The Three-Legged Stool of Hamas

Mohammad commanded his followers to be illiterate and impoverished. It is written in the very books that Muslims read and follow to the letter.

Allah loves illiterate people and hates educated people and he had promised the first entry to Paradise to the illiterate Muslims and the last entry to the educated Muslims. - Sunaan Ibn Majah V:4290

And Hamas is taking this idea to the nth degree. For in Gaza illiteracy and poverty are hand in hand. Although the average man and woman is literate, this rate is falling. And poverty is at an all time high. Hamas blames the poverty on Israel, for not allowing the people of Gaza to work in Israel.

The number of households in the Gaza Strip below the poverty line has reached an unprecedented high of nearly 52 percent, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said in a report published recently.

"The number of households in Gaza below the consumption poverty line continued to grow, reaching 51.8% in 2007, despite significant amounts of emergency and humanitarian assistance," UNRWA said in a statement late last week. Meanwhile, poverty rates in the West Bank fell to just over 19%.

The report, based on figures provided by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), said that "the real average unemployment rate in the occupied Palestinian territory (as a whole) remained amongst the highest in the world at 29.5%," with Gaza reaching "an unprecedented high of 45.3%" during the second half of last year.

The report added that Palestinian youth was most affected by the fledgling economy, with members of the 15-24 age group "least likely to gain employment and the most prone to increased unemployment."

"If you deprive young people of an economic future, you deprive them of hope and when hope vanishes, what is left? How better to prevent despair and economic misery taking hold of a whole generation than to re-open Gaza's borders?" said UNRWA Spokesman, Christopher Gunness.

The report concluded that "Israeli imposed movement restrictions in the occupied Palestinian territory, whose population is estimated to have grown by about one third since 1999, have resulted in considerable regression over the past eight years and remain the main barrier to economic recovery and development."

If the people of Gaza are impoverished they should look to their leaders who have led a campaign of aggression against their neighbor Israel. Israel would open their borders, but time and time again the people of Gaza have used such occasions to attack Israelis. Thus the poverty in Gaza. For instead of building a nation, Hamas has spent the millions of dollars donated by the EU and US for weapons and rockets. Millions of dollars have been siphoned off to Swiss bank accounts for the use of Hamas leaders in their luxurious lifestyles. Why is it that the leaders of Hamas send their children to schools in Great Britain and Europe instead of giving them a good Muslim education in the Madrassas? Why is it that the leaders of Hamas live in palatial homes while their followers live in squalor? It is because like other Muslim leaders and petty dictators of Africa and South America, the leaders of Hamas only care about themselves and not their people. They only care about their own creature comforts and not about building a nation. Weapons of war do not make a nation, infrastructure and jobs do. Homes, hospitals and schools do. The willingness to work at national development does. Firing rockets into your neighbor doesn't.

But to Hamas, poverty and ignorance is just one weapon. Censorship is another. For they hate all criticism of their organization. While they cannot control what Israeli newspapers and other outlets of the media says about them, they can control what is written about them in Gaza.

Hamas' security forces on Monday banned the distribution of three Fatah-affiliated newspapers in the Gaza Strip as Palestinian journalists accused both parties of waging a campaign of intimidation against the local media.

Two Palestinian journalists have been arrested by Hamas in the past few days: Sawah Abu Seif, a freelance cameraman; and Omar al-Farra, director of the Palestinian Authority's official Wafa news agency in the southern Gaza Strip.

In addition, several Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip told The Jerusalem Post they had received death threats from Hamas operatives over the past few days. The journalists said they had been warned against publishing material in support of Fatah.

"Many reporters are afraid to write or speak about the recent Hamas-Fatah standoff in the Gaza Strip," complained one journalist. "Our work under Hamas has become extremely dangerous."

Control the press and only let your propaganda be heard. Joseph Goebbels knew this well as does every dictatorship in the world. Thus the only voice that will be heard in Gaza will be that of Hamas. But this is exceptable in Islam. To criticize any of the Koran or Mohammad is a capital offense in Muslim nations. As it is becoming in Gaza.

Finally, the third leg of which Hamas is now getting ready to sit upon. Torture. In Civilized nations, the police are refrained by law and custom from utilizing torture. But in the Muslim world torture is permitted.

Remember Thy Lord inspired the angels (with the message): "I am with you: give firmness to the believers, I will instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers, Smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger tips of them." - Koran 8:12

The only reward of those who make war upon Allah and His messenger and strive after corruption in the land will be that they will be killed or crucified, or have their hands and feet and alternate sides cut off, or will be expelled out of the land. Such will be their degradation in the world, and in the Hereafter theirs will be an awful doom; Save those who repent before ye overpower them. For know that Allah is Forgiving, merciful. - Koran 5:33-34

Thus Mohammad tells his followers to torture and hold for ransom their opponents. And Hamas does this on a daily basis.

Two human rights groups on Monday decried widespread mistreatment and torture in Palestinian jails - an issue taking on fresh urgency with a flare-up of Hamas-Fatah violence over the weekend in the Gaza Strip.

The groups' reports looked at human rights violations during the past year, since Hamas wrested control of Gaza from the forces of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

More than 1,000 people were detained by each side, Al Haq estimated, even before a roundup of some 200 Fatah supporters in Gaza over the weekend, following a bombing that killed five Hamas members.

An estimated 20 to 30 percent of the detainees suffered torture, including severe beatings and being tied up in painful positions, said Al Haq director Shawan Jabarin, citing sworn statements from 150 detainees.

"The use of torture is dramatically up," added Fred Abrahams, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, a US-based group that is releasing its own report on abuse later this week.

Human Rights Watch said Abbas's forces need to come under closer scrutiny because of the massive international support they enjoy.

Hamas now is sitting on a three-legged stool. Each leg is made of rotten wood. They are the legs of poverty, censorship and torture. Three ideals that are embedded into the very heart of Islam and promoted by Imans the world over.

Thus making Hamas the very epitome of Islam!