Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices

• Author: Mosab Hassan Yousef with Ron Brackin
• Genre: Memoir
• Publication Date:  March 2, 2010
• Publisher: Tyndale Audio

Since he was a small boy, Mosab Hassan Yousef has had an inside view of the deadly terrorist group Hamas. The oldest son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a founding member of Hamas and its most popular leader, young Mosab assisted his father for years in his political activities while being groomed to assume his legacy, politics, status… and power. But everything changed when Mosab turned away from terror and violence, and embraced instead the teachings of another famous Middle East leader, Jesus. In Son of Hamas, Mosab Yousef—now called “Joseph”—reveals new information about the world’s most dangerous terrorist organization and unveils the truth about his own role, his agonizing separation from family and homeland, the dangerous decision to make his newfound faith public, and his belief that the Christian mandate to “love your enemies” is the only way to peace in the Middle East.

I’ve heard for years that I should read this book. Hamas is not a new topic for me—it’s been a major threat to friends and family of mine for decades. So having the opportunity to see what it is like to grow up inside (and from the top of) this openly genocidal, brutally hateful, oppressive Islamist group that has kept both Israel and the Palestinian Territories in the grip of terrorism was something I was both very uncomfortable with and extremely curious about. I’ve found that when I’m both curious and uncomfortable, that’s usually when I find myself growing the most.

Just a note: Over the course of this war, I’ve been following and amplifying Jewish, Palestinian, and Arab voices on my social media channels. While I’ve been focusing my reading on Jewish authors and particularly those affected by bans for believing that Israel has the right to exist (aka Zionism), I also decided to start expanding that to include some Palestinian and Arab voices when possible. I’ve seen Yousef speak on social media videos and news clips, and he has a unique message due to being the only person I’ve seen who has actually seen Hamas from the inside and at the top, who left and actively speaks publicly about the reality of Hamas.

Yousef talks about his family life and his childhood growing up with his father as a founding member and favorite leader of Hamas. He was indoctrinated to believe in their extremist ideology, where death is valued as being a martyr for the resistance, and participated in the second intifada. He openly accepts responsibility for his actions and faced the consequences, spending time in Israeli prisons. But that also put him in contact with Israeli intelligence officers who extended an opportunity to Yousef. He agreed to work with them, not intending to actually follow through, but his time in prison changed his mind, and got him to eventually become Israel’s most valuable asset within Hamas.

“I tell my story as well to let the Israeli people know that there is hope. If I, the son of a terrorist organization dedicated to the extinction of Israel, can reach a point where I not only learned to love the Jewish people but risked my life for them, there is a light of hope.”

At the heart of his story, and many of the videos where he speaks, is the dramatic shift in thinking that is required to go from the Western mindset to the Islamist mindset. The two ways of thinking are incompatible with each other. While the Western mindset is focused primarily on individualism, personal choice, religious freedom, and dialogue, the Islamist mindset requires adhering to their twisted version of Islam and complete submission to their rules. Rather than forcing the dynamics of Israel and Palestine to be looked at through an American lens, Yousef offers us a clear-eyed look from someone who has literally been in the trenches with Hamas and spent his entire life being treated like a prince, and then came to do a complete turnaround. The vast 

Since turning his back on Hamas, Yousef has converted to Christianity, a religion that he identifies with more than Islam, and now lives in the United States. He speaks publicly about the threat the radical Islam poses, not just in the Middle East, but also to America. Overall, this was a really interesting book, but there’s so much more I’d have wanted to learn about. His family’s reaction to him leaving Hamas and converting to Christianity, his leaving the West Bank and moving to America and any associated culture shock he may have experienced, and how he dealt with that are all areas I wish he discussed more about. I did just discover that he released another book this month, about exactly that, which I’ll be checking out soon. In the meantime, I think everyone should be reading this one in the near future, and as a bonus, the audiobook is narrated by the author, so I don’t have to stumble over any unfamiliar Arabic terms, and I can hear them in the original language as it is spoken by a native speaker.

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