[Marxism] Gilbert Achcar on Hamas victory

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

First Reflections On The Electoral Victory Of Hamas
by Gilbert Achcar
January 27, 2006

1. The sweeping electoral victory of Hamas is but one of the products of
the intensive use made by the United States in the Muslim world, since the
1950's, of Islamic fundamentalism as an ideological weapon against both
progressive nationalism and communism. This was done in close collaboration
with the Saudi kingdom -- a de facto U.S. protectorate almost from its
foundation in 1932. The promotion of the most reactionary interpretation of
the Islamic religion, exploiting deeply-rooted popular religious beliefs,
led to this ideology filling the vacuum left by the exhaustion by the
1970's of the two ideological currents it served to fight. The road was
thus paved in the entire Muslim world for the transformation of Islamic
fundamentalism into the dominant expression of mass national and social
resentment, to the great dismay of the U.S. and its Saudi protectorate. The
story of Washington's relation with Islamic fundamentalism is the most
striking modern illustration of the sorcerer's apprenticeship. (I have
described this at length in my Clash of Barbarisms.)

full: http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=107&ItemID=9607


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