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Why I Left Jihad: The Root of Terrorism and the Return of Radical Islam Hardcover Unabridged, May 30, 2005
Book by Walid Shoebat
Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
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May 9, 2024
A PALESTINIAN CONVERT TO CHRISTIANITY EXPLAINS HIS NEW VIEWS
Walid Shoebat is a Palestinian-American critic of Islam, speaker and author. He was born in the West Bank to an American mother, and converted to Christianity from Islam. He has claimed to be an ex-PLO terrorist, who firebombed the Israeli bank Bank Leumi. [NOTE, however, that his claims to be a former terrorist have been seriously questioned by CNN, the Jerusalem Post, and other sources.]
He wrote in the Introduction to this 2005 book, “This was not an easy journey. I have lost my homeland, my family of origin, and my land… Yet I gained so much. My deep Christian faith is my driving force. I love America. I love the Jewish people, who have suffered so much and who are trying to hold only this tiny spot of land … as a homeland after thousands of years of persecution… Much has happened since I wrote the first draft of this book. America was attacked by Islamist terrorists who murdered nearly 3,000 innocent children, women and men. President George Bush declared war on Osama bin laden… Yasser Arafat died after refusing all peace offers, stealing millions from the Palestinian people and leaving them in ruins. Yet the world will not confront the truth, will not call out, ‘These Islamists are terrorist…’ Instead, most of the world cowers… the West bends its collective head, searching for words to disguise and soften the atrocities… had the world spoken, I would not have to.”
He explains in the first chapter, “My life was turned upside down when I discovered that everything I had been taught about the Jews was a lie… Yasser Arafat smiled for the cameras at Camp David, left the United States… and started killing Jews again… The truth is that the Israelis face an enemy with whom they cannot negotiate, because the enemy’s primary goal isn’t the land… The enemy wants all Jews dead and Israel eliminated from the face of the earth… I will show that the land called Israel was either owned by Jews who had started purchasing it from Arabs in the 1800s, or was government-owned and given to them under the British mandate or retained after the Arab attacks. The condition of the Palestinian people has nothing to do with Israel… The Palestinians could be living well with the millions of dollars that were sent to them from America and many other governments. Instead, they live like paupers because Yasser Arafat stole their money. My goal is to show the world the truth about Islamism and … God’s promise, for the Jews to live in Israel as their home.” (Pg. 13-14)
He states, “I was initiated into Yasser Arafat’s Fatah terror group and recruited by a well-known bomb maker … [who] gave me a very sophisticated explosive device … I was supposed to use the bomb…. To blow up the Bank Leumi … in Bethlehem… I threw the bomb on the bank’s rooftop. I ran… I didn’t enjoy what I had done, but I felt compelled to do it because it was my duty. I felt I had to be a martyr, to kill Jews in order to go to heaven and meet the 72 virgins.” (Pg. 15-6)
He comments, “when I was a terrorist, I was a ‘freedom fighter,’ but for loving the Jewish people and their culture and religion, I was called a racist… Why are Jews not allowed to exist in Arab villages, yet Arabs live in Israel proper? … Is this my sin? That I began to love Jews? As well as Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims?... To Islamists, yes.” (Pg. 21)
He states, “at Loop College in Chicago… I became president of the Palestinian Students’ Association, raiding funds for the PLO and recruiting volunteers to fight in Lebanon… Chicago was notorious for its influx of Arab students. The Loop College cafeteria looked like an Arab coffee shop… No one got along with the other. But when it came to hating Israel, they were united.” (Pg. 29)
