My approach is to examine Hamas through a theological lens. While the aforementioned lenses can illuminate some aspects of understanding Hamas, the larger issue is that they obscure the religious ideas through which Hamas interprets the conflict, defines its enemies, and justifies violence. I believe that Hamas cannot be fully understood without taking seriously its theological worldview, which places the present conflict within a much larger sacred history. Hamas’s most enduring weapon is not a rocket, a tunnel, or a military battalion, but an interpretive system.

That theological logic is precisely what Western accounts tend to miss.

Because many Western accounts of Hamas treat its theology as secondary to its political grievances, they often misunderstand how the movement defines its goals, interprets events, and justifies its actions. For example, Western........

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