Mosab Hassan Yousef

One of the most extraordinary things happened this week and the only News network to report on it was FOX. Every other news outlet has been as silent about this event as if such an occurrence was as embarrassing as Dan Rather campaigning for John Kerry with his phony report on George Bush. The event was the explosive announcement that the son of son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, one of the most influential leaders of the militant group Hamas, Mosab Hassan Yousef converted from Islam to evangelical Christianity. According to the FOX report, Yousef not only repudiates Islam, but slams those who have used the religion to foment terror throughout the world.

I watched the broadcast and was singularly impressed by this young man’s obvious courage. Without batting an eye he stated that those who follow the Koran are “insane”. He was raised as a radical Muslim and taught to hate the Israeli and the West as natural enemies of Islam. He helped organize protests and was indirectly responsible for a number of terrorist acts that caused the deaths of innocents. To be able to come forward as he has is an incredible act. The fact that he is still alive is simply a miracle.

With the current war going on in Gaza, the apparent one sided view of the major media is again obvious to all but the most naive viewer. With rocket after rocket lifting into the air toward Israeli suburbs, the MSNBC reporter continues with his/her report on how many Palestinian civilians the Israeli military has killed. Qassam rockets and Grad missiles rain down on Israeli civilians by the hundreds, and the images shown everywhere except FOX are those of Palestinian militants dressed in Hamas green demonstrating around an unidentified man holding what could either be a child’s body or a sack of laundry; the package is never revealed.

I have yet to be convinced of any legitimate claim the Palestinians, the Iranians, the Lebanese, Egyptians or any other Middle Eastern group has on the land of Israel. Leaving off Saul, who is recorded as being a rather ineffective ruler, the reign of King David is reckoned to have begun around 1050 BC. Any reasonable, thinking being would consider that a rather solid claim. What makes the thought of giving the Palestinians any portion of Israel as theirs to own absurd, is that they have never before lived there, not even in the distant past. They come from the eastern side of the Jordan. The Mexicans who want to claim portions of the American Southwest have a stronger claim on what they desire than that. Of course, if Mexican terrorists began lobbing rockets and missiles into San Diego, we would see much the same response from the news media as we do where Israel is concerned. To them, there are only two great evils in the world, Zionist Israel and Imperialistic America. The only thing that would shake that view is if one of the rockets landed in their Oceanside estates.

Yousef is a unique young man. He has the courage of his convictions and a personal history no pundit can argue against. He has come though experiences many of us would consider to only be the stuff of action movies. The news media think Islam is as valid as Christianity, though, where Christianity is concerned, they only reference those who has misused the faith for their own selfish goals; the Spanish Inquisition and the Salem Witch Trials were not Christian in origin, despite the trappings. Nowhere in the New Testament will you find God admonishing the follower of Jesus to murder a daughter because she married a man of her own choosing, to send a child into a crowd wearing an explosive belt, to saw the head off an innocent man, to push a helpless wheelchair bound man off a ship into the ocean, or the other innumerable atrocities committed in the name of allah (the lack of a capital here is intended). Far too long the world has allowed this abomination of a religion to exist. Far too long have the peaceful citizens of this globe stood by silently while these monsters have terrorized the innocent. Finally, one young man has come forward and spoken the truth. Sadly, only a few noticed.