Re: Those who do not obey shall be destroyed

On Mon, 24 Sep 2001, Kendall Clark wrote:
[snip]

> 1. Yes, yes, Bush clearly annihilates the very possibility of
> non-Jewish, i.e. Arab, Israelis, which is stupid and evil; but is it
> true that it is *no* group or country's policy to rid Palestine of the
> Jewish State? That has been a goal at times. Is it no longer even
> Hamas's goal, for example?
[snip]

Yes, I'm really befuddled by his rhetoric here. I don't know. I mean, I
already elided from Israel to Jewish Israelis.

I am doing a bit of research on Hamas. Is Hamas a terrorist group,
even? They certainly engage in some *nasty* action.

http://www.palestine-info.com/hamas/communiques/comm_text/1999/8_12_99.htm

"Therefore, we, in the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), would like to
stress the following principles: 

First: The aims to which the blessed popular Intifada were launched were
to remove the Occupation, liberate the land, clean the holy places, and to
build our independent State on the whole soil of our Palestinian
homeland. These aims still exist; they did not change or come to an
end. Therefore, we are requested to continue our Jihad and resistance
until we achieve our goals."

Hmm. And they are Holocost revisionists:

http://www.palestine-info.com/hamas/communiques/comm_text/2000/Feb00/3_feb_00.htm

"""Commenting on the international conference in Stockholm on the alleged
Holocaust of the Jews during the Second World War, a responsible source in
the Islamic Resistance Movement - Hamas - made the following statement: 
The convening of this conference clearly serves the Zionist aim of
falsifying history and obscuring the truth that the so-called Holocaust is
nothing but a baseless, fictitious claim. This malicious conference seeks
to reinforce a guilt complex vis--vis the Jews in Europe in general and in
Germany in particular, to facilitate the continued fleecing of the world
in support of the Zionist entity's expansionism and aggression. Creating
great fantasies about an alleged "crime" that never happened while
ignoring the millions of Europeans who died or suffered at the hands of
the Nazis during the Second World War clearly exposes the face of racist
Zionism with its belief in the superiority of the Jewish race over all
other peoples. """

Of a rather strange sort, no less. It's unclear whether they think claims
of Jewish deaths are exaggerated (i.e., that what happened didn't happen
at all) or whether it's just that they think that other groups that
suffered at the hands of the Nazi's are ignored or downplayed in standard
accounts. Or, perhaps more likely, both.

http://www.palestine-info.com/hamas/communiques/comm_text/2001/18_sep_01.htm

"""1- In the light of the recent spate of explosions in America, the Hamas
Movement would like to affirm that it is against violence being committed
against innocent civilians anywhere in the world especially that the
Palestinian people can understand the suffering more than many nations as
victims of constant Zionist terrorism.

2- We urge all countries to direct their potentials and efforts towards
fighting the most dangerous terrorism in the world and the most organized
and threatening to global peace and security namely Zionist terrorism
(state terrorism). Such terrorism is represented in occupying Palestinian
lands and practicing the most brutal forms of repression, humiliation and
terrorism against the Palestinian people making use of American weapons
and political cover.

3- We would like to stress that the Palestinian peoples resistance of
Zionist occupation is a legitimate one that could never be associated with
terrorism. We would also like to warn here of the Zionist enemys attempt
to mix up the cards and rally international backing to strikes against the
Palestinian, Arab and Islamic peoples at the pretext of fighting terrorism
and to distract the attention away from the Palestinian peoples demands
for freedom, liberation and independence."""

Of course, who is an *innocent* civilian? That is surely something played
fast and loose on all sides.

http://www.terrorism.com/terrorism/HAMAS.shtml

"""As of this writing, HAMAS and its armed militant wing known as Iz
el-Deen, carries out continued bombings (including a large number of
suicide bombings), assassinations, and kidnappings of those opposed to its
existence. Primary targets are Jewish settlers as they are usually unarmed
and traveling in buses. This makes them all the more appealing as they
present the greatest opportunity for the infliction of casualties."""

