Atlas / Comparisons / Hamas vs Taliban
Hamas and Taliban
Measured distance across six axes
The same broad family. They agree within three points on CU, AU, SC, ID, CH. No axis separates them by eight points or more.
Axis by axis
| Axis | Hamas | Islamic Emirate | Gap | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EC · Economic organisation | −02 | +03 | 5 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| CU · Social and cultural order | +09 | +10 | 1 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| AU · Organisation of power | +09 | +10 | 1 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| SC · Scale of decision | +04 | +06 | 2 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| ID · Rule of membership | +09 | +09 | 0 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| CH · Method and tempo | +08 | +06 | 2 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
Each axis runs from −10 to +10; the distance is the straight-line separation across all six at once, out of a maximum of 49.0. How the scoring works →
The evidence behind the widest gaps
A distance figure is worth nothing unless the scores behind it can be checked. These are the artefacts supporting the axes that separate these two most.
Hamas · EC −02
Coded −2: welfare and clinic networks funded externally with no productive programme.
- ScholarshipSocial service networks operate alongside taxation of trade and external transfers.
Islamic Emirate · EC +03
Coded +3: no economic doctrine, a bazaar economy, and revenue from customs and taxation.
- Documented act or statuteCustoms collection and taxation of trade are the principal state revenue; the opium ban since 2022 removed a major rural income.
What this comparison does not establish
Proximity means similarity of stated position. It carries no claim about competence, circumstance, scale of operation, or what either organisation actually did to the people under it. Two organisations can sit close together and produce entirely different histories, because those things are not on any axis and could not be.
Hamas
1987– · Gaza, West Bank
Armed Palestinian nationalism in an Islamist frame, rejecting the negotiated framework in favour of resistance.
Taliban
1994– · Afghanistan
Rule by a supreme religious leader applying a particular reading of Islamic law with no elected component at all.
Distance is not the whole answer. Two organisations can sit the same distance apart for entirely different reasons, and the reason is the content of any claim about them. Open the comparison in the atlas to weight the axes yourself.
Open in the atlas