A Very Concerning Poll from Pew

The Pew Research Center just published a poll that showed that 44% of Muslims in America support Hamas (also known as the Islamic Resistance Movement).

This large level of support in the Muslim community for a Jihadi terrorist organization is worrisome to say the least.

It may seem difficult to understand how more than 4 in 10 Muslims in America could support an organization that launched a massacre that targeted unarmed civilians, slaughtering hundreds of women and children on October 7, 2023. However an examination of past polling data indicates a long-term trend of support for violent jihad.

Nothing New

In May of 2007, Pew did another poll of Muslims in America which revealed some disturbing views.

When asked if suicide bombing of civilian targets in defense of Islam was justified, 8% responded “Often/Sometimes,” 5% responded “Rarely,” and 9% refused to answer. Together those figures added up to more than 1 in 5 Muslims in America.

When asked their view of Al Qaeda, 5% responded “Favorable,” 10% responded “Somewhat Unfavorable,” and a staggering 27% declined to answer the question.

Then in June 2015, The Polling Company did a survey of Muslims living in America for the Center for Security Policy. Among the findings:

• 51% agreed that “Muslims in America should have the choice of being governed according to sharia.

• 51% of U.S. Muslims polled also believe either that they should have the choice of American or sharia courts, or that they should have their own tribunals to apply sharia.

• 29% of the Muslims polled believed that, “It is legitimate to use violence to punish those who give offense to Islam by, for example, portraying the prophet Mohammed.”

• 25% believed that violence against Americans here in the United States can be justified as part of the global jihad.

• 19% of Muslim respondents said that the use of violence in the United States is justified in order to make sharia the law of the land in this country.

• 25% of Muslims in the U.S. indicated that the Muslim Brotherhood accurately represented their views.

Given that Hamas was founded by the Muslim Brotherhood and has had a history of cowardly targeting unarmed civilians as well as using Palestinian civilians as human shields for terrorists and weaponry, this widespread support should raise particular concerns. After all, the Muslim Brotherhood’s motto reads…

“Allah is our objective, the Prophet is our leader, the Koran is our constitution, jihad is our way, dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.”

From its very inception in 1988, the Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement) Covenant was militant and threatening. Here are a few excerpts:

• In its second paragraph, the covenant quotes Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna:

“Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”

“Article One:

The Islamic Resistance Movement: The Movement’s programme is Islam. From it, it draws its ideas, ways of thinking and understanding of the universe, life and man. It resorts to it for judgement in all its conduct, and it is inspired by it for guidance of its steps.

Article Two:

The Islamic Resistance Movement is one of the wings of Moslem Brotherhood in Palestine. Moslem Brotherhood Movement is a universal organization which constitutes the largest Islamic movement in modern times. It is characterised by its deep understanding, accurate comprehension and its complete embrace of all Islamic concepts of all aspects of life, culture, creed, politics, economics, education, society, justice and judgement, the spreading of Islam, education, art, information, science of the occult and conversion to Islam.

Article Six:

In the absence of Islam, strife will be rife, oppression spreads, evil prevails and schisms and wars will break out.

The Slogan of the Islamic Resistance Movement:

Article Eight:

Allah is its target, the Prophet is its model, the Koran its constitution: Jihad is its path and death for the sake of Allah is the loftiest of its wishes.

Article Eleven:

This is the law governing the land of Palestine in the Islamic Sharia (law) and the same goes for any land the Moslems have conquered by force, because during the times of (Islamic) conquests, the Moslems consecrated these lands to Moslem generations till the Day of Judgement.

Article Thirteen:

Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement.

There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors.

Article Fourteen:

(The)…liberation of Palestine is then an individual duty for every Moslem wherever he may be. On this basis, the problem should be viewed. This should be realized by every Moslem.

Hamas and Al Qaeda

Most Americans are completely ignorant as to the history and nature of Hamas.

For instance, did you know that one of the co-founders of Hamas was also a co-founder of Al Qaeda?

His name was Sheikh Abdullah Yusuf Azzam. He has been described as the “Father of Global Jihad.” Azzam’s vision was not to merely wage jihad in Palestine. It was to wage jihad to reclaim Muslim lands from “occupiers.”

In case you were wondering, that doesn’t just mean Palestine, Iraq or Afghanistan. It includes all lands that invading Muslim armies ever occupied. That would include the entire Iberian peninsula (modern day Spain and Portugal), and parts of modern day France, Austria and Italy. It includes all of Greece, Yugoslavia, Albania, Serbia, Kosovo, Croatia, Bosnia, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary.

Azzam laid out his vision in a book entitled Join the Caravan:

“There is agreement among scholars that when the enemy enters an Islamic land or a land that was once part of the Islamic lands, it is obligatory on the inhabitants of that place to go forth to face the enemy. But if they sit back, or are incapable, lazy, or insufficient in number, the individual obligation spreads to those around them. Then if they also fall short, it goes to those around them, and so on and so on, until the individually obligatory nature of jihad encompasses the whole world. The individually obligatory nature of jihad remains in effect until the lands are purified from the pollution of the disbelievers.

The obligation of jihad today remains an individual obligation on all until the liberation of the last piece of land that was in the hands of Muslims but has been occupied by the disbelievers.”

Lest you think that Azzam was a fringe crackpot, you may wish to know that he earned a doctorate with distinction in Islamic Jurisprudence (sharia) from Al Azhar University in Cairo, considered to be the Harvard Law School of Islam. Azzam taught sharia at King Abd al-Aziz University in Saudi Arabia and the Islamic University in Islamabad, Pakistan. While in Pakistan he became close to a man by the name of Osama Bin Laden and laid the foundations of Al Qaeda.

At the same time Azzam maintained close relations with Palestinian jihadists and provided the philosophical foundation for the Hamas Covenant and was closely associated with Hamas from its inception.

Conclusion

There are multiple reasons to be concerned about the latest Pew poll showing 44% of Muslims in America support Hamas.

First, Hamas holds the same basic ideology and follows the same doctrine as Al Qaeda. In fact, one of the co-founders of Al Qaeda, Sheikh Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, was instrumental in the founding of Hamas and contributed to the Hamas Covenant document.

Second, the support for Hamas comes in the wake of a massacre of over 1,000 unarmed civilians by Hamas terrorists. This begs the question: do 44% of Muslims in America support Hamas despite the October 7, 2023 massacre or because of that massacre?

Third, given Hamas’s status as a Muslim Brotherhood organization, does support for Hamas among Muslims in America indicate wide support for the Muslim Brotherhood?

Fourth, and most importantly perhaps, given that 44% of Muslims in America support the Jihadi terrorist organization Hamas, does this pose a potential kinetic threat of terrorism here in America?