Gaza cleric: Violating truce would be a sin

Hamas militants of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades attend the funeral of Hamas member Joudeh Shamallah in Gaza City, Saturday, Nov. 24, 2012. According to family members Shamallah was badly injured during the latest Israeli-Hamas fight and died from wounds Saturday. / AP Photo/Bernat Armangue

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip A leading Islamic cleric in the Gaza Strip has ruled it a sin to violate the recent cease-fire between Israel and the Hamas militant group that governs the Palestinian territory — according a religious legitimacy to the truce and giving the Gaza government strong backing to enforce it.

The fatwa, or religious edict, was issued late Saturday by Suleiman al-Daya, a cleric respected by both ultra-conservative Salafis and Hamas. Salafi groups oppose political accommodations with Israel.

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Israel, Hamas react to cease-fire deal

"Honoring the truce, which was sponsored by our Egyptian brethren, is the duty of each and every one of us. Violating it shall constitute a sin," the fatwa read.

The truce, which was struck Wednesday to bring an end to an eight-day Israeli offensive against Gaza militants who fired rockets into Israel, remains fragile, however, and details beyond the initial cease-fire have not yet been worked out. The fighting killed 169 Palestinians, including dozens of civilians, and six Israelis.

The spokesman for Gaza's Hamas government, Taher Nunu, told reporters Sunday that Hamas is committed to the truce.

"The government reaffirmed its blessing to the agreement sponsored by Cairo and emphasized that it will work to the internal Palestinian consensus and the supreme national interest," he said, following a government meeting.

Hamas demands that Israel and Egypt lift all restrictions on the movement of goods and people in and out of the Palestinian territory. The restrictions have been imposed since the Islamists seized the territory in 2007.

Israel has eased its full-fledged blockade in recent years, and some goods enter Gaza through smuggling tunnels under the border with Egypt. But Israel has continued to impose strict restrictions on exports and the import of construction materials, which has severely hampered the development of Gaza's battered economy.

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Israel is expected to link a significant easing of the blockade to Hamas's willingness to stop smuggling weapons into Gaza and producing them there. A top Hamas official said Saturday that the group wouldn't stop arming itself, suggesting that talks on a new border deal would not go smoothly.

Nunu also told reporters that the offensive inflicted more than $1.2 billion in damage on the Gaza economy, including damage to buildings, infrastructure, agriculture and trade. Israel continues to restrict the inflow of building materials, but Nunu said that talks on lifting those limitations are to begin in meetings scheduled to start in Cairo on Monday.

The government in Gaza has no estimate yet on how long the reconstruction will take. Gaza only recently concluded rebuilding most of the buildings and infrastructure damaged during Israel's 2009 war in the territory.

[madasabull]

Look at you all with all your quotes from religious texts, enough I say, or I will start copying them on to here myself.

If Iran is attacked, or for that matter, any muslim country or person is attacked, or a silly cartoon or video is created, then that will be seen, as usual, as an attack on all muslims, and so ends the truce. Simple really. It doesn't take much to upset the muslim world these days. I wonder why that is?

[usunus]

Given the numerous factions of the terrorists in Gaza and the general lawlessness there,this religious decree against ceasefire violations will not stand reality.

[LoveMyPope]

Don't trust a Muslim. It is common practice in this religion to deceive those who are not Muslim (practice of taqiyya). To see whether this religion is demonic, type in 'ashura ritual' in a google image search. Move children away from the computer though. No, these are not halloween pictures from some horror show, but a 'Muslim' religious 'holiday'. Thanks, but no thanks. Coming to a town near you!

[LoveMyPope]

What the he!! are you rambling about? George Bush and Dick Cheney are Muslims. okkkk....

Here is a list of others who believed Iraq had WMD: Bill and Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Madeline Albright, Nancy Pelosi, Al Gore, Carl Levin, Robert Byrd, Bob Graham, Henry Waxman, etc. Should I go on?

Also, Iraq USED WMD in their war against Iran in 1980 -- see:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/iran-iraq.htm

Now, sit down with the rest of the children.

[LoveMyPope]

1) You haven't addressed ANY of what I wrote.

2) I admit I probably overstated my point by saying Don't Trust a muslim -- but the bottom line is that they do not have the same value system. Taqiyya is a rationale they use to lie to 'infidels'. This is simply a fact.

3) Pope molests children. Patently false.

4) Sexual abuse in public school system --> Type in a google search: "Department of Education Sexual abuse study" (not with the quotations around it). Read it and weep.