He recounts, “I came to a crossroad of logic: Why did Yahweh love Jews so much, and Allah despise them? Either the Jews had indeed altered the Scripture to say that---because how could God be on the side of an evil people---or the Quran had something to hide, in which case I was the evil one and not the Jews… Slowly a change came over my Jihadist ideology… it dawned on me: how could it be that Allah was on our side if the Six-Day War in 1967 resulted in the greatest victory for the Jews since Joshua’s encirclement of Jericho?” (Pg. 34)
He asserts, “What the West does not understand about Islamism is that jihad has stages. If Muslims have the upper hand, then jihad is waged by force. If Muslims do not 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 in front of you while supporting Hamas or Hezbollah in the back room.” (Pg. 35)
He notes, “Islam, like any other religion, cannot be vaccinated from critical scrutiny. The Bible had to endure archaeological, historic, and scientific reviews from the academic circles, as well as accusations of corruption by people in the highest levels of Islamic jurisprudence. Muslims freely deny the crucifixion and the integrity of the Bible… Yet in the Islamic world, the measuring stick is very different when examining the Quran and Hadith. Indeed, if freedom of religion is what Muslims fight for, then where does the freedom to disagree with Islam exist in 55 Muslim states?” (Pg. 51) Later, he adds, “Islam has never produced a democratic or prosperous society, or social and cultural forms admired by the world community. Indeed, we have nothing in Islamic societies to compare to American freedom.” (Pg. 67)
He says, “Jihad is not just a struggle with the temptations in life, but the struggle to wage war against the infidels, to protect the nation of Islam from the heathens and to convert them to Islam. This is Islam’s definition of peace… All four major Islamic schools of thought agree that jihad is not merely a personas struggle, but a call to wage war on the infidels by all means possible: giving money and recruiting and training people are also means of jihad.” (Pg. 95-96)
He states, “Palestinian claims vary, depending on the issue. If the claim concerns who was there first, then they are descendants of the Canaanites. If the goal is to prove who legally deserves it, then they are Arabs. Both claims are in great error…. How could Yasser Arafat and the Palestinians be Canaanites and Arabs at the same time?... to Call today’s Israel the land of the Philistines would require a recreation of the other seven nations that made up the land of Canaan… Christian Arabs who focus on the New Testament instead of the Old ignore the fact that in the New Testament, the term ‘Palestine’ is NEVER USED, only ISRAEL…” (Pg. 127-129)
He points out, “In the entire history of Arab and Muslim conquest of the land … never was any significant Islamic school established, or an Arab Jerusalem capital, or a valid state set up for the Arabs. The city of Jerusalem was never visited by any Arab leader besides the kings of Jordan… Even running water and electricity were never installed! There was never a call for a Palestinian state in all Arab history---ONLY after the Jews returned to Israel. Yet the Jews made all the ‘nevers’ possible when they made this ignored land a nation. They made Jerusalem a capital, opened the holy places to all three religions, and built it like never before.” (Pg. 157)
He says, “many Westerners believe that the Arabs actually want peace. The truth is that the evil saga of the ‘final solution’ will continue as planned by Satan. Westerners forget who it was that supported Hitler in World War II, the Soviet Union during the Cold War and Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War. Instead, they rallied behind Arafat who, until his death, still refused to change the PLO Charter calling for the destruction of Israel.” (Pg. 168)
