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.”