Martyrdom, Not Suicide : The Legality of Hamas' Bombings in the Mid-1990s in Modern Islamic Jurisprudence

Scientific Study from the year 2009 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: Near East, Near Orient, , language: English, abstract: This study deals with the development of Hamas' jihad concept and the justification by Muslim clerics of Hamas' suicide-martyrdom doctrine. After discussing the political context, the Islamic legal argument is analyzed in detail. The findings give policy makers, journalists, academics and also non-experts insight into the thinking and ideology of Islamists in a conflict state. The implications of the findings are much wider than the national Palestinian context. For example, in the global confrontation between the West and militant Islam, a change of strategy from military to political methods would be timely. This study developed during more than two years of in-depth research and is based mainly on Arabic sources.