Hamas lawmaker on Islam and society

This is an interesting and significant short public exposition, in English, of the views of a Hamas legislator on how he sees the role of Islam in society. (And actually, on a bit more than that, too.)
It’s from the online publication Bitterlemons-international, which is a joint project of the Israeli analyst Yossi Alpher and the (outgoing) PA Minister of Planning, Ghassan Khatib.Until now, Hamas has refused to participate in any of the joint Palestinian-Israeli “people to people” type projects that have proliferated since about 1990. I imagine that reluctance will continue. But it’s interesting that Yehya Mousa contibuted this to BLI.

13 thoughts on “Hamas lawmaker on Islam and society”

  1. Dear Helena
    I just read the pathetic attacks agaisnt you in today’s Daily Star’s article about the Lebanese Blogosphere.
    I think you should write to the Daily Star and respond to Tony Badran’s phalangist propaganda and stupid allegations against you.
    Best

  2. I too rushed right over here after reading that Helena is a cheerleader for Hizbullah!!! No doubt others will follow.

  4. >We also believe that before punitive measures are carried out, the basic necessities of life must be provided. We cannot talk about cutting off the hand of a thief if we have not provided a good economic life for the people. >We also believe that before punitive measures are carried out, the basic necessities of life must be provided. We cannot talk about cutting off the hand of a thief if we have not provided a good economic life for the people. < No doubt. And before accused adulteresses are stones to death, they must first me married.

  5. [“Abu Khalil is a hypocrite. He kills us with the Edward Said anti-essentialization argument but insists on some essentialized core of Lebanese identity,” says Badran, speaking over the phone from New York. “Then there is the Hizbullah cheerleader Helena Coban. They are populists and third worldists. They identify Shiites as poor and Christians as rich. These notions of left and right are not relevant in Lebanon. And this whole obsession with the Phalangists – get over it. These people are stuck between 1982 and 1984.”]
    What a horrible pile of trash! “Anti-essentialization” WTF is this?! Said can be called anti-orientalist, but I don’t have skightest idea what this “anti-essentialization” is all about.
    The only way to call Helena a cheerleader of Hisballah is to take Hisballah for some sort of cursing, only then it could make any sense!
    What is worse, this is obviously done on purpose, the author is certainly not ignorant about the ME.

  6. I think Helena should respond to this stupid fellow Tony Badran. He is resorting to insults and baseless charachter assassination. Badran has a typical ultra-right wing militia mentality. They don’t have arguments, so they insult and bully people.

  7. Malek I’m pretty sure Badran is neither Maronite nor a Phalangist. This discussion is rather far off topic isn’t it? I can’t imagine Helena would descend to this crass mudslinging, even in her own defense.

  9. Now reconcile that with the Hamas website showing video messages of two Hamas suicide terrorists messages.
    “My message to the loathed Jews is that there is no god but Allah, we will chase you everywhere! We are a nation that drinks blood, and we know that there is no blood better than the blood of Jews. We will not leave you alone until we have quenched our thirst with your blood, and our children’s thirst with your blood. We will not leave until you leave the Muslim countries.”
    A second terrorist says:
    “In the name of Allah, we will destroy you, blow you up, take revenge against you, [and] purify the land of you, pigs that have defiled our country… This operation is revenge against the sons of monkeys and pigs.”
    “I dedicate this wedding [i.e. death for Allah] to all of those who have chosen Allah as their goal, the Quran as their constitution and the Prophet [Muhammad] as their role model. Jihad is the only way to liberate Palestine – all of Palestine – from the impurity of the Jews.”
    The message to one of the terrorist’s mother was instruction for her to be joyous over his death and his “wedding” with the “Maidens of Paradise.”
    “My dear mother, you who have cared for me, today I sacrifice my life to be your intercessor [on Judgment Day]. O my love and soul, wipe your tears, don’t be saddened. In the name of Allah, I’ve achieve all that I’ve aspired. Don’t let me see you sad on my wedding day with the Maidens of Paradise. So be happy and not sad, because in the name of Allah, after death is merciful Allah’s paradise.”
    Included in the clip is the farewell scene between the mother and terrorist son while she helps him don his military vest. In the background one can hear the lyrics, “My dear mother, don’t cry over us.”
    http://www.pmw.org.il/asx/PMW_Hamas_suicide.asx

  11. The Yehya Mousa piece is propaganda similar in scope to Bush’s State of the Union Address and should be read with a similar level of suspicion. I note that the Islamic notions of dhimmitude and jihad are not featured in the article.
    The peace and justice the article refers to applies only to people who are Muslims, of course. All others are legally second class citizens.
    And if you are looking at the article for a path from here to peace you won’t find it. All it says is that there will be peace after an Islamic victory over Israel, and a replacement for Israel’s culture and civilization. Note that Israel does not contemplate the reverse, the elimination of Palestinian civilization and replacing it with it’s own.
    Basically it amounts to: “After we win the war there will be utopia”. We’ve heard that before.
    It is good to know that “Islam works hard to move mankind away from war and to defuse conflicts with dialogue.” So the bloody conflicts between Muslims and the Phillipines, between Muslims and India, between Muslims and the Russians, between the Muslims and the rest of “Yugoslavia”, between Muslims and Israel, and between Muslims and the US are all unfortunate failures of this policy of Universal peace. We can say with confidence, however, that there is no conflict between the Muslims and the Eskimos (Inuit). At least not yet.
    Do not let the material weakness of the Islamic world hide from you it’s essentially Imperialistic philosophy and practice.

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