“I asked myself what Palestinians would do if Israel disappeared -- if everything not only went back to the way it was before 1948 but if all the Jewish people abandoned the Holy Land and were scattered again. And for the first time, I knew the answer.
We would still fight. Over nothing. Over a girl without a head scarf. Over who was toughest and most important. Over who would make the rules and who would get the best seat.”
― Mosab Hassan Yousef, quote from Son of Hamas
“Palestinians no longer blamed Yasser Arafat or Hamas for their troubles. Now they blamed the Israelis for killing their children. But I still couldn't escape a fundamental question: Why were those children out there in the first place? Where were the parents? Why didn't their mothers and fathers keep them inside? Those children should have been sitting at their desks in school, not running in the streets throwing stones at armed soldiers.”
― Mosab Hassan Yousef, quote from Son of Hamas
“Jesus said in Matthew 5:45, “causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” This was certainly a far cry from the cruel and vengeful god of the Qur’an.”
― Mosab Hassan Yousef, quote from Son of Hamas
“Then I read this: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:43-45). That’s it! I was thunderstruck”
― Mosab Hassan Yousef, quote from Son of 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.”
― Mosab Hassan Yousef, quote from Son of Hamas
“كان واضحاً أن عرفات يريد ان يكون بطلاً يُكتب عنه في كتب التاريخ. ولكن كلما عرفته أكثر، كلما اقتنعت بأن كتب تاريخنا ستكتب عنه بالتأكيد، ولكن ليس كبطل، بل كخائن باع أبناء شعبه ليتسلق على اكتافهم لتحقيق مآربه. وعلى عكس روبن هود، فهو نهب الشعب الفقير ليصبح غنياً. وكخنزير سافل، اشترى مركزه على حساب دماء الفلسطينيين”
― Mosab Hassan Yousef, quote from Son of Hamas
“Traditional Muslims stand at the foot of the ladder, living in guilt for not really practicing Islam. At the top are fundamentalists, the ones you see in the news killing women and children for the glory of the god of the Qur’an. Moderates are somewhere in between. A moderate Muslim is actually more dangerous than a fundamentalist, however, because he appears to be harmless, and you can never tell when he has taken that next step toward the top. Most suicide bombers began as moderates.”
― Mosab Hassan Yousef, quote from Son of Hamas
“As long as we continue to search for enemies anywhere but inside ourselves, there will always be a Middle East problem. Religion is not the solution. Religion without Jesus is just self-righteousness. Freedom from oppression will not resolve things either. Delivered from the oppression of Europe, Israel became the oppressor. Delivered from persecution, Muslims became persecutors. Abused spouses and children often go on to abuse spouses and children. It is a cliché, but it’s still true: hurt people, unless they are healed, hurt people.”
― Mosab Hassan Yousef, quote from Son of Hamas
“Hamas, on the other hand, Islamized the Palestinian problem, making it a religious problem. And this problem could be resolved only with a religious solution, which meant that it could never be resolved because we believed that the land belonged to Allah. Period. End of discussion. Thus for Hamas, the ultimate problem was not Israel’s policies. It was the nation-state Israel’s very existence.”
― Mosab Hassan Yousef, quote from Son of Hamas
“I asked myself what Palestinians would do if Israel disappeared—if everything not only went back to the way it was before 1948 but if all the Jewish people abandoned the Holy Land and were scattered again. And for the first time, I knew the answer. We would still fight. Over nothing. Over a girl without a head scarf. Over who was toughest and most important. Over who would make the rules and who would get the best seat.”
― Mosab Hassan Yousef, quote from Son of Hamas
“I realized that suspects under torture were being asked things they couldn’t possibly know about and giving answers they thought their torturers wanted to hear. It seemed obvious that they would say anything just to make the torture stop.”
― Mosab Hassan Yousef, quote from Son of Hamas
“Many people in the West who stereotype all Muslims as terrorists don’t know about the side of Islam that reflects love and mercy. It cares for the poor, widows, and orphans. It facilitates education and welfare. It unites and strengthens. This is the side of Islam that motivated those early leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood. Of course, there is also the other side, the one that calls all Muslims to jihad, to struggle and contend with the world until they establish a global caliphate, led by one holy man who rules and speaks for Allah.”
― Mosab Hassan Yousef, quote from Son of Hamas
“Islamic life is like a ladder, with prayer and praising Allah as the bottom rung. The higher rungs represent helping the poor and needy, establishing schools, and supporting charities. The highest rung is jihad.”
