Hamas attack on Gaza Shiites may indicate its political shift

The National

"BEIT LAHIA // When they later recalled the siege by Hamas security forces, it was not its ferocity that astonished the residents of Beit Lahiya. It was the target - Shiite Muslims gathered in the building to commemorate the death of Imam Hussein, the Prophet Mohammed's grandson.

Up to 100 policemen and masked men in civilian clothes stormed an apartment building in the Gaza enclave late on Saturday.

Minutes later, they emerged dragging 15 men, whom they then beat with truncheons and denounced as infidels. Neighbourhood residents drawn to the commotion said they were shocked.

"The police showed everyone black Shiite headbands and were yelling to the crowds, 'Look at these kafirs [unbelievers]!'," said Yasser Ziada, 23. "It was like they were putting on a show for us, beating them in front of everyone. No questions - just beatings."

The onlookers had not known that Shiites lived among them.

If they occasionally referred to Hamas as "Shiites", it was because the rulers of the Gaza Strip received money from predominantly Shiite Iran.

Everyone knew, though, that members of Hamas - like every other Muslim in the Gaza Strip - were Sunni. Or so they thought.

For others in the Gaza Strip, Saturday's anti-Shiite crackdown was an epiphany for another reason.

The main allies of Hamas, Iran and the Lebanese movement Hizbollah, are predominantly Shiite, or in the case of Syria's Alawites, an offshoot of Shiism.

For years they have formed an axis of revolutionary Islam that has concerned the predominantly Sunni governments of the Middle East and their allies in the West.

Saturday's crackdown on Shiites - occurring as Hamas dismantles its headquarters in Damascus amid Syrian president Bashar Al Assad's political troubles - is an obvious affront to its long-time patron and may be a sign that one strut of that axis is rickety.

It also may be an indication that the tectonic political shifts underway since the Arab Spring erupted last year may be affecting the Gaza Strip......"