Haaretz reports:
Armed Hamas men broke into a gathering of some 30 Shi’ite worshippers in the Gaza Strip last Friday and brutally attacked them, Haaretz has learned.
The assault was part of a broader crackdown on Shi’ite organizations, including charities, that has been sparked in part by Hamas’ fear of growing Iranian influence in Gaza.
The worshippers had gathered in a house in the Sheikh Zayyad neighborhood, between Beit Lahia and Jabalya, to mark Arbaeen, the end of the 40-day mourning period for Imam Hussein, founder of Shia Islam, who was killed in 680 C.E.
Hamas militants arrested 14 of the men and beat up the rest. They continued beating the worshippers even after taking some to a hospital and others to a Hamas detention facility.
Hamas has historically been funded and supplied by the Islamic Republic of Iran. However, because it is a Sunni chauvinist organisation, it is deeply religiously hostile to Shias. Indeed, Yusuf Al Qaradawi – the ‘Sheikh’ who Hamas regards as a key religious authority – has periodically spouted some pretty hateful invective against Shias.
In the past, Hamas’ relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran kept this sort of incitement at a minimum. However, with Iran facing the strongest sanctions yet and its currency in free fall, and with the Muslim Brotherhood poised to come to power in surrounding Sunni states, Hamas just doesn’t care what Iran thinks.
It is going to be pretty grim for Shias in Gaza, now.
Indeed, I wonder how long it will be before Medhi Hasan writes his inevitable “Hamas is bad” piece.
