Yahudi Masuk Islam
Thursday, August 25, 2005
JERUSALEM, 25 July - Joseph Cohen moved from the United States to Israel asa devout Jew in 1998, but within three years he had converted to Islam andbecome Yosef Mohammed Khatib, a supporter of the militant Hamas, accordingto a report broadcast Thursday on Israel TV.

Now he refuses to say the word Israel, choosing instead to call the area"Palestine." His four children study the Quran, the Muslim holy book,instead of the Torah, its Jewish counterpart.

It was while living in the desert town of Netivot that Khatib met a sheikfrom the United Arab Emirates through an Internet chat about Israel. Khatibsaid he spent hours corresponding with the sheik, discussing theology. Gradually he began to see Judaism as racist and turned toward Islam afterreading the Quran, he told Channel 10 TV. The report did not say where helived in the United States or give his age.

Last year he told his wife of 10 years, Luna, also a devout Jew from theUnited States, that he wanted to convert to Islam.

"I said, `Listen, I love you very much ... and I have to be honest withyou,'" Khatib said in the TV interview. "I read the Quran and I agree witheverything it says in the Quran, and if I continue saying that I'm areligious Jew, I would be a liar."

The family converted together and moved from Netivot to an Arab neighborhoodin east Jerusalem. The children went from being top in their classes onJudaism studies to being well-versed in Islam, he said.

Instead of supporting the Israeli Orthodox Jewish political party Shas,Khatib now supports the radical Islamic Hamas and believes an Islamic stateshould be set up where Israel and the Palestinian areas are now located.

He praised Hamas for setting up social services for Palestinians but dodgedquestions about the other side of the Islamic group - suicide bombings andother attacks against Israelis. The United States has declared Hamas aterror group.

Khatib differed from most Israelis and Americans in his views about Osamabin Laden, the top suspect in the Sept. 11 terror attacks in New York andWashington.

"I think that he's number one, Muslim number one," Khatib said with a strongNew York accent about bin Laden. "But I don't think that he's responsiblefor the World Trade Center (attacks)."

Wearing the white skullcap and robes of a religious Muslim, Khatib deniedhis Jewish past, insisting that he is 100 percent Muslim. He made a parodyof a blessing that observant Jews say every morning, in which they thank Godfor not making them gentiles.

"Blessed are Thou, Lord Our God," Khatib began in the traditional Jewishblessing, but ended it with, "for not making me a Jew."
Posted by Lynn Ross at 7:54 pm |

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