The problem with Hamas for many Palestinians

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
"It might seem obvious that the Palestinian people are different and distinct from Hamas, the Islamist militant group that runs Gaza. But Yasmine Mohammed argues that many people still conflate the two.

Mohammed is a Canadian author and activist who heads the charity Free Hearts Free Minds, which supports LGBTQ communities and unconventional thinkers in Muslim countries. Her father was a Palestinian, and her mother is Egyptian.

After her mother remarried, Mohammed grew up in a fundamentalist Islamic home in Vancouver, and at age 19, she was forced to marry a man who turned out to be an Al-Qaeda operative. She managed to escape that life. She has also left the Muslim faith.

Her views can be controversial, and ‘Yasmine Mohammed’ is a pen name she says she uses because of personal safety concerns.

Mohammed remembers her father, who grew up in Gaza, calling Hamas “the ugly face of the Palestinian struggle.”

She says he was upset that people could equate terrorism with Palestinian resistance.

“People don’t want the face of the resistance to be terrorists,” she says. “It’s like calling ISIS the face of Syrians or Iraqis. This is an unfortunate situation. Hamas have been getting so much funding from Iran and other Islamist countries … It’s easy for them to become the voice of the Palestinian people because all the other voices are being completely silenced.”"...