Senior Hamas leader's son converts to Christianity, speaks against the outfit

Washington, Jan 3 (ANI): Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of influential Hamas Leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef, has converted to Christianity, and said that there will never be peace between Israel and Palestine.

Mosab Hassan Yousef stated, among other things, "Is there any chance for fire to co-exist with the water? It's not about Israel, it's not about Hamas: It's about both ideologies," FOX News reported.

Yousef (30) went on to state that Hamas betrays the Palestinian cause and tortures its own members.

Yousef indicated that he was indoctrinated at an early age to use violence to challenge Israeli control in the region. As a teenager he moved up within the organization and became the leader of the radical Islamic Youth Movement that fought Israeli tanks and troops in the streets, celebrated suicide bombings and recruited young men to the cause.

Yousef said he realized the true nature of Hamas and radical Islam during a stint in an Israeli prison. He renounced his Muslim faith, left his family behind in Ramallah and converted to Christianity.

"Islam is not the word of God. If you want to be offended it's your problem. But you know something? Go study. Think for a second that I might be right. So wake up, look at your path, see where you're going. Are you really going to heaven with 72 virgins after you kill yourself and kill another 20 people? FOX News quoted him, as saying.

Yousef has sought asylum in the United States and now attends an evangelical Christian church in San Diego, Calif.

"The Hamas leadership, including my father, they're responsible; they're responsible for all the violence that happened from the organization. I know they describe it as reaction to Israeli aggression, but still, they are part of it and they had to make decisions in those operations against Israel (for) which there was the killing of many civilians," he added.

The US Government considers Hamas, formed in the late 1980's as an outgrowth of the Palestinian branch of the radical Muslim Brotherhood, a terrorist organization.

Hamas seized power in the Gaza strip in 2007 in a violent coup against the more moderate Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas. (ANI)