Hamas Terror Group Founder Gets His Own Museum
- Posted on May 31, 2011 at 6:30am by
Jonathon M. Seidl
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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Hamas militant group has turned the modest home of its founder into a museum – seven years after the wheelchair-bound Palestinian cleric was killed in an Israeli airstrike as he was wheeled out of a mosque.
The Sheik Ahmed Yassin museum, located in an alleyway in the rundown Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City, has become a popular destination since it opened last month. Dozens of schoolchildren and well-wishers visit each day.
“The sheik was the leader of the resistance movement in Palestine,” said his son, Abdel Hamid Yassin, who was wounded with his father in the airstrike. “This house was the house of the nation.”
Yassin, 37, said little has been changed in the house since his father’s death.
“We only posted new framed photos and organized his conference room to allow people to go in and out freely,” he said.
The sheik’s widow, two of his sons, including Abdel Hamid, and more than 25 relatives still live in the five-room home.
The living room, which served as Yassin’s office, is decorated with pictures of the bearded cleric alongside fellow Hamas leaders and Arab dignitaries, including the late King Hussein of Jordan and the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. In the center of the room is the wheelchair Yassin used to get around the house, decorated with a portrait of the cleric wrapped in his trademark brown blanket.
Yassin’s bedroom is decorated with more portraits on the bed. Inside a small glass box are the fragments of the wheelchair he was sitting on when he was killed. Nearby are his Quran, and a special metal stand used to attach the book to his wheelchair, a collection of books, videotaped speeches and his old computer.
“This museum will help us revive the memory of the great imam, the martyr Ahmed Yassin, among the Arab and Islamic nation,” says an inscription in the guest book by Hamas’ prime minister Ismail Haniyeh, who was the sheik’s longtime assistant.
The house has played an important role in the history of Hamas, an Islamic movement formed in the 1980s that today has a potent army and controls the Gaza Strip. The house hosted the first meeting of Hamas’ leadership. Families would visit to seek Yassin’s advice, Arafat would visit on Muslim holidays and Hamas still uses the site to make major announcements.
Yassin, who was paralyzed in a childhood accident, was hit by an Israeli helicopter missile on the morning of March 22, 2004, as an assistant was pushing him out of the mosque. The assassination came at a time of heavy Israeli-Palestinian fighting, and Israel described Yassin as a “mastermind of Palestinian terror.”
The frail, diminutive preacher was beloved by Palestinians, even his rivals, and seen as soft-spoken and charismatic. Some 200,000 people flooded the streets of Gaza for his funeral, and the killing prompted anti-Israel demonstrations across the Middle East.
Ramiz Radwan, 13, who visited the museum on Monday, said he had faint memories of Yassin passing out sweets to encourage children to memorize the Quran.
“I still remember we used to gather around him at the mosque when I was young. He would say, ‘God bless you. You are the hope of the nation,’” he said.
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nelan72
Posted on June 2, 2011 at 3:34pmThe FBI needs to set a “Members only card” system. Members please use the door marked as Executioners room.
Report Post »illuminoddy
Posted on June 1, 2011 at 12:43amcelebrating yassir arafat or any other palestinian is to celebrate terrorists
yassir arafat’s sole accomplishment was uniting all he terrorist factions in palestine against israel..
and america celebrated his death as well
Report Post »silentme63
Posted on May 31, 2011 at 7:02pmI bet this is possible with U.S. tax payer dollars? Tell me I’m wrong.
Report Post »Ghandi was a Republican
Posted on May 31, 2011 at 4:45pmYour stimulus dollars at work!
Report Post »spreadcommonsensenot pc
Posted on May 31, 2011 at 12:45pma Golden bombvest—-wow, cool, now go to your cave and set it off
Report Post »NOBALONEY
Posted on May 31, 2011 at 10:51amTerroism is a sickness of hatred.
Report Post »teddrunk
Posted on May 31, 2011 at 9:27amLazy people can keep houses looking the same and starting to get run down and just claim they’ve made a museum.
