A man of rare courage

Rachael

It's always the apostates who write with the most staggering honesty.

There is a collective that runs a website called Islam watch, which contains a huge amount of informative material, which â“ as if much of it is not shocking enough â“ is even more so given the threat many of its contributors live under.

Theirs are voices all but drowned out in Western media.

mark

A fascinating post. Whilst I do not agree with everything you say on matters concerning the middle east. I have to say that the occasional gem such as this is important in informing rational debate

‘Hamas cannot make peace with the Israelis. That is against what their God tells them. It is impossible to make peace with infidels"

Says it all really. Religious extremism under the flag of any faith is a menace to us all.

Augustus

Mr Yousef is entirely correct; you cannot negotiate with people
who want only to kill you. And let's remember that when Israel did finally respond to Hamas' terrorism in December 2008, by striking terrorist enclaves in Gaza, its military risked its own soldiers' lives by actually alerting the Palestinians as to where they were about to strike.
Israel phoned every single home
in Gaza and asked civilians to stay away from any Hamas compounds that were about to be hit. Now the news out of Israel is that its airforce has introduced a fleet of huge pilotness planes that can remain in the air for a full day. The Heron TP drones are said to be 'primarily used for surveillance and carrying diverse payloads'. Hmm. Diverse payloads sounds interesting!

Once again Israel has demonstrated its ability and intention to remain on the defense in the Middle East, which has resisted its existence
since 1948 with wars and campaigns of terror. They, better than any other nation, understand the culture of the ME
and the nature of their enemies.
They do not underestimate them.
Six decades of seeking peace with the Palestinians, pawns of Iran and other nations that refuse them a peaceful citizenship, have taught them that there is no way to negotiate a settled peace with them. Having lost their homeland in 70 AD, disbursed into a vast diaspora, but able to claim it back in 1948, and having declared Israel their homeland more than 3000 years ago, the Jews realize the harsh reality of the culture clash which affects them. This is the lesson of the Holocaust which cost the lives of six million European Jews in the last century. It is a lesson that neither America, Europe, nor other nations around the world have yet managed to learn.

elixelx

"Yousef was also responsible for thwarting Israel’s plan to assassinate his father.."
Shin Beth handler...

Unless this is what made him into an Israeli spy (verbigracia)
I CAN'T see how it dovetails with the rest of this narrative.

Was this guy "turned" by SB?
Was the price his father's life?
How many more Pals do the Israelis have in their pockets?

Can't wait for the book; Hollywood won't make it into a movie!
Sic 'em, Shin Beth! Go do do some more of that voodoo that you do so magnificently!

Paul Freeman

Mark:

“‘Hamas cannot make peace with the Israelis. That is against what their God tells them. It is impossible to make peace with infidels"

Says it all really.”

You’ve got the point
admirably. But then you spoil it somewhat with your next bit of sloppy politically correctness:

“Religious extremism under the flag of any faith is a menace to us all.”

I lived in Japan once and saw Buddhist monks sit in the lotus position through the night with snow on their shoulders. In India, religious ascetics practise austerities few of us could endure. Christians in the West still shut themselves away from the world to a life of contemplation and prayer. And in Israel, after two thousand years of exile and persecution, Jews rejoice in their return to ancestral lands.

These are all by some accounts examples of “religious extremism”. How on earth are they “a menace to us all”?

Noah Aaron Bashi

He is a clever kid, it is true Hamas is doing what their religion tells them, the religion comes first then other things it is like this:

1) Religion
2)Jobs, money
3)Food, Medicine
4)Eduction, Security
5)Love and Peace

Eldarus

In my opinion the only thing Hamas is doing it's following orders from Iran. They get payed, weapons contraband and intelligence from Iran. Religion in this case isn't a "reason", it's a tool to control minds of islamic fanatics by feeding them with twisted information.

Raymond in DC

Eldarus writes, "In my opinion the only thing Hamas is doing it's following orders from Iran. They get payed, weapons contraband and intelligence from Iran."

All certainly true TODAY, but Hamas' reliance on - and service to - Iran is fairly recent. Hamas, after all, began as Palestinian affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood based in Egypt - a mostly Sunni organization.

Dixon

Paul Freeman, you cite Buddhist 2extremism" as something that inherently cannot be "a danger to us all".

You apparently have never heard of the Hoa Hoa ( pronounced wha ho ) and their part in the wars in Viet Nam.

They even appear in Graham Greens The Quiet American as comically under-resourced but desperately determined terrorists who went around stealing car exhaust-pipes from which to fashion home-made mortar tubes.

