SAN DIEGO — An immigration judge tentatively granted asylum Wednesday to the son of a Hamas founder who turned his back on his father's terrorist group and became a spy for Israel.
The ruling came after the federal government abruptly dropped concerns that Mosab Hassan Yousef was a terrorist threat.
Yousef, 32, was greeted by a small group of cheering supporters as he left an immigration detention center where the 15-minute hearing was held under heavy security.
He had argued that he would be killed if he was deported because he spied on Hamas for Israel's Shin Bet intelligence agency and abandoned Islam after becoming a Christian.
"I will keep fighting the ideology that is behind terrorists because I know how they think," he told reporters in the parking lot. "I know that this is the real danger that is facing liberty, facing freedom, facing humanity."
Link to Bio and Conversion to Christianity
Mosab Hassan Yousef (Arabic: مصعب حسن يوسف; now known as Joseph;[1] born 1978 (age 31–32))[2] is a Palestinian and son of a Hamas founder and leader who spied for Israel from 1997 to 2007.[3] Israel's internal security service, Shin Bet, considered Yousef the most valuable source within the Hamas leadership.[3]
The information Yousef supplied prevented dozens of suicide attacks, the assassination of Israelis, and exposed numerous terrorist groups.[3] Yousef has since converted to Christianity and moved to California, in the United States.[1] In March 2010, he published his autobiography, Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices
His request for political asylum in the United States was granted pending a routine background check on June 30, 2010.[4]
Conversion to Christianity
In 1999, Yousef met a British missionary who introduced him to Christianity.[1] Between the years 1999 and 2000, Yousef converted to Christianity and was baptized in 2005. He left the West Bank for the United States in 2007 and lived some time in San Diego, California, where he joined the Barabbas Road Church.[1] .
In August 2008, Yousef publicly revealed his conversion to Christianity and began denouncing Hamas and the Arab leadership, thereby endangering himself and exposing his family in Ramallah to persecution.[1] Yousef said his goal in revealing the evil nature of the leadership to the world was to bring peace to the Middle East. He still hopes to return to Israel/Palestine when there is peace.[1]
No comments:
Post a Comment