Mujama al-Islamiya

Last updated
Islamic Centre
Mujama' al-Islami
المجمع الإسلامي
Founded1973
TypeNGO
Location
Area served
Palestine
Key people
 Ahmed Yassin

The Mujama' al-Islami ("Islamic Centre") is an Islamic charity which was established in 1973 in Gaza by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who had been involved with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's Palestinian branch. Mujama started to offer clinics, blood banks, day care, medical treatment, meals and youth clubs. Mujama plays an important role for providing social care to the people, particularly those living in refugee camps. It also extended financial aid and scholarships to young people who wanted to study in Saudi Arabia and the West.

Contents

Al-Mujama' al-Islami was recognized by Israel in 1979 as a charity, allowing the organization to set up the Islamic University in Gaza (IUG) and build mosques, clubs, schools, [1] and a library in Gaza, [2] besides other social services.

In the late 1970s and 1980s, al-Mujama' al-Islami are reported to have coerced urban educated women in Gaza to wear Islamic dress or hijab. [3]

In 1984, the Israeli military had infiltrated a suspected mosque and found a cache of weapons. Sheikh Yassin and others were jailed for secretly stockpiling weapons, but he was released in 1985 as part of the Jibril Agreement. [4] He continued to expand Mujama's reach across Gaza. [1]

Formation of Hamas

In 1987, during the First Intifada, Yassin and six other Mujama Islamist members launched Hamas, originally calling it the "paramilitary wing" of the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood, and Yassin became its spiritual leader. He also claimed responsibility for a number of suicide attacks targeting Israeli civilians, and Hamas was designated a terrorist organization. [5] By that time, Mujama controlled an estimated 40% of mosques in Gaza. Mujama's institutions would become crucial to Hamas's terrorist activities. They were and continue to provide cover for raising, laundering and transferring funds, facilitate the group's propaganda and recruitment efforts, provide employment for its operatives, and serve as a logistical support network. [6]

In February 2007, Fatah militia stormed the Islamic University in Gaza and confiscated weapons and ammunition that were stored there. Palestinian television aired footage showing dozens of rocket-propelled grenade launchers, rockets, and assault rifles, as well as thousands of bullets which had been found inside the university. [7] [8]

In December 2008, the university was bombed in six air strikes by the Israeli Air Force during the 2008 Gaza War, claiming that university facilities were being used by Hamas to develop and store weapons including Qassam rockets used to target Israeli civilians. Hamas denied the Israeli allegation. [7] [9] The university was again targeted by air strikes during the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict. The Israeli army said it targeted a "weapon development" centre in the university. [10]

The Islamic Charitable Society is a non-profit charitable organisation located in Hebron in the West Bank. The charity was founded in 1962 to take care of orphans and expanded through years. It is now responsible for two orphanages, three schools for boys and girls, dairy, sewing workshop, two bakeries, a large mall and a 30-apartment building. [11]

According to a 2006 episode of the BBC's series:

the Islamic Charitable Society has received funding from Interpal and is associated with Hamas. [12] Citing the Charity Commission for England and Wales and a draft report from the U.S. Treasury's Asset Freezing Working Group, it was alleged on that the Islamic Charitable Society has "a well-documented supporting role within the Hamas infrastructure" and that it had "funded and administered educational programmes that appear tantamount to incitement and indoctrination in support of violent Hamas activity. [12]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hamas</span> Palestinian political and military organization

Hamas, an acronym of its official name, Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya, is a Palestinian Sunni Islamist political and military movement governing parts of the occupied Gaza Strip.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Second Intifada</span> 2000–2005 Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation

The Second Intifada, also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, was a major uprising by Palestinians against the Israeli occupation, characterized by a period of heightened violence in the Palestinian territories and Israel between 2000 and 2005. The general triggers for the unrest are speculated to have been centered on the failure of the 2000 Camp David Summit, which was expected to reach a final agreement on the Israeli–Palestinian peace process in July 2000. An uptick in violent incidents started in September 2000, after Israeli politician Ariel Sharon made a provocative visit to the Al-Aqsa compound, which is situated atop the Temple Mount in East Jerusalem; the visit itself was peaceful, but, as anticipated, sparked protests and riots that Israeli police put down with rubber bullets, live ammunition, and tear gas. Within the first few days of the uprising, the IDF had fired one million rounds of ammunition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ahmed Yassin</span> Palestinian political and religious leader (1936–2004)

Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Hassan Yassin was a Palestinian politician and imam who founded Hamas, a militant Islamist and Palestinian nationalist organization in the Gaza Strip, in 1987.

Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi was a Palestinian political leader and co-founder of Hamas, along with Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades</span> Military wing of the Palestinian Hamas organization

The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades ;, named after Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, is the military wing of the Palestinian organization Hamas. Currently led by Mohammed Deif and his deputy, Marwan Issa, IQB is the largest and best-equipped militant group operating within Gaza today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palestinian political violence</span> Violence with political ends in the State of Palestine

Palestinian political violence refers to actions carried out by Palestinians with the intent to achieve political objectives that can involve the use of force, some of which are considered acts of terror, and often carried out in the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Common objectives of political violence by Palestinian nationalists include self-determination in and sovereignty over Palestine, or the "liberation of Palestine" and recognition of a Palestinian state, either in place of both Israel and the Palestinian territories, or solely in the Palestinian territories. Some perpetrators of these acts support the dismantling of the State of Israel and its replacement with a Palestinian Arab state. More limited goals include the release of Palestinian prisoners or the Palestinian right of return. Other motivations include personal grievances, trauma or revenge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interpal</span>

Interpal is the working name for Palestinian Relief and Development Fund, a British charity founded in 1994 that describes itself as a non-political charity to alleviate problems faced by Palestinians, and focused solely on the provision of relief and development aid to the poor and needy Palestinians the world over, but primarily in the Palestinian territories, Lebanon and Jordan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islamic University of Gaza</span> Independent university in Palestine

The Islamic University of Gaza, also known as IUG and IU Gaza, is an independent Palestinian university established in 1978 in Gaza City. It was the first higher education institution to be established in the Gaza Strip. The university has eleven faculties capable of awarding BA, BSc, MA, MSc, MD, PhD, diplomas and higher diplomas, in addition to twenty research centers and institutes and the affiliated Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital.

The History of Hamas is an account of the Palestinian Islamist fundamentalist socio-political organization with an associated paramilitary force, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. Hamas (حماس) Ḥamās is an acronym of حركة المقاومة الاسلامية Ḥarakat al-Muqāwamat al-Islāmiyyah, meaning "Islamic Resistance Movement".

Ahmed al-Jabari was a senior leader and second-in-command of the military wing of Hamas, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. He was widely credited as the leading figure in the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip, and commanded the 2006 Hamas cross-border raid which resulted in the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Under his command, along with chief logistics officer Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Hamas developed its own military weapons capability significantly by acquiring longer-range guided missiles and rockets.

Reem Saleh Riyashi was a Palestinian suicide bomber from Gaza City who killed herself and four Israelis at the Erez crossing on 14 January 2004. Hamas and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade claimed that the attack by Riyashi was a joint operation mounted as a response to weeks of Israeli incursions into West Bank cities that had left about 25 Palestinians dead.

The Gaza–Israel conflict is a localized part of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict beginning in 1948, when 200,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes, settling in the Gaza Strip as refugees. Since then, Israel has fought 15 wars against the Gaza Strip. The number of Gazans killed in the most recent 2023 war — 27,000 — is higher than the death toll of all other wars of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nizar Rayan</span> Palestinian political and religious leader (1959–2009)

Nizar Rayan was a high-ranking Hamas leader who served as a liaison between the Palestinian organization's political leadership and its military wing. Also a professor of Islamic law, he became a top Islamic cleric within Hamas after the death of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in 2004. Rayan was a strong promoter between 1994 and 2004 of suicide bombings on Israel, and his son killed himself on one such mission. Rayan and most of his family were killed in an Israeli airstrike during the Gaza War.