Michael B

What he has to say reminds one of how rare it is to hear such forthright, thoughtful commentary on the subject in question, entirely unguarded by talking-head newspeak and political correctness, a la Christiane Amanpour, BBC establishmentarians and so many others.

Augustus

Islam may be compatible with democracy, but it depends on what is understood by Islam. Turkey is a democracy even though the vast majority of its citizens are Muslim. But the political Islam espoused by the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists is incompatible with Western liberal democracy. They regard liberal democracy with contempt, only willing to accommodate it as an avenue to power. An avenue that runs only one way. Their fundamentalism expresses mass sentiment and belief as no other nationalism or socialism has been able to do
until now. But within certain intellectual circles it is considered laudable to establish a compatibility between Islam and democracy. It is labelled racist to suggest incompatibility, and politically incorrect to differentiate between positive and negative interpretations of Islam. Furthermore, added to this are the policymakers who are conflict-adverse. A position which Islamists exploit
using Islamist propaganda, portraying a peace-loving tolerance compatible with democratic values. The great problem is that the free world ends up ignoring the real danger that political Islam not only threatens and destabilizes Middle Eastern societies, but those in the West as well. One cannot lend democratic respectability to an ideology and political system so at odds with the basic tenets
of democracy. To do so shows a basic ignorance of both the evolution of democracy and Islamist teachings.

Paul Freeman

Dixon:

Thanks for the information, but that is entirely my point. All forms of “religious extremism” are not the same. Nor can they all be described as presenting a menace to us. Some may, but, as it happens, most don’t -- certainly not to all of us.

It’s the politically correct reflex which makes too many aver that they all do present a menace -- as though there is some kind of equality of threat in all forms of religious extremism -- which is the problem, because it has the effect of excusing, and blinding us to, the real menace.

There is only one form of religious extremism today which presents “a menace to us all”. And, with the greatest of respect to the Hoa Hoa, it ain’t them.

Isaac Bickerstaff

Michael B.
You see, it's not as if you've disappeared. You keep coming back, yet studiously avoid making your meaning clear. What is the point?

David, Thailand

One imagines Mosab Hassan Yousef's value to be enormous, among other reasons to publicise his first-hand knowledge of the terrorists that our spineless leaders regard as 'moderate' simply because they tend to target only Jews and their own.

Someone should let the BBC and other left leaning media heavyweights know about this man, or perhaps they already do know and don't wish to be reminded, which about sums up their collective attitude towards apostasy from Islam.

mark

Paul freeman.

Sorry I did not get back to you earlier.
The examples you give of religions other than Islam provide examples of adherence to faith that are non aggressive and therefore not a menace.

Christianity has also given us the murder of an abortionist in the US. The Aryan brother hood bases part of it's repugnant ideology on its extremist interpretation of the bible. The conquistadores commited genocide in the Americas fueled by Christian zeal. Hinduism has given us the Thugee cult and the mistreatment of the untouchables. Judaism has brought us Gush Emunim and the assassination of the admirable Yitzhak Rabin.

You appear to have ignored these and given non aggressive examples in order to pin the old Politically Correct label on me. Yes radical Islam is the most potent and dangerous manifestation of religious extremism at the moment. But to simply get into name calling because I point out that other faiths have their bad apples seems a little unreasonable.

wayne job

Thank you Yousef, People such as I find it hard to understand, how people can brainwash the unwary into suicide bombing. It is some thing alien to the thought processes of us western infidels. Your actions have saved many innocent lives. Please enjoy your freedom and prosper.

Carlotta Lewis

I think for some of them this is also very important
wearing the Hijab, western people specially the British should be curious and understand, read, talk, make friends with muslims so they can understand them, they are amongst you now, they are living in your society, they are going same schools with your children, they work in your shops in your airports in your railways, sometimes it is rather good to be curious about religions, cultures or politics then ignoring it

Skeptic

What do you mean, "risking his life"? He's opposing the religion of PEACE, dammit! They'd NEVER do anything to hurt someone just because they disagree with him, would they?

g wilks

god or whatever bless you melanie, you have courage and integrity!

please keep strong, brave and brilliant!

In the Wilderness in America

May God bless you Melanie for showing the world that there is hope with individuals like Mosab Hassan Yousef. May God bless him also for his courage and his decency in the face of terror and nihilism.

Yosef Bates

my quote is for agustus. I do not recall Mr. Yousef ever saying, "Mr Yousef is entirely correct; you cannot negotiate with people
who want only to kill you." There are many reasons why some choose to believe that peace is not possible between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Go to meastpeace.blogspot.com to check out how some people hope never to arrive at a peaceful solution.