Sword of Laban
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 Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 11:31 pm Post subject: ESCAPE FROM ISLAM |
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Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of Hamas leader, becomes a Christian
The son of one of the most revered leaders of the Palestinian Islamist
group Hamas has renounced his religion to move to America and become
an evangelical Christian.
By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles and Carolynne Wheeler in
Ramallah
Last Updated: 2:21PM BST 24 Aug 2008
Telegraph.co.uk
Mosab Hassan Yousef, 30, said that his decision to abandon his Muslim
faith and denounce his father's organisation had exposed his family to
persecution in his home town of Ramallah and endangered his own life.
But despite the cost, Mr Yousef told The Daily Telegraph that he is
convinced that speaking out about the problems of Islam and the "evil"
he witnessed back home would help to address the "messed-up situation"
in the Middle East and one day bring about peace and enable him to
return.
"I'm not afraid of them, especially as I know that I'm doing the right
thing, and I don't see them as my enemies," he said. "I do think about
this a lot. But what are they going to do? Are they going to kill me?
"If they want to kill me, let them do it. I'm not going to stop
anyone. It's going to be my freedom.
"My soul's going to be free of my body, not flesh any more."
Mr Yousef, who is known as Joseph by friends at the Barabbas Road
church in San Diego, California, arrived in America 18 months ago but
only recently made "the biggest decision of my life" to go public with
his conversion to draw attention to how the Palestinian leadership is
"misleading" and exploiting its people.
"Palestinians look really ugly in front of everybody in the world and
they are very, very good people ... they are misled, and their picture
is very dark because of this leadership.
"They need some help, they need people to stop lying to them, and
lying to the world."
Mr Yousef was raised as a Muslim by his politically powerful family.
His father, Hassan Yousef, a highly respected sheikh born in the West
Bank town of al-Ghaniya near Ramallah, is a founding member of Hamas,
whose military wing has instigated dozens of suicide bombings and
other attacks against Israel since it was formed in 1987.
Hamas now governs the Gaza strip after ousting the more moderate
Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas, whose administration now
only controls the West Bank.
Mr Yousef said that the decision to leave the home he loves and his
family including five brothers and two sisters had made life hard for
them.
"They are definitely suffering because of what I've done," he said.
"They are not a regular family, they are a very famous family, and
Muslims around the world praise my family, praise my father. So when I
came with a step like this, it was impossible to think about, it was
crazy.
"I knew from the beginning my family would face an impossible
situation. It wasn't their choice but they have had to carry it with
me. It's difficult for my mother, she's crying all day long. Every
time I talk to her, she's crying."
His mother, Salsabin, told The Daily Telegraph that she and her
children were "in daily contact with Mosab" but she declined to
comment further on his new life.
Mr Yousef said that his father, who has spent more than a decade in
Israeli jails for his involvement with Hamas, was in prison when he
"got the worst news in his life" - that his son had become a Christian
and left Ramallah. "But at the same time he sent me a message of
love.
"Everybody is asking him to disown me. You understand if he disowns me
he will give terrorists a chance to kill me. "He loves me as a son and
he believes that what I've done was something I believed in, but at
the same time it's very difficult for him to understand and he won't
be able to understand."
Many saw him as heir apparent to his father, who retains great
influence both within Hamas and in Palestinian society, winning
election to the Palestinian Legislative Council in January 2006 from
his prison cell.
But Mr Yousef said that his questioning of Islam and Hamas began
early. His father, a pragmatist who has even suggested Hamas would be
willing to talk to Israel under certain conditions, would often accept
his concerns, such as the targeting of civilians.
Mr Yousef said that his doubts about Islam and Hamas crystallised when
he realised not all Hamas leaders were like his father, a moderate who
he describes as "open-minded, very humble and honest".
Mr Yousef said that he was appalled by the brutality of the movement,
including the suicide bombers seeking glory through jihad.
"Hamas, they are using civilians' lives, they are using children, they
are using the suffering of people every day to achieve their goals.
And this is what I hate," he said.
It was after a chance encounter nine years ago with a British
missionary that Mr Yousef began exploring Christianity.
He found it "exciting", he said, and began secretly studying the
Bible, struck by the central tenet "love your enemies".
Nevertheless he does not advocate the "collapse of Islam", but rather
for people to acknowledge that after 1,400 years "it's not working any
more".
He said: "It's not taking them anywhere. It's making them look ugly."
He hopes that Muslims will begin to question their religion and "fix
it" by rejecting the parts that call for "killing others, cutting
hands, cutting legs, torturing people and asking for destruction of
entire civilisations".
He said that after he converted to Christianity, he decided he had to
escape and "live my life away from violence because I couldn't coexist
with that situation as a Christian."
"I was thinking, what is my responsibility now? To see people dying
every day or to stand up and say, this is wrong, this is right and be
strong about this? So I had to make this move."
He plans to write a memoir about his "transformation" that he hopes
will inspire others and to found an international organisation to
educate young people about Islam and preach a message of
"forgiveness", the only way he thinks "the endless circle of violence"
between Israelis and Palestinians can be broken.
"I know this take a longer time, but this is the right way to do it,
to build a new generation, a new generation who understand how to
forgive, how to love."
It is a vision his new church shares. In a posting on the Barabbas
Road website entitled "Joseph's story", the most unlikely member of
the congregation is described as "a miracle" who left a society
steeped in "brutal and bloody warfare" and instead "turned to Jesus".
"He is most certainly the face of things to come; an Ambassador to
those oppressed by Islam. He is passionate about liberating his
brothers and sisters from the darkness of a false religion, and living
the truth that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Light."
Back in the West Bank, however, many are distressed about his move.
"It is upsetting not only to his community and to his family but to
all Muslims," said Abdel-Jaber Fuqaha, an Islamist parliamentarian and
friend of the family who described Mr Yousef as "a straightforward,
observant Muslim".
"But the worst impact is on his family, and his father. This is a
thing that is more unique to our Middle Eastern culture. It is the
most difficult thing, to convert from one religion to another."
He suggested that Mr Yousef may have been pressured into conversion in
exchange for financial help or permission to stay in the US, given his
background - allegations Mr Yousef rejects.
"I didn't come to Christianity for money, I came to Christianity
because this is the way we can live a better life," he said.
"I love my people. They have the right to live like any other nation
on Earth. But at the same time, I want to help them [get] on the right
track."
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