Considerable attention today is concentrated on Qatar’s relationship with Hamas – how much money has Qatar provided the Palestinian terrorist organization, why do Hamas’s leaders reside in luxury in Doha, and what role does Qatar play in supporting the anti-Israel student campaign on U.S. and European campuses? Another critical question is the alliance between Qatar’s leadership and the hydra-like radical jihadi Muslim Brotherhood?
One of Hamas’s two godfathers is the royal family in Qatar. Actually, Doha is also the residence of Hamas’s “Godmother,” Sheikha Moza, the mother of Qatar’s Emir. She sponsors and shelters the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, as described in the picture and caption below.
Youssef Qaradawi served as Hamas’s spiritual guide, and the organization’s leadership made frequent pilgrimages to seek his counsel and approval. The following picture appeared on Qaradawi’s website and shows Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh and military commander Yahya Sinwar.
Sheikh Qaradawi, under his white shawl, welcomed a Hamas delegation in Qatar in 2012. He stands next to Ismail Haniyeh, the “Prime Minister of the Gaza Government.” On the left margin stands Yahya Sinwar. (www.al-qaradawi.net)
The Sheikh’s website reported:
Mr. Haniyeh praised Qatar’s significant role in supporting the Palestinian cause and Gaza. Among the topics discussed with His Eminence, the Sheikh, was the material, political, media, and psychological support provided by the State of Qatar to the Palestinian cause. Haniyeh informed His Eminence the Sheikh that His Highness the Prince [of Qatar] had confirmed to him the provision of financial support for the reconstruction of everything destroyed by the war in the Gaza Strip, and assistance in solving the electricity problem and the problems of unemployment and production.
After the deaths of Hamas leaders Haniyeh and Sinwar, Khaled Mashal resumed leadership in the organization, serving as chairman of the political bureau.
Mashal also paid homage to Qaradawi, who died in Qatar in 2022 at the age of 96.
Iran Is Hamas’s Second Godfather; How Does that Work?
Since Yasser Arafat’s rush to Iran to embrace Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979, the Revolutionary Iranian state has been the Palestinian terrorist organizations’ strongest sponsor.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Al Quds Force conducted terrorist operations against Israeli and Jewish targets around the world. Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force, designed a policy called the “Circle of Fire” of Iranian proxies to attack and suffocate Israel from all directions. Hamas was a principal client. For 20 years, Iran attempted to ship tons of weaponry to Hamas, including long-range missiles, mortars, rockets, explosives, guns, and ammunition. Some weapons were unloaded in Sudan and Egypt and entered Gaza through tunnels from Sinai. Barrels or flotation devices filled with weapons may have been shipped on Iranian boats for pick-up off of Gaza’s coast. This author has written about the likelihood of a “blue tunnel” on Gaza’s coast through which Hamas frogmen transferred weapons dropped offshore in sealed containers.
A long list of Iranian/Palestinian ships intercepted by the Israeli navy in the Red Sea and Mediterranean includes the Santori (2001), the Karine A (2003), the Francop (2009), the Victoria (2011), and the Klos-C (2014).
The list begs the questions:
- How many ships slipped through and were not blocked?
- What essential strategic cargo did the IDF not discover on the ship?
However, the IDF missed something on the ships—an essential element in the Iranian-Hamas strategy to defeat Israel—CEMENT, vital for the construction of tunnels.
In an inventory of weapons and contraband on the 2014 Klos-C, an IDF official wrote: “Several bags of cement, clearly marked coming from Iran, concealed the contents of the weapons shipment.”
The cargo did not contain several bags; the 100 containers held more than two million kilograms of Iranian cement, as listed on the ship’s manifest. It was as if the weaponry was hiding the cement!
What was the strategic importance of a tanker filled with cement? According to one AI analysis, “with 2,000,129 kilograms of cement, approximately 2.5 kilometers of Hamas tunnel could be constructed, assuming standard tunnel dimensions and concrete composition.”
The Close Relations between the Heads of Iran and Hamas
Hamas leaders were frequent visitors to Tehran. Indeed, Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated there in July 2024 when a bomb blew up his lodgings in an official Iranian guesthouse.
When Iranian Quds Force commander Qassam Soleimani was assassinated, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders were prominently seated in the row immediately behind Iran’s leadership (do not count the accompanying bodyguards). Ismail Haniyeh even presented a eulogy (apparently in Arabic to the Persian-speaking Iranian audience).
Conclusion
Any connection or alliance between the two Muslim camps should be impossible, considering the centuries of violent religious strife between the Brotherhood’s fundamentalist Sunni Muslim doctrine and Iran’s Shiite brand of Islam. Iran and Saudi Arabia are the strongest representatives of the two camps, and their proxies’ conflicts can be detected in Yemen, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq.
This author wrote Sunni and Terrorist Networks: Competition or Collusion in December 2002, and he asserted: “The Palestinian assertion that Sunni and Shiite terrorist groups do not cooperate is baseless and historically wrong. Recent history has demonstrated that there are few religious-ideological barriers in the world of international terrorism.” Especially when it comes to Israel.
The depiction of the Battle of Karbala in 681 CE marked a pivotal event in Islamic history, igniting the Muslim civil war over leadership succession following the death of Muhammad. This conflict has persisted through centuries, primarily dividing followers into two main sects: the Shiites, who regard Husayn ibn Ali, Muhammad’s nephew, as the rightful leader, and the Sunnis, who prioritize leadership based on the individual’s power, competence, and ability to govern effectively. The Battle of Karbala not only symbolized the struggle for political and spiritual authority but also embodied the deep-rooted theological and cultural differences that continue to influence the Muslim world today. Understanding this historical event is essential for comprehending the ongoing sectarian dynamics and the broader implications for Islamic unity and diversity.
