Jihad to the felafel sellers!

Have you ever had a felafel? Essentially, they are balls of chickpeas fried in olive oil and breadcrumbs, usually stuffed into a pita with tomato, spices and various kinds of sauce, maybe eaten with some tahini or hummous.

One thing Arabs and Israelis have in common is a taste for the delicious felafels..in Damascus, Beirut or Jerusalem, felafel stands are as common as hotdog stands here in America.

As Iraq becomes increasingly Islamicized, felafel sellers are under attack..believe it or not.

Felafels have gone the same way in Baghdad and other areas in Iraq as alcohol, pop music and foreign films - labelled `haram' (forbidden) by Iraq's growing number of Islamic zealots.

According to the British Telegraph, Islamists visited falafel vendors telling them to pack up their stalls by today or be killed.

The ultimatum seemed so odd that, at first, most laughed it off - until two of them were shot dead as they plied their trade.

"They came telling us, 'You have 14 days to end this job' and I asked them what was the problem," said Abu Zeinab, 32, who was packing up his stall for good yesterday in the suburb of al Dora, a hardline Sunni neighbourhood.

"I said I was just feeding the people, but they said there were no falafels in Mohammed the prophet's time, so we shouldn't have them either.

"I felt like telling them there were no Kalashnikovs in Mohammed's time either, but I wanted to keep my life."

(rimshot..bada-dah-bum!)

There are lots of Islamic edicts hitting Baghdad nowadays, covering everything from the growing of goatee beards as a `Jewish style' to the sale of mayonnaise - because it is allegedly made in Israel.

(always the Joooos with these people!)

10 days ago, the coach of Iraq's tennis team and two players were shot dead for wearing shorts. This was days after Islamists had distributed leaflets banning the wearing of shorts or T-shirts with English writing on them. They also forbade women to drive or travel on public transport with men - a rule that bus drivers have begun to enforce.

Ice sellers have also found out that their occupation can be hazardous..or terminal.

They sell large chunks of ice for storing food and chilling drinks, a real necessity in a city with intermittant power and summer temperatures that frequently hit triple digits. According to the Islamists, ice didn't exist in Mohammed's time so....

Akram al Zidawi, 19, an ice seller from al Dora, laughed off the threats.

"Two weeks ago he came back home saying that he had been threatened by the terrorists," said his brother Gassan, 32.

"My mother begged him to quit the job, but he laughed, he thought it was impossible they would kill him. But they came back two days later and shot him dead, along with three other ice sellers nearby."