Hamas Web site: Saudi 'fighter-priest' killed in Gaza battle

[bemildred]

The unusual report of a Saudi jihadist, who was killed while fighting Israel alongside Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, appears to indicate that Hamas may be gaining greater acceptance among even more fundamentalist Muslim groups.

As a rule, Hamas does not release details about its casualties - neither in number nor identity. But a Web site identified with a radical Islamic organization that preaches jihad and features the logo of Hamas' military wing, reported that Abu Muhammed Mari, a Saudi sheikh mujahid ("fighter-priest"), who previously fought in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya, was killed in the fighting in Gaza.

Reuven Paz, an Israeli scholar who researches radical Islam and who noticed the posting on the Web site, said it is important because it appears to mark a change in the way Al-Qaida and other jihad proponents view Hamas. They tend to criticize Hamas, seeing it as an ally of the Islamic Brotherhood, both of which they deem moderates willing to compromise and reach agreements with Israel. Those groups also don't look kindly upon Hamas' refusal to declare a theocratic Muslim state in Gaza. Despite this, the Saudi joined Hamas' struggle, possibly because there is no real Al-Qaida foothold in Gaza at this stage. In any case, Paz said, this is the first report of a Saudi killed while fighting alongside Palestinians against Israel.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1055563.html

[peacetalksforall]

1. Just watched two videos on Real News with Eric Margolies defining Hamas.

Great insight. With what is written here it seems that if serious people created a scale with the hottest and lethal of rebel fighters, Hamas would not be at the top of the scale. They appear to have been open to negotiationas over time and are serious about the social work they do for their own people.

So there are many grays.

Yet, Israel paints them as if they are the worst.

Israel appears not want any real negotiations, now or in the past. It seems as though there is a heightened drive to eliminate the Palestinian refugees. How do you create double refugee? Hold them in a blockade for years, than tighten it with the help of a leader who might as well be an American - Mubarek?.

al Queda is a manufactured figment of CIA cunning, Hamas is more real.

and it appears more human then the leaders who kill them.

I cry for all these people. How hopeless to keep killing for decades.