Halpern: The myth of Muslim unity

Issue of May 21, 2010/ 8 Sivan 5770

All is not as it appears.

To be kind, I will call it a myth. To be truthful, I should call it a sham. The Muslim world is not united. The claim of Muslim unity is, quite simply, superficial rhetoric.

It is the Muslim way of protecting and mystifying their world.

The rifts that divide the world that we assume to be so monolithic and so indivisible run deep. The rifts run along both religious and power-based lines; most often, they are a combination of both.

The best, most current, example of this Muslim reality is the tension between Egypt and Hamas. Egypt has just issued an order barring all Hamas leaders and affiliates from entering their country. This is a drastic move.

There has never been a love affair between Egypt and Hamas, and sometimes there has even been open hostility. We cannot forget that Egypt was supposed to be the intermediary between Hamas and Israel and Hamas and Palestinian Fatah. But now Hamas is bent on subverting Egyptian power. Hamas is linked to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood which is dedicated to the overthrow of Egyptian leadership and power and committed to replacing it with Muslim extremist authority.

Hamas has begun an international smear campaign against Egypt. Hamas wants Islamic extremists to back them in a public attack that will embarrass Egyptian leadership into softening its stance on Hamas. Hamas is milking the Palestinian angle and doing their best to prove that Egypt is a collaborator with the Israelis, the United States and the West.

Backing up their campaign is the Hamas claim that Egyptian security forces are torturing Hamas prisoners. That claim may or may not be true. It is true that Egyptian security forces have been interrogating and torturing prisoners — all prisoners — for a very long time. And it would stand to reason that Hamas prisoners are no different.

There’s more. On April 29, 2010 the Egyptians admitted to gassing a tunnel used by Hamas to smuggle material from Egypt into Gaza. The Egyptians pumped the tunnel with poison gas that killed four of the smugglers and injured six more. That act was condemned by Hamas as an act of barbarism and as a cold-blooded killing. Hamas then took their message to the international Arabic press and depicted the smugglers as poor people, as bread smugglers. They wrote: “This is a terrible crime committed by Egyptian security against simple Palestinian workers who were trying to earn their daily bread.”

When it comes to PR campaigns, Hamas is almost unparalleled.

Egyptian leadership and Hamas leadership have hated each other for a longtime - and hate is not a word I use lightly. Their desire to kill one another is fierce, but it has seldom become so public. The question that begs asking is this: Is the hatred that Egyptians and Hamas feel toward each other greater than the hatred they feel toward Israel?

The simple answer is “yes.”

The more complicated answer is “I just don’t know.” I do know that this is the time to take advantage of the rifts in the Muslim world. If Egypt does not trust Hamas, how can Russia and others even entertain the idea of bringing Hamas to the table in negotiations for peace?

I do know that we must not fall victim to the rhetoric of Muslim unity.

Micah D. Halpern is a columnist and a social and political commentator. Read his latest book THUGS. He maintains The Micah Report at www.micahhalpern.com.