5) Give me the list of the organization that doesn't have a problem with sexual abuse -- military (big problem), Baptist Church (big problem), Jewish congregations (do your own research -- big problem that is not reported, Youth Ministers in Protestant churches (big problem), sexual harassment in the work place (big problem), sports (problem -- look no further than Penn State and Syracuse University).

You better have some better arguments if you want to go toe to toe.

[Scotty3214]

Islamophobia: Thought Crime of the Totalitarian Future David Horowitz & Robert Spencer frontpagemag-com/upload/pamphlets/Islamophobia.pdf

"The Muslim Brotherhood in America: The Enemy Within." Frank Gaffney
muslimbrotherhoodinamerica-com/

SHORT LIST (See Full list Facebook page)
The Haj by Leon Uris
Muslim Mafia by Gaubatz and Sperry
Because They Hate by Brigitte Gabriel
"Slavery, Terrorism and Islam" and "Holocaust in Rwanda" by Peter Hammond
The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America by David Horowitz
Ivory Towers On Sand: The Failure of Middle Eastern Studies in America by Martin Kramer
The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism by Andrew G. Bostom
The Legacy of Jihad by Andrew G. Bostom MD
A Concise History of the Crusades by Thomas F. Madden
The Book of Jewish Knowledge by Nathan Ausubel
The New Moody Atlas of the Bible by Barry J. Beitzel
The Al Qaeda Reader by Raymond Ibrahim
Reliance of the Traveller: A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law
Sahih al-Bukhari
The Koran: Pickthall
The Quran: Yusuf Ali: Translated by Prof. Syed Vickar Ahmed
Holy Qur'an with Commentary: Maulana Muhammad Ali
The Second Message of Islam by Mahmoud Mohamed Taha
Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives have Penetrated Washington by Paul Sperry
American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us by Steven Emerson
Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists, Criminals and Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores by Michelle (the hottest woman on the planet) Malkin
Vince Flynn's "Term Limits" as a solution to our political problems.
Taken Into Custody by Stephen Baskerville and The War Against Boys by Christina Hoff Sommers

[LoveMyPope]

Thanks for this list. Yes, most Americans have their heads in the sand.

[Plumbline9]

Zechariah 12:8
In that day the LORD will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; the one who is feeble among them in that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the Angel of the LORD before them...

[Ulgnud]

Don't kid yourselves. By giving in to any demands the Terrorists are encouraged to try again. Wait until they have had a chance to re-arm, re-supply, and re-organize. Hamas will do it again. Depend on it.

[tb91006]

Koranimals at their worst

[askagain]

The fact that a major cleric in Gaza declared it a sin to break the truce could encourage other clerics to come forward and condemn the acts of terrorist groups. By making such an edict, this cleric could be putting his own life at risk. In the past, there have been articles about clerics who were killed for voicing opposition to terrorist groups.

[rwsmith29456]

It's a sin until somebody decides that it is justifiable, then it will start all over again.

[pwgrant]

Well; it's about dang time!! Although, I doubt the sincerity or the obedience of the violent extremists.

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Gaza cleric: Violating truce would be a sin Islamic cleric's religious edict against breaking cease-fire between Hamas and Israel bolsters support of truce

[1Todd]

Good or Bad: Declaring War in Israel a Sin

I can see a possible outcome with this. If history tells us that truces between Israel and Palestine always get broken eventually, and a religious cleric is declaring it a sin to break the truce, then the cleric is attempting to elevate the breaking of the truce above that of just a political or military conflict to that of a religious one, even though for many it already is one. This may have the effect among his religions followers of drawing in even more support from outside countries and people beyond what would ordinarily be. This would make breaking a truce a declaration of holy war essentially. I submit that, by declaring the breaking of a truce that has no other history than breaking as sinful, makes the declaration itself sinful because it entraps and has no reasonable alternative outcome. Sin by itself denotes that the one committing it has a choice and is operating under free will. It cannot be a sin if there is no real choice in the matter. The Israeli-Palestinian conflicts history demonstrates that there is no real choice in the matter, since there is no clear, universally accepted definition of the true causes of the conflict and subsequently no agreeable solution. In short, declaring breaking the truce a sin may delay it a while, but when it does, and it always does, get broken, this declaration will only serve to fan the flames of division and hate and do more to further the conflict into a worse, more sorely irritated religious conflict. This declaration is a bad idea.
The Islamic cleric would do more good to declare terrorism a sin.

[Ulgnud]

Spinner. All that sounds nice however the U.N. did not have any authority then and they still don't. They are useful as an avenue for negotiations---maybe.