|
"Peeping Tom" sparks West Bank riot
Yeah, they donât have enough problems in the West Bank...A "Peeping Tom" who photographed a woman in the changing room of a Bethlehem area clothes shop sparked a night of rioting between Palestinian Muslims and Christians, witnesses say. At the height of the hours-long riot, hundreds of Muslims and Christians fought each other with metal rods and stones in the streets of the West Bank town of Beit Sahour, adjacent to Bethlehem, revered as the birthplace of Jesus."It was like a war," said Nahle, a resident on Wednesday. The first explosion of violence between Christians and Muslims in the area for years began when a Muslim man sneaked a camera into a changing room and snapped several pictures of a woman dressing, residents said. FILTHY INFIDEL TEMPTRESS!!! How dare she corrupt this noble Muslim man! The man, from a nearby Muslim town, raced to a taxi with the shopowner in pursuit. But he was forced to flee to a mosque when dozens of Beit Sahour residents arrived and began smashing the taxi, which they later torched. When in doubt... head for the mosque. Does make them easy to find though. By then, Christians and Muslims involved in the dispute had called in reinforcements, witnesses said.The Muslims demanded police free the man, who was badly beaten during the melee, residents said. But the suspect was arrested and taken to a local jail. Yeah, sounds like another Zionist Conspiracy to me... "Then the clashes really started," said Nahle. "They were fighting with sticks and stones, and extra police had to come from Ramallah and Bethlehem to stop it," he said.Police tried to quell the fighting by firing volleys in the air with automatic rifles, but violence only died down when the Bethlehem district governor imposed a curfew on the predominantly Christian town. Yeah, calm those Christians down. Theyâre crazy bastards you know... Two people were taken to hospital with moderate injuries and scores more suffered cuts and bruises, medics said. Streets were littered with stones on Wednesday morning and shops opened slowly as residents crept cautiously from their homes. Inter-religious tension has been brewing for some time in the Bethlehem area, where Christians number only around 20 percent of the population despite making up a majority of the population less than a century ago. The exodus of more affluent Christians has grown since a Palestinian uprising began in September 2000. What was that about cause and effect? Posted by: tu3031 2004-07-14 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=38030 |