Hamas

Last week, seven members of the U.S. Congress wrote to the Jordanian ambassador to the United States, Dina Kawar, asking the Hashemite Kingdom to extradite wanted Hamas terrorist Ahlam Ahmad al-Tamimi to the United States. Tamimi is wanted by the FBI for coordinating and aiding the August 2001 Hamas suicide bombing of a Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem that wounded 130 people and killed 15, including two Americans. Tamimi has lived freely in Jordan since 2011 while fighting against the U.S. extradition request.

The Muslim Brotherhood is celebrating the nine-year anniversary of the Arab Spring this year. Despite coordinating and executing terror attacks against fellow Egyptians, support for the Brotherhood has remained resilient across Egyptian society. This is in large part due to its investments the Brotherhood has made over decades to develop a robust infrastructure and social support networks that have ingratiated millions of Egyptians to its leadership.

The ongoing diplomatic standoff between Qatar and its neighbors has roots in that country’s long-standing support for the Muslim Brotherhood and other extremist groups, symbolized by the hosting and supporting of Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Brotherhood’s spiritual leader and propagandist who has been permitted access to millions of viewers across the region through the Qatari-owned satellite network Al Jazeera.

CEP called on Qatar to cease its financial and political support for the terror group Hamas, whose mismanagement, corruption, and neglect has brought crushing poverty to the people of Gaza in the 10 years since it violently took control of the coastal enclave. Qatar has a history of supporting and harboring terrorists from Hamas and various other groups, including the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and the Muslim Brotherhood. 

CEP released a new report, the Muslim Brotherhood in the Palestinian Territories. Despite Hamas's attempts to erase its connections to the worldwide Islamist group, Hamas remains indelibly a Muslim Brotherhood institution, as its new policy document does not replace its 1988 charter, which declares Hamas to be “one of the wings of the Moslem Brotherhood in Palestine.”

CEP said today that cosmetic policy language announced by Hamas does not translate to changes in the group’s violent and extremist ideology. At a Doha, Qatar press conference, Hamas released the policy document, which does not replace its 1988 charter. Moreover, the new language has no bearing on Hamas’s commitment to violent “armed resistance” against Israel, and the “liberation” of all of Palestine “from the river to the sea.”