Son of a preacher man
Mosab Hassan Yousef still hasn't broken completely with the mindset of his past. Still, his journey is extraordinary. An update on a story originally posted here July 31. "Son of Hamas Leader Turns Back on Islam and Embraces Christianity," by Jonathan Hunt for FoxNews, August 12 (thanks to all who sent this in):
Mosab Hassan Yousef is an extraordinary young man with an extraordinary story. He was born the son of one of the most influential leaders of the militant Hamas organization in the West Bank and grew up in a strict Islamic family.Now, at 30 years old, he attends an evangelical Christian church, Barabbas Road in San Diego, Calif. He renounced his Muslim faith, left his family behind in Ramallah and is seeking asylum in the United States. [...]
JONATHAN HUNT: Why, after 25 years, did you change?
MOSAB HASSAN YOUSEF: I believe that all those walls that Islam built for the last 1,400 years are not existing (sic) anymore. They don't recognize this. They built those walls and made people ignorant because they're afraid. They didn't want people to discuss anything about the reality of Islam, about the big questions of Islam and they asked their followers, the Muslims, 'Don't ask about those certain questions.'
"They didn't want people to discuss anything about the reality of Islam." Ain't it the truth.
But now, people have media. If the father closes the door for his daughter not to leave the house, she's going to go behind her computer and travel the world. So people easily can get information, knowledge, searching (sic) engines, so it's very, very available for everybody to study about Islam, about other religions. Not from the Islam point of view, but from other points of view.So for the next 25 years this is for sure going to make huge change in the Muslim and the Arab world.
JONATHAN HUNT: You speak from a unique perspective, a man who grew up not just in an Islamic family but as part of an organization seen by many people around the world as an extreme force in Islam: Hamas. What is the reality of Islam? You say people don't see the reality; What is the reality of Islam?
MOSAB HASSAN YOUSEF: There are two facts that Muslims don't understand ... I'd say about more than 95 percent of Muslims don't understand their own religion. It came with a much stronger language than the language that they speak so they don't understand it ... they rely only on religious people to get their knowledge about this religion.
As I have pointed out here innumerable times, the fact that Islam contains traditional and mainstream teachings that advocate violence and supremacism does not mean that all Muslims endorse or are acting upon such teachings. But if their clerics begin to preach these things, then they will be susceptible to being radicalized.
Second, they don't understand anything about other religions. Christian communities live between Muslims and they're minority and they (would) rather not to go speak out and tell people about Jesus because it's dangerous for them.
Indeed -- as we have also pointed out here many times.
So, all their ideas about other religions on earth are from Islamic perspectives. So those two realities, most people don't understand.If people, if Muslims, start to understand their religion — first of all, their religion — and see how awful stuff is in there, they'll start to figure out, this can't (be) ... because most religious people focus on certain points of Islam. They have many points that they are very embarrassed to talk about.
JONATHAN HUNT: Such as?
MOSAB HASSAN YOUSEF: Such as Muhammad's wives. You will never go to a mosque and hear about anyone talking about Muhammad's wives, which is like more than 50 wives — and nobody knows (this), by the way. If you ask the majority of Muslims, they will not know this fact.
So they're embarrassed to talk about this, but they talk about the glory of Islam, they talk about the victory, the victories that Muhammad made. So, when people just like look at themselves and see they're defeated, they have ignorance, they're not educated, they're not leading the world as they're expected to do. They’re think they want to get back to that victory by doing the same, what Muhammad did, but disregarding (sic) the timing. They forget that this happened 1,400 years ago and it's not going to happen again.
JONATHAN HUNT: Do they want to destroy Christianity?
MOSAB HASSAN YOUSEF: Islam destroyed Christianity from the beginning and Muslims don't recognize that they stabbed Christianity (in) its heart when they said that Jesus wasn't killed on the cross. They think that they honor him in this way.
Basically, any Christians understand that this way, (but Muslims) tell Jesus, okay, we don't care, you didn't die for us. Someone sacrificed his life for you, (but) you tell him, okay, you didn't do it!
This is what Muslims are doing basically. But they don't understand that this is the most important part of Christianity: the cross!
