Liberating Muslims from “their god”
Mosab Yousef says that he “crossed all the red lines in (his) society”. While that may be true, the real story of this son of Hamas leader Sheik Hassan Yousef, who spent years spying for Israel’s internal security service, the Shin Bet, is far more complex. It even includes Yousef’s decision to convert to Christianity.
Why does a son raised in a devout and loving Muslim family reject virtually every idea with which he was raised, go to work for those he regards as enemies, and render himself persona non grata to his entire family? Obvious Oedipal possibilities arise - a son’s need to overthrow his powerful father and make his own way on the world, as do answers which hinge on a search for personal gain, and the fact that Yousef ’saw the light’, etc. But the explanation here rises above those kinds of easy explanations.
This is a story of the self-defeating nature of religion-based violence and political brutality, not the betrayal of the Palestinian cause which Yousef still supports. In reading Mosab Yousef’s comments to CNN, one is struck by the fact that he still regards Israel as an enemy. He simply came to see that Hamas was far worse. Why? Because of the brutality they practice against their own people, because of their failure to distinguish between civilian and military targets and how those things cause what he Yousef calls “spiritual and soul death”.
This is not simply a story of “one man’s hero is another man’s traitor” either. This is a story about the real differences between two cultures at war with each other. By no means is either side free from blame about the continued suffering on both sides of the conflict. And the continued positioning by each side to paint themselves as blameless will only prolong that suffering.
This is a story about the ways in which brutal, rage-driven, repressive regimes ultimately betray themselves, driving out their own best and brightest. One need not support Israel to stand with Mosab Yousef against that kind of regime. One simply needs to admit that the ends do not justify the means in all cases. A lesson which Hamas has yet to learn.
One need not leave Islam to learn that lesson, even though Yousef felt compelled to do so. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, the now-Christian explains “What matters is not whether my father is a fanatic or not, he’s doing the will of a fanatic God…The problem is not in Muslims,” he continues. “The problem is with their God. They need to be liberated from their God. He is their biggest enemy. It has been 1,400 years they have been lied to.”
While Mr. Yousef the younger may now understand God’s will in more life-affirming, forgiving and gentle ways, he seems to have kept the totalitarian theology with which he, along with so many others of so many faiths, was raised.
The God of Muslims is the same as the God of Christians and Jews. To tell people that Islam is a 1,400-year-old lie is simply the first step down a road that would inspire the Christians Yousef now calls his brothers to do to Muslims what he saw Muslims do to Jews, Christians, and even other Muslims. That’s a lesson which Mr, Yousef still needs to learn.
Rather than liberating people from their gods, perhaps we should simply challenge them to articulate how their chosen god actually commands them to protect the lives of those who have made different choices. Ironically, Mosab Yousef would probably still be a Muslim if Hamas had figured that one out.
By Brad Hirschfield | March 7, 2010; 2:58 PM ET
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2010/03/liberating_muslims_from_their.html
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