A View From Inside Hamas
Mosab Yousef, the son of Hamas leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef, became a spy for Israel and converted to Christianity. The differences he lays out between Islam and Christianity are quite striking. But, first, why he went over to the other side, from a WSJ interview by Matthew Kaminski:
Mr. Yousef tells me that he was horrified by the pointless violence unleashed by politicians willing to climb "on the shoulders of poor, religious people." He says Palestinians who heeded the call "were going like a cow to the slaughterhouse, and they thought they were going to heaven." So, as he writes in the book, "At the age of twenty-two, I became the Shin Bet's only Hamas insider who could infiltrate Hamas's military and political wings, as well as other Palestinian factions."..."I converted to Christianity because I was convinced by Jesus Christ as a character, as a personality. I loved him, his wisdom, his love, his unconditional love. I didn't leave [the Islamic] religion to put myself in another box of religion. At the same time it's a beautiful thing to see my God exist in my life and see the change in my life. I see that when he does exist in other Middle Easterners there will be a change.
"I'm not trying to convert the entire nation of Israel and the entire nation of Palestine to Christianity. But at least if you can educate them about the ideology of love, the ideology of forgiveness, the ideology of grace. Those principles are great regardless, but we can't deny they came from Christianity as well."
...As the son of a Muslim cleric, he says he had reached the conclusion that terrorism can't be defeated without a new understanding of Islam. Here he echoes other defectors from Islam such as the former Dutch parliamentarian and writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
Do you consider your father a fanatic? "He's not a fanatic," says Mr. Yousef. "He's a very moderate, logical person. What matters is not whether my father is a fanatic or not, he's doing the will of a fanatic God. It doesn't matter if he's a terrorist or a traditional Muslim. At the end of the day a traditional Muslim is doing the will of a fanatic, fundamentalist, terrorist God. I know this is harsh to say. Most governments avoid this subject. They don't want to admit this is an ideological war.
"The problem is not in Muslims," he continues. "The problem is with their God. They need to be liberated from their God. He is their biggest enemy. It has been 1,400 years they have been lied to."
Yousef's just-published book: Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices.







Interesting read. As is the case with North Korea, the culture of the Pali territories has been thoroughly poisoned by what, for lack of a better name, I call "group narcissism". It's to the point where they are perfectly happy to support eliminationist leaders, and develop societies whose only motivation and only purpose in life is, as Yousef puts it, pointless violence.
The question is: what do we, the rest of the world, do with societies like this? Unfortunately, modern technology give them the ability to do a lot of damage, which means that we can't allow them to interface with the rest of the world. There appear to be three choices: (1) try to alter their society by forcibly impressing a more reasonable culture upon them; (2) imprison them, or (3) wipe them out. Unfortunately, our current crop of world leaders keep trying (4) giving them sweets and hoping that they will play nice. But we all know what happens when unruly children are given lots of sweets.
Cousin Dave at March 6, 2010 7:54 AM
I believe he will be interviewed by Ms. AMANPOUR on CNN tomorrow at 2 pm (eastern :).
Ronnie at March 6, 2010 8:12 AM
Cousin Dave: it's no accident that the Pali culture of narcissism was/is fostered by the Left - which has spent the past 30 years (at least) spinning away from reality to preserve its pet ideological theories.
Pali intransigence is an exact parallel of leftie PC arm-twisting. Both groups are furious at a reality that contradicts their fantasies at almost every turn.
Ben-David at March 6, 2010 10:42 AM
(4) giving them sweets and hoping that they will play nice. But we all know what happens when unruly children are given lots of sweets.
Mort Zuckerman and some other American Jews spent millions buying greenhouses so Palestinians could make money selling flowers. The greenhouses were destroyed by the Palestinians.
The Israelis live in peace with Israeli Arabs who do not want them dead, and these Arabs are given freedoms that would be unheard of for Jews in Arab countries.
Per Michael Coren:
http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/michael_coren/2010/03/04/13114356.html
Amy Alkon at March 6, 2010 11:59 AM
Very interesting perspective on what Palestinians want here:
http://spectator.org/archives/2010/03/05/why-the-palestinians-dont-want
Martin at March 6, 2010 3:29 PM
Leave a comment