So, they are ignorant, they don't know what they are doing and it explains what an evil idea it is behind this Islam....
Read it all.
Yes, absolutely.
"If the father closes the door for his daughter not to leave the house, she's going to go behind her computer and travel the world"
This is precisely what islam has been doing since the birth of the internet - a platform for islam to break out of the mosque and propagate to the world the pure hate of the 7th century ideology from which the adherants have been brainwashed with from the day of their birth.
But they don't understand that this is the most important part of Christianity: the cross!"
Noooooo... The most important part of Christianity is to obey God's laws, and to do your best to emulate Christ.
"I (wonder) how many people can do what I can do today? I didn't find any."
From arrogant Muslim to arrogant Christian. Charming.
Okay, I'll allow that proclaiming oneself a Christian, under the conditions he lived in does take courage. Christians, however, aren't supposed to think they've earned a bugling fanfare for their faith of choice.
And no, he has not thrown off his former mindset, by a longshot! He read the Bible, so now he's a Christian. As if reading the Bible makes one a Christian! For him, it's all about the book, as for Muslims, it's all about their book.
Well, I'll pray he finds some humility, so that he might be useful as a Christian.
Abscedere:
Christianity would still be Christianity without Christmas (if Jesus appeared on earth as an adult), but it would not be Christianity without Easter. If Jesus did not die for our sins, then Jesus is just a great prophet and the Christian religion wouldnt exist. Ergo, Christianity really is all about the cross.
In any case,Mosab is doing us a great favor so I would ease up. Whether Hirsi enjoys expensive clothes or Mosab enjoys an expansive view of himself, they are both saying tremendously useful things and are people who cannot be ignored in the way that Robert can. Lets hope for more Mosabs.
Long live the infidel.
Glory Hallellieuja!
To all those posters on this site who ever doubted the efficacy of the grand pedagogical anti-jihad championed by (among others) our own Robert Spencer and Hugh Fitzgerald and underway here 24/7, this should be a great rallying cry:
"But now, people have media. If the father closes the door for his daughter not to leave the house, she's going to go behind her computer and travel the world. So people easily can get information, knowledge, searching (sic) engines, so it's very, very available for everybody to study about Islam, about other religions. Not from the Islam point of view, but from other points of view.
So for the next 25 years this is for sure going to make huge change in the Muslim and the Arab world."
Back to battle soldiers of the Anti-Jihad!
@Abscedere
When Mosab said:
""I (wonder) how many people can do what I can do today? I didn't find any."
He is NOT being arrogant! Mosab is referring to Arab Muslims back in Palestine. And you know what, he's absolutely correct that there are precious few Arabs who can throw off the yoke of that Arab supremacist cult of Islam and apostasize (just like there are precious few Israeli Jews who find their way to Christ), endure the opprobrium and pariah status that ensues (if not death).
God Bless this wonderful young man.
Now I'll shut up before I get banned...again.
"This is what Muslims are doing basically. But they don't understand that this is the most important part of Christianity: the cross!" --from posted article.
Exactly. The Cross.
"If Jesus did not die for our sins, then Jesus is just a great prophet and the Christian religion wouldnt exist. Ergo, Christianity really is all about the cross." --JSobieski
Exactly.
The most important element of Christianity is that Jesus sacrificed himself, taking all of our sins upon Him, so that we would have eternal life.
That is why the Cross is the primary symbol of Christianity. A fish is also symbolic of Christianity, but the Cross prevails.
I have my great-grandmother Kate's gold/pearl-inlaid cross passed down to me, and I cherish it so much!
we need to get this guy on tv. let him shout it a loud, "i'm a apostate".
OT, another columnist has suggested what many here have said: a "proper burial" for all suicide bombers. It shouldn't just be Israeli policy however. It should go global.
http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=72171
MOSAB HASSAN YOUSEF: I'd say about more than 95 percent of Muslims don't understand their own religion.
...
"but they talk about the glory of Islam, they talk about the victory, the victories that Muhammad made. So, when people just like look at themselves and see they're defeated, they have ignorance, they're not educated, they're not leading the world as they're expected to do. They’re think they want to get back to that victory by doing the same, what Muhammad did, but disregarding (sic) the timing."
