Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue,… (original 2010; edition 2011)

Book review of Son of Hamas by Mosab Hassan Yousef

A compelling story of one man’s journey from the political intrigues of the West Bank, from a warm and loving family with an inspiring father into the loving arms of the Father. How a man left all that he knew to become a spy working undercover for Shin Bet, an Israeli intelligence service, all the while acting as his father’s driver, companion, bodyguard, the father who was intimately involved with the terrorist organization Hamas.
Yousef describes his life from the days when as a boy his father was imprisoned and tortured by Israeli intelligence as they tried to get into the heart of the terror organization that was increasingly striking fear into the heart of all Israel.
Yousef, the oldest son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, one of the seven founders of Hamas, opens the story with the tale of how he was arrested for the first time and then provides the historical and religious background to help contextualize the convoluted, spinning history of the last part of the twentieth century in the Middle East.
Sheikh is presented as being a truly rare soul; a man totally dedicated to the welfare of his people through the exercise of his faith. Since they share their names, I will refer to the father as “Sheikh” and the son by “Yousef”. The Sheikh came to live in the West Bank following in the footsteps of his own father who had also led his own community to serve Allah. Sheikh dedicated himself to the life of a devout Muslim, even though there was precious little support for him at first. Yousef grew up being totally in awe of his father, wanting to be just like him.
But, as he grew up in the West Bank, he also saw the draconian severity of the Israeli military suppressing his people and grew to hate them. He graduated from throwing rocks and running away as a boy to the point where he sought to attack the Jewish people, civilian or military, to harm them as his people were being harmed, that is, killed. In the last month of his high school, just before final exams, he was captured, handcuffed, beaten and tortured as they tried to break him, to force him to become an inside source.
More would truly act as a spoiler, so I will leave my narrative there as you see how he evolved in various ways.
The final stage of his personal story however, is given on the cover of the book: he converts from Islam to become a follower of Christ!
Yousef is no naïf…he too has seen the unending attempts to bring peace to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict…he too has lived in the most visceral way possible the failure of all of these attempts, and the corruption and pride and greed that has led to this failure. It was the depth of corruption that he saw that was influential in his conversion and, more hopefully, to his vision for what it will take to see a lasting transformation.
Yousef, instead of cursing the darkness, has spent his life in trying to limit the death and destruction that hatred brings. He sees that what is needed is the leadership of Christ who said we must love our enemies and pray for those who despitefully use us. It is by applying this teaching, which will require great courage, that societies can be transformed.
Yousef has paid a great price for this: in the very week that this book was first published, his father disowned him and he is now treated as if he never existed in his family. The family has been “dishonoured” by his betrayal, and is no longer held in high esteem in their own community…a further blow to Yousef and burden that he bears alongside his family.
This book was a real page-turner, almost impossible to put down. The action is always placed in historical context with the current events of that period providing the background for his role as a conspirator, as a protector of his family, trying mightily to save lives. It is also a coming of age tale, where his worldview was altered. The respect and love he has for his father are unmistakeable, and that respect is proper. The Sheikh is a man of honor, even though I do not share his opinion on the right way to counter the oppression of his people In the midst of so much corruption and greed; so much poverty and suffering, it is inspiring to see that such men still exist. I pray for reconciliation for father and son; son and family; and mostly for all people everywhere. ( )

I haven't read much so far, and I am duly and genuinely shocked, just as I am supposed to be, about the terrible things the Israelis did on a daily basis to the occupants of the Gaza strip. I am not terribly impressed with the glossing-over of the 'guaranteed-non-violent, peaceful, moderate' stance of Hamas during this time. When I read, continually and in detail, that the Israelis often shot innocent Palestinians for just being Palestinians but that a Palestinian just went and shot a couple of Israelis and took their guns and then that became a way for them to get arms all in one sentence I begin to suspect that this book, by a Christian convert, is more the wolf wearing the Lamb of Peace's clothing.

A sentence like, "Then Israel decided to secretly deport 415 leaders...". It wasn't very secret then, was it? And, following on from this, "The men were driven to a snow-covered no-man's-land in Southern Lebanon. Although we were in the middle of a bitter winter, they were dumped there with no shelter or provisions. Neither Israel nor Lebanon would allow relief agencies to deliver food or medicine. Beirut refused to transport the sick and injured to its hospitals."

