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Fear and fundamentalism as the 'modesty police' patrol Gaza- Police in Gaza have arrested at least 41 men on charges of immodesty this April, writes Phoebe Greenwood. And now the city is gripped with fear that Hamas is driving the population towards militant Islamic fundamentalism.
It's three weeks since his arrest but Ismail Halou still has streaks of purple bruising on the soles of his feet. The 22 year-old was filling cars at his family's petrol station in Gaza City at 5pm on April 4th when a black jeep pulled into the forecourt, plain-clothed police stepped out and ordered him into the car. He was blindfolded and driven to the nearest police station."I could hear the screams of people being beaten in the rooms next to me. Two men held my legs down and tied them together on a wooden board then they beat the soles of my feet with a plastic rod. They beat me for at least five minutes. I was crying and screaming with agony. It was the worst pain I've ever felt," Mr Halou recalls.
It was only after the beating that police officers set to work trying to shave off the one-inch fin of gelled hair that was the cause of his arrest.
This is absolutely horrific, without a doubt.
Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the other groups are the real oppressors of the Gazan people, this should be easy to see for everyone now.
I feel a strong sense of sympathy for those people who aren't brainwashed, and who understand what's happening to them and what Hamas (et al) are doing to them, but can't do anything about it.
30 Apr 2013, 4:40 am
