Comments on: What Hamas Should Do

By: Asa

Asa — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:44:00 +0000

“Without fascism and the holocaust there would have been no Israel, no nakba. We should blame Hitler every bit as much as we blame Balfour or Herzl.”

Spot on. Excellent article.

By: qunfuz

qunfuz — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:26:30 +0000

But they do have real power in Gaza, at least over such internal issues. If they wanted to ramp up the religious policing thing they could, but they choose not to, because they are in most cases intelligent. They know that the people didn’t vote for them to impose a version of Islamic law, but to resist Zionism, and as an alternative to the collaborators of Fatah.

But you mean Hizbullah. In the south, and south Beirut, and the Bekaa, they have far more power than the Lebanese state. They are a clever organisation.

And you generalise far too much. Women are not simply ‘muzzled’ in most countries of the Middle East.

As to hijab, the vast majority of people in the region do not see it as the West tends to see it, as a symbol of oppression. Indeed, for many it is a symbol of liberation. And it isn’t a man/ woman thing in the simplistic way you seem to be suggesting. Most Muslim women wear the hijab because they want to, not because they have been told to. I don’t oppose hijab, but imposed dress codes, whether they impose hijab as in Saudi Arabia or ban it as in Tunisia and France. Supporters of imposed hijab are as likely to be women as men.

By: hagle

hagle — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 10:47:00 +0000

Maybe they leave the women alone because they don’t have real power, like Iran and SA?

And to add, the major reason why we don’t see ‘uproar’ in the Middle East against the social/state conditions in these countries, is because the women are not included in the picture. How can you introduce a change when 50% of the population are simply ‘muzzled’(except if you are a rich Saudi princesses who can afford the high living money can buy)?

And last, to bring the issue Hijab in this discussing, I find it very condescending to the women in the region when there are many important issues to take. A diversion of the many problems that face in the region.

By: Al Hussein

Al Hussein — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 16:00:01 +0000

Definitely, criticizing Saudi exploitation of religion does not mean that Iran doesn’t do the same, though not comparable to the damage the Saudi’s have inflicted on the region. I do agree on the Hizbullah point, women or men are not judged by how they look or what they wear or not wear. And the evidence of this is overwhelming. And not only the Hizb leaves them alone, but most importantly they are not judged…

By: qunfuz

qunfuz — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 22:14:29 +0000

That’s right, al-Hussein. Unfortunately Saudi oil money, control of media, and the alliance with the US have exported Wahhabi ideology beyong its Najdi heartland, polluting a lot of Sunni Islam elsewhere. Hamas’s alliance with Iran and Hizbullah keep these tendencies in check, but they are to be guarded against. I must also note that Iran does its own share of annoying religious policing, which is an insult to Islam. For instance, groups of young men stopping women to complain about their ‘bad hijab’. Surelt the unwanted attention of groups of young men is more of an affront to public modesty than some hair on show. Hizbullah in Lebanon is the model of Islamic adab when it comes to these things. Women wear what they like, and the Hizb leaves them alone.

By: Al Hussein

Al Hussein — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 21:41:54 +0000

I totally agree, but not surprised at all about the recent ‘Saudi’ like behaviours. The reason is that Hamas internal education includes religious texts authored by scholars who are considered by many to be the spiritual grandfathers of modern day Wahabism (like Ibn Taymiya). While many would look at those text from a historical point of view (i.e. geo-political circumstances at the time they were written) the Saudis didn’t do that (well, they pretty much didn’t do anything when it comes to active thinking!) and I’m afraid it looks like Hamas is going down that road too. I was really pleased when I noticed earlier in the decade the change from the word ‘Jew’ to the word ‘Zionist’ in Hamas public speeches but that is certainly not enough. In my opinion Hamas is closer today to Wahabism than to the Muslim brotherhood line of thinking that it used claim it adopts (or its leaders adopt).
Another point that I’d like to comment on, is that while anti-Semitism in the west is always associated with white supremacist ideologies that is not the case in the Middle East. Jewish minorities have in many cases flourished in Arabic and Islamic countries all over history and only in the recent history (last 60 years probably) did this idiotic semi anti-Semitism (that’s how’d call it, it’s very different from European anti-Semitism) appear which was mainly because of the Zionist crimes in the Arab world, so hate for the Zionist and the Israeli project manifested itself into a hate for the Jews, of course not to mention the strong Wahabi influence and their hate/racist way of thinking against followers of other faiths (specifically Shi’its and Jews) which spread with petrol money (and with American blessing) all over the Arab world (while I realize some people would say that Wahabism exists mainly in the Arabian Penenisula, my opinion is that it has influenced ubiquitously Muslims around the planet in some way or the other, even those who hate it!)