| Walid Shoebat |
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| islamists | |
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| shoebat, walid | |
| palestinian writers | |
| palestinian people | |
| former muslims | |
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Walid Shoebat is a Palestinian author and former member of the PLO , who converted from Islam to Christianity , and came to public attention by becoming an ardent critic of Islam and supporter of Israel . He is the founder of the Walid Shoebat Foundation, {Link without Title} an organization that seeks to combat Anti-Semitism and promote peace in the Middle East . His story has been featured on FOX News , MSNBC , CBS , and the BBC . BIOGRAPHY Shoebat was born in Beit Sahour, of the Jews '. Then we opened the door and there was this Israel i tank with the Star Of David flag standing in our street!" {Link without Title} His great-grandfather on his mother's side, an American, was the mayor of Eureka in Humboldt County , while his grandfather on his father's side was friendly with the Grand Mufti Of Jerusalem , Haj Amin Al-Husseni . His American mother met his father, a Jordan ian, while they were studying at Humboldt State University in California . She returned with her husband to the Middle East, where he taught English and Islamic studies. Shoebat told the '' Daily Telegraph '' that his father changed toward his mother once he was back in his own culture. She apparently wanted to return to America with her children, but her husband took her passport and kept her a prisoner in the family home. :My father was caught between his love for his wife and his love for Islam. He could not see a way to reconcile the two. The tension made him a very unhappy and angry man. But Islam won. {Link without Title} As a teenager in the mid-70s, Shoebat joined the PLO and took part in organizing demonstrations and printing fliers. His dream, he told the BBC, was to die as a ''shaheed'' (martyr). {Link without Title} One day during a riot, he and a group of other Palestinians attempted lynched an Israeli soldier, who was rescued by Israeli troops. Shoebat was arrested and imprisoned for several weeks in the Muscovite Prison in Jerusalem . After his release, he admits to having bombed an Israeli bank in Bethlehem. In an effort to secure an education for their son, his parents sent him to the United States, where he enrolled in Loop College in Chicago , becoming president of the Palestinian Students' Association. He later moved to California, where he met his wife, a Mexican Roman Catholic . They now have two children. :I wanted her to convert to Islam. I told her Jew s had corrupted the Bible and she asked me to show her some examples of this corruption. At this point I had to go and buy a Bible and I started reading it and I saw the word 'Israel' all over it. I had to be brutally honest — the very word I hated the most was throughout this book! {Link without Title} Shoebat has explained that he was raised in an atmosphere of anti-Semitism. "From Kindergarten we were taught that Jews were dogs. We were taught that Jews were the converts of monkeys, that Jews were Sabbath breakers and prophet killers. We even considered Arabs in pre-1967 Israel traitors because we could not understand how they could co-exist with Jews." {Link without Title} After reading the Bible, he decided to renounce violence and convert to Christianity . His family denounced him and his brother threatened to kill him for Abandoning Islam . Shoebat previously worked as a software engineer, and now works full time lecturing and participating in discussions as a public advocate of peace and an opponent of "militancy as a way of solving the Palestinian problem." He believes the only solution to the conflict is "the crushing defeat of all Palestinian military groups." [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml? xml=/news/2004/06/20/wpalmer20.xml However, he has called for accepting Palestinians as fully fledged Israeli citizens. BOOKS AND FILMS
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