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Hamas Celebrates Taliban Retaking Afghanistan

Hamas issued a statement on August 16 congratulating the Taliban for retaking Afghanistan as United States forces are withdrawing from the country.
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August 16, 2021
Afghans wait in long lines for hours at the passport office as many are desperate to have their travel documents ready to go on August 14, 2021 in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Photo by Paula Bronstein /Getty Images)

Hamas issued a statement on August 16 congratulating the Taliban for retaking Afghanistan as United States forces are withdrawing from the country.

The Jerusalem Post that the statement read: 鈥淲e congratulate the Muslim Afghan people for the defeat of the American occupation on all Afghan lands, and we congratulate the Taliban movement and its brave leadership on this victory, which culminated its long struggle over the past 20 years. While Hamas wishes the Afghan Muslim people and its leadership success in achieving unity, stability and prosperity for Afghanistan and its people, it stresses that the demise of the American occupation and its allies proves that the resistance of the peoples, foremost of which is our struggling Palestinian people, will achieve victory.鈥

StandWithUs Israel Executive Director Michael Dickson tweeted that Hamas and Taliban are 鈥渂irds of a feather.鈥

Human rights attorney and International Legal Forum CEO Arsen Ostrovsky also tweeted that 鈥渙f course鈥 Hamas congratulated the Taliban, as they 鈥渂oth come from the same radical, jihadist Islamic roots, with a hatred for Jews and a pervasive indifference to human life, freedom and democracy.鈥

Additionally, Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook, a Hamas senior official, tweeted that the 鈥淭aliban is victorious鈥 because they 鈥渟tood up to the U.S. people [and] its agents refusing compromise, they have not been fooled by slogans like democracy and elections. This is a lesson for all oppressed peoples.鈥 This prompted Stop Antisemitism to tweet, 鈥淚n 2006, Hamas removed all pictures of women without hijabs, citing Sharia law in the Gaza Strip. Is it any wonder this Hamas senior member is congratulating the Taliban on their takeover of Afghanistan?鈥

Author Shahar Azani also tweeted that Abu Marzook鈥檚 tweet 鈥渋s a DIRE & disheartening lesson for all oppressed people – that at the end, their oppressors win & their oppression is endless.鈥

Asaad Hanna, an international fellow at Columbia University鈥檚 School of International and Public Affairs and a former member of the White Helmets NGO, tweeted out photos from when Hamas and Taliban leadership convened in May. 鈥淎 quick reminder that Hamas and Taliban have great ties together and both are blessed by Iran.鈥

On the other hand, Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee member Ahmed Majdalani chided those celebrating the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, noting that the Taliban 鈥減roduced the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda. And when it comes to any form of extremism and terrorism, it is the Arab and Islamic peoples, first and foremost, who have ended up paying the price,鈥 The Times of Israel .

Thousands of Afghanis have onto the tarmac of Kabul Airport in an attempt to flee the Taliban鈥檚 pending reign over the country, resulting in seven deaths. The Biden administration is standing by their decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, criticizing the Afghan military for failing to counteract the Taliban鈥檚 insurgency.

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