A Hamas network has been in operation nationwide in the USA since the 1980s, active in fundraising, education, and propaganda. Their propaganda is mainly against Israel, demonizing the Jews, portraying them as savages, racist, power hungry, and seeking world dominance.
In 1993 and mostly based in Chicago, Dallas, and Washington D.C., they established Islamic and pro-Palestinian committees and public organizations such as The Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), the financial arm represented by the Holy Land Foundation, HLF (previously the Occupied Land Foundation), and United Association for Studies and Research (UASR).
Throughout the years, fearing FBI investigations, they have used different tactics to hide their Hamas affiliation. According to leaks from secret meetings, they realized they needed to “deceive the enemy”, avoiding the use of Islamic and Hamas flags and violent language. They also understood the need to be “a front” in order to “camouflage” their Hamas association.
Since the 1960’s Palestinian members of Muslim Brotherhood networks in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank (Hamas is one of their wings) have been immigrating to the US as American university students or as immigrant refugees.
Since Hamas’s official foundation in 1987, it has increasingly organized itself, creating a relatively large set of public organizations devoted to activities such as funding, lobbying, education, and disseminating propaganda.
In 1997, the US government designated Hamas as a foreign terrorist organization, and since then the US authorities have conducted several activities to expose and shut down some of their multiple front organizations. US authorities have been able to deport some members and prosecute Hamas operatives.
Some of the organization leaders were prosecuted in 2001 for funneling approximately $12.4 million to Hamas.
Nevertheless, these networks and members have recovered and resumed their pro-Palestinian activities in various forms, mainly by political means.
A subgroup of the MB (Muslim Brotherhood) in the US which is made up mostly of members of Palestinian origin, the Palestine Committee issued a memorandum expressing their vision of the Jihad to liberate the Holy Land from the “defilement of the Jews that will continue until the Day of Resurrection. It is a Jihad for victory or martyrdom.”
The Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), the financial arm represented by the Occupied Land Fund (which later became the Holy Land Foundation, HLF), and the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR) are three US Muslim Brotherhood organizations, each operating in its individual fields but interconnected in their aim to aid Palestinian Hamas.
As internal Palestine Committee documents obtained by the FBI confirm, IAP and HLF constituted the main entities of the public-facing, pro-Hamas network. Musa Abu Marzook, a native of the Gaza Strip who obtained a doctorate in industrial engineering in Louisiana, was instrumental in the foundation and development of the Chicago-based IAP and was the head of the Hamas political wing in the US.
After being deported from the US for transferring $150,000 to HLF, Abu Marzook became one of Hamas’ most senior leaders.
Typical of the Muslim Brotherhood mode of operation, the Hamas network in the US, such as IAP, HLF, and other of their organizations, was founded and operated by a small group of Palestinians connected by kinship or business ties who shared the same MB and Hamas worldview. They were also connected to top Hamas leaders in the Middle East.
The organizations determined that fundraising was the most important activity in local Muslim communities. Most of the funds went to Hamas, with a small amount going to orphans and needy children.
Hence, the HLF organization could maintain its image of being a charitable organization. However, it was shut down by US authorities at the end of 2001 after the prosecution of its members for funneling to Hamas more than 12 million dollars.
The pro-Palestinian anti-Zionist organizations that supported Hamas were against peace treaties with Israel and actively spread this message and the need to support Hamas among the American Muslim youth.
They also stressed the need for their Committees to increase their “influence with Congress.” This could be achieved by infiltrating American media outlets, universities, and research centers, and also by working with organizations such as the American Muslim Alliance, the United Muslims of America, MPAC [Muslim Public Affairs Council].
“If American Muslims engage in political activism and public relations, we will have an entry point to pressure Congress and the American decision-makers.”
To this end, they developed a media strategy that would support Hamas without blatantly supporting violence. While supporting Hamas inwardly, a necessary tactic was to take a more moderate position outwardly for the American general public and policymakers.
They stressed the need for publishing messages in prominent American Newspapers in English geared to western audiences that differed from those they published in Arabic to Muslim audiences.
According to Islam and therefore, American Muslims, “war is deception.” “We are fighting our enemy with a kind heart… Deceive, camouflage, pretend that you’re leaving while you’re walking that way. Deceive your enemy.”
“Politics is a completion of war,” because of Hamas’ negative image, they realized the need for creating a new official US Islamic organization that would serve as a “cover for the existing Hamas-supporting organizations,” camouflaging extreme Islamic ideologies and avoiding use of Muslim terminology such as “Al Aqsa” or “Al Quds.” “It is hoped that it will become an official organization for political work. It’s headquarters will be in Washington D.C., as it represents the political aspect of the American front.”
That organization became the Washington D.C.-based Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR).
The reorganized US-Hamas network has become a large dynamic network functioning under the guise of a regular Islamic charity organization, dedicated to improve its American citizens’ conditions and fight so-called “Islamophobia.” Some network organizations focus on fundraising activities while others concentrate on political and educational activities.
Hamas in the Bible
The Hebrew word HAMAS, (which means violence, malicious, cruel) first appears in Genesis after the fall of Adam and Eve when sin entered the world and spread through all the earth.
Genesis 6:11: Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with HAMAS (violence).
Genesis 6:13: Then God said to Noah, “the end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with HAMAS.
In Ezekiel, Hamas appears in connection with the fall of Satan:
Ezekiel 28:16: By the abundance of your trade you were internally filled with HAMAS (violence), and you sinned. Therefore, I have cast you as profane from the mountain of God, and I have destroyed you, O covering cherub.
More scriptures with the Hebrew word Hamas:
Exodus 23:1: You shall not bear a false report; do not join your hand with a wicked man to be a HAMAS (malicious) witness.
Isaiah 53:9: His grave was assigned with the rich…Because he had done no HAMAS (violence) nor was there any deceit in his mouth.
Isaiah 59:6b: Their works are works of iniquity, and acts of HAMAS (violence) are in their hands.
Psalm 11:5: the Lord tests the righteous, but the His soul hates the wicked and the one who loves HAMAS (violence).
Psalm 18:48: He delivers me from my enemies. You also lift me up above those who rise against me; from the HAMAS (violent) man.
Psalm 25:19: Consider my enemies, for they are many; and they hate me with HAMAS (cruel) hatred.
Psalm 74:20: for the dark places of the earth are full of the haunts of HAMAS (cruelty).
Habakkuk 2:17: for the HAMAS (violence) done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, and the devastation of its beasts by which you terrified them, because of human bloodshed and HAMAS done to their land, to the town and all its inhabitants.
Zephaniah 1:9: In that same day I will punish all those who leap over the threshold, who fill their master’s house with HAMAS (violence) and deceit.
Ezekiel 7: 23: Make the chain, for the land is full of bloody crimes and the city is full of HAMAS (violence).
Ezekiel 45:9: Thus says the Lord God, enough, you princes of Israel, put away HAMAS (violence and destruction), and practice justice and righteousness.
Amos 3:10: But they do not know how to do what is right,” declares the Lord, “these who hoard up HAMAS (violence) and devastation in their citadels.”
Isaiah 60:18: HAMAS will not be heard again in your land.
Other scriptures include:
Psalm 58:3, Proverbs 3:32, Prov. 8:36, Prov. 10:6, Micah 6:12
Image from Unsplash, by Luke Braswell
