Since the late 1960s, Islamist movements arose as a response to the failure of nationalism, the pressures of Westernization, and social problems in the Arab World. They tried to demonstrate themselves as the most significant ideological, social, and political trend.
While most discussions about Islamism and Islamic extremism tend to paint Muslims with a broad brush, experts believe that there are deep and significant differences between the current Islamist groups.
The Case of Al-Qaeda and Hamas
Al- Qaeda and the Palestinian Islamist Resistance Movement -Hamas were established in the period of 1987-1989 as offshoots of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), a political party set up by Hassan Al Banna in Egypt in 1928. MB considered Islam to have an essential political and social character that needed to be reasserted in the face of the societal ills that had come to the Islamic world with secularism. (The Society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt, p.28)
Despite the fact that Al-Qaeda and Hamas share common roots, the ideological differences between the two movements are acute. In its article “Four Shades of Green” published on August 2006, The Economist highlights the main differences between the two groups:
“Al-Qaeda is first and foremost a movement which sponsors and co-ordinates acts of violence, not just in the Islamic heartland but anywhere it can hit back at the western enemy. In the ideology of the Brotherhood, including Hamas, resort to violence is justified only in the exceptional circumstances of “self-defense” and “occupation”conditions which are deemed to exist in Israel, the West Bank and American-occupied Iraq.”
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