international headlines released the complete story of his faith journey Tuesday
in a memoir brimming with spy-novel-like drama.
Son of Hamas by
Mosab Hassan Yousef details a six-year-long conversion process that originated
with a Bible study in Jerusalem and resulted in his departure from the Islamic
terrorist organization. He was baptized in 2005 near Tel Aviv in a ceremony
performed by a San Diego woman visiting the church that Yousef attended.
The 31-year-old says his faith has sustained him ever since,
particularly since leaving his homeland in 2007. The pain of separation is
better understood when one reads his account of the lifelong, close-knit ties
forged by Palestinian families.
“Whenever I compare my pain to [Christ’s], I forget my
pain,” said Yousef, who lives on the West Coast. “When I feel alone in this
journey, I know that He feels with me because He went through much worse. Every
step I get closer to the cross I learn more about His sacrifice and pain, which
absolutely makes me forget about my pain.”
The oldest son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a respected imam and
one of seven founders of Hamas, Yousef gained international attention in July
2008 after he shared his conversion story with a friend from Israel’s Haaretz newspaper. That led to a report
on Fox News that August and a January 2009 documentary that detailed his
departure from the terrorist group.
While the former leader of the Islamic Youth Movement has kept
a low profile since, he appeared Monday at the National Religious Broadcasters
convention in Nashville, Tenn. Three national TV appearances follow this week,
starting today on CNN.
Yousef’s conversion dismayed his father, who is still jailed
and believes his son is bound for hell. The elder Yousef has denied his son’s
accounts of Hamas’ activities, as did a Muslim cleric in a 2008 interview.
Yousef acknowledges many Palestinians will be upset by his book’s
most explosive revelation: that he spied for Shin Bet, Israel’s intelligence
service.
“Some of them will be offended; some will think I did this
for personal reasons, but some of them will also wake up,” Yousef told Charisma. “It’s a
hard truth. It’s awakening to them. I did what I had to do because I had been
witnessing a lot of blood, a lot of killing and I felt responsible.”
His disillusionment with Hamas originated with experiencing
an atmosphere of treachery and deception inside a prison the group controlled.
Leaders of the terror network routinely tortured Arabs
suspected of collaborating with the enemy, he said. Over a three-year period in
the 1990s, Yousef claims that Hamas investigated 150 suspected collaborators
and killed 16.
When Shin Bet first asked him to spy Yousef intended to kill
his handlers, but he changed his mind. He helped the agency with an eye toward
preventing some of the violence wracking the nation. His action likely spared
his father’s life and prevented numerous suicide bombers from carrying out
their plans.
Today he hopes that Christians who read his account will
avoid siding with Jews or Muslims, instead looking at both through the eyes of
Christ. Although not calling on Christians to drop their support for Israel,
Yousef said they need to see Muslims as victims rather than criminals.
“I want them to understand there are many Palestinian
Christians who live on the other side and Israel deals with them brutally,”
Yousef said. “I don’t think the Israeli tank knows the difference between
Palestinian Christians and Palestinian Muslims.”
Instead of knee-jerk support for Israel, regardless of its
government’s actions, he would like to see Americans utilize their power and
influence to force both sides to work together.
Christians can help by adjusting their attitudes towards
Muslims and Palestinians. They will never believe in Jesus’ love if those who
profess to follow Christ look down on them, he said. He believes the only hope
for people in the region is learning forgiveness and unconditional love so they
can move past the 62-year-long conflict.
“We need at least to support ministries who work in
the Middle East with Muslims,” Yousef said. “There are a lot of ministries who
put their lives in danger to evangelize to Muslims and evangelize to Jews.
Support those efforts.”
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