Forest fires in northern Israel "a strike from Allah", Hamas says

[News_Editor]

Forest fires in northern Israel "a strike from Allah", Hamas says

2010-12-06 09:14:48 GMT+7 (ICT)

GAZA CITY (BNO NEWS) -- The fires ravaging northern Israel are Alla's expression of anger towards Israelis, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said on Sunday.

Haniyeh told reporters that the fires, which killed 41 Israelis, "are divine strikes for what [israel] did. These are plagues from God," said Haniyeh. "Allah is punishing them from a place they did not expect it."

The fire broke out on Thursday afternoon across the Carmel mountains and most of the casualties were from a bus evacuating prison guards near Haifa, Israel's third largest city. In addition, dozens more were injured including police officers and firefighters.

The fire is continuing to spread and is endangering many areas and police forces urged citizens to stay clear of the area, while more than 17,000 people have already been evacuated.

The affected region has heavy brush that burns easily and the fire is spreading due to the strong winds.

Israel on Friday announced that police forces arrested two individuals suspected of being involved in the fires. Both individuals were arrested after and Israeli Air Force drone filmed two men as they were attempting to ignite flammable material in the area before the fire began.

Investigators are also looking evidence of other recent arson incidents in order to determine if they are related. On Friday afternoon, a fire broke out near a gas station in Kiryat Bialik.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2010-12-06

[whybother]

The police should get out there and arrest this "Allah" guy for lighting fires.

[koheesti]

Note to Hamas: Allah has been using the Israelis and Americans (& UK) to punish the Islamofascists - including Hamas. It's quite apparent that Allah hasn't been on their side for a long, long time.

[hammered]

The ultra-religious of every faith are always good for a laugh or two. Cant wait the ultra-religious repsonses.

[Ulysses G.]

I wonder what Indonesia did to piss off Allah so bad - with all the earthquakes and volcanoes and tsunamis and such. .

Edited December 6, 2010 by Ulysses G.

[Xangsamhua]

And these people are actually in charge of a state - responsible for people's lives and welfare!

Still, we shouldn't be surprised. Hamas are hardly alone in making such statements.

There's a history behind this kind of medieval nonsense, and it dates from the middle ages, when Islam ditched rational theology in favour of a God who has no interest in natural law or the application of reason. If Islam can recover its earlier theology the world will be a safer place for all - Muslim and non-Muslim.

Hamas and their kind combine irrationality with resentment and violence. They have no interest in reaching understanding with anyone. To Hamas and their kind life is just a battle of wills and forces; the mind has nothing to do with it.

[TAWP]

The police should get out there and arrest this "Allah" guy for lighting fires.

So...can the police release a composite from a sketch-artist?

[whybother]

The police should get out there and arrest this "Allah" guy for lighting fires.

So...can the police release a composite from a sketch-artist?

No, they won't be able to. People will get too angry by seeing this arsonist.

Apparently, they released a sketch of the guy in Denmark a couple of years ago, and people were so disgusted at seeing it that they attacked the embassies.

They released the sketch in another country after reports that he might have been there, and there was even more anger at the guy.

I think they were trying to tell the Danish to arrest this man as soon as possible and that he deserved a fate worth than death....

I think that's the way it played out, anyway.

[canuckamuck]

Note to Hamas: Allah has been using the Israelis and Americans (& UK) to punish the Islamofascists - including Hamas. It's quite apparent that Allah hasn't been on their side for a long, long time.

[bina]

thats ok, rabbi ovadia (the ancient rabbie that wheres those dark shades and funny hat, the one that sets the tone for many of the relgious decisions in israel today) commented that the fire was our punishment for breaking the sabbath (drving cars, working, whatever.) everytime there is some horrible catastrophe, its because we, the secular, broke shabbat (sabbath)>

btw, there were muslem and druze on the bus (the druze are some of the main inhabitants of the carmel area-- a secretive religion, they speak arabic, follow some arabic muslem ways of living, but tend to follow the main group in any country so here they identify (less so in the past few years) with the jewish israeli state, so they join the IDF (the men, not the women). so allah made a mistake too.

bina

israel

and the kid that started the fire is druze, he was smoking a narghila, threw the burning coals out, the area caught on fire, he spooked, ran back to school (he was playing hookey and was afraid to report the fire so he woulnd be caught leaving school)and didnt report the fire that started. he is being held but probably wont be tried for negligence in causing death due to his age.

[WarpSpeed]

I wonder what Indonesia did to piss off Allah so bad - with all the earthquakes and volcanoes and tsunamis and such. .

Yeah and Iranian earthquakes, Pakistani earthquakes and floods and on and on and on but we aren't allowed to make those comparative references it isn't PC and remember the Islamic outrage expressed when some suggestions of same were made?

[Xangsamhua]

thats ok, rabbi ovadia (the ancient rabbie that wheres those dark shades and funny hat, the one that sets the tone for many of the relgious decisions in israel today) commented that the fire was our punishment for breaking the sabbath (drving cars, working, whatever.) everytime there is some horrible catastrophe, its because we, the secular, broke shabbat (sabbath)>

btw, there were muslem and druze on the bus (the druze are some of the main inhabitants of the carmel area-- a secretive religion, they speak arabic, follow some arabic muslem ways of living, but tend to follow the main group in any country so here they identify (less so in the past few years) with the jewish israeli state, so they join the IDF (the men, not the women). so allah made a mistake too.

bina

israel

and the kid that started the fire is druze, he was smoking a narghila, threw the burning coals out, the area caught on fire, he spooked, ran back to school (he was playing hookey and was afraid to report the fire so he woulnd be caught leaving school)and didnt report the fire that started. he is being held but probably wont be tried for negligence in causing death due to his age.

Thank you Bina.

Yes, the rain falls on the just and unjust alike, and that applies to natural disaster as well as nature's blessings.

A God that sits above and beside natural law and reason will always appeal to many people, especially those seeking divine sanction for their views and agendas, and this construction of God is to be found among all three Abrahamic faiths - Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It seems, however, to be more central to Islam in its post-medieval form and has contributed to the lack of a culture of enquiry and curiosity in the post-medieval Islamic world, together with inertia regarding social and economic development.

The question of whether God "obeys" natural law, natural justice, etc is a tricky question for Jewish and Christian theologians as well, but classical Judaic and Catholic/Orthodox theology, to my knowledge, get around it by proposing that reason and justice and the natural law that is consequent upon them are inherent in God's nature and bequeathed to humanity as one of the gifts of creation. Hence there have been plenty of Jewish and Christian scientists and philosophers of note, but very few Muslim ones (since the middle ages, and in fields other than Islamic law), and the Jewish state is dynamic and prosperous, but Muslim states, with some (non-Arab) exceptions, are generally oppressive and slow-moving.

Hamas needs to be able to hold up an attractive model of a successful society that follows its principles. I suppose it would point to Iran.

[geriatrickid]

I do not think Allah would want to see the rare Aleppo pines destroyed, nor an important ecological zone that provides habitat to a multitude of rare and endangered animals devastated. Maybe Hamas should stick to what it does best, feuding with Fatah and setting a curriculum in the schools that teach hate.