'Son of Hamas' tells Jerusalem Post conference: Islam is the problem
Yousef mentioned that he first became acquainted with the 'Post' when he was in an Israeli prison 20 years ago.
By ARIEL BEN SOLOMONUpdated: MAY 23, 2016 18:52"Green Prince" at Jerusalem Post Conference.
Mosab Hassan Yousef – the “Green Prince” – who worked as an Israeli spy, said “the Jewish nation is dear to me and when I see nations fighting against the Jewish people it hurts me.”Speaking at The Jerusalem Post’s annual conference in New York on Sunday, Yousef noted that at one point he was working for and being paid by Israel, the US, the PA and Hamas, all at the same time.Yousef, the son of West Bank Hamas leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef, helped the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) thwart attacks from 1997 to 2007. He later went on to write an autobiography published in 2010 titled Son of Hamas.He converted to Christianity and fled to the US where he was granted political asylum.Yousef mentioned that he first became acquainted with the Post when he was in an Israeli prison 20 years ago and he wanted to learn English and ended up gaining knowledge about the Jewish and Western world.“I speak with the authority of experience, it is not from the books, it is not a second-hand knowledge that I got from somebody. I don't represent government or politicians - I represent myself," he continued, before wading into problems he sees in the Palestinian and Islamic world.He mentioned that he was raised to believe that Jews are the enemies of humanity and the Palestinians.However, he continued, that was “until I came to experience what the Jewish nation really is...through witnessing the true democratic model in an ocean of darkness.”Yousef recounted how he had witnessed a Palestinian mother send her five children on suicide attacks and how she would bless each one. The former Israeli spy said the mother did this to gain respect in society.The collective mind of society is representing something, an ideology, a culture, a state of consciousness that is stuck in the 6th and 7th centuries in a tribal lust for power, he said.
“We cannot fool ourselves,” he continued, but “there is an Islamic problem,” going on to mention various radical Islamic terrorist groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Boko Haram and Islamic State.“All of them are killing by the name of Allah,” he said adding that other religions do not act in such ways. “There is an Islamic problem and I think humanity needs to stand against this danger.”Political correctness means to bury your head in the sand, but "the truth is that we are afraid and we are trying not to provoke them more, we are trying not to create a religious war. But there has been a religious war whether you like it or not.”This threat needs to be faced with “courage,” said Yousef."To tell them no, Islam is a religion of peace. We just create the perfect climate for terrorists to keep on growing." Islam is a belief system and the world should unify against it just as it did against Nazism, he went on to argue.“When the president of the free world stands and says ‘Islam is a religion of peace’ he creates the climate...to create more terrorism,” asserted Yousef.The Jewish people were able to overcome the Holocaust and instead of playing the victim card, built a democratic state, which sets a great example, concluded Yousef.“I came from hell,” and “I love what Israel stands for.”