In the wake of the savage HAMAS attack against Israel on the morning of 7 October 2023, many are waking up to its genocidal intent against Jews. Understandably, there are memories of pogroms past, of the horrific toll of the Holocaust, and references to “Nazis” and the “Einsatzgruppen”.
This time, though, as Israel prepares to do what must be done to wipe out the HAMAS presence in Gaza, we need to understand exactly who and what it is: an Islamic terror group, dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish State of Israel and the killing of as many Jews as possible. We might start with the HAMAS Covenant, published in 1988, the year that HAMAS was formally established. Its opening lines tell us exactly who HAMAS is and why it exists:
“ISRAEL WILL EXIST AND WILL CONTINUE TO EXIST UNTIL ISLAM WILL OBLITERATE IT, JUST AS IT OBLITERATED OTHERS BEFORE IT” (THE MARTYR, IMAM HASSAN ALBANNA, OF BLESSED MEMORY).
We’ll note here that this quote is from Hassan al-Banna, the 1928 founder of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. And here is the motto of the Muslim Brotherhood:
‘ALLAH IS OUR OBJECTIVE; THE PROPHET IS OUR LEADER; THE QURAN IS OUR LAW; JIHAD IS OUR WAY; DYING IN THE WAY OF ALLAH IS OUR HIGHEST ASPIRATION.’
Why this fanatical hatred? We find the answer in the Qur’an, in the Islamic doctrine of Sacred Space, and the laws of dhimmitude. The Qur’an, believed by Muslims to be the literal word of Allah (the Arabic word for “God”), lays the foundation for HAMAS’ visceral Jew-hatred.
THOSE WHO REJECT (TRUTH) AMONG THE PEOPLE OF THE BOOK [CHRISTIANS AND JEWS]…WILL BE IN HELL-FIRE…THEY ARE THE WORST OF CREATURES. (Q 98:6)
BUT WHEN THE FORBIDDEN MONTHS ARE PAST, THEN FIGHT AND KILL THE INFIDELS WHEREVER YE FIND THEM… (Q 9:5)
CURSES WERE PRONOUNCED ON THOSE AMONG THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL WHO REJECTED FAITH [ISLAM]…(Q 5:78)
The HAMAS Covenant also includes this quote from the hadith collection of Sahih Muslim:
JUDGMENT DAY WILL NOT COME UNTIL YOU FIGHT THE JEWS AND KILL THEM. THE JEWS WILL HIDE BEHIND STONES AND TREES, AND THE STONES AND TREES WILL CALL: OH, MUSLIM, OH SERVANT OF ALLAH, THERE IS A JEW BEHIND ME, COME AND KILL HIM…
Then there is the historical record, which informs us of the Islamic institution of dhimmitude and the doctrine of Sacred Space. As the armies of Islam overran formerly Christian and Jewish lands in the 7th century, there were too many to kill or convert; and so, beginning with the 638 CE Pact of Umar (the 2nd Caliph), the institution of the Ahl al-Dhimma was established to subjugate Christians and Jews to a rigid set of rules that would relegate them to a legally enforced inferior status intended to be so onerous as to compel them to convert to Islam.
Along with dhimmitude, the Muslim conquests developed a concept known as “Sacred Space”. That is, the Dar al-Islam (House of Islam) must conquer all the Dar al-Harb (House of War) because according to Islam, the entire world belongs to Islam and must be conquered and subjugated to it. Once conquered and/or occupied, such land is waqf, forever endowed to Muslims by Allah. Any such waqf, if ever lost to Islam, must be fought for by jihad until it is re-conquered.
As we look at the modern-day Jewish State of Israel, we can see that the Jewish people not only are no longer dhimmis but have established a powerful country in their ancestral homeland. These remarkable accomplishments are intolerable to the forces of jihad and help to explain why HAMAS and other Islamic terror groups like it have been so intent upon wiping Israel from the face of the map.
This column was originally published at The United West
The views expressed in CCNS member articles are not necessarily the views or positions of the entire CCNS. They are the views of the authors, who are members of the CCNS.
