On 2011-09-20, at 11:06 PM, 123hop at comcast.net wrote:
> A little more detail? What was your experience of Hamas?
>
> Joanna
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Joseph Catron" <jncatron at gmail.com>
>
> I must say that after hearing all kinds of histrionics from the breadth of
> our political spectrum about Hamas, then experiencing their government for
> myself, it's very hard not to be sympathetic to those kinds of apologetics.
Here's one American researcher's experience of Hamas:
Hamas and social services Food not bombs The Economist Aug 27th 2011
Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza: Engaging the Islamist Social Sector. By Sara Roy. Princeton University Press
FEW would expect an Islamic charity to offer workshops on sexuality and ways for disabled people to improve their sex lives. But the al-Wafa hospital in Gaza has been providing this service for years, and it is hardly atypical. Many assume that Islamic charities are “merely a guise for promoting terrorism”, writes Sara Roy, a Middle East scholar at Harvard. In her new book about social services in Gaza, based on trips to the strip over the past 15 years, she argues that the reality is more complex.
Palestinians are pragmatic when it comes to social care. Many go from one organisation to the next—both Islamic and secular—to scavenge as much support as they can, regardless of politics or ideology. Parents often choose religious schools and hospitals because the services are better there than those provided by secular NGOs or the feeble Palestinian state. Palestinians of all social classes, including the secular and the wealthy, send their children to Islamic schools, just like many agnostic London parents send their children to church schools renowned for their discipline and education.
Some employees of Islamic NGOs sound equally sanguine about the role of religion. One director of an organisation that distributes money, clothing and food to the poor tells Ms Roy that beyond appropriate dress and “respectful behaviour” (admittedly a worryingly vague term), he was not concerned with the religious purity of those he served. He is happy to help anyone in need: “if we discriminate we become fanatics.”
The social work that Hamas does has certainly empowered the organisation. But Ms Roy argues that this indirect appeal for votes “is very different from mobilising people into collective action in support of an activist Islamist agenda”. It is not as if Hamas uses its social institutions to launch political or military activities, she adds.
When Ms Roy began conducting research in Gaza 25 years ago, she found little popular support for a political agenda built on Islam. A determined secular streak runs through Palestinian society, she maintains. Rather than Palestinians becoming more Islamist, “Hamas has had to broaden its definition of Islam and ‘Muslimness’ in order to claim and maintain as large a number of adherents as possible.” As a movement that is political at heart, not religious, Hamas has been forced to “de-ideologise” Islam and appeal to more practical needs to ensure its political survival.
But Hamas’s hegemony is now under threat. Gaza’s radical Muslim Salafists accuse the group of political and religious treason, claiming that by engaging in elections and in governing Gaza, Hamas has undermined both its nationalist and Islamic credentials. Desperate to contain the Salafists and remain the sole agent of political and social Islam in Palestine, Hamas “has encouraged, albeit carefully and cautiously, the greater Islamisation of Gazan society”. This is done largely through its social arm, by enforcing conservative dresscodes in schools, banning alcohol and warning against dating.
Ms Roy strives not to speak for Palestinians, but to let their voices reverberate. One woman tells her, “This is what you must teach others. That we are no different than you.” These are the book’s most powerful moments, and one of its great strengths. Palestinians appear not simply as victims but as ordinary human beings with typical needs and concerns amid extraordinary circumstances. Ms Roy’s work is one of academic scholarship, rigorous and precise, and not designed for the speedy turn of pages. But this is an important book, which challenges lazy views about the Palestinians and highlights how they go about securing basic services.