He argues, “Replacement Theology is not a conviction based on research and study of Scripture, but a state of mind plagued with centuries of dependence on tradition that is clouded with half-truths.” (Pg. 192) He continues, “Replacement Theology played a role in the persecution of Jews by the church through the centuries, including the Holocaust, since all the promises and blessings and Israel’s entire inheritance now belongs to the Church, while Israel gets to keep the curses.” (Pg. 195) He concludes, “In Numbers 14, the option of replacement Theology is flatly rejected. The idea was that God would kill all the Israelites because of their sinfulness and He would start over again from the beginning. He would not discard the idea of a chosen people, but He would destroy those who were descended from Abraham and start a new people with Moses. Again, this theory is rejected. God listened to Moses’ prayer for his sinful people.” (Pg. 196-197) Later, he adds, “Replacement Theology advocates intentionally ignore prophecy in order to justify their claims, and many Christians who witness to Muslims ignore the direction given by God for fear of offending them; to them, Israel is an offense.” (Pg. 213)
He notes, “Many prophecy students picked Russia as the prime candidate for Magog until the Russian Communist nation split… However, most historians and sources … all locate Magog, Meshech, Tubal, Gomer and Beth Togarmah in ASIA MINOR, not Russia.” (Pg. 230) He quotes historian Edwin Yamauchi, “the identifications of Meshech and Tubal are not in doubt. Few scholars today equate them with Moscow and Tobolsk. Rather, combined ancient testimony attests to the fact that Meshech and Tubal were located in central and eastern Anatolia (Asia Minor), respectively.” (Pg. 235)
He rejects the argument that the Catholic Church is the ‘false prophet/beast’ in Revelation 13, 14, and 17: “the deaths in Scripture regarding the End-Times come by BEHEADING. This form of punishment has never been used by the Catholic Church. Also, Vatican City is no built on seven hills, but only one, Vatican Hill, which is NOT one of the seven upon which ancient Rome was built… There is not argument that the color scarlet represents the Catholic Church… Mecca and Medina are better candidates than the Vatican… Saudi Arabia correlates with the prophecy much better than does Rome…” (Pg. 287-288)
He asserts, “The End-Time battle prophesied in the Bible is a religious, not a political, war. The major political threats of our time, Communism, Nazism, and Fascism, have been replaced by Islamic fundamentalism. It is this militant-religious jihad movement that should be the focus of our End-Time prophecy study… Every nation that incurs the wrath of God’s End-Time judgments in Scripture is today an Islamic nation.” (Pg. 359)
This book is a very pro-Israel, pro-Zionist work, and will appeal to some Christians for that reason. Its eschatology, however, will not appeal to many of these same. And ‘caveat emptor’ for anyone depending on Shoebat’s claims to be a former terrorist.
Walid Shoebat is a Palestinian-American critic of Islam, speaker and author. He was born in the West Bank to an American mother, and converted to Christianity from Islam. He has claimed to be an ex-PLO terrorist, who firebombed the Israeli bank Bank Leumi. [NOTE, however, that his claims to be a former terrorist have been seriously questioned by CNN, the Jerusalem Post, and other sources.]
He wrote in the Introduction to this 2005 book, “This was not an easy journey. I have lost my homeland, my family of origin, and my land… Yet I gained so much. My deep Christian faith is my driving force. I love America. I love the Jewish people, who have suffered so much and who are trying to hold only this tiny spot of land … as a homeland after thousands of years of persecution… Much has happened since I wrote the first draft of this book. America was attacked by Islamist terrorists who murdered nearly 3,000 innocent children, women and men. President George Bush declared war on Osama bin laden… Yasser Arafat died after refusing all peace offers, stealing millions from the Palestinian people and leaving them in ruins. Yet the world will not confront the truth, will not call out, ‘These Islamists are terrorist…’ Instead, most of the world cowers… the West bends its collective head, searching for words to disguise and soften the atrocities… had the world spoken, I would not have to.”