Are Jewish settlers still "usually unarmed"?

http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/mideast/hamas.htm

"Article Six:
The Islamic Resistance Movement is a distinguished Palestinian movement,
whose allegiance is to Allah, and whose way of life is Islam. It strives
to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine, for under the
wing of Islam followers of all religions can coexist in security and
safety where their lives, possessions and rights are concerned. In the
absence of Islam, strife will be rife, oppression spreads, evil prevails
and schisms and wars will break out."

Promising, but article seven:

"Moreover, if the links have been distant from each other and if
obstacles, placed by those who are the lackeys of Zionism in the way of
the fighters obstructed the continuation of the struggle, the Islamic
Resistance Movement aspires to the realisation of Allah's promise, no
matter how long that should take. The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant
him salvation, has said: 

"The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews
(killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The
stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me,
come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of
tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the
Jews." (related by al-Bukhari and Moslem)."

Not promising at all. Horrid.

"Article Twenty:
Moslem society is a mutually responsible society. The Prophet, prayers and
greetings be unto him, said: "Blessed are the generous, whether they were
in town or on a journey, who have collected all that they had and shared
it equally among themselves." 

The Islamic spirit is what should prevail in every Moslem society. The
society that confronts a vicious enemy which acts in a way similar to
Nazism, making no differentiation between man and woman, between children
and old people - such a society is entitled to this Islamic spirit. Our
enemy relies on the methods of collective punishment. He has deprived
people of their homeland and properties, pursued them in their places of
exile and gathering, breaking bones, shooting at women, children and old
people, with or without a reason. The enemy has opened detention camps
where thousands and thousands of people are thrown and kept under
sub-human conditions. Added to this, are the demolition of houses,
rendering children orphans, meting cruel sentences against thousands of
young people, and causing them to spend the best years of their lives in
the dungeons of prisons. 

In their Nazi treatment, the Jews made no exception for women or
children. Their policy of striking fear in the heart is meant for
all. They attack people where their breadwinning is concerned, extorting
their money and threatening their honour. They deal with people as if they
were the worst war criminals. Deportation from the homeland is a kind of
murder. 

To counter these deeds, it is necessary that social mutual responsibility
should prevail among the people. The enemy should be faced by the people
as a single body which if one member of it should complain, the rest of
the body would respond by feeling the same pains."

Hmm. But Hamas doesn't always likewise distinguish appropriately.

And Article Twenty-Two is pure classic anti-semitic conspiracy theory.

And Article Twenty-Eight picks it up:

"Article Twenty-Eight:
The Zionist invasion is a vicious invasion. It does not refrain from
resorting to all methods, using all evil and contemptible ways to achieve
its end. It relies greatly in its infiltration and espionage operations on
the secret organizations it gave rise to, such as the Freemasons, The
Rotary and Lions clubs, and other sabotage groups. All these
organizations, whether secret or open, work in the interest of Zionism
and according to its instructions. They aim at undermining societies,
destroying values, corrupting consciences, deteriorating character and
annihilating Islam. It is behind the drug trade and alcoholism in all its 
kinds so as to facilitate its control and expansion."

Eek! The Freemasons! Worse, *Rotary* clubs!

Article Thirty-One:

"Under the wing of Islam, it is possible for the followers of the three
religions - Islam, Christianity and Judaism - to coexist in peace and
quiet with each other. Peace and quiet would not be possible except under
the wing of Islam. Past and present history are the best witness to that. 

It is the duty of the followers of other religions to stop disputing the
sovereignty of Islam in this region, because the day these followers
should take over there will be nothing but carnage, displacement and
terror. Everyone of them is at variance with his fellow-religionists, not
to speak about followers of other religionists. Past and present history
are full of examples to prove this fact."

Hmm. Either you are under us or oppressing us? I think not. Bush, I think,
pointed out that Muslims in the US (and other countries) live unmolested
(er...ok, mostly).

Well, Hamas is seriously confused.

Hmm. Would it *help* for them to clean up the more extreme anti-semitic
bits?

Cheers,
Bijan.