Islam and Political Violence: An Examination of the Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in Palestine

Abstract

In this paper I examine how political violence is justified in the charter of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). Using the recent work done in the social psychological literature, I argue in the paper that the charter draws upon the Islamic history and memory to authorize political violence; charter uses explicit construction of binary symbols and historical mythology to dehumanize the target of violence; and finally, the charter evokes shame—which lead to “humiliated fury”—through collective memory of humiliation, which then might make martyrdom attractive.