I'd say 95 percent of Muslims understand their religion pretty well. It's all about the glory. It's all about the supremacy of Muslims over everyone else. If Muslims aren't leading the world then it's the fault of non-Muslims, who must be punished.
What they're not understanding is history, that things change and that most of humanity has passed them by. As for their religion: they've got that down pat.
Do they do their own things? Yes, they do their own things. I know people who support Hamas but they never got involved in terrorist attacks, for example ... They follow Hamas because they love God and they think that Hamas represents God. They don’t have knowledge, they don't know the real God and they never studied Christianity. But Hamas, as representative for Islam, it's a big problem.
The problem is not Hamas, the problem is not people. The root of the problem is Islam itself as an idea, as an idea. And about Hamas as an organization, of course, the Hamas leadership, including my father, they're responsible; they're responsible for all the violence that happened from the organization. I know they describe it as reaction to Israeli aggression, but still, they are part of it and they had to make decisions in those operations against Israel, (for) which there was the killing of many civilians.
They follow Hamas because they love God and they think that Hamas represents God.
How are people who follow Hamas because they love GOD and believe that HAMAS represents God, not in any way responsible for the terrorist actions Hamas undertakes in their name?
How is the problem not people but the Hamas leadership? Last I looked, they were people. Without people subscribing to it, Islam would be nothing BUT an idea and it would be long-forgotten and in the dustbin of history.
Most Muslims are good people and are Muslim only by an accident of birth but that means they are the ones who have to reject the evil that Islam represents. Evil prospers when good people do nothing. I don't envy them the situation they are in and the choice they must make, but it's still their choice. They are the ones who have to decide which course to follow. Islam frees them from making any choices. It sets their life's path for them. If they choose Islam because resisting it is too hard then they must live with the results. They can't have it both ways.
Some good comments, and a reminder of what a great liberty we have where we can follow our conscience to God without threats and coercion from those whose conscience has been bludgeoned to silence.
That Islam denies the crucifixion is hardly meant to be an insult. It simply reflects a culture in which allowing yourself to be tortured to death is not seen as admirable, and cannot be believed of a prophet. I suppose it also emerges from a context in which the "sacrificial God" concept so prevalent in the Mediterranean world when Christianity was developing never took hold.
Mosab Hassan Yousef may not express himself perfectly in English, and he may be no theologian, but the points he makes are valuable (or perhaps "invaluable" is the word I'm looking for) and he is an enlightened voice.
Once again I am impressed at how Christianity still has the power to foster this enlightenment. Who would have believed that about the religion that burned Giordano Bruno alive? Secular humanism appears to be more or less helpless against the onset of the religion of the sword. Christianity, for all its attempts to politically rectify itself, is not.
This interview contains the solution to the problems of the Middle East in my estimation.
Mosab Yousef says that it comes down to the ideas people live and die by. The internet is making those ideas vulnerable because of its reach into the Islamic world. The lasting solution must be a change of heart and a change of mind in the Islamic world and the internet can be a powerful tool to use toward this end.
If the non-Islamic world is to win this battle, it must be from the war of ideas and by providing points of view never before accessible to those behind the Islamic Curtain. This battle is the essential one, not armed combat. Our efforts need to be focused on giving people the opportunity to think about this, not babbling on about Islam being 'the religion of peace' and the rest of the appeasing PC crap that should be dismissed as the worthless claptrap that it is. Leadership in the non-Islamic world still insists on mouthing it and it is a serious obstacle in the War of Ideas that we have to fight.
Mosab Yousef shows extraordinary courage by making his statements on Islam, Christianity and the roots of the eternal Middle East conflict. He is an apostate and will be targeted for death. The world needs more people like him -- not afraid to speak and targeting the evil in ideas rather than whole groups of people. May God bless him and deliver him from evil.
I read the whole thing.
First: like JSobieski I was struck by this exchange:
JONATHAN HUNT: Do they want to destroy Christianity?
