How Hamas Greeted 9/11

The MEMRI Report

By STEVEN STALINSKY
April 5, 2006

Hamas praised the killing of thousands of Americans in the attacks of September 11, 2001, while saying Muslims could not have been involved - a similar response to those of other groups in the Middle East. Now that Hamas is running the Palestinian Authority, it is worth taking a second look at the terrorist organization's official press outlets' coverage of the attacks.

* "Allah has answered our prayers," Dr. Atallah Abu Al-Subh wrote in an open letter titled "To America," which appeared September 13, 2001, in the Hamas mouthpiece Al-Risala. The Hamas publication also directed messages to high-ranking members of the Bush administration:

* "Every time Dick Cheney and his girlfriend Condoleezza Rice ... admonish us [and] gloat at our misfortune, they incite more [violence against us]! We stand in line and beg Allah to give you to drink from the cup of humiliation - and behold, heaven has answere. ... America, you planted in the hearts of all men ... the seedling of hatred of you! You never considered that the day would come when the saplings would grow and put out your eyes ... at the top of the World Trade Center ...Those saplings grew and spread and struck at the liver of the Pentagon. ... Don't you see that thorns have reached the eyes of your strong Secretary of Defense, Rumsfeld, who thought that he was too strong to be hurt by the thorns of vengeance ... Perhaps you realize, after Rumsfeld fled, that he is only an ordinary man," Al-Risala contributors wrote shortly after the attacks.

* "The Jews infiltrated the American Army, particularly the Air Force and they pressured pilots to take the planes, knowing that religion is not denoted in the identity cards of those joining the American military. Accordingly the airplanes were [controlled] by the Jews. ... Why is Bush ignoring these facts.... Don't act like you don't know who is behind the recent events..." a Hamas activist, Yussef Al-'Azam, wrote in a Hamas newspaper, Al-Sabil, on October 4, 2001.

* "Should I greet you [anthrax], or should I curse you ... I will begin by saying: Oh Anthrax ... you have sown horror in the heart of the lady of arrogance ... you have entered the most fortified of places; [you have entered] the White House and they left it like horrified mice," a November 1, 2001, editorial in Al-Risala headlined, "To Anthrax," said. The letter also belittled the American military and concluded by blessing the attacks on America:

* "The Pentagon was a monster before you entered its corridors. ... And behold, it now transpires that is men are of paper and its commanders are of cardboard. ... This horror that you have sown ... in the heart of the bloodsucker [the America] makes me think as I do. ... Our hearts ... were filled with belief that Allah is capable of defeating America by means of the weakest of his earthly soldiers, after he used you to sow horror in their hearts. ... The Americans see you as an imminent attack that is about to shake the lady with the proboscises that suck the blood of ... peoples ... 'Allah bless you,'" "To Anthrax" continued.

* "How much hatred has [America] stockpiled. ... Were the eradication of its Marines in Lebanon, the destruction of its military headquarters at Khobar in Saudi Arabia, the destruction of the USS Cole in Yemen, the bombing of its embassies in Zambia [sic] and in Kenya, and the attacks on its soldiers in the Gulf ... not sufficient? The U.S. should have learned the lessons of history ... Today, the U.S. has treated the bitter harvest it sowed in the hearts of millions. Today, we ask: After this, will the U.S. [continue to] think that it is above the law?" the editor of Al-Risala, Dr. Ghazi Hamad, said in justification of the attacks days after September 11, 2001.

Some of the most vulgar responses to the attacks of September 11, 2001, were the celebrations in the Palestinian streets, including shouts of joy by women. Hamas' reaction to the attacks was equally as disturbing yet not really shocking.

Mr. Stalinsky is the executive director of the Middle East Media Research Institute.