Hamas Does Not Speak for Islam

The Hamas-led surprise attack on Israel, Hamas’s barbarism, its inhumanity, its savagery, its obvious delight in torture and killing, its emphasis on degrading women, has been shocking in the extreme.    

One can argue about who is at fault for the conditions in Gaza, whether Israelis have contributed to the sense of hostility, whether conditions there are the result of necessary or unnecessary Israeli precautions, whether Arabs in Gaza are their own worst enemies in how they have chosen to rule themselves and their stance toward Israel, or whether their situation is somehow beyond their control.  One can argue about the causes of the war they have now started.  But war, having been chosen, has its own boundaries which Hamas and its followers have simply chosen to ignore.  Many of us have begun to wonder whether the cruelty with which this war has been fought is inherent in Muslim culture.

I have been troubled by this same speculation.  

My friend Raheel Raza, the Pakistani-Canadian founder of Council for Muslims Facing Tomorrow and the Council of Muslims Against Antisemitism, seems to have read my mind, sending me a number of statements by prominent Muslim leaders, in her words, “debunking the Islamist ideology and recognizing the truth.”  

Mohammed Rizwan, a journalist, writes: “The unprovoked aggression unleashed by the Hamas-Hezbollah terrorist-infiltrators inside Israel stunned the world.  The well-planned and well-coordinated attack by Iranian backed Hezbollah and Hamas combined is a daredevil attempt to derail the impending Israeli-Saudi peace deal and a desperate bid to thwart the peace process in the Middle East underlined by the Abraham Accords.  Thoughts and prayers for the victims of this abhorrent act of aggression.”

Noor Dahri, executive director, Islamic Theology of Counter Terrorism (UK), writes “I strongly condemn these heinous crimes by Hamas against Israel.  It is time for the international community to stand with Israel and stop Hamas aggression for good.” 

“This attack,” writes Haras Rafiq, senior research fellow at the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, “is a deliberate tactic employed by Hamas and its backers to delegitimize peace and derail ongoing negotiations.  We must not let the terrorists win!”

Dalia al-Aqidi, an Iraqi-American journalist, notes that “Iran-backed Palestinian terrorists launched an invasion against our ally Israel committing ghastly war crimes.  They are celebrating their slaughter in Gaza and the West Bank.  We must fully support Israel’s right to defend itself and stand strong on the front lines against terrorism.  I stand unequivocally with Israel.”

“Today,” writes Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, Founder and President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, “we are all Israelis.”

“Today,” writes Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, founder and president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, “we are all Israelis.”

These quotations from Muslim leaders remind us that our enemy is neither Islam nor its adherents. We must be careful not to generalize from the viciousness of particular individuals and groups.  While there are amongst our enemies those who call for the killing and degrading of Jews and the obliteration of Israel, we — myself included — must understand that this is not a war of Islam against Jewry. As these quotations show, our Muslim friends stand firmly with us.  As Dr. Jasser writes, “we are all Israelis.”

 Gregory R. Smith is an attorney in Los Angeles and president of Westwood Kehilla.