http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/08/200981420417893961.html
Saturday, August 15, 2009
01:22 Mecca time, 22:22 GMT
Hamas battles Islamist group
Abdul Latif Musa, centre, demanded that Hamas implement a stricter
interpretation of sharia [AFP]
Clashes at a mosque in the Gaza Strip that left at least 16 people dead have
spread to the home of an imam who had called for the territory to be made an
Islamic emirate.
Hamas security forces seized control of the Ibn Taymiya mosque in Rafah on
Friday after hours of clashes with fighters loyal to Abdul Latif Musa, a local
religious leader.
But several fighters holed up inside managed to escape to Musa's home.
"Hamas security and the military wing of Hamas were able to take over the
mosque, but [amid] the fighting several fighters loyal to the sheikh and
members of his armed group fled to his house," Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin,
reporting from Rafah, said.
"We believe that is where Hamas security forces chased them ... and that is
where the standoff is currently taking place.
"There are reports that they may have detonated explosives around the house and
there is also a belief that there may be a tunnel that has allowed some of the
fighters to escape."
Scores of people were wounded in the fighting, several of them critically,
medical officials said.
Sharia demand
The clashes began after Musa, a local imam and leader of Al-Jamaa al-Salafiya
al-Jihadya in Palestine (The Jihadist Salafist Group in Palestine), called for
the establishment of an "Islamic emirate" in the Palestinian territories.
The group seeks a Palestinian legal system based purely on the sharia - Islamic
law - and accuses Hamas of being too liberal. The group is said to have
threatened to burn down internet cafes and to demand greater modesty on Gaza
beaches.
"We are today proclaiming the creation of an Islamist emirate in the Gaza
Strip"
Abdul Latif Musa, leader of Al-Jamaa al-Salafiya al-Jihadya in Palestine
"We are today proclaiming the creation of an Islamist emirate in the Gaza
Strip," Musa had told worshippers at a Rafah mosque earlier, according to
witnesses.
Musa said that if Hamas were to implement sharia he would immediately instruct
his followers to comply with the movement's instructions.
An audience of several hundred men filled the mosque as Musa spoke, cheering
and shouting in response to his address.
A spokesperson for the Hamas-run interior ministry dismissed Musas's comments
and described him as mentally unstable.
In a statement, the ministry warned that those violating the law would be
pursued and dealt with by the law.
"Everyone outside the law and carrying arms in order to spread chaos will be
pursued and arrested," it said.
The ministry of religious affairs has previously asked Musa to resign his post,
but he has repeatedly refused.
Foreign fighters
Mohyeldin said: "It is important to put this situation into the context of the
discussion that has been going on here over the past week, and in fact for some
time now.
Heavily armed men accompanied Musa as he addressed worshippers at the
mosque [AFP]
"There has been some criticism that Gaza has become a bastion or a safe place
for a lot of foreign fighters ... and that is something that many here, in
particular from Hamas, believe undermines Hamas's ability to rule."
Earlier on Friday, Ismail Haniyah, the de facto prime minister in Gaza,
rejected Israeli allegations that non-Palestinians who had fought in Iraq and
Afghanistan were crossing into from Egypt in order to set up bases in the
territory.
"Such groups do not exist on the soil of the Gaza Strip ... there are no
fighters in Gaza except Gazan fighters," he said.
Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas official, said that Musa's group, which two months ago
attempted horseback attack on an Israeli base, "has no affiliation with foreign
groups".
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