THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VII, Issue # 271, December 12, 2005
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
ONE MAN, ONE VOTE -- ONCE
By Asaf Romirowsky
HAMAS & OTHER ISLAMIST GROUPS: THE PROBLEM ISRAEL & AMERICA ARE FACING -- ARE HAMAS & OTHER
RADICAL ISLAMIC GROUPS LEGITIMATE PARTICIPANTS IN THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS ABOUT TO UNFOLD IN THE
PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES? SHOULD ANTI-DEMOCRATIC, ANTI-CONSTITUTIONALIST ORGANIZATIONS BE
PERMITTED TO PARTICIPATE IN DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS? SHOULD HAMAS BE ALLOWED TO USE THE
DEMOCRACTIC PROCESS AS A TOOL TO PROMOTE ISLAMIST TOTALITARIAN IDEOLOGY & PREVENT EMERGENCE OF A
STABLE & LASTING CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY IN PALESTINE?
FULL STORY:
Both Israel and America are facing a huge conundrum vis-à-vis Hamas and other radical Islamic groups. Are they legitimate
participants in the democratic process about to unfold in the Palestinian territories? Should non-democratic organizations be
permitted to participate in democratic elections, and potentially to come to power? We are also left with room for
"interpretation" on Israeli policy towards Hamas. At best, Ariel Sharon's recent statements have been oblique when talking
about Hamas. Sharon said, "if the organization participates in the elections, it will be a negative development, and we see a
danger to the continuation of the peace process." But he also stressed to members of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and
Defense Committee that "the elections are an internal Palestinian matter that we cannot prevent."
Ideologically speaking, Hamas descends from the Muslim Brotherhood, the group responsible for putting an anti-American
and anti-Israeli message on its flag. Islamism is rooted in the writings of the Brotherhood. The notion that Hamas will have
the opportunity to show its political strength in the upcoming elections in January, 2006, is mind-boggling. This bizarre
development exemplifies how a non-state group – one that is nothing like a ‘political party' – uses the rhetoric of democracy
to infiltrate a state-like entity to become the governing power.
Hamas is both an Islamic and Islamist organization, and demonstrates how the logic and obligations of the religion flow
directly – and perhaps inevitably – into the latter. Hamas works under the guise of charity (zakat) to promote its agenda, and
it is also known for using hospitals and medical treatment centers to hold meetings and hide its arsenal of explosives, thereby
compromising the integrity of these facilities.
In addition, Hamas practices dawa – what Muslims call "inviting others to Islam," an obligatory duty (fard) for Muslims of all
sects and degrees of (im)moderation. In reality, this is proselytizing, in which Hamas' version of Islam encourages the faithful
to achieve at any cost. As such, dawa operatives willingly volunteer their homes as safe-houses for fugitives and their cars
as escape vehicles. Using Islam's mandates for social welfare and kindness has become Hamas' signature. As terrorism expert
Matthew Levitt writes:
"the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development – the
primary Hamas front organization in the United States until its
closure in December, 2001 -- noted that Hamas' ‘benevolent
programs' …‘are used to enhance its image and earn goodwill
in the Palestinian community.'" [1]
Given these deliberate manipulations of Islam, we must ask ourselves whether it is sensible to hold negotiations with countries
run by al-Qa'ida, Hezbollah, or Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The willingness to use Islam as a means of terror is exceeded only by
hatred of the West and Israel, however disguised it may be at any given moment. Islamists and other adherents of jihadist
ideology don't recognize or accept the West; their goal is to destroy it, not work with it. Accepting Hamas as a legitimate legal
political party means accepting a sworn enemy as an equal partner in a political process they have sworn to destroy, from the
inside and the outside.
The debate over the role of Hamas in the democratic process skirts the issue of whether Islamist groups are actually
capable of running a state. Hamas has not progressed in the direction of developing this capability, as the group still does not
recognize Israel or America, nor does it recognize the Palestinian Authority (PA) as the main body of Palestinian
representation. A victory by Hamas means simply another revolutionary group actually taking charge, an Islamist group,
rather than the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and this is the last thing Palestinians and Israelis need.
As usual, the "official" Palestinians want to have it both ways, indicating strongly that they share Hamas' goals. On the one
hand, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who has been working on co-opting Hamas, criticized Ariel Sharon for
saying that Israel "will do whatever is possible to impose difficulties on the movement of Hamas members on Election Day."
Abbas called this "flagrant intervention" in internal Palestinian affairs. On the other hand, he has met the challenges to his own
party and leadership from Hamas weakly. Agreeing to treat Hamas as political party de facto means that the West and the
Palestinians are surrendering to terrorism.
Internationally speaking, Hamas has already managed to attain a status of an NGO (non-governmental organization) by
infiltrating the ranks of UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency). There, they guide the UNRWA educational
system and shape what is taught to Palestinian children by UNRWA, as well as use UNRWA vehicles to transport explosives
and suicide bombers. As Dore Gold, the former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, states:
"UNRWA schools were ‘greenhouses for suicide bombers' --
UNRWA graduates like Ibrahim Maqadama, who founded the
military wing of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1983 and helped
create the military structure of Hamas, and Salah Mustafa
Shehada, another Hamas leader. At least forty-six terrorist
operatives were students in UNRWA schools." [2]
UNRWA runs 27 refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza, and another 32 camps in neighboring Jordan, Lebanon, and
Syria. It calculates almost four million Palestinians as refugees, including those whose grandparents never saw "Palestine."
There is no wonder why the support for Hamas continues to grow.
Hamas is everything an NGO isn't; it is a grassroots initiative/charity/NGO that wants to perpetuate the status quo, and, like
the PLO in its golden days, benefit from it. And neither Hamas nor the PLO could run a state, even if it wanted to. We have
already seen the process in Iran, which supports the Islamist model of governance, which is similar to what Hamas would
like to build -- an Islamic revolutionary regime that is massively corrupt, brutally repressive, and irrepressibly aggressive.
Algeria also exemplifies the Islamist model of governance, albeit in an interrupted way. When Salafists were permitted to
run in an open election. They won, which resulted in the military step in, creating a civil war that caused hundreds of
thousands of deaths.
All of the above should remind us not to forget that Hamas and al-Qa'ida are one and the same. Hamas may be local and
al-Qa'ida global, but they are two sides of the same coin. If we are truly committed to cracking down on terrorism, we should
stand up and prevent Hamas from gaining political credibility. In sum, given the growing support for Islamism in the Arab
world, we face a dangerous situation where the Islamists use democracy as tool for promoting their totalitarian ideology.
UNRWA is already a liability, given the fact that it has been tainted by Hamas. Let's make sure that Hamas does not have
the opportunity to taint an entire government.
NOTES:
[1] http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC05.php?CID=2109
[2] Gold, Dore. Tower of Babble, New York: Crown Forum, 2004, P. 217.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
The Israeli-Arab Conflict
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
Islamism & Jihadism -- Radical Islam & Islamic Terrorism
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Asaf Romirowsky is a Campus Watch associate fellow for the Middle East Forum and the Israel Affairs Fellow for the Jewish
Federation of Greater Philadelphia.
The foregoing article by Asaf Romirowsky was originally published in Front Page Magazine, December 12, 2005 and
can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum.
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
December 12, 2005
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