The Nizkor Project: Remembering the Holocaust (Shoah)

Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Muslim Brotherhood:
Islamic Extremists and the Threat to America


INTRODUCTlON

'Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.'
The Martyr Imam Hasan al-Bana, of blessed memory." [1]
Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement, HAMAS

"Kill so many Jews that they will eventually abandon Palestine."[2]
Ibrahim Sarbal, Leader of Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine - Al-Aqsa Brigades

"Six million descendants of monkeys [i.e., Jews] [3]
now rule in all the nations of the world, but their day, too, will come. Allah!
Kill them all, do not leave even one!"
[4]
Imam Sheik Ahmad Ibrahim, HAMAS leader, in a sermon at the Palestine Mosque in Gaza.

Throughout the Middle East, from North Africa to Iran, extremist voices are being raised in the name of Islam, demanding political power and the destruction of Israel. Inside of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, the echoes of this phenomenon have produced two movements, HAMAS and the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, both of which seek to undermine the Jewish State from within.

HAMAS, the Arabic acronym of the Islamic Resistance Movement in Palestine, officially came into being in August of 1988. Founded as an alternative to the secular Palestine Liberation Organization, HAMAS offers its activists the total rejection of Israel together with absolute salvation.

The acronym HAMAS, taken from the Arabic Harakat al-Muqawama al-lslamiya - Islamic Resistance Movement, literally denotes "zeal" or "enthusiasm." The HAMAS Covenant, however, interprets its name to mean "strength and bravery."

HAMAS is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, which was founded in Egypt in 1928 by Sheik Hasan al-Bana; and subsequently spread throughout the Arab world. The Brotherhood shares with HAMAS a complete rejection of Western values and Communism and calls for the establishment of a pan-Islamic state founded on the basis of shari'a, or Islamic law. To attain this objective, the Brotherhood promoted the concept of an ideal Muslim state to be ruled by a Caliph, the title bestowed upon the successors of the Prophet Muhammad at the beginning of the Islamic empire.

The two movements similarly share the view that Israel is the theological archenemy of Islam; and, in this capacity, Israel acts as the agent of the West in the region.

Throughout its history, the Muslim Brotherhood has been supportive of the Palestinian cause. During the anti-Jewish riots in British Mandatory Palestine of 1936 and 1939 the Brotherhood supported Haj Amin al-Husseini,[5] the Mufti of Jerusalem and leader of the Arab Higher Committee. Brotherhood members were sent from Egypt to participate as fighters together with the Palestinian Arabs, an effort that was repeated during the 1948 war.[6] Volunteers from both the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood movement and its newly formed counterpart among Palestinian Arabs fought to prevent the establishment of the State of Israel.


The original plaintext version of this file is available via ftp.

[ Index ]

Home ·  Site Map ·  What's New? ·  Search Nizkor

© The Nizkor Project, 1991-2012

This site is intended for educational purposes to teach about the Holocaust and to combat hatred. Any statements or excerpts found on this site are for educational purposes only.

As part of these educational purposes, Nizkor may include on this website materials, such as excerpts from the writings of racists and antisemites. Far from approving these writings, Nizkor condemns them and provides them so that its readers can learn the nature and extent of hate and antisemitic discourse. Nizkor urges the readers of these pages to condemn racist and hate speech in all of its forms and manifestations.