The Political Ideology of Hamas

Hamas is typically portrayed in the West as nothing more than a terrorist organisation. Yet as Michael Irving Jensen discovers, it also provides medical clinics, kindergartens, schools, elderly care and football training to the population of the West Bank and Gaza. Using a combination of interviews and participant observation, Jensen examines how these forms of social engagement relate to the organisation's official ideology, which is still characterised by extremism and violence. The...
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Hamas is typically portrayed in the West as nothing more than a terrorist organisation. Yet as Michael Irving Jensen discovers, it also provides medical clinics, kindergartens, schools, elderly care and football training to the population of the West Bank and Gaza. Using a combination of interviews and participant observation, Jensen examines how these forms of social engagement relate to the organisation's official ideology, which is still characterised by extremism and violence. The Political Ideology of Hamas is the first attempt to provide a multidimensional picture of this organisation by looking at how it is perceived by the leadership, the rank-and-file, and the ordinary Palestinians who come into contact with it. By comparing the rhetoric of the leadership with the social reality, Jensen opens up new ways of understanding Islamist movements in general.'There are few other texts available in English that look into the social side of Hamas to any degree, and none that I know of that do so in this detail...well researched.' - Glen Rangwala, University of Cambridge