“Most people heard about Hamas after Hamas started carrying out
terrorist attacks,” he says now, speaking near his agent’s home here in
Nashville. “Hamas started out as an idea. Let’s say a noble
idea—resisting occupation.” Those early clashes with the Israelis begat
worse violence, and the cemetery near his house began to fill up with
cadavers. Palestinians also turned on each other. A corrupt and
authoritarian Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) sparred with
the rising Hamas and other groups. All of them used accusations of
“collaboration” as an excuse to torture and kill rivals or the weak.
As the son of a Muslim cleric, he says he had reached the conclusion
that terrorism can’t be defeated without a new understanding of Islam.
Here he echoes other defectors from Islam such as the former Dutch
parliamentarian and writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
Do you consider your father a fanatic? “He’s not a fanatic,” says
Mr. Yousef. “He’s a very moderate, logical person. What matters is not
whether my father is a fanatic or not, he’s doing the will of a fanatic
God. It doesn’t matter if he’s a terrorist or a traditional Muslim. At
the end of the day a traditional Muslim is doing the will of a fanatic,
fundamentalist, terrorist God. I know this is harsh to say. Most
governments avoid this subject. The…
