Hamas, the hard-core terrorist organization

The Australian government announced February 17 that it intends to add the entirety of HAMAS to its designated terrorist organizations list in April.

The views of Hamas and the violent extremist groups listed today are deeply disturbing, and there is no place in Australia for their hateful ideologies,” announced Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews in a statement.

Until now, Australia had joined New Zealand and Paraguay in designating only the Hamas Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades military wing but not its political section as “terrorist.”

Australia took a similar action last November by extending the prior classification of just the military wing as terrorist to include the entirety of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group based in Lebanon.

The Islamic extremist group is considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan, and it is known for actively encouraging violence.

Hamas, an acronym in Arabic for the “Islamic Resistance Movement,” clearly identifies with the global Muslim Brotherhood terrorist organization by inclusion in its Charter of the Islamist Movement slogan: “Allah is its goal, the Prophet is the model, the Qur’an its constitution, Jihad its path, and death for the sake of Allah its most sublime belief.”

Iran has long used terrorist groups to attack, undermine, and control other regional governments, such as with Hamas, in Gaza, Hezbollah, in Lebanon, and the Houthis, in Yemen.

By using terrorist proxies, the regime in Iran is attempting to attack its neighbors while concealing where the blow came from and escaping the consequences.

Hamas and Hezbollah, both U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations, have been more successful than the Houthis in killing Americans. Indeed, Hamas has killed dozens of U.S. citizens, while Hezbollah is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans.