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Ties between al Qaeda and Hamas in Mideast are long and frequent
It shouldn't be any surprise that the two groups share ideology
- Dore Gold
Sunday, March 5, 2006
The ideological compatibility of Hamas with other jihadi movements in the Middle East raises the question of whether the new Hamas government that is about to be sworn in could create in the West Bank and Gaza a new center for global terrorism.
Russia certainly doesn't think so, because President Vladimir Putin invited a Hamas delegation to Moscow. France has supported the Russian move. And in many diplomatic circles, even in Washington, the argument is being made that Hamas can be brought into a political process and moderated. This is clearly being raised by individuals who have no idea what Hamas truly represents and why Israel has cut off all financial support to the new Palestinian government even before it is formally set up.
True, unlike al Qaeda, Hamas until now has not been involved in terrorist attacks against Western targets in the United States and Europe. It was left by those fostering the global jihad to focus its military efforts on Israel alone. Yet Hamas has maintained critical links with al Qaeda. And last week, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said he was concerned that al Qaeda had infiltrated the West Bank and Gaza.
Earlier evidence of links exists. In 2003, an Israeli ground unit in Gaza, seeking Hamas suspects, went into a school established by the founder of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin. Written materials that Israeli soldiers collected revealed the writings of a famous Saudi Wahhabi religious authority, Sheikh Sulaiman al-Ulwan. His ideological entry into the world of Hamas immediately raised eyebrows. After all, his name was featured in a famous Osama bin Laden video clip from December 2001, when the al Qaeda leader entertained his entourage on camera by re-enacting with his hands the hijacked aircraft slamming into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.
In that video, one Saudi messenger entered the scene at the end, telling bin Laden that he brought with him a "beautiful fatwa" from al-Ulwan, who had justified the mass murder of Americans. Now his ideas have penetrated the Palestinians as well. And his Islamic religious ruling justifying suicide bombing attacks appeared on the Hamas Web site along with those of other al Qaeda clerics.
Also, in 2003 and 2004, Israeli forces found Hamas posters that were distributed in West Bank cities that extolled the war being waged by Islamic militants in the Balkans, Chechnya and Kashmir. At the top was the portrait of Hamas leader Yassin alongside the portraits of bin Laden and Chechen militant leaders like Shamil Besayev, who took credit for the bloody attack on a Russian school in Beslan.
That Hamas and al Qaeda share some common ideological roots should not have come as any surprise. Hamas is an Arabic acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement. Article Two of the Hamas Covenant reads, "The Islamic Resistance Movement is one of the wings of Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine."
Throughout the Arab world, the Muslim Brotherhood is regarded as the common wellspring of all modern jihadi terrorism. Its spiritual leader, Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi, has been one of the pivotal figures in the globalization of the Danish cartoon rage as well as a supporter of fighting against U.S. forces in Iraq. Much of the al Qaeda leadership -- from bin Laden's mentor, Abdullah Azzam, to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of Sept. 11 -- started out with the Muslim Brotherhood.
Hamas and al Qaeda, as Muslim Brotherhood offshoots, have had a number of notable links.
Bin Laden sent emissaries to Hamas in September 2000 and January 2001; Israel arrested three Hamas militants in 2003 after they had returned from an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan. Al Qaeda operations chief Abu Zubaydah entered the world of terrorism through Hamas. And according to a 2004 FBI affidavit, al Qaeda recruited Hamas members to conduct surveillance against potential targets in the United States.
Hamas poses a unique danger in the world of global terrorism, because besides its past ties to the Sunni Islamic extremism of al Qaeda, Hamas is now erecting a strategic partnership with Shiite Iran. For years, Iran has funded Hamas, but now that relationship is about to be seriously upgraded.
Khaled Mashaal, head of the Hamas political bureau, declared at a recent news conference in Tehran that "Iran's role in the future of Palestine should continue and increase." He is clearly prepared to open up Gaza to Iranian influence and serve Iranian national interests.
Just recently, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah moved one of its command centers from its base in Beirut to the heart of Gaza. So now both of the major Islamist terrorist organizations have established themselves in this Hamas-dominated territory.
Hamas is not the PLO of 1993 that lost its collapsing Soviet patron, and hence had to moderate its behavior in order to obtain Western diplomatic and financial support. The patrons of Hamas today are pushing it in a completely opposite direction. And so Mashaal spoke openly recently about the defeat of the United States in Iraq and his opposition to Western policies across the entire globe, from Darfur to East Timor.
As the struggle between the West and Iran over its nuclear program heats up, Hamas could become an important instrument for any countermeasures that Iran seeks to take. Rather than accommodate Hamas, the West should seek ways to contain its spread. Palestinian society will eventually seek another path, but in the interim, it would be a cardinal error to assume that Hamas is about to change.
Dore Gold is Israel's former ambassador to the United Nations and the author of "Hatred's Kingdom," which details the links of al Qaeda with Saudi Arabia. Contact us at [email protected].