The Union of Good, also known as the Charity Coalition, is an umbrella organization consisting of over 50 Islamic charities and funds which funnel money to organizations belonging to Hamas, which currently rules the territory of the Gaza Strip. Hamas, which characterizes itself as an "Islamic resistance movement against Israeli occupation" is also on the US State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islamism in the Gaza Strip</span> Efforts to impose Islamic law and traditions in the Palestinian Gaza Strip

Islamism in the Gaza Strip involves efforts to promote and impose Islamic laws and traditions in the Gaza Strip. The influence of Islamic groups in the Gaza Strip has grown since the 1980s. Following Hamas' victory in the 2006 Palestinian elections and a conflict with supporters of the rival Fatah party, Hamas took complete control of the Gaza Strip, and declared the "end of secularism and heresy in the Gaza Strip". For the first time since the Sudanese coup of 1989 that brought Omar al-Bashir to power, a Muslim Brotherhood group rules a significant geographic territory. Gaza human-rights groups accuse Hamas of restricting many freedoms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2012 Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip</span> Military offensive in the Gaza strip

In November 2012, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched Operation Pillar of Defense which was an eight-day campaign in the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip, which began on 14 November 2012 with the killing of Ahmed Jabari, chief of the Gaza military wing of Hamas by an Israeli airstrike.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2014 Gaza War</span> Armed conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants

The 2014 Gaza War, also known as Operation Protective Edge, and Battle of the Withered Grain was a military operation launched by Israel on 8 July 2014 in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory that has been governed by Hamas since 2007. Following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank by Hamas-affiliated Palestinian militants, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) initiated Operation Brother's Keeper, in which some 350 Palestinians, including nearly all of the active Hamas militants in the West Bank, were arrested. Hamas subsequently fired a greater number of rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip, triggering a seven-week-long conflict between the two sides. It was one of the deadliest outbreaks of open conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in decades. The combination of Palestinian rocket attacks and Israeli airstrikes resulted in over two thousand deaths, the vast majority of which were Gazan Palestinians. This includes a total of 6 Israeli civilians who were killed as a result of the conflict.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade</span> Islamist militant group active in the Gaza Strip

The Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade, also known as Islamic State in Gaza, is an Islamist militant group affiliated with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant that is active in the Gaza Strip. Its goals have consistently matched those of the Islamic State, in that it seeks to establish the al-Sham caliphate. As such, it opposes all forms of Palestinian nationalism while also supporting the elimination of all Jews and other ethno-religious 'infidels' from the region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2021 Israel–Palestine crisis</span> Part of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict

A major outbreak of violence in the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict commenced on 10 May 2021, though disturbances took place earlier, and continued until a ceasefire came into effect on 21 May. It was marked by protests and police riot control, rocket attacks on Israel by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip. The crisis was triggered on 6 May, when Palestinians in East Jerusalem began protesting over an anticipated decision of the Supreme Court of Israel on the eviction of six Palestinian families in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. Under international law, the area, effectively annexed by Israel in 1980, is a part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank; On 7 May, according to Israel's Channel 12, Palestinians threw stones at Israeli police forces, who then stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound using tear gas, rubber bullets, and stun grenades. The crisis prompted protests around the world as well as official reactions from world leaders.

References

  1. 1 2 Higgins, Andrew (2009-01-24). "How Israel Helped to Spawn Hamas". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on September 26, 2009. Retrieved 2010-08-24.
  2. ↑ Hamas Victory Is Built on Social Work. Los Angeles Times, March 2, 2006.
  3. ↑ "Women and the Hijab in the Intifada", Rema Hammami Middle East Report, May–August 1990
  4. ↑ "HAMAS and Israel: Conflicting Strategies of Group-Based Politics" (PDF). Retrieved 11 June 2010.
  5. ↑ "Sheikh Yassin: Spiritual figurehead". BBC Online . 22 March 2004. Retrieved 7 August 2007.
  6. ↑ Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad (2006) by Matthew Levitt. pp 23-25 ISBN   978-0300122589
  7. 1 2 "IRAN'S GAZA GOONS CAUGHT AT HELM OF BOMB FACTORY," by ANDY SOLTIS with Post Wire Services, New York Post, Feb. 3, 2007 Archived 2008-12-04 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ↑ "Gaza is hit with more Israeli airstrikes," by Steven Erlanger, New York Times, Friday, May 18, 2007
  9. ↑ Jerusalem Post, Dec 29, 2008, IAF bombs Islamic University's R&D labs, By YAAKOV KATZ [ permanent dead link ]
  10. ↑ "Israel strikes university in Gaza City". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
  11. ↑ Islamic Charitable Society, Orphans Under Threat.
  12. 1 2 "Panorama: Faith, Hate and Charity", Panorama , BBC One, 30 July 2006
    Faith, hate and charity: Transcript
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.