Hamas: The Group’s Origins
“Hamas is an Arabic acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement”.
A long history of suicide bombings and other attacks on Israeli civilians and military targets has earned Hamas a well deserved reputation as a murderous terrorist organization. Hamas’s origins stretch back decades through the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine; and Hamas took it current shape during the early years of the intifada. Hamas was not only formed to resist an Israeli state, but also was firmly against the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s (PLO) dominance in the Palestinian National movement. By the late 1980’s the PLO’s role as the forerunner of Palestinian nationalism …show more content…
Al-Astal’s racist and hate filled preaching along with his glorification of terrorist violence led to him being banned from entering the United Kingdom in 2006.When Hamas gained control of Gaza in the elections of 2006, Al-Astal made the transition from preacher of hate to political firebrand as an elected member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. During his time as a Hamas legislator, Al-Astal was part of the 2009 effort by Hamas to prevent the United Nations Relief and Works Agency from including curriculum on the Holocaust in the preparatory schools it runs in Gaza. Yunis was quoted in an article in the Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report on September 2009 as saying, “Teaching Palestinian children about the Nazi murder of 6 million Jews was a “war crime,” According to the same article, Associated Press writers Diaa Hadid in Jerusalem, Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, Zeina Karam in Beirut and Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria contributed reporting,” would soon be conquered by Islam, just as Constantinople was. It then, he said, would become “an advanced post for the Islamic conquests, which will spread through Europe in its entirety, and then will turn to the two Americas, and even Eastern Europe.”
He was quoted as saying, “Very soon, Allah willing, Rome will be conquered, just like Constantinople was, as was prophesized by our Prophet Muhammad. “Today, Rome is the capital of the Catholics, or the Crusader