He explains in the first chapter, “My life was turned upside down when I discovered that everything I had been taught about the Jews was a lie… Yasser Arafat smiled for the cameras at Camp David, left the United States… and started killing Jews again… The truth is that the Israelis face an enemy with whom they cannot negotiate, because the enemy’s primary goal isn’t the land… The enemy wants all Jews dead and Israel eliminated from the face of the earth… I will show that the land called Israel was either owned by Jews who had started purchasing it from Arabs in the 1800s, or was government-owned and given to them under the British mandate or retained after the Arab attacks. The condition of the Palestinian people has nothing to do with Israel… The Palestinians could be living well with the millions of dollars that were sent to them from America and many other governments. Instead, they live like paupers because Yasser Arafat stole their money. My goal is to show the world the truth about Islamism and … God’s promise, for the Jews to live in Israel as their home.” (Pg. 13-14)
He states, “I was initiated into Yasser Arafat’s Fatah terror group and recruited by a well-known bomb maker … [who] gave me a very sophisticated explosive device … I was supposed to use the bomb…. To blow up the Bank Leumi … in Bethlehem… I threw the bomb on the bank’s rooftop. I ran… I didn’t enjoy what I had done, but I felt compelled to do it because it was my duty. I felt I had to be a martyr, to kill Jews in order to go to heaven and meet the 72 virgins.” (Pg. 15-6)
He comments, “when I was a terrorist, I was a ‘freedom fighter,’ but for loving the Jewish people and their culture and religion, I was called a racist… Why are Jews not allowed to exist in Arab villages, yet Arabs live in Israel proper? … Is this my sin? That I began to love Jews? As well as Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims?... To Islamists, yes.” (Pg. 21)
He states, “at Loop College in Chicago… I became president of the Palestinian Students’ Association, raiding funds for the PLO and recruiting volunteers to fight in Lebanon… Chicago was notorious for its influx of Arab students. The Loop College cafeteria looked like an Arab coffee shop… No one got along with the other. But when it came to hating Israel, they were united.” (Pg. 29)
He recounts, “I came to a crossroad of logic: Why did Yahweh love Jews so much, and Allah despise them? Either the Jews had indeed altered the Scripture to say that---because how could God be on the side of an evil people---or the Quran had something to hide, in which case I was the evil one and not the Jews… Slowly a change came over my Jihadist ideology… it dawned on me: how could it be that Allah was on our side if the Six-Day War in 1967 resulted in the greatest victory for the Jews since Joshua’s encirclement of Jericho?” (Pg. 34)
He asserts, “What the West does not understand about Islamism is that jihad has stages. If Muslims have the upper hand, then jihad is waged by force. If Muslims do not 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 in front of you while supporting Hamas or Hezbollah in the back room.” (Pg. 35)
He notes, “Islam, like any other religion, cannot be vaccinated from critical scrutiny. The Bible had to endure archaeological, historic, and scientific reviews from the academic circles, as well as accusations of corruption by people in the highest levels of Islamic jurisprudence. Muslims freely deny the crucifixion and the integrity of the Bible… Yet in the Islamic world, the measuring stick is very different when examining the Quran and Hadith. Indeed, if freedom of religion is what Muslims fight for, then where does the freedom to disagree with Islam exist in 55 Muslim states?” (Pg. 51) Later, he adds, “Islam has never produced a democratic or prosperous society, or social and cultural forms admired by the world community. Indeed, we have nothing in Islamic societies to compare to American freedom.” (Pg. 67)
He says, “Jihad is not just a struggle with the temptations in life, but the struggle to wage war against the infidels, to protect the nation of Islam from the heathens and to convert them to Islam. This is Islam’s definition of peace… All four major Islamic schools of thought agree that jihad is not merely a personas struggle, but a call to wage war on the infidels by all means possible: giving money and recruiting and training people are also means of jihad.” (Pg. 95-96)
He states, “Palestinian claims vary, depending on the issue. If the claim concerns who was there first, then they are descendants of the Canaanites. If the goal is to prove who legally deserves it, then they are Arabs. Both claims are in great error…. How could Yasser Arafat and the Palestinians be Canaanites and Arabs at the same time?... to Call today’s Israel the land of the Philistines would require a recreation of the other seven nations that made up the land of Canaan… Christian Arabs who focus on the New Testament instead of the Old ignore the fact that in the New Testament, the term ‘Palestine’ is NEVER USED, only ISRAEL…” (Pg. 127-129)
