Mosab Hassan Yousef is a very serious young man, one whose dark eyes seldom waver from direct and piercing contact, one for whom smiles and laughter come but rarely, one who wears his passion and determination openly and without apology.
He is the much-discussed Son of Hamas, a moniker that sounds contrived and theatrical until you know his story. In an autobiography with that same name, he tells it, in the same direct and succinct language with which he speaks.
Born in Ramallah, on the West Bank, 32 years ago, Yousef is the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, one of the men who founded the Islamist Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, making Yousef, quite literally, a son of Hamas.
The oldest of six brothers and two sisters, he spent his childhood believing in the violent, no-compromise, virulently anti-Israeli ideology of his fathers organization.
First arrested at the age of 10 for throwing rocks at Israeli settlers during the first Intifada (1987-93), he would be arrested and jailed many more times.
His father also spent much of his time in Israeli jails, often leaving the youthful Yousef in charge of the family.
It was during Yousef’s young adulthood, he says, that he began to compare the way Israel treated its prisoners to the way Hamas treated its captives, and gradually to question not only the brutality of Hamas but of Islam, the religion that inspires it.
A long process of transformation ensued, eventually leading Yousef to become a valued informant for the Israeli Shin Bet, whose agents nicknamed him the Green Prince, a reference both to the color of the Hamas flag and to Yousef’s presumed succession as a future leader of the organization.
Israeli officials have since confirmed that Yousef’s work led to the arrest of numerous Hamas officials and prevented dozens of suicide bombings and assassination attempts on Israeli figures.
He came to the US in 2007, successfully fought deportation after his Hamas ties were discovered, and ultimately converted to Christianity.
It was only in March of 2010, upon publication of Son of Hamas, that Yousef’s counter-intelligence work for the Israelis was publicly revealed.
Fully aware that many of his former comrades in Hamas would jump at a chance to take his life, he lives undercover today, in an undisclosed location in the US, occasionally venturing out in public on well-guarded and tightly-scheduled speaking tours.
Yousef was brought to Denver last week by Americans Against Terrorism, Stand With Us and Faith Bible Chapel. He spoke at Faith Bible, attracting some 2,000 listeners, according to AAT, and at the Hebrew Educational Alliance, where several hundred listened.
He took time on Feb. 10 to sit for an interview with the Intermountain Jewish News. In a soft-spoken but intense discussion, he outlined the perimeters of a personal crusade to which he says he has dedicated his life.
Yousef presented, in several ways, a study in striking contrasts. Hes a man who can decry his former faith in fiercely defiant terms that might seem shocking even to hardcore Western conservatives, yet can still express tenderness and concern for his own father, even after everything that has transpired between them.
Were you taught to hate Israel when you were a child?
Its not about education. Its about your environment. When you live in an atmosphere of violence and confrontation, especially with a nation that does not share with you the same values, the same ideologies and religion, ultimately they are considered as an enemy. So the environment makes you hate them.
Did you have the feelings that Palestinians often have, that Israelis are oppressors, that they are the enemy?
Absolutely. This is the reality of the situation. When I was a child, my father was arrested . . . and we had to suffer. As a child I didn’t care a lot about what was right for Israel to do and what was wrong. I wasn’t able to see my dad. He was behind bars and that was enough for me to hate them.
It was personal and much more than that. Later on, it becomes ideological. I told you about the cultural differences the different beliefs, different lifestyles. All of these differences make it easy for people not to understand or to accept the others, especially Middle Eastern people.
Yet there came a point where something changed with you. You started to look at things in a different way.
There was not one point. There was a long journey. I had to question almost everything about my life and about the conflict. And I had to sacrifice a lot. I put my life at risk just to know which direction I wanted to go in my life.
Finally, I could see that the Israelis were not my enemies.
How does such a huge philosophical change happen? How do you step back from the situation and regard it in a different light?
Its an amazing transformation, if I can say so, and its hard to believe. But I had to fight back, not to surrender, as a human being. Ideologies start with a hatred, with the revenge that youre trying to take, or even expressing yourself by showing some reaction to what was happening.
