From Hamas to Christ

Insider tells his story of leaving terrorism and meeting God

By Debra Fieguth and ChristianWeek | January 17, 2011

I count myself among the many Canadians who are aware but not especially knowledgeable about tensions in the Middle East and the various factions involved. Hamas, Fatah, Hezbollah–I can get confused. Son of Hamas sheds a shocking light on one of these groups, told by an insider. The fact that it's also a personal story makes it not just informative but deeply compelling.

The author, Mosab Hassan Yousef, was crossing the square outside Jerusalem's Damascus gate when a young British man called out to him. â€œWhat's your name?" he asked. Within five minutes Yousef had agreed to attend a Bible study at the nearby YMCA.

The Brit had no idea he was talking to the son of one of the founders of Hamas, which had grown from working for an independent, Islamic state of Palestine into a terrorist organization, bent on destroying Israel. Neither did he realize he was talking to a spy for the Israeli security forces, Shin Bet.

That seemingly chance encounter at the beginning of the road that leads to Damascus was the start of what was to become a triple life for Yousef. Nurtured in Islam and committed to Palestinian politics, but jaded by the mistreatment and brutality he witnessed by Hamas leaders against their own people in Israeli prisons, he had agreed to collaborate with the Israelis, alerting them to Hamas's movements while acting as his father's bodyguard and protector.

Yousef was only 18 when he was arrested. His father had already been imprisoned a few times. In the Megiddo prison, where the various groups–Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad and others–policed themselves, he soon found out that Hamas was just as capable of violence against its own members as it was against Israelis.

So when the Shin Bet asked him to cooperate with them, he made the agonizing decision to turn his back on Hamas. While outwardly he was still a part of it, and still loyal to his father, he also reported on the movements of the other Hamas leaders. His justification: â€œThere were many fewer grieving widows and shattered orphans at gravesides because of the suicide bombings we were able to prevent."

The book reads like a thriller. Its plot is sometimes so fantastic that a reader of fiction would wonder if it's plausible. In one elaborately staged scene, Yousef sits outside his father's house in his car, waiting. As soon as he receives a call from his Shin Bet handlers, he races away. He has 60 seconds before Israeli forces surround the house, â€œautomatic weapons covering every door and window." Twenty tanks thunder into town, with helicopters following.

By then, Yousef is in so deep he knows it's too dangerous to carry on. Besides, he has become increasingly intrigued by the teachings of Jesus, and increasingly dismayed by the practices of Islam.

Yousef's journey on the Damascus Road takes six years. He writes about it in an understated way, almost as a subtext to the thrilling plot. But that's what makes his personal transformation so powerful. His story is convincing enough that I would share this book with anyone–Christian or not–who wants to know more about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.