Some video from Hamas' TV station

[Gamblor]

Possible NSFW

Scroll down to the video and press play.

Yes yes yes its all because of the occupation.

[Ron Burgundy]

Am I on some kind of FBI watch list now that I opened this site?

[Gamblor]

[ QUOTE ]
Am I on some kind of FBI watch list now that I opened this site?

[/ QUOTE ]

This is Israel's largest daily newspaper, Ma'ariv, enjoy your future life as a beneficiary of the Jewish cabal controlling the media etc.

[Goater]

They have probably been watching too much mickey mouse...

They hate each other as much as they hate Israel/Jews. And all you need to trigger such scenes is a percieved slight to their religion/politics/tribe/clan, etc... Just make something up and you can have hundreds in the streets tearing a human being to pieces.

As has been said before, when you have been raised and conditioned to glorify death, extreme violence and the power of the sword, you cannot just flip a switch and turn off. What was once turned against Israel is now - in the absence of any Israelis in Gaza - being turned in on themselves.

[pokerbobo]

Islam is a religion of peace. uh huh.

Explain to me why torching gatherings like this wouild be a bad thing. These people have traveled so far past any sign of rational thought, that they can never come back to any civilized way of life.

All the hatred of everyone not exactly like them, based all on a god that they cannot prove even exists. Brainwashing children to be jihadists and martyrs. Riots and killings over cartoons. Killing teens for inter-sect relationships.

Yes I know I am not being tolerent of cultural differences....but WTF? How can such a large group of people be so irrational?

Christianity has it's nutjobs too....abortion clinic bombers, serpent handlers and the like.... but that is a small minority. I keep hearing of the same "small minority" regarding radical islam.... BS it is a sizable minority, and growing because the rational ones are scared to speak out against the nuts.

[AzDesertRat]

The 2% rule applies to all religions. There are ~a billion muslims in the world. You don't hear much about 980 million muslims who don't espouse those same feelings. Christianity and Judaism are the same way--the only people you really hear about are the extremists and/or nutjobs. Think KKK, Farwell or Warren Jeffs.

Also note: Hamas is a political group and not a religious organization.. It may use religion to entice, but it should not be called a religious group in any way.

[pokerbobo]

[ QUOTE ]
The 2% rule applies to all religions. There are ~a billion muslims in the world. You don't hear much about 980 million muslims who don't espouse those same feelings. Christianity and Judaism are the same way--the only people you really hear about are the extremists and/or nutjobs. Think KKK, Farwell or Warren Jeffs.

Also note: Hamas is a political group and not a religious organization.. It may use religion to entice, but it should not be called a religious group in any way.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think they are north of 10% personally... no actual data to back it up, but based on the size of some of the gatherings Ive seen of the nuts chanting Death to Whatever in unison....it is certainly more than 2% of the people from that area.

[Goater]

Why would you not call Hamas a religious group? I appreciate that they are a political party as well, however in that part of the world and in the absence of meaningful democracy, a group that bases everything it does practically and ideologically on the religious tenets of a branch of Islam is, in my mind, a religious group.

The fact that they have used politics as a way to gain power under the current circumstances is simply because that was the appropriate way. As we have seen, when politics is not needed (when they are powerful enough to not require actual votes) they are more than happy to discard politics and use force.

Hamas is a religious organisation, which became increasingly political and eventually gained power by developing sufficient public support (through charity, health and education support, being very active in terror operations against Israel and a strong internal militia, etc...) and being an alternative to the corrupt Fatah at the right time.

A religious organisation with a number of branches - political, military, etc...

[AzDesertRat]

It is a resistance group--no more. It may base some of its ideas from religion, but it is NOT a religious group. It does do some some charitable and social work, not unlike what the mob used to do in this country during the 30's to gain favor with the people, but never religious.

I don't really know of anyone who calls Hamas a religious group at all. Start reading some newspapers from the Middle East and none of them will refer to Hamas as religious. They have been known as a resistance group or terrorist organization depending on who is doing the talking.

[Goater]

Im not sure why reading papers from the middle east would help the description, but i do read many (though mostly Israeli - the majority of the Arab press so heavily mirrors the official national position as to only be useful for hearing just that).

Any Palestinian political group with a military wing (most) is by definition a "resistance" group as they all advocate a state of their own, independant of Israel.

If all you can give in favour of your view is the writings of middle east papers, its not very convincing.

As I said above, Hamas' social work is all religious based. Their education is totally religious. They are the Islamist group that marked the change from secular dominated Palesinian politics and mirror much of the transition of the Arab world in this respect. Their rejection of the 2 state solution (as opposed to Fatah who claim to support it) is due to the whole of Israel being, in their opinion, "Islamic land".

They are a deeply religious group to the core. Again, their social work, etc... is all based in their interpretaton of Islam. Their name is a acronym of the arabic words that make up their full name which is "Islamic resistance movement". In its charter, Hamas calls itself the "Islamic resistance movement". Their charter states that there is no solution to the occupation other than jihad - a specifically Islamic term. They formed as a Palestinian outcrop of the Muslim Brotherhod - a totally fundamentalist Muslim organisation. I could go on...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamas

I dont mean to be rude and I appreciate all the discussion on these forums of all views, but i personally believe that a lack of knowledge does distort the views people have of the situation.