Report Post »Ironeagle
Posted on May 31, 2011 at 8:41amWinston Churchill said it best back in the 1890s: “How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities – but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.”
Report Post »ares338
Posted on May 31, 2011 at 8:17amDo you reckon the new Homeland Security MALINTENT program would have caught him?
Report Post »tom
Posted on May 31, 2011 at 8:08amPalestinians / Hamas, isn’t that who Obama wants to give Iraseli land to and U.S. tax payers money? Vote him out in 2012.
Another note: Another young girl stoned to death by Muslims according to Fox.
Report Post »LadyIzShy
Posted on May 31, 2011 at 8:04amthey can d o what they wish as long as my tax dollars dont pay for it.. I may not agree with it but shrug.. im not of mind to worry about museums in Gaza we all know the kind of government they have there.. the people elected them so they must not care either..
Report Post »Mateytwo Barreett
Posted on May 31, 2011 at 8:12amI didn’t read where the money came from. . . directly OR indirectly.
Report Post »BOMUSTGO
Posted on May 31, 2011 at 8:03amDid Hitler get his own museum????
Report Post »roostercogburn
Posted on June 1, 2011 at 8:42pmThere are some nice shrines built to honer him in muslim countries, the muslims loved the nazi’s big time, still do, herd they have a new nazi party in Egypt now, things are not going to be good.
Report Post »teddrunk
Posted on May 31, 2011 at 8:03amWhere are the goats that also lived in the house and provided the Sheik with a love life?
Report Post »Exrepublisheep
Posted on May 31, 2011 at 8:03amGive them a homeland, let them build. Then when they are all in one place….
Report Post »let us prey
Posted on May 31, 2011 at 7:45amLets hope a drone is flying over doing surveillance.
Report Post »Rayblue
Posted on May 31, 2011 at 7:34amWhere’s the signed, framed photo of their supporter “Jimmy Carter ?
Report Post »I bet there’s one of Harrison J. hidden under the bed. Yassin could pull it out at night and get excited while stroking his goat.
MAULEMALL
Posted on May 31, 2011 at 7:29amThat picture would make a nice urinal cake.
Report Post »grandmaof5
Posted on May 31, 2011 at 7:27am“I still remember we used to gather around him at the mosque when I was young. He would say, ‘God bless you. You are the hope of he nation’”. Then he would strap the explosives on us and send us to meet our virgins. Could be a red flag that they really aren’t serious about peace.
Report Post »Creestof
Posted on May 31, 2011 at 9:17amWould you be kind enough to publish the GPS coordinates?
Report Post »/wink
BJColter Country Music Iconoclast
Posted on May 31, 2011 at 9:43amPaid for by WE THE PEOPLE, via BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA, a muslim lad leading the global Jihad. Here’s a song I wrote, I got so sick of it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqdufoUASMc
Report Post »13th Imam
Posted on May 31, 2011 at 10:01amI have an old straw broom that if I put a black sheet over it, draw eyes with a marker would look just like this Dope. Probably smell better also.
Report Post »SeanW
Posted on May 31, 2011 at 1:20pmWhile your ignorance is appreciated. Please remember Hamas was supported and partially funded by Israel throughout the 1980′s. You probably don’t remember but Israels HUGE enemy was Lebanon and the PLO? The Palestine Liberation Organization led by Yasser Arafat? The little dude with the black on white scarf and horrible beard? Yeah, remember that one? Then in the 1990′s the PLO, finally broken, made a statement about Israel’s right to exist. Then there were the free elections in the Palestinian Territory during Bush’s tenure as President. Overseen by the US and the UN it was remarked as one of the most peaceful and transparent elections ever seen in the world which resulted in…. Hamas being elected the ruling party. Then, magically, Hamas becomes the big evil terrorist? Just because Israel says so? Who’s next gang? If Obama keeps up with his current absolute botching of every single possible situation will it be the United States? Anyone that stands against Israel is a terrorist… hmmm.
I am pretty sure that we are all being played like fiddles.
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