Son of Hamas - a review

Mosab Hassan Yousef is the son of the founding leader of Hamas, Sheik Hassan Yousef. Hamas is recognised internationally as a terrorist organisation and is responsible for numerous deadly attacks against Israel, including suicide bombings. Mosab fully supported his father, whom he greatly respected (and continues to respect), but gradually became disillusioned as he saw the hypocrisy within the Hamas organisation and the indiscriminate killing of civilians and soldiers alike. Many of those killed were children. This tore at Mosab's heart - the dead children could easily have been his brothers. When approached by the Israeli intelligence organisation, Shin Bet, he didn't need much persuasion to assist them in trying to reach a solution to the never-ending slaughter on both the Palestinian and Israeli sides.

Mosab was frequently able to sense the people who needed watching, despite having no concrete evidence. He describes many instances of how this ability saved his life and the life of others. In particular, his involvement with Shin Bet acted as a protection of his father's life. Whenever his father's life was in danger, Shin Bet put his father in prison.  Later, when Mosab became his father's sole protector, he also was imprisoned during times of danger along with his father.

Six years before his arrival in the US, Mosab began to investigate christianity. He spent much of his time in prison reading the bible and making notes. Through his reading, his thinking gradually became more humane and he found himself unable to kill anyone, no matter which side they were on, even if they were those behind suicide bomb attacks. As you can imagine, this had profound consequences. He eventually found himself unable to continue in his espionage role and sought political asylum in the US.


I found this book is an intriguing and often nail-biting read. It can be a little confusing (to the western mind) with the unfamiliar names (Islamic, Israeli, Palestinian etc) and complicated politics but it's well worth the effort.