― Mosab Hassan Yousef, quote from Son of Hamas
“Do you remember where you started? You saw all those lost people, your heart broke for them, and you wanted them to come to Allah and be safe. Now suicide bombers and innocent blood? Is this what you set out to do? But speaking to one’s father about such things is not done in our culture. And so he continued on that dangerous path.”
― Mosab Hassan Yousef, quote from Son of Hamas
“What I didn't know at the time was that no matter how much we weighed on Allah's scale, all of our righteousness and good works were like filthy rags to God. Even”
― Mosab Hassan Yousef, quote from Son of Hamas
“What my father saw in those early days was the part of Islam that reflects love and mercy. What he didn’t see, what he perhaps has never yet allowed himself to see, is the other side of Islam.”
― Mosab Hassan Yousef, quote from Son of Hamas
“I understood fighting and killing out of hatred, rage, revenge, or even necessity. But I had done nothing to these soldiers. I had not resisted. I had done everything I was told to do. I was no threat to them. I was bound, blindfolded, and unarmed. What was inside these people that made them take such delight in hurting me? Even the basest animal kills for a reason, not just for sport.”
― Mosab Hassan Yousef, quote from Son of Hamas
“A torrent of questions and cries raced through my mind even as the blows continued to fall: Why are you doing this to me? What have I done? I am not a terrorist! I’m just a kid. Why are you beating me like this?”
― Mosab Hassan Yousef, quote from Son of Hamas
“The fact is, few Westerners can come close to understanding the complexities of the Middle East and its people.”
― Mosab Hassan Yousef, quote from Son of Hamas
“Allah had given us the responsibility of eradicating the Jews, and my father didn’t question that, though he personally had nothing against them.”
― Mosab Hassan Yousef, quote from Son of Hamas
“we must love people—on all sides of the world—unconditionally.”
― Mosab Hassan Yousef, quote from Son of Hamas
“As long as we continue to search for enemies anywhere but inside ourselves, there will always be a Middle East problem.”
― Mosab Hassan Yousef, quote from Son of Hamas
“Truth and forgiveness are the only solution for the Middle East. The challenge, especially between Israelis and Palestinians, is not to find the solution. The challenge is to be the first courageous enough to embrace it.”
― Mosab Hassan Yousef, quote from Son of Hamas
“If I continued the way I was going, I would end up dead. The trail out there was too long. Somebody was sure to stumble across it. Somehow I needed to be sanitized.”
― Mosab Hassan Yousef, quote from Son of Hamas
“I felt a stab of regret when I imagined how terrified my mother and little brothers and sisters would be within moments. As usual, they would have to pay the price for everything my father and I did.”
― Mosab Hassan Yousef, quote from Son of Hamas
Mosab Hassan Yousef
Born place: in Ramallah, Palestinian Territory, Occupied
Born date May 5, 1978
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“Potentially evil. Potentially good, too, I suppose. Just this huge powerful potentiality waiting to be shaped.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Good Omens
“This bag is filled with nourishment for the mind and soul. What I have here, Tangy, are promises and hopes, as well as scattered disillusionments. It’s like filling your plate with ham, green beans, and potato salad, only to have someone come along and spoon lumpy, dried-out oatmeal on the side. Wouldn’t that spoil your appetite?”
― Delores Phillips, quote from The Darkest Child
“rose, which is to say the petal of FAITH, and pray, To Our Father Who is Benevolent and Reigns in Heaven, Your names are hallowed and sacred. Contemplate here your faith in the Lord your God and the grace of the Holy Spirit, while giving gratitude for the presence of both in your life and on earth. Embrace the second petal, which is to say the petal of SURRENDER, and pray, Your kingdom comes to us through obedience to your will. Thy will be done. Listen to the voice of your Father that you may”
― Kathleen McGowan, quote from The Book of Love
“...and the most intense desire gave force to her passionate words as the girl glanced despairingly about the dreary room like a caged creature on the point of breaking loose.”
― Louisa May Alcott, quote from A Long Fatal Love Chase
“Odder still, most Americans consume with abandon something that never occurred in nature - a pathogenic putrefactive product called cheese. We make cheese by taking the casein portion of milk an rotting it with types of bacteria that yield by-products that many palates have come to appreciate. Cheese represents about all the decomposition products in a single package: putrefactive proteins, fermented carbohydrates, and rancid fats.”
― Douglas N. Graham, quote from The 80/10/10 Diet: Balancing Your Health, Your Weight, and Your Life, One Luscious Bite at a Time
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