The son of a top Hamas leader has converted

The son of a top Hamas leader has converted to
Christianity and prays
someday his family will also accept Jesus Christ as
their savior, an
Israeli newspaper reported.

Masab Yousef, son of West Bank Hamas leader Sheik
Hassan Yousef,
revealed for the first time in an exclusive interview
with Haaretz
newspaper that he has left Islam and is now a
Christian. Prior to the
interview's publication last Thursday, Yousef's family
did not know of
his faith conversion even though he is in regular
contact with them.

'[T]his interview will open many people's eyes, it will
shake Islam
from the roots, and I'm not exaggerating,' Yousef, who
now resides in
the United States, said. 'What other case do you know
where a son of a
Hamas leader, who was raised on the tenets of extremist
Islam, comes
out against it?'

Yousef, who is now 30-years-old, was first exposed to
Christianity
eight years ago while in Jerusalem where out of
curiosity he accepted
an invitation to hear about Christianity. Afterwards,
he became
'enthusiastic' about what he heard and would secretly
read the Bible
every day.

'A verse like 'Love thine enemy' had a great influence
on me,' Yousef
recalled. 'At this stage I was still a Muslim and I
thought that I
would remain one. But every day I saw the terrible
things done in the
name of religion by those who considered themselves
'great believers.'

'I studied Islam more thoroughly and found no answers
there. I
re-examined the Koran and the principals of the faith
and found how it
is mistaken and misleading.'

But with Christianity, Yousef said he could understand
God as revealed
through Jesus Christ. He said he could talk about God
and Jesus for
days, but Muslims are not able to say anything about
God.

'I consider Islam a big lie,' said the son of one of
Hamas' founders.
'The people who supposedly represent the religion
admired Mohammed
more than God, killed innocent people in the name of
Islam, beat their
wives and don't have any idea what God is. I have no
doubt that
they'll go to hell. I have a message for them: There is
only one way
to Paradise - the way of Jesus who sacrificed himself
on the cross for
all of us.'

Four years ago, Yousef decided to convert to
Christianity but did not
let his family know. He still helped his father with
his political
activities, and his father only knew his son had
Christian friends.

'I felt responsible. It was better for me to be there
rather than a
gang of fools who would poison his mind,' Yousef
explained. 'I tried
to understand those people, their thoughts, in order to
change them
from inside by means of a strong person like my father,
who admitted
to me in the past that he does not support suicide
attacks..'

Yousef described his father as a moderate Hamas leader..

But even before his encounter with Christianity, Yousef
had already
become disenchanted with Hamas and Islam while being
imprisoned at the
age of 18 years old for heading a youth Islamic
movement at his high
school.

He described the Hamas leaders he met in prison as
people with 'no
morals' and 'no integrity,' although they hide their
corruption better
than Fatah party members.

'Nobody knows them and how they operate as well as I
do,' Yousef said,
recalling how the family of Hamas members killed by
Israel were forced
to beg for financial assistance while the leadership
'abandoned' them
and 'wasted' tens of thousands of dollars a month only
on security for
themselves.

'Then (in prison) I understood that not everyone in
Hamas is like my
father. He's a nice, friendly man. But I discovered how
evil his
colleagues are,' Yousef said. 'After my release I lost
the faith I had
in those who ostensibly represented Islam.'

Hamas is considered a terrorist group by the United
States, Israel,
and many Western countries. The group has publicly
vowed to destroy
Israel.

Now Yousef, the eldest son of Sheikh Yousef, says he
'admires' Israel.

'You Jews should be aware: You will never, but never
have peace with
Hamas,' Yousef stated. 'Islam, as the ideology that
guides them, will
not allow them to achieve a peace agreement with the
Jews. They
believe that tradition says that the Prophet Mohammed
fought against
the Jews and that therefore they must continue to fight
them to the
death.'

He denounced the 'entire' Palestinian society as one
that 'sanctifies
death and the suicide terrorist.'

'In Palestinian culture a suicide terrorist becomes a
hero, a martyr.
Sheiks tell their students about the 'heroism of the
shaheeds
(martyr).''

Yousef highlighted that Hamas was the first to use
suicide bombers as
weapons against civilians.

'They (Hamas) are blind and ignorant. It's true, there
are good and
bad people everywhere, but Hamas supporters don't
understand that they
are led by a wicked and cruel group that brainwashes
the children and
gets them to believe that if they carry out a suicide
attack they'll
get to Paradise,' he said.

The Muslim-turned-Christian says he does not think
Islam will survive
for more than 25 years because the truth about Islam
will be exposed
given the mass communication available in the modern
age.

For his part, Yousef says he hopes to 'open the eyes'
of Muslims and
'reveal the truth' to them about Islam and Christianity
with the goal
to 'take them out of the darkness and the prison of
Islam.'

'In that way they'll have an opportunity to correct
their mistakes, to
become better people and to bring a chance for peace in
the Middle
East,' he said.

Yousef, who has taken the biblical name of Joseph, said
he dreams of
one day becoming a writer to tell his personal story
and about the
Middle East conflicts.

'But at the moment, at least, my ambitions are only to
find work, a
place to live,' Yousef admits. 'I have no money, I have
no apartment,'
said the son of the Hamas leader who left behind
properties in
Ramallah to find true freedom. 'I was about to become
one of those
homeless people [in the United States],' he confessed,
'but people
from the church are helping me. I'm dependent on them.'

He also dreams that someday he can return to his
homeland and his
family will accept Jesus Christ.

'I know that I'm endangering my life and am even liable
to lose my
father, but I hope that he'll understand this and that
God will give
him and my family patience and willingness to open
their eyes to Jesus
and to Christianity,' Yousef said. 'Maybe one day I'll
be able to
return to Palestine and to Ramallah with Jesus, in the
Kingdom of God.