He points out, “In the entire history of Arab and Muslim conquest of the land … never was any significant Islamic school established, or an Arab Jerusalem capital, or a valid state set up for the Arabs. The city of Jerusalem was never visited by any Arab leader besides the kings of Jordan… Even running water and electricity were never installed! There was never a call for a Palestinian state in all Arab history---ONLY after the Jews returned to Israel. Yet the Jews made all the ‘nevers’ possible when they made this ignored land a nation. They made Jerusalem a capital, opened the holy places to all three religions, and built it like never before.” (Pg. 157)
He says, “many Westerners believe that the Arabs actually want peace. The truth is that the evil saga of the ‘final solution’ will continue as planned by Satan. Westerners forget who it was that supported Hitler in World War II, the Soviet Union during the Cold War and Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War. Instead, they rallied behind Arafat who, until his death, still refused to change the PLO Charter calling for the destruction of Israel.” (Pg. 168)
He argues, “Replacement Theology is not a conviction based on research and study of Scripture, but a state of mind plagued with centuries of dependence on tradition that is clouded with half-truths.” (Pg. 192) He continues, “Replacement Theology played a role in the persecution of Jews by the church through the centuries, including the Holocaust, since all the promises and blessings and Israel’s entire inheritance now belongs to the Church, while Israel gets to keep the curses.” (Pg. 195) He concludes, “In Numbers 14, the option of replacement Theology is flatly rejected. The idea was that God would kill all the Israelites because of their sinfulness and He would start over again from the beginning. He would not discard the idea of a chosen people, but He would destroy those who were descended from Abraham and start a new people with Moses. Again, this theory is rejected. God listened to Moses’ prayer for his sinful people.” (Pg. 196-197) Later, he adds, “Replacement Theology advocates intentionally ignore prophecy in order to justify their claims, and many Christians who witness to Muslims ignore the direction given by God for fear of offending them; to them, Israel is an offense.” (Pg. 213)
He notes, “Many prophecy students picked Russia as the prime candidate for Magog until the Russian Communist nation split… However, most historians and sources … all locate Magog, Meshech, Tubal, Gomer and Beth Togarmah in ASIA MINOR, not Russia.” (Pg. 230) He quotes historian Edwin Yamauchi, “the identifications of Meshech and Tubal are not in doubt. Few scholars today equate them with Moscow and Tobolsk. Rather, combined ancient testimony attests to the fact that Meshech and Tubal were located in central and eastern Anatolia (Asia Minor), respectively.” (Pg. 235)
He rejects the argument that the Catholic Church is the ‘false prophet/beast’ in Revelation 13, 14, and 17: “the deaths in Scripture regarding the End-Times come by BEHEADING. This form of punishment has never been used by the Catholic Church. Also, Vatican City is no built on seven hills, but only one, Vatican Hill, which is NOT one of the seven upon which ancient Rome was built… There is not argument that the color scarlet represents the Catholic Church… Mecca and Medina are better candidates than the Vatican… Saudi Arabia correlates with the prophecy much better than does Rome…” (Pg. 287-288)
He asserts, “The End-Time battle prophesied in the Bible is a religious, not a political, war. The major political threats of our time, Communism, Nazism, and Fascism, have been replaced by Islamic fundamentalism. It is this militant-religious jihad movement that should be the focus of our End-Time prophecy study… Every nation that incurs the wrath of God’s End-Time judgments in Scripture is today an Islamic nation.” (Pg. 359)
This book is a very pro-Israel, pro-Zionist work, and will appeal to some Christians for that reason. Its eschatology, however, will not appeal to many of these same. And ‘caveat emptor’ for anyone depending on Shoebat’s claims to be a former terrorist.
January 21, 2012
This is a hard book for me to rate. The first section, I thought was very good. Mr. Shoebat explains in a straight forward way how those who practice Suadi Arabia's brand of the Muslim faith are taught to hate. He explains why there is no reasoning with them. As a past terrorist, he is in a position of credibility. He also explores, to a limited degree, the roots of the Muslim/Jewish conflict which go all the way back to Abraham. Some interesting stuff, and I mentioned, his background give him added credibility.
The rest of the book delves deep into both the old and new testament to support his position that the Jews are still the chosen people and that any true Christian will support the Jews over the Muslims.
The rest of the book delves deep into both the old and new testament to support his position that the Jews are still the chosen people and that any true Christian will support the Jews over the Muslims.
