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36444, on the name of Sheikh Ahmad Yassin. 15 In an interview with BBC radio the following year, al-Rantissi announced that Hamas was planning new attacks. “The resistance is still strong,” he said on the air. ” Speaking about the group’s decision not to sign a new ceasefire agreement after a lull in Hamas suicide attacks, al-Rantissi told Reuters in December 2003 that “martyrdom operations come as waves so there are gaps between the waves. ”16 Al-Rantissi didn’t always use the press to communicate with Hamas militants; when he could, he would issue orders to them directly.

For Roy, the word dawa is defined as “militant preaching” (he literally translates the word as “call” or “invitation”) and is a more significant cause of militant behavior than is strictly political training. Indeed, Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna wrote a tract titled Da’watuna (Our Militant Preaching). 27 Many open societies, particularly democratic ones, are concerned about the preaching and social welfare activities of groups with militant ties, particularly because the dawa culture often promotes anti-democratic and antiWestern undertones.

Indeed, the activities of the group’s political, social, and military “wings” are so intertwined that Palestinian security officials themselves see them as one and the same. ”43 THE HAMAS DAWA Hamas’ original security branch, the Jehaz Aman, was founded by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and several of his closest associates, who together also headed the group’s main social welfare organization, Mujama al-Islamiya (Islamic Center) in Gaza. The Center remains one of the largest and most successful Hamas institutions today.