Iran’s radicalism and Hamas’s fundamentalism endanger Europe and beyond

Police face off against anti-Israel protesters at Dam Square in Amsterdam on Nov. 10, 2024. Credit: Courtesy of Bart Schut.

by Pinhas Inbari

(Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs) — With President-elect Donald Trump’s administration soon to enter the White House and already planning its foreign policy, including in the Middle East, it is vital to review developments in the Palestinian issue since Trump ended his first presidency. Most significantly, Palestinian secular nationalism has declined while the Palestinians’ fundamentalist religious narrative is on the rise. Today, that narrative is imbued with Hamas Islamist ideology, which Iran is likely to deploy as a new means to destabilize Europe and, eventually, the United States.

The situation came into focus with the Islamist violence against Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam. The pogromists did not call for the liberation of Palestine or a Palestinian state; their cri de coeur was: “Jews are a cancer.”

The outbreak in the Netherlands was only the latest in a spate of violence in European cities with large Muslim populations. France, where Muslims represent some 10 percent of the population, is on tenterhooks. Especially notable have been preparations in Hamburg to support a Muslim caliphate that would impose sharia law. In Hamburg, the goals of radical Islam are intertwined with those of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Germany closed the Muslim center in Hamburg and expelled the preacher because of the funding he received from Iran and Hezbollah. Hamas’s fingerprints are detectable as well.

When Hamas attacked the Gaza border communities on Oct. 7, 2023, it did not speak of a war of liberation or a Palestinian state, but rather of a religious war to liberate Jerusalem. Hamas called on all the fronts surrounding Israel to join the war under the cloak of religion.

Moreover, the name Hamas chose for the massacre — the “Al-Aqsa Flood” — was not arbitrary. This motif was taken from Islamic State, which used it in the second edition of its ideological mouthpiece Dabiq, immediately after the group’s establishment in Mosul.

The motif of the flood is taken from the biblical story of Noah’s Ark. Islamists believe that Allah will bring about a worldwide Islamic flood and that only those within the ark of the Islamic State will survive to establish a new world.

The choice of this theme was meant to convey that Sinwar’s Hamas was the successor of ISIS, Sinwar was the new Osama bin Laden and that the liberation of Al-Aqsa would unite all the Muslims under the flag of Islam.

The ominous events in Amsterdam indicate the degree to which Europe’s Muslims have operationalized Hamas’s messages.

What exactly happened is still unclear. Were the events planned or were they an initiative of the taxi drivers, many of whom were of northern Moroccan and Algerian background?

Either way, radical Islam in Europe is taking a new form. Until now, the Muslim Brotherhood’s leadership in Europe preferred quiet infiltration of the European social and political milieu. The clearest manifestation was the establishment of the Red-Green Alliance between the Muslim Brotherhood and the European left. The Brotherhood feared that the Islamic State’s terror would put an end to this quiet infiltration of Europe.

The antisemitic Muslim riot in the streets of Anne Frank’s city was exactly what the Muslim Brotherhood did not want to happen.

Did Iran’s long arm play a role? Was the Hamburg strategy being implemented here as well? It is hard to know, but many of the drivers were of Algerian background; did they instigate their fellow drivers of Moroccan background?

Algeria is Iran’s main ally in the Maghreb (northern Africa). There is an active Hamas office in Algeria’s capital, and Algeria is a candidate to host the Hamas leadership should it be expelled from Qatar. However, Algeria rejected appeals to host Sinwar following the Gaza war, and it is unclear whether it will now agree to host his confederates.

The Arab world learned its lesson when Hamas’s Khaled Mashal betrayed Syria and sided with the Syrian opposition. Hamas was expelled from Syria. No one wants to take an unnecessary risk — especially not Algeria, which has already paid a heavy price in its bloody civil war against its own radical Islam.

A change in the Islamic strategy in Europe, from political efforts to violence, requires that Europe beware of Iran, which will incite Muslim youth, and to be wary of ISIS-related Hamas. These groups endanger Europe’s internal stability. This terrorist virus could then spread to the United States as well.

Originally published by the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs. Pinhas Inbari is a veteran Arab affairs correspondent who formerly reported for Israel Radio and Al Hamishmar newspaper. He currently serves as an analyst for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.