There is nothing timid about Mossab Hasan Yousef’s new book From Hamas to America: My Story of Defying Terror, Facing the Unimaginable, and Finding Redemption in the Land of Opportunity, out next week from Forefront Books.
Better known as “the son of Hamas,” Yousef is the son of Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef and a one-time undercover agent for the Israeli intelligence services.
He’s also a vocal — and longtime — Hamas critic who appeared before the UN to denounce the barbarism of Hamas’ October 7th attack on Israel and warn the world of terror yet to come.
This is the second book for Yousef, who was born in the West Bank city of Ramallah and moved to the US where he claimed political asylum back in 2007.
His first book, “Son of Hamas,” details his days spying for Israel and his disillusionment with Hamas’ fanatical ideology.
Now in “From Hamas to America,” Yousef continues his journey of introspection and reformation – leading from his childhood as the son of an Islamic imam, revealing details of a horrible sexual assault and exposing the veneration of martyrdom that so violently accompanies Palestinian society.
“Most of the Palestinians I knew believed — and still do — that anyone who leaves Islam should be executed,” writes Yousef, who converted to Christianity years ago.
The obsession with bloodshed, Yousef adds, led directly to the suicide bombers and terror attacks that fueled both intifadas, the division of Palestinian politics between Fatah and Hamas and the current Gaza quagmire.
Ultimately, Yousef settled in America, dabbling in film-writing in Los Angeles and exploring new forms of spiritualism such as yoga and ayahuasca.
For Yousef, who’s prominence has risen greatly following the October 7th attacks, his life of both fanaticism and freedom has left him with a strong sense of personal accountability.
We have “to be responsible for the choices we make,” he writes.
Even if that means betraying your family and community in order to live beyond the borders of terror and Jihad.
