The so called Army Of Islam, which in reality is just an elite group of Gazan businessmen (According to The Times, the Army of Islam is an offshoot of the powerful Dagmoush clan, which is renowned for extortion, smuggling, arms dealing and the ruthless dispatch of rivals, and has been dubbed the “Sopranos of Gaza City) has an interesting view on the ways to get on the good side of their deity.
A shadowy group holding a British correspondent for three months threatened on Sunday to kill him, in a video broadcast by the Al-Jazeera satellite TV channel. A spokesman for The Army of Islam, identified as Abu Khattab, told Al-Jazeera that there was no deal to release BBC correspondent Alan Johnston, and “If the situation gets more complicated concerning us and our group, then we will ingrate ourselves to Allah by slaying this journalist.â€
Of course, that “ingrate” shall remain on the consciousness (yeah, right…) of AP or Ynet, but there is no difficulty to get the drift, is there? Allah the compassionate, apparently, is easily “ingrated” by a slaying or too. I believe he is happy as a clam with the latest goings-on is Gaza too…
Meanwhile, as an idle observation: the whole business around Alan Johnston, with Hamas issuing unspecified threats in the general direction of the kidnappers and the kidnappers, who are just another offshoot of the said Hamas, returning their threats, somehow reminds me that scene from the Blazing Saddles, where sheriff Bart threatens to shoot sheriff Bart, unless…
Unfortunately, there is a nuance – an innocent journalist’s life is involved. But, as mentioned above, slaying him will only “ingrate” Hamas and Hamas B with Allah…
Cross-posted on SimplyJews.
They are all ingrates.
I suspect he means ingratiate
Perhaps the journalist will finally learn the truth about the ingrates (sic) that he has been whitewashing and protecting all this time. Maybe, if he gets out alive, he will start telling the truth in his articles (even though that would make him an explicit target).
Yes, Don, thanks, I gathered that much from the article too, that’s why the quotation marks around “ingrate” in my post.
Sabba Hillel – I agree re Ms. Johnson. He needs to get a dose of truth serum, unfortunately BBC does not provide such stuff to its employees.
Much like the Palestinians themselves, I having a hard time feeling much sympathy for BBC journalists. Still, I feel sorry for any family they have in the UK.