Son of Hamas Leader Speaks Out Against Group

by Stephan Tawney on January 2, 2009

I saw this on Fox today but forgot about it until I saw Ace’s post. We’re not talking about some lowly guy here. Mosab Hassan Yousef  is the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, one of the Hamas organization’s most influential leaders. Yet the younger Yousef has converted to Christianity, lives in the United States, and is now a critic of the terror group.

JONATHAN HUNT: Do you believe that Israel can ever strike a peace deal with Hamas?

MOSAB HASSAN YOUSEF: There is no chance. Is there any chance for fire to co-exist with the water? There is no chance. Hamas can play politics for 10 years, 15 years; but ask any one of Hamas’ leaders, ‘Okay, what’s going to happen after that? Are you just going to live and co-exist with Israel forever?’ The answer is going to be no … unless they want to do something against the Koran. But it’s their ideology and they can’t just say ‘We’re not going to do it.’ So there is no chance. It’s not about Israel, it’s not about Hamas: it’s about both ideologies. There is no chance.

More from his Fox interview:

When I was 18 years old, and I was arrested by the Israelis and was in an Israeli jail under the Israeli administration, Hamas had control of its members inside the jail and I saw their torture; (they were) torturing people in a very, very bad way.

JONATHAN HUNT: Hamas members torturing other Hamas members?

MOSAB HASSAN YOUSEF: Hamas leaders! Hamas leaders that we see on TV now, and big leaders, responsible for torturing their own members. They didn’t torture me, but that was a shock for me, to see them torturing people: putting needles under their nails, burning their bodies. And they killed lots of them.

JONATHAN HUNT: Why were they torturing people?

MOSAB HASSAN YOUSEF: Because they suspected that they had relations with the Israelis and (were) co-operating with the Israeli occupation against Hamas … So hundreds of people were victims for this, and I was a witness for about a year for this torture. So that was a huge change in my life. I started to open my (eyes), but, the point (is) that I got that there are good Muslims and bad Muslims. Good Muslims, such as my father, and bad Muslims, like those Hamas members in the jail torturing people.

Lovely.



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