Salafi Jihadists are becoming increasingly active in ‘Palestine.’ They are garnering more support than ever before, and they are partially responsible for the increasing radicalization of Palestinian Arabs. If you think Fatah and especially Hamas are evil and extreme, just take the following comparison made by Salafi Jihadists into consideration: “compared to us, Hamas is Islamism Lite.”

The leader of the Salafi movement in Gaza and Palestine in general is Abu Mustafa. The German newspaper the SPIEGEL had the opportunity to talk to him.

“We meet secretly in mosques and private homes,” Mustafa told the SPIEGEL. He added that there are now some 5,000 Salafis in Palestine, ‘not counting women and children.’

“We aren’t well enough organized yet, but we are in the process of building networks,” says the 33-year-old. Eventually, he hopes, a powerful movement will be born. Members are already receiving weapons training and are schooled in both dogma and strategy.

A middleman for the interview said: “When the fight begins, they will show no mercy. Abu Mustafa is a very dangerous man.”

Mustafa himself described the Salafi movement to the interviewers. All they want, the SPIEGEL summarized kindly, is to ‘live a pious, god-fearing life governed by the laws of religion, a life resembling those of the original Muslims.’ This is the ‘positive description’ of Salafism (or Wahhabism). The more negative one is that they want to go back to a way of life that has never existed, and in which all those who dare disagree with the radical and oppressive view of Islam they adhere to are oppressed, isolated, and possibly tortured and killed.

And then, of course, there is the view of the West and non-Muslims in general. “Look,” Mustafa said, “there will be three possibilities. Some will find their way to Islam. Those who don’t want to convert will be able to live in peace under the authority of Islam.” For those who don’t want to accept the hegemony of Islam, however, holy war is the only recipe. “Then we have to fight — just like our brothers on Sept. 11.”

In case you’re wondering what these people think of Al Qaeda and whether the Salafis in Palestine are in contact with Osama Bin Laden and other Al Qaeda leaders Mustafa - who lived in Germany for years and who was even educated there - said the following: “We feel just like al-Qaida and we think as they do.” With regards to a possible link with Al Qaeda he only wanted to say that it is “a possibility.”

For now, there is not a great danger of Salafis taking over in Palestine. At this moment, it seems, the main battle for the hearts and minds of Palestinians is being fought by Fatah and Hamas, the one obviously more radical than the other yet less radical than the Salafis (but we are talking about degrees of pure evil here). Having said that, Salafis seem to be garnering more support among Palestinians, who are both disappointed in Fatah and Hamas and who favor a more ‘Islamist’ system for their territories.

Mustafa is quite clear about his relationship with Hamas: the two extremist organizations aren’t very fond of each other. Hamas views Salafis with suspicion and does is best to oppress this rival organization. The Salafis, meanwhile, consider Hamas militants “traitors” who have “strayed from the true path.” If, however, Hamas is not willing to “turn away from the false path,” there will be an armed confrontation, Mustafa explained. However; this “won’t be necessary,” the Salafi leader predicted. “They will destroy themselves.”

He told the SPIEGEL that many Palestinians are disappointed with Hamas, not because they’re too radical, but because they’re not extreme enough. “Hamas represents an American style of Islam. They have tried to curry favor.” ‘”For many people in Gaza, Hamas embodied the promise of a good, Islamic lifestyle,” Abu Mustafa says. But once the group seized power in the Gaza Strip over a year ago, many were disappointed. Of the 10 defectors who call him everyday, many of them are Hamas fighters, he claims.