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Terrorist Groups and Impact Essay

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Terrorist group and impact

Introduction
HAMAS (Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyya) is the Arabic word for Zeal and also known as Islamic Resistance Movement. It is a notorious terrorist organization in the Middle East and George Bush stated that “Hamas is one of the deadliest terror organizations in the world today” (Jensen, p.1, 2009).

Origins and sources
Hamas was formed in 1987 as the Muslim brotherhood (Ikhwan al-Muslimin) in Palestinian by late Ahmad Yassin, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi and Mohammad Taha. It is estimated that it has unknown supporters and sympathizers but increasing to thousands (US department of state, 2005).
The Muslim Brotherhood was established in 1946 and its main goal was to institute the religious revival in …show more content…

The group mainly operates in Palestine as well as in West Bank and Gaza strip. It has also presences in Syria, Lebanon and Gulf States (Foreign Terrorist organizations, 2004). The Hamas annual budget is estimated to be $70 million dollars with 50% of its funds comes from Saudi Arabia through Islamic charity organizations. Iran also provides further $3 million dollars and support from Palestinian expatriates and other Arab states (Wikipedia, 2010).

Ideology
The group principles introduced in 1988 in a form of charter based on Islamist document and declaring Jihad (in the sense of armed battle) as the only solution against Israel (Midestweb, 2007). The charter also cites The Protocols of the Elders of Zion which emphasizes on anti -Semitic forgery. The Hamas and Islamistradicalists see the”Zionist” and “freemasons” as the major calamites to the world (Midestweb, 2007). As well as calling for all Muslims to return to the faith (Gruber, 2007).

Aims and objectives
The main goal for the group is to have an Islamic state by expelling the Jews in Israel/Palestine in accordance with the Islamic law. In recent years the group has moderated its goals by indicating that it would like a favorable Israel-Palestine agreement (Foreign Terrorist organizations, 2004). However, Hamas did state in the 2006 election manifesto that the continuance of the arm struggle against Israel occupation of the Palestinian region (Wikipedia, 2010).
Prior to the election in 2006, Hamas

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