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Fatal Attraction: The Hamas-Iran Alliance

(Daily Star-Lebanon) Anna Mahjar-Barducci - The Iranian regime and Hamas are currently upgrading their alliance, which is over a decade long, across the great Islamic divide, between a Sunni group and a Shiite regional power. After the 1979 revolution in Iran, the huge surge of pride in, and support for, the revolution in the Muslim world threatened Sunni religious hegemony. Two great victories restored Sunni predominance in the Islamic world: a 10-year effort, where Saudi Arabia used a great deal of its resources to support the jihad in Afghanistan, leading to the defeat of the Soviet empire; and an equally substantial effort by the kingdom to spread Sunni, albeit Wahhabi, Islam through its funding of Islamic centers and mosques worldwide. The election of Iranian President Ahmadinejad marked the start of a second Islamic Revolution, and with it a revival of radical aspirations dating back to the days of Ayatollah Khomeini. Hamas is the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. During the second intifada it was assisted by the Iranian-supported Lebanese Shiite group Hizballah with significant military support and funding. The Hamas-Iran alliance is a fatal attraction. The Hamas leadership identifies more with Ahmadinejad, the popular leader who wears second-hand jackets like they do, than with the Muslim Brotherhood sheikhs who wear expensive robes and own shares in American chain-stores, like Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradhawi.
2006-05-08 00:00:00
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