What does Hamas stand for?

Answer 1

Hamas is an Arab Muslim Terrorist and Paramilitary Organization. Hamas operates out of the Gaza Strip and Qatar. (Prior to 2011, Hamas operated out of Syria, but their Anti-Assad position during Arab Spring got them evicted from Syria.) Their goal is to eliminate Israel and create a theocratic Islamic Palestinian State. Some particular elements of Hamas Ideology include:

Jihadist Ideology
In terms of politics, Hamas is a Jihadist organization. Jihadism is a political ideology whose goal is to bring a particularly repressive version of the religious tenets of Islam into the daily functioning of a government and its laws. Additionally, it believes that violence in defense of the faith is the preferred way to do this. Jihadism is a political ideology rooted in Islamic religious concepts, but not part of the Islamic religion per se. Hamas argues that its Jihadist struggle is part of the holy Islamic struggle of Jihad and anyone who opposes them is not properly guided (in Islam). Because of the religious sectarian orientations, Hamas identifies itself as avowedly Sunni, but accepts Shiites because of Iranian funding.

Anti-Israel Sentiment
In the Jihadist conception, only Muslims should be in power in the State and any non-Muslim minorities should have a secondary role if they should have one at all, whereas Jews are too "uppity" in having created a state where they are in the dominant position. Second, Israel is situated in territory which used to be governed by Muslims for nearly 1300 years (with a century-long break under the Crusader States). As a result, Israel is considered a usurpation of historical Islamic authority whereas European countries (for example) never had Islamic authority before.

Anti-Semitism (Jew-Hatred)
Hamas is a virulently Jew-hating Organization. Not only do they oppose Israel's very existence, they have references in their charter to the elimination of all Jews throughout the world. While Islam is not inherently Anti-Semitism, its doctrines are easily to meld to an Anti-Semitic world vision and historically have been melded in such ways. Islam has several Anti-Semitic thrusts. In addition to the crucifixion of Jesus the Messiah (which is not deicide in Islam since Jesus is not God in Islamic theology and because Jesus eluded the attempt to crucify him), Muslims have made the argument that Jews are the killers of the Prophets plural, even though Jesus was the only one of the 35 prophets in the Qur'an who Jews attempted to kill (per Islamic teachings). Additionally, Muhammad and the early Muslims had negative political and military relationships with Arabian Jews which led to Anti-Semitism having a greater prominence in the early Islamic tradition. Hamas has endorsed and promoted all of these Anti-Semitic Views.

Terrorism and Attacking Civilians
The most common and identifiable Hamas terrorist action is the suicide bomber who blows himself up to take out some enemies as well as himself, but Hamas has increasingly used missiles and rockets. Most Muslim terrorists wish to inspire fear in their enemies and therefore primarily attack civilians, considering them part of the enemy.

Palestinian Nationalism
Hamas argues that the Palestinians are the indigenous people of the southwest Levant and Hamas is aggrieved that people from abroad would come to the land that their people's parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents had lived on and worked for as long as they could remember. Hamas refuses to help settle Palestinian Refugees and encourages the children and grandchildren of refugees to remember where in current-Israel they came from: the exact village and street. The point is to create an emotional and intractable grievance to push for Palestinians having the right to go back to their homes in contrast to more realistic solutions.

Welfare for Public Support
Since Hamas exists in Palestine, which has a weak internal support structure, it will use its own funds to build schools, parks, hospitals, and other social services in the communities it occupies. It provides goodwill with the local inhabitants and allows them to more effectively spread whatever messages they may wish to say.

Irreverence Towards Democracy
Hamas has actively engaged in elections in Palestine with its own political parties. However, the engagement is a farce, because if the governments formed after the elections were not desirable to Hamas, Hamas has engaged in militant actions to force the national government to capitulate to their desires. As a result of Hamas's discontent there was a Palestinian Civil War in Gaza and the West Bank. Hamas continues to murder Fatah militants and politicos in the Gaza Strip as a method of securing power.

Answer 2

The Arabic word hamas translates to enthusiasm in English. It is the name of a Palestinian Islamic organization recognized as a terrorist group in several countries.

Answer 3

Arabic: حماس‎ Ḥamās, "enthusiasm", an acronym of حركة المقاومة الاسلامية Ḥarakat al-Muqāwamah al-ʾIslāmiyyah, "Islamic Resistance Movement"

Answer 4

A Dictatorship that wants control of Israel.