All these captivities I had to fight. And they were internal. I fought back and I got my freedom gradually, until I became a free man. It was not about a philosophy as much as I didn’t want to be a prisoner of all types of hatred and revenge.
You are against violence?
Absolutely.
So you would oppose not only the violence that the PLO or Hamas might commit but also that the Israeli army and police might commit?
Well, there’s a difference between organized violence and using force. The Israeli government does not have a strategy of causing violence. The Israeli state is a democratic state the only light in the entire Middle East but sometimes they use extra force.
Unfortunately, there is no perfect regime or perfect system that would know how to act with certain events, especially if civilians are involved.
I believe in the first and second Intifadas the Israeli leadership was making decisions from a weak position, not from a strong position. They were choosing between bad and worse, not between bad and good. So sometimes they used extra force.
I don’t call it violence when it’s to protect their state and its future. I think this is a normal right.
Now, for Palestinians, because they don’t believe in the existence of Israel, they look at the picture in a different way. But I stood in the shoes of an Israeli, a leader or prime minister, even a Shin Bet agent or soldier.
From the other side, I see that my people did not achieve their goals because their goals were not to build a Palestinian state. Their goal, clearly, was to destroy the State of Israel. If the focus was to build a Palestinian state, they would have a Palestinian state by now.
Most of us, sons who have fathers, have had conflicts with our fathers. Might some of what happened with you have been a personal conflict between you and your father — a founder of Hamas, a man seen by Palestinians as a great freedom fighter?
Absolutely not, and this is what complicates the whole story.
My father never hurt me. In fact, it was almost impossible for me to make all these decisions because my father is a very kind and loving dad. There is nothing harder for a man than to disappoint the heart of his parents, especially if they are good parents. My father sacrificed a lot for us as children. From a humanitarian and moral point of view, it was very hard for me to put him in this tough position.
But I had to overcome the captivity of shame of embarrassing my father for the sake of humanity in the Middle East and in the world. This is why I think that he will understand one day. Hes still in pain and Im not sure that he will be able to move on very soon.
So it was not personal. Its easy to explain what happened in my life by saying that it was all personal that I hated my society, that I hated my family, that I hated my nation, my religion and now Im taking revenge. Maybe this is how they see it. This is the easiest way to explain the situation.
I guarantee you that its much deeper than this, because I love my people, I care about them, and I dont consider any one of them especially the ones who hurt me as enemies. I moved on a long time ago.
Are you still a Muslim?
Traditionally. But the G-d that I worship is not the G-d of Islam and my ideology is different than Islamic ideology. Today I am a Christian in faith. I believe in Jesus Christ as a teacher, as a L-rd, as G-d and savior to my life.
But Im not a traditional Christian or a religious person. In fact, I have a very fast stand against religion in general.
Describe for me, if you will, how you came to be a fierce opponent of terrorism.
When I was a child, I heard this: Your dad has been arrested and you are like an orphan and have to take responsibility for your family. So as a child you think, who caused that? Its this alien, who came with his military suit, who doesn’t belong to us, who comes to scare us, who comes aggressively, who is trying to do something to make us unhappy.
So when you hear an explosion the next day, in an Israeli area, to you its like, Oh, these are the same bad guys who came last night and arrested my father, the same guys who were shooting in the street. So the bad guys got their punishment.
A child thinks like this. Especially — especially — when you live in a society that is controlled by a G-d who hates the other side very much. This is why I always bring up the ideological dimensions of this.
People are trying to provide political solutions. They don’t understand the psychology behind a suicide bomber or behind terrorism in general. I lived among them. I was one of them, thinking the same way, feeling the same way. And I had to deal with them later, when I was on the other side, and they had no idea.
So I read them like a book. I understand them. I understand their feelings and their struggles. And I know that their violence goes beyond political reasons and agendas.
The G-d of the Koran justifies the death and mandates the death of civilians and soldiers. He didn’t distinguish between a soldier and a civilian in a war with his enemy.
