Hamas Are Not Muslim Freedom Fighters

Do not let militant ideologues hijack our faith again

Islam

HAMAS ARE NOT MUSLIM FREEDOM FIGHTERS

Do not let militant ideologues hijack our faith again

Yaya J. Fanusie

Then when Moses was about to lay his hands on their foe, the enemy said, “O Moses! Do you intend to kill me as you killed a man yesterday? You only want to be a tyrant in the land. You do not intend to make peace!” — Quran 28:19

The weekend after the Hamas attacks against Israel, I saw a video featuring thousands of protestors in front of the White House voicing anger over the Israeli military retaliation in Gaza, where the terrorist group is based. In the video, some protest banners flown by the socialist group ANSWER Coalition caught my eye.

They read, “Resistance is not terrorism!”

Oh no. Here we go again, I thought.

My perspective on the Middle East crisis is informed by a unique experience. I’m a Muslim American who worked for several years in the CIA. Most of my time was spent as a counterterrorism analyst. 

Many of those protesting outside the White House in the video I saw were Muslims sympathizing with the long-standing humanitarian plight of Gazans. Unfortunately, such protests often get infiltrated by opportunistic activists seeking recruits for their ideological cause. The ideologues’ message was clear: Hamas should be seen as freedom fighters.

I decided to work against terrorism early in my CIA career, soon after the July 7, 2005 suicide-bombings in London. The perpetrators of those horrific bombings were Muslims raised in the country they targeted, unlike the foreigners who conducted the 9/11 attacks in the U.S. One of the suicide-bombers was a black convert to Islam, like myself. I thought deeply about how these Brits joined al-Qa’ida driven by cognitive dissonance around their faith identity in the West and the geopolitical grievances in foreign lands. These were the intense early years of the U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, even though the London bombers and I shared the same faith, we diverged sharply in our reasoning. 

I saw the jihadist cause as severely misconstruing our religious texts and exploiting Muslim sympathies to recruit for a warped political vision. And I saw my country, the United States, while perhaps imperfect, as one whose founding ideals were rooted in the Abrahamic tradition and aligned with the Qur’an’s emphasis on the universal dignity of the individual soul. Instead of viewing the U.S. as an enemy of Islam (as the jihadists believed), I saw it as a land and my home country where Islam actually flourished. So, I decided to join the counterterrorism mission and to work to prevent attacks from these groups who were hijacking my religion and targeting innocent people in the name of their supposed political “resistance.”

Working in counterterrorism or intelligence, you become intimately familiar with the complexities of national security and geopolitics. However, the everyday person (Muslim or not) typically gains foreign policy understanding through polemics on social media or cable news. We’ve become a nation of meme-driven reactionaries with hot takes on any global event. War, in particular, lends itself to simplistic “for or against” emotional narratives. But military conflict cannot be judged purely by emotional impulses.

There’s a story with versions in both the Bible and the Qur’an about Moses coming to the defense of a fellow Hebrew fighting with an Egyptian. In both versions, Moses sees a member of his oppressed tribe clashing with the oppressor, and steps in and kills the Egyptian. The Qur’anic version varies slightly from the Biblical one, giving more detail and describing Moses as immediately remorseful about the deed, and as asking God for forgiveness for siding with the Hebrew who apparently was in the wrong in that fight.

The next day, Moses finds the same Hebrew in another fight and when Moses is about to step in, the enemy of the Hebrew criticizes Moses for acting like a tyrant rather than bringing peace and reconciliation. Moses departs, praying for deliverance from harm and seeking guidance. That sets the stage for his encounter with the Burning Bush, beginning his prophetic mission.  

Whether one is religious or not, scriptural passages like this one can offer the best paradigms of morality. And, indeed, the battle between Israel and Hamas must be understood on moral terms, not just political ones. Being part of an oppressed group—historic or current—does not justify all actions to address that oppression, as Moses learned, according to the Qur’anic story.

There are forces that want to garner global support for the Hamas fighters against Israel, not based on morality, but based on grievances. It is not just socialist groups in the U.S. co-opting this crisis. Multiple branches of al-Qa’ida and the Islamic State have issued statements, urging Muslims to support the jihadist cause against “the Jews and their hypocritical infidel allies.” As a former counterterrorism analyst, my antenna is raised. Recruitment propaganda is in high gear. And I’m concerned that in today’s highly emotional climate, this message will resonate with the ignorant and misguided.

It does not help that some of the loudest voices purportedly advocating for Muslims on social media seem more ideologically driven by the 1960s musings of Frantz Fanon than by scripture and the moral example of the prophets. Many of these activists and advocates rely on a geopolitical lens that views the Israeli-Palestinian conflict one-dimensionally, as a natives vs. settler-colonialists struggle. With such a view, the solution is so-called “decolonization.” It is a simplistic framing, accepted uncritically by many. Under that framework, anything goes against the “colonial” enemy. This was the warped reasoning of the 9/11 hijackers, the 7/7 London bombers, and the 10/7 Hamas attackers. 

For anyone supporting the Palestinians, they should take a lesson from the experience of Moses. As in the days of Moses thousands of years ago, there are still people who want to divert moral accountability from those who do evil and call it resistance. They will exploit your sympathy. 

Moral accountability applies equally to those fighting terrorists. In prosecuting its war on terror, Israel risks losing the moral high ground depending on whom it targets and how it conducts its fight. The Abrahamic message stresses our ultimate accountability to God alone. External conditions do not excuse the actions of individuals or of states. As the conflict between Israel and Hamas unfolds and likely deepens in the coming weeks, the humanitarian toll will increase. In today’s military conflicts, an uncomfortable fact is that the vast majority of casualties are civilians. The current destruction in Gaza seems more publicized and live-streamed than other war conflicts, past or current. This attention may signal to the world that just war theory—influenced by over two thousand years of secular and religious tradition—may need to be recalibrated. Military strategists and commanders will have to undertake an additional moral calculus to account for the devastation wreaked by modern weapons and tactics. Otherwise, we fall into a world guided by an “ends justify the means” rationale.        

Notably, in scripture, Moses ultimately succeeded in liberating the Hebrews once he confronted the Egyptian oppressors guided by God rather than by a politics of identity and a blind support of his people in their recurring squabbles with the Egyptians. 

This crisis is sadly going to bring more harm and pain on all sides. To be delivered from it and to find true peace and reconciliation, we must not let militant political ideologues seize the moment. Perhaps if we rely on a higher morality we will discover how to bring freedom and dignity to those who are truly suffering in the land. 

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Yaya J. Fanusie is a former CIA analyst and an expert on national security and financial technology. He is the creator and producer of the spy thriller podcast series, The Jabbari Lincoln Files, featuring a protagonist who is an African American Muslim CIA officer. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the views of any organization he is affiliated or associated with.