He calls himself Joseph now, but in a former life he was Masab, the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a Hamas member of parliament in the West Bank. Ha’aretz has the incredible story.
Raised in a strictly Islamic household, he secretly converted to Christianity in his 20s. Eventually, he made his way to Southern California, where he surfs and prays. He says that he wants to start an international organization to, as he says, break people out of “the prison of Islam” and sow peace in the Middle East.
While the Middle East can find peace without converting Muslims and remembering that Palestinian Christians have carried out terrorist attacks about Israel, Joseph’s organization could at least show the region the importance of freedom of conscience–the essential human right to freely change one’s mind about the identity of the universe’s maker. That alone would be a valuable contribution.
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