Practically, his prophet Mohammed, did this to the Jews. The entire Jewish tribes of the Arabian peninsula were killed or forced to emigrate from the peninsula at the hands of Mohammed. For no reason. They did not fight Mohammed, but because they did not submit to his message and to his G-d, he had the G-d-given authority, in the Koran, to take action against them.
The majority of Palestinians are Muslims. They read this in their Koran and they understand it. They see the behavior of Mohammed not everybody, but at least the ones who are willing to go die. They know that they have a promise of going to heaven if they commit suicide by killing Jews.
Here’s the missing point: Other Palestinian factions used violence against civilians at some point. They know that it failed, it did not work, and they changed their agendas.
So the ideological dimensions of this have to be considered. We need to understand the ideological dimensions of 9/11, why Bin Laden did this. Without understanding the enemy and all the factors that form their mentality, we will never be able to defeat them.
When George Bush or Barack Obama emphasize that Islam is a religion of peace, are they wrong?
On one hand, since I understand politics and diplomacy, they dont have a lot of choices or options.
On the other hand, I think this is a deception. I doubt that a US president doesn’t have access to information to know the real nature of Islam. I think the strategy of the last few decades, of distinguishing between moderate Islam and radical Islam, does not exist.
As Ronald Reagan called the red danger the Evil Empire, now is the time that someone will have to stand and talk about the Evil Green Danger. It exists everywhere, including American soil.
This doesn’t mean that Muslims are evil people. We can distinguish between Muslims and Islam. Muslims can be traditional Muslims, but when it comes to ideology, let’s put the ideology on the table. If this is the true nature of Islam, why are we afraid to discuss it or expose it? This is not the way to bring truth to our generation. The truth will not cause an international crisis.
Could it, however, cause persecution against innocent Muslims because of a climate of fear that such words would create?
Persecution is already happening against some Muslims in many places in the world. The US is a free country and very tolerant, but Im talking about many places, including Arab countries, where Muslims are being persecuted.
This is a way to end the persecution by bringing the truth. The truth will set everybody free. A Muslim will say, If this is my religion, should I keep believing this or find something else?
Could a Muslim find an avenue of peace and tolerance within the Koran?
Absolutely not. If you want to create a perfect lie in order to deceive someone, you wrap the lie with layers of truths, facts and morals to support the lie and make it look great.
Islam as a word means submission. Its about conquest, about force, about power, about control. The ultimate goal of Islam is to establish a global Islamic state.
Now, the majority of Muslims are peaceful people. Why? Because Mohammed was a very good politician. When he had to be kind to his enemies, he would negotiate with them and he was peaceful. And when he had the power, he had zero tolerance. He killed all of them. He destroyed their kingdoms. He conquered civilizations.
The peaceful verses in the Koran are a minority. There is a term abrogation that cancels what was before. So, for example, the verses that say, Kill the infidels wherever you find them, in Chapter 9 . . . Muslims understand that this means [to do this] when we can use force.
Here in the US we are a minority. We dont have power or an army, so we have no choice but to be peaceful, like Mohammed was in Mecca, when he didn’t have power. But if we have a nuclear bomb, like in Iran, then we have the power. How can we use this power as our prophet used his power?
Islam is a religion of politics. It was a political system before it was a religion. Its an amazing mixture, but there’s no way to reform it. If you wanted to reform it, youd have to bring Mohammed back, maybe the G-d of the Koran himself. They are the only ones with the authority to change it.
So the best way to convince Muslims is to expose the real nature of the Koran. It will only lead humanity to self-destruction.
I would think to even say that requires great courage, not to mention helping Israeli intelligence know about terrorist attacks. Would you describe yourself as a courageous man?
Im just doing whats right. I dont consider myself a hero or anything. I just need people to listen, I need change to happen. If here in America and the West, people wont listen, I dont know how the people in the Middle East will listen.
Im finding it more difficult to communicate with people in the West than with people in the East.
And you intend to continue your work in this regard?
Absolutely. Nothing can stop me until the day that I see that Islam is over.
Copyright © 2011 by the Intermountain Jewish News
