The son of an imam in Gaza says his father was kidnapped by 20 masked men from Hamas because he wouldn’t mix religion with politics.In an article for The Free Press, Ala Mohammed Mushtaha said he was there when the men came for his father Mohammed Mushtaha.“On Saturday December 30, our front door was busted down and twenty masked men barged in and took my father, a widely respected and deeply learned imam here in Gaza,” Mushtaha wrote.“One dragged him by his head and another grabbed him by his beard. My younger brother tried to intervene and reason with the kidnappers, but they beat him. I have a medical condition that makes it hard for me to breathe, so all I could do was watch as the horror unfolded.”As he was being dragged out the door, he told his children that if he was to die, they should tell people why.“He wouldn’t preach what Hamas told him to. He refused to tell Gazans that violent resistance and obedience to Hamas, is the best way out of our current hell.”The Mushtahah family had been in Gaza for generations. Before 2007, Mushtaha worked for the Ministry of Islamic Affairs. When Hamas took power, they forced him out.“This was a hard time for my family; my father was the sole breadwinner. Finally, after three long years, he came back to work first as a mosque servant, then a mosque guard, then an employee of the ministry and finally, he was appointed as a mosque imam,” Mushtaha explained.“My father is known throughout the Gaza Strip. He has a doctorate in sharia from Cairo’s storied Al-Azhar University and is well-respected by his peers.”Mushtaha said years before the events of October 7, Hamas was already trying to coerce his father through attacks on his family.“For Hamas, being Muslim means supporting Hamas and people who do not support Hamas aren’t Muslims. If you don’t abide by what Hamas tells you, you’ll lose your job or worse. To keep my father in line, ensuring that he would deliver only Hamas-approved Friday sermons and allow Hamas to use his mosque as a clandestine weapons depot, they arrested my brother and me at least ten times between 2016 and 2019,” said Mushtaha.“Sometimes they would speak politely, sometimes they would ask us to comply ‘for the sake of your sisters,’ but always the threat of violence loomed in the background. And several times we were beaten and humiliated in front of our father. They beat him, too, once nearly blinding him.”Mushtaha said his dad was “forced to do things for Hamas; move money around, store things, keep their secrets.” Because the mosque had the ability to collect alms their faith obligates them to give, they made him stash money, weapons and equipment, too." “Sometimes they’d bring a large, wrapped-up prayer rug, which they said had been donated — except my father wasn’t allowed to open the rugs; only special volunteers were allowed to open them or transport the rugs in and out. My father had to open and close the doors and allow the sacred space to be used as a warehouse for Hamas. What choice did he have? It’s a bitter truth that Hamas thinks of mosques as the property of their regime and that they store weapons there.”On one occasion, big boxes marked as food aid were found to contain items made of iron. The author said most aid to Gaza ends up in the hands of Hamas loyalists, but his father acted differently. Congregants donated food, furniture and household goods and Gaza’s neediest would come to the imam.He said his father strove to offer “unbiased spiritual guidance,” not “propaganda,” which didn’t sit well with Hamas.“They instructed him to brainwash people with their politics, to stick with Hamas and with the ‘resistance’ and that it’s the only choice. That those who died fighting would be rewarded with 72 black-eyed virgins. Patience, jihad, all of that stuff. Hamas exploits our religion, pretending to be modern-day prophets, likening themselves to the companions of the prophet Muhammad,” he explained.The October 7 attack on Israel was a complete surprise to the household. On October 20, they fled their homes, finding shelter in a few places until settling at the imam’s daughter’s home in Rafah. Her home was bombed, but even now 40 people share space in a building partly reduced to rubble. With schools and universities closed, prayer is the only thing to draw people together.“How we have reached a time when nearly everyone in Gaza is saying Hamas caused the death of 20,000 people in Gaza and the injury of 50,000 more. So when the group demanded that my father go to a school where thousands of displaced persons are sheltering and urge them to stand with the ‘resistance’— to trust Hamas — he flat-out refused,” Mushtahah explained.“My father knows the difference between right and wrong. He knew that refusing to act as a megaphone for Hamas could lead to his death and yet he refused. He has a clear conscience. So does everyone who knows what really happened to him and why.”However, he said the fact Hamas has had to go “underground” has helped people overcome their fears and speak against them.“This time, it’s not like the prior wars. This time, people are telling the truth,” he explained.“[P]eople can be more vocal about how Hamas has ruined our lives. People are starting to publicly violate the laws, rules, dictates and orders of Hamas. They are openly cursing Hamas and its leaders in the streets and markets and ignoring the directives of the few Hamas officials and police still above ground,” he explained.“They have caused so much damage, it’s undeniable. They’ve imposed themselves on our society, on my father, for too long. We’re all paying the price. People want freedom. We hope deeply that this war will end and that Hamas will end with it.”Mushtaha said if Hamas kills his dad, they will blame Israel. Still, he hopes for better.“I don’t know where my father is. I don’t know if I will ever see him alive again. My hope in telling this story to the public and putting my name to it, is to somehow offer my father a measure of protection. Hamas may wish to release him and show the world that they would never harm an admired mosque preacher,” he said.“God alone knows the future, but what I know is that, under no circumstances, would my father want to become a propaganda tool.”