MOSAB HASSAN YOUSEF: Islam destroyed Christianity from the beginning and Muslims don't recognize that they stabbed Christianity (in) its heart when they said that Jesus wasn't killed on the cross.
'They think that they honor him in this way.
'Basically, any Christians understand that this way, (but Muslims) tell Jesus, okay, we don't care, you didn't die for us. Someone sacrificed his life for you, (but) you tell him, okay, you didn't do it!
This is what Muslims are doing basically. But they don't understand that this is the most important part of Christianity: the cross!'
One might also add that when Islam says Abraham offered Ishmael, not Isaac, it *also* stabs Judaism in the heart.
Two Big Lies: Muslims tell Christians 'Jesus didn't die on the cross'; they also tell Jews, 'Abraham offered Ishmael, not Isaac'.
With unerring instinct, whoever or whatever it was that compiled the Qur'an struck right for the jugular of both Judaism AND Christianity (and note, too, that for Christians those two events are indissolubly connected - the offering of Isaac [Isaac who consented to his father's decision, Isaac the doubly-given - miraculously given by G-d, offered to G-d, re-given by G-d] , then the self-offering of Jesus who as Jew descends from Isaac so he repeats both the action of Isaac AND the action of G-d giving himself to Israel and himself to himself..., the endless circle of giving and receiving that it signifies, the Covenant that is affirmed and re-affirmed). Somehow it sensed that these two events have to be denied, obscured, erased, if the link between Jews and G-d, or Christians and their G-d, is to be broken. It's an attempt to get at the very source of the identity of a faithful Jew or of a faithful Christian.
Second observation: note that this young man pleads with his fellow Muslims to use their minds.
"My message to them is, first of all, to open their minds. They were born to Muslim families — this is how they got Islam and this is just like ... any other religion, like growing up (in) a Christian family, or growing up (in) a Jewish family.
"So my point is that I want those people to open their eyes, their minds, to start to understand and imagine that they weren't born for a Muslim famiily. And use their minds.
"Why did God give them minds? Open their hearts. Read the Bible. Study their religion. I want to open the gate for them, I want them to be free...".
Yep. Faith and Reason. 'why did God give them minds?' [and his own implicit answer, in the same passage? - to Use! to think! to exercise empathy and imagination!].
There is an interesting 'chime' with the Confessio of Magdi Cristiano Allam, after his baptism:
"The miracle of Christ’s Resurrection has re-echoed through my soul, freeing it from the shadows of a preaching where hatred and intolerance in one’s relations with ‘the Other’, who is uncritically condemned as ‘Enemy’, override love and respect for one’s ‘neighbour’ who is – nevertheless - always “Person”,
" just as my spirit has been freed
'from the obscurantism of an ideology that legitimates lying and deception and the violent death that comes to the murderer and the suicide and blind submission and tyranny,
"allowing me to join the authentic religion of Truth, Life and Freedom.
"In my first Easter as a Christian I have not only found Jesus, I have found for the first time the true and only God, who is the God both of Faith and Reason. "
Somehow, despite the very different streams of Christianity that they have chosen to join, the very different levels of intellectual attainment, these two converts, Magdi and Mossab, are talking a similar language. Both speak of freedom. Both speak of Reason, of the use of the mind.
I will pray for Mossab. If his conversion is indeed genuine, he will keep on keeping on, and the fruits of his faith should appear in his personal life.
they gotta go wrote:
we need to get this guy on tv. let him shout it a loud, "i'm a apostate".
...................................
Well, Mosab Hassan Yousef did appear on FOX news, and many of the opinion shows--O'Reilly, Hannity and Colmes--have replayed parts of the interview and commented on it.
Jonathan Hunt asked Yousef if he was concerned (I am paraphrasing, here) about the threat of violence against him as a former Muslim. He said that they could kill him, but not his ideas.
Clearly, he knows he is in danger as an apostate. Not only did he appear--full face--on television, but he has also announced what US city he lives in and what church he attends.
Sure, you can nitpick. But I consider him a brave man. I hope others follow his lead.
MOSAB YOUSEF: "If the father closes the door for his daughter not to leave the house, she's going to go behind her computer and travel the world. So people easily can get information, knowledge, searching (sic) engines, so it's very, very available for everybody to study about Islam, about other religions. Not from the Islam point of view, but from other points of view.
