
The police officer said the identities of the other three accomplices were known and efforts were being made to apprehend them. "They all belong to a Hamas unit that claims it wants to enforce Islamic values in the Gaza Strip," he told the JP. "We hope Hamas will help us track down the murderers and bring them to trial."
However, Azzami's family and political activists accused Hamas of harboring the murderers and called on the Islamic movement to hand them over to the police. A statement signed by various political groups, including the ruling Fatah faction, condemned the murder and urged Hamas to disown the culprits.
"We are demanding a public apology from Hamas for this heinous crime against an innocent woman," a cousin of the victim told the JP. "We have also appealed to the Palestinian leadership to impose the death penalty against the murderers. We are living in a jungle and this has to end."
According to the JP, Hamas initially denied any link to the murder, but later admitted that the assailants belonged to one of its groups. It also admitted that the murderers were responsible for cracking down on men and women who defy Islamic teachings by appearing in public together.
Another police officer involved in the investigation said the two suspects who were detained shortly after the murder had confessed to belonging to Hamas's Anti-Corruption Unit.
He told the JP that the suspects and their three accomplices were all from the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, and that they had been instructed to conduct surveillance of the beach to assure that unrelated men and women were not mixing.
"The murderers thought that Azzami and her fiance were on a date," the officer explained. "They had no idea that they were engaged and were planning to marry soon."
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