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Why Islamic State Has No Sympathy for Hamas
(Al-Monitor) Ali Mamouri - Most of today's Salafist jihadist movements have no interest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On July 22, the Egyptian Salafist sheikh Talaat Zahran declared that it is inappropriate to aid the people of Gaza because they are equivalent to Shiites since they follow them, referring to Hizbullah and Iran. For Salafists, the purification of Islamic society takes priority over combat against non-Islamic societies. This approach has its roots in Islamic history. The first caliphate of Abu Bakr gave priority to fighting apostates over expanding Islamic conquests. Likewise, Saladin fought the Shiites and suppressed them before he engaged the Crusaders in the Holy Land. During the current war in Gaza, a number of IS fighters have burned the Palestinian flag because they consider it a symbol of the creation of an independent political state. In Salafist doctrine, the entire Islamic world must be united under a single state, an Islamic caliphate, which IS declared in June.