Christians targeted in Gaza

Rami Ayyad, a Gaza Christian bookstore owner who was killed in November after Muslim groups accused him of engaging in missionary activity

JERUSALEM – A building in Gaza with an Internet cafe that reportedly was bombed is owned by a Palestinian Christian, WND has learned.

The media widely reported the target of Sunday's bombing as perceived symbols of Western influence. A search of English-language articles on the attack yielded no results reporting the target was Christian.

The bombing follows scores of other anti-Christian attacks in the Gaza Strip – including one last Friday that targeted a Christian school – since the Hamas terror group was elected to power in 2006.

The pre-dawn attack at the Internet cafe reportedly smashed the windows of the establishment, run by Khalid Harbid, a local Palestinian who said another bomb went off outside his cafe last month. No one was hurt in either attack.

The building in which Harbid rents a space for his cafe is owned by a Christian.

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Harbid told the Associated Press that Gaza's Hamas rulers were failing to protect his business.

"My cafe has become Sderot," Harbid said, referring to the Jewish city two miles from the Gaza border.

Sderot has been a frequent target of Palestinian rockets fired from the Gaza Strip aimed at nearby Jewish population centers.

The attack at Harbid's cafe came one day after gunmen detonated a bomb outside a Christian school in Gaza and follows scores of other anti-Christian attacks targeting schools, churches and Bible stores.

In one attack last November, Gaza resident Rami Ayyad, who managed the only Christian bookstore in Gaza, was discovered riddled with gunshot and stab wounds. Ayyad, a Baptist, was accused by Gaza-based Islamic groups of engaging in missionary activities. His bookstore, owned by the Palestinian Bible Society, was firebombed in April 2007, after which he told relatives he received numerous death threats from Islamists.

WND quoted witnesses stating Ayyad was publicly tortured a few blocks from his store before he was shot to death.

The witnesses said they saw three armed men, two of whom were wearing masks, beat Ayyad repeatedly with clubs and the butts of their guns while they accused him of attempting to spread Christianity in Gaza. The witnesses said that after sustaining the beating, Ayyad was shot by all three men.

Christians warned: Accept Islamic law

Sheik Abu Saqer, leader of Jihadia Salafiya, an Islamic outreach movement that recently announced the opening of a "military wing" to enforce Muslim law in Gaza, told WND in a recent interview all Christians in Gaza engaged in missionary activity will be "dealt with harshly."

Jihadia Salafiya, allied with Hamas, is suspected of a slew of Islamist attacks, including firebombing Internet cafes and one in May against a United Nations school in Gaza after it allowed boys and girls to participate in the same sporting event. One person was killed in the attack.

When Hamas seized complete control of the Gaza Strip in June, there were widespread fears it would impose hardline Islamic rule in the territory, and that life for Christians might deteriorate.

About 3,000 Christians live in the Gaza Strip, which has a population of over 1 million.

Immediately after Hamas' Gaza coup, Abu Saqer told WND in an exclusive interview Christians could continue living safely in the Gaza Strip only if they accepted Islamic law, including a ban on alcohol and on women roaming publicly without proper head coverings.

"[Now that Hamas is in power,] the situation has changed 180 degrees in Gaza," said Abu Saqer, speaking from Gaza.

"Jihadia Salafiya and other Islamic movements will ensure Christian schools and institutions show publicly what they are teaching to be sure they are not carrying out missionary activity," he said.

Abu Saqer accused the leadership of the Gaza Christian community of "proselytizing and trying to convert Muslims with funding from American evangelicals."

"This missionary activity is endangering the entire Christian community in Gaza," he said.

Abu Saqer claimed there was "no need" for the thousands of Christians in Gaza to maintain a large number of institutions in the territory.

He said Hamas "must work to impose an Islamic rule or it will lose the authority it has and the will of the people."

 

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