I cannot respond to your question because I do not share your understanding, M-SuperStripe. Hamas is, in fact, not an ideology. It is very much an organized group: a political party in control of a government and a military, initially secured through election.
If you want to hold that the Hamas charter and political platform constitute an…
I cannot respond to your question because I do not share your understanding, M-SuperStripe. Hamas is, in fact, not an ideology. It is very much an organized group: a political party in control of a government and a military, initially secured through election.
If you want to hold that the Hamas charter and political platform constitute an ideology, say, "Hamasism," you're free to use language that way. But a person subscribing to "Hamasism" would still not thereby be a member of Hamas, any more than someone who endorses the imperial agenda of Vladimir Putin and his political party is thereby a member of United Russia.
Please go to Palestine (or the middle east in general) and identify people who are 'members of Hamas' and 'not members of Hamas'. Similar to how you can easily and clearly identify someone who is a 'Member of the Mets' and 'Not a Met'. If this is difficult or impossible - I posit that Hamas is more an ideology than an organization.
This is not a serious reply, M-SuperStripe. What criterion did you envision me using when I visited Palestine to identify members and non-members? Do you think Hamas would give me access to the membership lists of their cells and military units? I could ask people whether they were members of Hamas. Those who support Hamas but are not members would say they were not members -- neither difficult nor impossible. But I can easily predict you would counter that they deceived me because Hamas is an ideology and its supporters are members, even if they don't believe they are.
Ideologies do not have "members" (no one, for example, is a "member" of Communism, or Catholicism, or Judaism, etc.). Organizations have members. You are just asserting "supporter" = "member," when the force of your argument actually depends on the ordinary meaning of "member" as an enrolled agent of an organization.
I really don't expect this reply to have the slightest impact. If you want to push your objection to my original statement further please consider visiting Palestine and conducting the survey you've proposed at your own expense.
No need to travel. Right here in America you can't identify people who were (or are) members of designated terrorist organizations. I suspect that close to the number 1 rule of being a successful terrorist-in-waiting is don't stand up and shout about it.
I cannot respond to your question because I do not share your understanding, M-SuperStripe. Hamas is, in fact, not an ideology. It is very much an organized group: a political party in control of a government and a military, initially secured through election.
If you want to hold that the Hamas charter and political platform constitute an ideology, say, "Hamasism," you're free to use language that way. But a person subscribing to "Hamasism" would still not thereby be a member of Hamas, any more than someone who endorses the imperial agenda of Vladimir Putin and his political party is thereby a member of United Russia.
Please go to Palestine (or the middle east in general) and identify people who are 'members of Hamas' and 'not members of Hamas'. Similar to how you can easily and clearly identify someone who is a 'Member of the Mets' and 'Not a Met'. If this is difficult or impossible - I posit that Hamas is more an ideology than an organization.
This is not a serious reply, M-SuperStripe. What criterion did you envision me using when I visited Palestine to identify members and non-members? Do you think Hamas would give me access to the membership lists of their cells and military units? I could ask people whether they were members of Hamas. Those who support Hamas but are not members would say they were not members -- neither difficult nor impossible. But I can easily predict you would counter that they deceived me because Hamas is an ideology and its supporters are members, even if they don't believe they are.
Ideologies do not have "members" (no one, for example, is a "member" of Communism, or Catholicism, or Judaism, etc.). Organizations have members. You are just asserting "supporter" = "member," when the force of your argument actually depends on the ordinary meaning of "member" as an enrolled agent of an organization.
I really don't expect this reply to have the slightest impact. If you want to push your objection to my original statement further please consider visiting Palestine and conducting the survey you've proposed at your own expense.
No need to travel. Right here in America you can't identify people who were (or are) members of designated terrorist organizations. I suspect that close to the number 1 rule of being a successful terrorist-in-waiting is don't stand up and shout about it.