By Daled Amos
As part of its retaliation against the Hamas terrorists for its massacre of Israeli men, women and children, Israel has been responsible for the destruction of mosques.
What is Israel up to?Better question -- what is Hamas up to?
Historically, Hamas has used mosques for storing weapons. An article from the Washington Post in 2014 asked the question Why Hamas stores its weapons inside hospitals, mosques and schools and went about why there is a need to ask the question in the first place.The article gives an example from a brief cease-fire:
During the lull, a group of men at a mosque in northern Gaza said they had returned to clean up the green glass from windows shattered in the previous day’s bombardment. But they could be seen moving small rockets into the mosque.
Israel was not surprised by this; it has noted this other use of mosques before:
The Washington Post article also describes how schools and hospitals are put to the same use, storing weapons -- in total disregard of the lives of Gazan civilians put at risk.
But let's stick to the mosques -- and other examples of mosques being destroyed by other Muslims. I wrote about this in 2012:
In Aleppo, Syria, Muslims badly damaged a landmark mosque:A landmark mosque in Aleppo was burned, scarred by bullets and trashed — the latest casualty of Syria's civil war — and President Bashar Assad on Monday ordered immediate repairs to try to stem Muslim outrage at the desecration of the 12th century site.According to one of those interviewed, the Syrian army was stationed inside the mosque "because of its strategic location in the Old City".
Of course, the simpler answer could be that the Syrian army used the mosque because the mosque itself was a strategic location.
After all, what Muslim would attack and destroy a mosque?
Quite a few actually -- for example:
- In August 2011, the New York Times reported that 28 Are Killed in Bombing at a Mosque in Baghdad
- In October 2010 in Afghanistan, The Taliban murdered the head of Kunduz province, along with 14 other people, in a mosque bombing in Tahkar. The governor had been outspoken in his opposition to the Taliban and allied terror groups operating in the north.
- There's the mosque burned during the arson attack on the Crazy Water Park in Gaza in September 2010 as reported by The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
- There was the mosque destroyed in Lebanon during a fight between Hezbollah and a rival group in August 2010
- And then there's the Turkish general who admitted to destroying a mosque on purpose back in 1974 in order to psyche out the enemy:
In remarks published in the Haber Türk daily yesterday as part of an interview with Gen. Sabri Yirmibeşoğlu, who led the Special War Department in 1971 and also worked to mobilize civilian resistance during Turkey's military intervention on Cyprus in 1974, said: “In Special War, certain acts of sabotage are staged and blamed on the enemy to increase public resistance. We did this on Cyprus; we even burnt down a mosque.” In response to the surprised correspondent's incredulous look the general said, “I am giving an example,” in an attempt to clear things up.
So not only have mosques been deliberately targeted by Muslims, the destruction of those mosques has been exploited for PR against the enemy -- much in the same way that Hamas has manipulated its own people in Gaza, putting them in danger, in order to reap the PR benefits.
The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center produced a report in 2010, Hamas and the Terrorist Threat from the Gaza Strip, which examined the military use of mosques.
The footnote at the end of the paragraph points to a separate article from 2009, The use of mosques for military and political purposes by Hamas and other terrorist organizations and Islamic groups
The point is that other Arab countries use mosques for military purposes as well. Here is an example from Iraq:
The point is that Hamas has a history of using mosques for military purposes and other Muslim countries have done it as well. In addition there is the PR value of forcing Israel to destroy the mosque and broadcasting to the world what Israel has done.
Hamas is as much at ease hiding weapons in a mosque as they are in hiding behind children.
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