PA shuts down Islamist seminar on women in Bethlehem
Seminar sponsored by radical group Hizb ut Tahrir, whose goal is to create Islamic state or caliphate ruled by Islamic law.
By KHALED ABU TOAMEHPalestinian security forces 370(photo credit: REUTERS)
The Palestinian Authority on Tuesday night banned a radical Islamic group from holding a seminar in Bethlehem under the title: “Women’s groups and societies seek to corrupt women.”The seminar was sponsored by Hizb ut Tahrir [Party of Liberation], a radical group whose goal is to create an Islamic state or caliphate ruled by Islamic law.The group, which has a few thousand supporters in the West Bank, recently launched a campaign against women’s organizations and societies, accusing them of corrupting Palestinian women.The campaign is being held under the motto “Women’s honor must be protected and the infidels and their tools are conspiring against women.”The campaign by Hizb ut Tahrir drew strong condemnations from women’s groups in the West Bank. The groups accused the radical Islamic party of inciting against women and appealed to the Palestinian Authority to take action to stop the fundamentalists from pursuing their campaign.Hizb ut Tahrir accused the PA governor of Bethlehem, Abdel Fattah Hamayel, of succumbing to the “shameless intervention” of the women’s groups to prevent the seminar from taking place.“The governor ordered the closure of the meeting hall without any legal or moral basis,” the party said in a statement.The party reiterated the charge that women’s organizations were “puffing Palestinian women with ideas of decadence and encouraging them to rebel against the rules of Islam.”The party’s main attacks have been directed against Western-funded women’s NGO’s in the West Bank.Hizb ut Tahrir is particularly concerned about the fact that the organizations have been educating Palestinian women about their rights.
