Social-Civilian Apparatuses of Hamas, Hizballah, and Other Activist Islamic Organizations

The aim of this article is to examine the social-civilian activities of activist Islamic organizations in general, and of the Palestinian Hamas and Lebanese Hizballah in particular. As opposed to the common approach in academic and semiacademic publications, some of them aiming to promote political and propagandist goals, this article claims that the connection between the organizations' social-civilian activities and their military and political apparatuses is not so close, although it does exist indirectly, and that these activities come first and foremost to answer religious commandments and social needs. This conclusion arises from examining the religious and historical roots of Hamas's and Hizballah's social-civilian apparatuses and from comparing them with those of parallel organizations that are nonviolent.