May 14, 2013
Why I Left Jihad is a okay book. It explains the tensions and dislike between arab islamics and jews. It also told the story of how a young arab boy who grew up in a terrorist family and how he was forced to terrorize people. He once bombed a bank and he later escaped and now he does seminars.
May 31, 2019
For those who are following contemporary political events in America (selected elected officials) and Israel, the first third of this book is the most relevant and disconcerting. Shoebat articulates jihadi beliefs and gives numerous examples of their behaviors which should concern us all. This is more than just propaganda broadcast from ME media sources and the Internet it is systemic indoctrination and brain-washing of their youth. Imagine attending Palestinian grammar school and beginning one’s day with songs, poems and chants about killing Jews and wiping Israel off the map. Imagine adoring and cheering suicide bombers enroute to becoming one yourself. Imagine yourself swallowing the lie that folk like Yassar Arafat are working in your best interest only to skim the dollars sent by gullible western nations, intent on helping the people, but used for their own luxury and terror campaigns.
Shoebat lived this life until he became a Christian after reading the Bible, something that resulted in his being outcast and ostracized by his family. Now he is warning us about the truth. Shoebat gives many examples of the propaganda points and deflates each in turn. Much of the remainder of the book speaks to biblical prophecy. I don’t agree with all of his conclusions even though he is very articulate in citing sources. The book concludes with several chapters that make the argument that the Antichrist can only arise from the Arab nations since they are the peoples surrounding Israel and who want nothing more than to destroy her. He uses the fact of terrorism attacks and the elimination of non-converting people of other religions as evidence of the caliphate being the eighth kingdom of the end times.
This book is well worth your time even if you only read the beginning because what he reveals here are the talking points, the strategies, and the deceptions that are beginning to affect normal Americans here at home. This is a second reading for me having stopped at the one-third mark after revulsion from what they teach their children. My copy is an autographed hardcover which I purchased from the author after hearing him speak.
Shoebat lived this life until he became a Christian after reading the Bible, something that resulted in his being outcast and ostracized by his family. Now he is warning us about the truth. Shoebat gives many examples of the propaganda points and deflates each in turn. Much of the remainder of the book speaks to biblical prophecy. I don’t agree with all of his conclusions even though he is very articulate in citing sources. The book concludes with several chapters that make the argument that the Antichrist can only arise from the Arab nations since they are the peoples surrounding Israel and who want nothing more than to destroy her. He uses the fact of terrorism attacks and the elimination of non-converting people of other religions as evidence of the caliphate being the eighth kingdom of the end times.
This book is well worth your time even if you only read the beginning because what he reveals here are the talking points, the strategies, and the deceptions that are beginning to affect normal Americans here at home. This is a second reading for me having stopped at the one-third mark after revulsion from what they teach their children. My copy is an autographed hardcover which I purchased from the author after hearing him speak.
November 5, 2008
I didn't read this cover to cover. I could not because the second half is extremely detailed information about biblical prophecy as contrasted with the Koran. I am a new Christian and have not read the bible in it's entirety so it was too difficult for me to keep up with. I can assure anyone however that Shoebat is a top notch scholar and his courage is beyond belief. He turned his back on hate and is now tirelessly working to help make Americans aware of the rise of Islamofacism and what it means to the West.
August 6, 2011
I was rather disappointed. I appreciate his testimony, and his passion for Israel, but the book seemed to lack focus, being more a collection of notes rather than him writing out his own thoughts. I liked his treatment of Israel's history--stuff you don't hear in the media regarding conflicts going on in that area, but his approach to eschatology and an overly-literal approach to Biblical exegesis totally turned me off.
June 30, 2014
I enjoy listening to him speak more than reading his books.
July 17, 2014
Started out good, got a little bogged down in the prophecy parts. Makes the argument that the number of the beast is islam, revived ottoman empire. That part was intriguing.
October 21, 2009
Wow.....
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews