This is a Must Read and a Must View - Hat tip goes to Dr. Steven Plaut over at ChronWatch. He points us to an article titled, From PLO Terrorist to Lover of Zion, on Arutz Sheva IsraelNationalNews.com.
The article is a history of one Palestinian's journey through life and the realization of what the truth is. Walid Shoebat was born in 1960 and he grew up in a village near Bethlehem, Beit Sahour. His mother was an American Christian and his father an Arab Muslim. When his father brought his mother back to Beit Sahour he took away her passport to keep her from leaving and returning home.
Walid goes on to describe his journey as a boy and how the schools of what is now Palestine instilled in him a hatred of all things Jewish. One of the songs they sang in school was,
“Sharpen my bones into swords and make my flesh into Molotov cocktails.”
He eventually was selected as a bomber by Mahmoud Abu-Amr a member of Yassir Arafat's Fatah terrorism group and he was on his way to bomb a bank when he saw some children that would be hurt or killed and he changed his mind. So he threw the bomb onto a rooftop instead.
After spending some time in an Israeli prison, Walid left for the United States at age 18 and became an activist for the PLO by raising funds in Chicago. The big change in his life came in 1993 when he met and married a Catholic woman and he tried to convert her to Islam. He said to her:
“...that the Jews had corrupted the Bible and were prophet-killers."
She asked him to prove it. So he went out and spent ten dollars on his first Bible to show her the contradictions between the Bible, which he had been taught was corrupted by the Jews, and the Koran, which he had been taught was holy and without fault coming straight from Allah.
He then sincerely did something God had been waiting for him to do, he asked God a question. IsraelNationalNews.com reports:
“In 1993 I asked the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to reveal to me whether the Bible was indeed corrupted as I was taught or if it were the truth and the Koran was the false document,” Shoebat said. Through parallel study of the Bible and the Koran he soon came to a logical crossroads: “Either the Jews had indeed changed the scripture – because how could God be on the side of evil people, or the Koran was false, and I was the evil one,” Shoebat recalled. “I then decided to examine the history from both sides – to weigh each sides. It was then that I began to see the spiritual link between the Jewish people and their land.”
Slowly a change overcame the veteran Jihadist. “After reading the Hebrew Bible, about all of the righteous wars of Israel – from biblical times until the present – it dawned on me,” said Shoebat. “How could it be that Allah is the true God if the Six-Day-War in 1967 resulted the greatest victory for the Jews since Joshua’s encirclement of Jericho. What’s more is that Israel’s victory – unlike Muslim conquests full of rape, pillaging and massacre – brought freedom for all peoples and religions. Everyone [his fellow Arabs living in Jericho at the time –ed.] saw and everyone remembers this but unfortunately people today deny the truth of what they [saw].”
Shoebat decided at that point to turn away from the path of terrorism and Jihad. “I woke up my wife and said ‘Maria – I think I was wrong to try to convert you to Islam.’”
Walid goes on to talk about what the Western World doesn't understand about Islam:
“What the West does not understand about Islam,” Shoebat said on Tovia Singer’s radio broadcast, “is that Jihad has stages. If Muslims have the upper hand then Jihad is waged by force. If Muslim’s don’t have the upper hand then Jihad is waged through financial and political means. Since Muslims do not have the upper hand in America or Europe, they talk about peace while supporting Hamas and Hezballah. The whole idea of Islam being a peaceful religion emanates from that silent stage of Jihad."
The Imam (Islamic cleric) of Orange County, California, a guest on Singer’s radio show as well, took issue with Shoebat’s claims, saying that ‘Jihad’ represents an inner struggle and not the genocidal slaughter of infidels called for by Osama bin Ladin. Shoebat unblinkingly refuted the cleric’c claims, reciting verse after verse of Koranic scripture in its original Arabic and translating into English. “There are over one hundred quotes by Mohammad regarding Jihad – I could recite each one of them but we would be here all day. Every single one refers specifically to Jihad by the sword, by killing, by taking no prisoners – with only one quote referring to an internal struggle – called for by Mohammad after the complete conquest and occupation of Arabia.” He said that such claims were typical of the Islamic leadership in America, and are consumed eagerly by western audiences who do not want to believe that one of the major world religions poses such a danger to humanity.
Walid is now a born again Christian. Follow the link for the full intriguing read. You'll also find there are links at the bottom of the article to a short video of Walid talking about his journey and links to the radio interview.
The Great Separation continues.
