Hamas mosques in West Bank put on notice by Palestinian Authority
RAMALLAH — Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad summoned 800 Muslim clerics last week to discuss
the government's policy toward mosques.
Fayyad said the PA would not allow
the use of mosques for incitment or recruitment for violence.
"We won't allow them [mosques] to be turned into places of incitement
and intimidation," Fayyad said. "It's the responsibility of men of religion
to present religion as a way of tolerance, not as a cover for bloodshed."
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[In the Gaza Strip, at least seven Palestinians were killed in Israel
Air Force strikes, Middle East Newsline reported. The strikes were conducted amid Palestinian missile
attacks on Israel from the northern Gaza Strip.]
Fayyad also warned mosque preachers against denouncing other
Palestinians as collaborators or infidels. He did not elaborate.
The gathering on June 28 included senior PA security officials. They
said
the clerics were told that the PA would also outlaw unlicensed weapons.
"We will collect weapons and replace them with pens and books," Interior
Minister Abdul Razik Yehyeh said. "The phenomenon of militants is very
dangerous and we want to stop it in all forms."
Over the last two weeks, officials said, the PA arrested more than 200
Hamas members in the West
Bank. Some of them were clerics from Hebron, Jenin, Nablus and Tulkarm.
During Friday mosque prayers on June 29, PA police sent officers to
monitor some of the
sermons. Several clerics, however, defied the new regulations and railed
against
Israel and the United States.
"Fayyad is a politician: he can handle political issues and we can
handle religious issues," Mohammed Abu Al Hassan, a Hamas cleric from Jenin,
said.
