The Political Ideology of Hamas

A Grassroots Perspective

Michael Irving Jensen

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris
• Year: 2008
• ISBN:
  9780857715746
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Nationalism & Patriotism
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Hamas is typically portrayed in the West as nothing more than a terrorist organisation. Yet as Michael Irving Jensen discovers, it also provides medical clinics, kindergartens, schools, elderly care and football training to the population of the West Bank and Gaza. Using a combination of interviews and participant observation, Jensen examines how these forms of social engagement relate to the organisation's official ideology, which is still characterised by extremism and violence. "The Political Ideology of Hamas" is the first attempt to provide a multidimensional picture of this organisation by looking at how it is perceived by the leadership, the rank-and-file, and the ordinary Palestinians who come into contact with it. By comparing the rhetoric of the leadership with the social reality, Jensen opens up new ways of understanding Islamist movements in general.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• 1. Islamism in Palestine and the Quest for the Sound Muslim
• 2. The Context: the Development of Palestinian Islamism and the Relationship with the Palestinian Authority during the 'Old Order'
• 3. The Islamists' Understanding of Islam: Their View of History and the Need to Engage in Civil Society
• 4. Football and Islamism in the Gaza Strip
• 5. The Islamic Universality of Gaza, the Students and Islamism
• 6. Conclusion
• Appendix: Notes on the Fieldwork and Methodology
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Glossary
• Index