"So for the next 25 years this is for sure going to make huge change in the Muslim and the Arab world."
RESPONSE: There is a prevailing wisdom that the internet has let the knowledge Jeanie out of the bottle and that this will somehow ultimately undue Islam.
It's possible...but it's also very possible that the UN (read: OIC) will soon gain control of the net and sanitize it the way the universities and the MSM have been sanitized.
Obama's election will certainly contribute to such an eventuality, should it come to pass. He's the candidate obsessed with multilateralism and our global image.
WOW! Hurray to the Great God! I am very very impressed!
But you know what? I understand Mosab must have gone through great troubles before reaching the stage he is in now. In fact, I am jealous of you Mosab! You have been a christian for a much shorter time than me but you seem to know much more. I am so ashame of myself. This reminds me of the verse by Jesus, 'Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last." Luke 13:29-31.
Fellow christians, we should be mindful of this verse and the happenings like that of Mosab's that is going on around the world. If we are complacent we will surely become the last and might risk having heaven's door closed to us right before our eyes.
In my country as of 2007 there was an official report regarding 100,000 apostate among ex-muslims. But this is just official report. Underground apostates was reported to be at least double of that.
Apostates in my country are not allowed to erase the word Muslim from their identity cards. So even if they have renounced their faith they remain muslim by name. This means that they will continue to have their lives controlled by the muslim laws. If they dare to come out and challenge the Islamic law, they would be put under Internal Security Act (ISA). Imagine, people changing faith can also become a danger to a country.
I really pitty these people because they have no chance to learn about other religions while we christians have all the privileges to know about other religions. On top of that, they are not even allowed to question the teaching of the Quran but we christians have all the freedom to question and even debate about the verses of our bible.
For this, I believe Morsad when he said '...I'd say about more than 95 percent of Muslims don't understand their own religion. It came with a much stronger language than the language that they speak so they don't understand it ... they rely only on religious people to get their knowledge about this religion'. How can they ever know what is in the Quran when they are being controlled from expounding the teaching brought to them? I would also have such thought about bible had I been controlled in such manner. We are human beings with with brain.
I have met with a man like Mosab personally and he is are really great to talk with. It makes you feel that you are born again. This is why I feel jealous of people like Mosab.
However, on the other hand, I feel I see that this is something I want to rejoice for. I have been praying for some time for this to happen. the fact that stories like Mosab's is coming out into the world is because God has wanted us (those who have been praying for this to happen)to see that he is answering our prayer. He wants to show us that our prayer can move His hands to do great things. So fellow christians, including Mosab and people like him, lets continue to join hands in prayer to move God's hands to save the rest of the world. Yes! saving the world is indeed every christian's duty. Do not let yourself be found guilty of not performing your duty. Prayer has no cost but yet the most powerful weapon that we christians are blessed with.
Yes! Thank you God for saving Mosab. Thank you God for opening up the eyes of his heart to make him see and hear you, and listening to you, and for giving him the wisdom to differentiate the evil from the bad. Thank you God for bringing him out of the darkness and into the light. Continue to nurture him to be a great man of yours so that he can be a vesel for your love, forgiveness and peace to his family and his people. Thank you so much God for answering our prayers and we believe you will answer our prayers even more. In Jesus' precious name we pray.
All Muslims who recognize that Islam is violent the first step they need to take would be to renounce violence, Jihad and Islam (these are inseparable). They need not convert to Christianilty or Judaism or any other religion. Then they need to change their name from Muslim names like Mohhamad, Mohammed, Mohammad, Ahmad, Ahmadinajat, Mahmood, Hamed, Hamdan, Hamdoon, Hamadi, Hamadin ect.. (Scrable intense) to any name they would like. They will soon start loving themselves and others, loving life, ambition, hobby, music, freedom and everything that life has to offer.
Everything is forbiden by Islam under haram except Jihadism, killing and death for Allah (Fi Sabil Allah).
No wonder most Muslims are bitter, it is because they have no life to live. They live to die.
I stand many times corrected.