Then, in the next paragraph, "A couple of weeks later, we finally saw him [his father:] on television for the first time since his deportation. Apparently Hamas members had named him secretary-general of the camp, second only to..." Eventually the father gets a cell phone and communications are normalised.

Doesn't sound a bit like they were dumped in the middle of nowhere without food or shelter.

I hope the book improves, its naively written by the obvious ghost writer and it seems to be all about total emotional manipulation of the all-too-willing to believe the author's intended, pro-Palestinian audience. I want the facts not this soft, biased pap.

There is more to the war between the Palestinians, the Arabs and Israel than meets the eye but its never discussed. Israel is the West's secure base in the Middle East, it is democracy's secure base. It is a total sore for the Arabs who do not practice any kind of democracy, kings, dictators, and the military rule their countries. They do not want women walking the streets in tiny shorts and halter tops and having relationships of their own choosing. They do not even allow women to be educated and live a self-determined life. They do not allow unmarried women to get contraception and screw whomsoever they please after a hot night at the club. They don't have those sort of clubs for local women either.

How many Arab countries do you hear of where a woman (or a man) has risen from a poor background to a high position? It happens in our societies all the time. Everything about Israel, which is a country very similar to the US, the UK, France etc, threatens the Arabs. It doesn't stop me supporting the idea of a Palestinian State, in fact I want one even more because of it. But they see Israel ass the hole of the Western decadence we call freedom in the doughnut of Arab and Muslim repression and any kind of land exchange isn't going to make the slightest difference to their collective enmity to that.

I had hoped this book would present a true picture of Hamas from the inside and see that they are just sweet, people trying to live in moderate Islamic way who are terribly persecuted and whom we should all support. Yeah well, I got suckered into paying for this piece of crap but I'm not wasting my time reading any more of it. Deep shite for the PC-people to sigh and tut-tut over, more grist for the anti-Israelis/Zionists/Jews, another biased BBC documentary, and still... still no representation for the Palestinians who would like peace, would be happy to see their daughters educated and for all of them to live in the 21st century.

(Do such people exist? Yes, I used to share an apartment in London with some, I worked for a couple in Jerusalem, there are a few on the island, but no one hears their voices and they aren't loud people by nature, and neither would I be if I were them). ( )

A bit too much Christian propaganda ( )

If I think I have mixed feelings about the book, I should not forget the obviously mixed feelings that the author has about the life that he found himself born into. It's worth a read because it presents a perspective about the Middle East that we never hear. And yes, there is controversy surrounding this author. ( )

I do not know how to rate this book. The story is gripping and the author paints what I suspect is a true picture of the complex ties between different factions among the Israelis and the Palestinians, as well as their supporters in Arab nations and in the U.S. The violence and waste of humanity is clearly set out. The IDF does one thing, the Shin Bet another. The CIA does one thing, the PLO does another, Hamas does another. Such a waste of money, effort and humanity. Yousef's story of working for Shin Bet is so amazing that it is difficult to believe, but I know of no evidence to discredit it. His conversion to Christianity is not well-described, but appears to be genuine. Alas, I fear cloaking oneself in another religion will not help. His perspective on Islam seems to be similar to that of Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Being Jewish, I know very little about Islam, but I know many Muslims would disagree with his perspective, which is entirely the Hamas perspective. I have always felt that every religion has been used as a weapon at one time or another. The level of damage is simply proportional to the amount of power that religion happens to have at that time. But back to the subject: I really, really enjoyed reading this book. Yes, the historical details may not be quite accurate, as some have pointed out, but digging out the historically accurate picture is not easy. The details about current events in the occupied territories are better explained, probably because they were directly experienced by the author. Overall, I guess I hope this book is true and that the author finds peace in his life. As for the Israelis and Palestinians, I hope peace comes someday, but no one can predict when that will happen.

By the way, some of the 1- and 2-star reviews on Amazon fault him for being too pro-Palestinian, while others accuse him of being too pro-Israeli. Maybe that makes his book balanced. ( )