Some video from Hamas' TV station

[AzDesertRat]

Having a resistance group which gets its "authority" from religion does not make it a religious group. If you listen to parts of the republican debates, you could make the same argument that the republican party is a religious group and not a political one. While politics and religion are intertwined in this part of the world, having foundations in religion and being a religious group are not the same. Hamas can be paralleled with Hezbullah in Lebanon. Both of these groups also provide a large social service networks, but are not considered religious groups by the people around them.

Lack of knowledge and perspective distorts views. I have lived in the middle east for a while and believe that I have a better understanding of these nuances in middle eastern politcs. Religion can't be unwoven from most of society, but to make the basis that these groups are religious and not political arms is unfairly painting everything with a broad brush under the guise of religion. People will use religious reference to strengthen and bring people to it, but that happens everywhere. Do you paint the Christian Coalition as representative of all of Christianity or just a few people with shared beliefs on what they believe Christianity should be?

It is a slippery slope--one that western countries have a hard time understanding and coming to grips with. And ftr, I believe they are nuts, but it is this zeal which people are drawn to because they have so little to hold on to (at least according to them).

[Goater]

I acknowledged that politics and religion are intertwined frequently in the middle east, however i just dont agre with you re Hamas. Just because an organisation uses politics as the appropriate short term way to gain power dosnt suddenly change it from a religious organisation to a political one. They could certainly be described as both, but they were formed as a religious movement, all their activities are dictated by religion and their ideology is religious.

As for "painting everything unfairly with a broad brush", I neved did any such thing. We are discussing Hamas and Hamas alone. Most religious Muslim Palestinians support Hamas but they also have support from secular Palestinians - certainly much of their vote in the elections was from secular Palestinians fed up with the secular Fatah. I never said hamas was representative of all Islam - of course they are not. I dont know anything about the Christian coalition.

Anyway, I would accept that they are a religious political organisation - I think we agree that they do incorporate both.

[Gamblor]

Let's use what hamas considers itself:

A religious organization with political ambitions.