Twenty bearded youth sit in the courtyard of a mosque in Gaza City after worshippers depart from afternoon prayers. They meet every week in a small, self-directed prayer circle to recite the Quran in succession.

When the Quranic recitation session draws to a close, the young man heading the gathering begins to speak about the political situation in Egypt, deposed president Mohammed Morsi’s ouster and its impact on the global Islamist movement. He sketched out at length all the obstacles that had been put in Morsi’s path, bringing Egypt to the point where, he said, “The coup would almost seem as if it were in accordance with the popular will.”

The conversation revolved around this issue, with every young man relating what he had heard from various media outlets — particularly those affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. They described what they had read and seen on the Internet and various social-media sites. Before the end of the gathering inside the mosque, all of them had reached the firm conviction that the Brotherhood would not meekly surrender, but would go on fighting until Morsi returns to the presidency.

Since its founding in the late 1980s, Hamas has relied upon mosques as one of the principal means for cultivating its popularity. This was due to the ease with which the general public could assemble there, as well as the mosque’s ability to influence the public intellectually, politically and culturally. It should be noted that several Palestinian Islamist movements have engaged in fierce competition to win control over the mosques.