Joseph Cohen moved from the United States to Israel as a devout Jew in 1998, but within three years he had converted to Islam and become Yosef Mohammed Khatib, a supporter of the militant Hamas, according to 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 sheik from the United Arab Emirates through an Internet chat about Israel. Khatib said he spent hours corresponding with the sheik, discussing theology. Gradually he began to see Judaism as racist and turned toward Islam after reading the Quran, he told Channel 10 TV. The report did not say where he lived in the United States or give his age.
Last year he told his wife, Luna, also a devout Jew from the United States, that he wanted to convert to Islam.
"I said, `Listen, I love you very much ... and I have to be honest with you,'" Khatib said in the TV interview. "I read the Quran and I agree with everything it says in the Quran, and if I continue saying that I'm a religious Jew, I would be a liar."
The family converted together and moved from Netivot to an Arab neighborhood in east Jerusalem. The children went from being top in their classes on Judaism 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 state should be set up where Israel and the Palestinian areas are now located.
He praised Hamas for setting up social services for Palestinians but dodged questions about the other side of the Islamic group - suicide bombings and other attacks against Israelis. The United States has declared Hamas a terror group.
Khatib differed from most Israelis and Americans in his views about Osama bin Laden, the top suspect in the Sept. 11 terror attacks in New York and Washington.
"I think that he's number one, Muslim number one," Khatib said with a strong New York accent about bin Laden. "But I don't think that he's responsible for the World Trade Center (attacks)."
Wearing the white skullcap and robes of a religious Muslim, Khatib denied his Jewish past, insisting that he is 100 percent Muslim. He made a parody of a blessing that observant Jews say every morning, in which they thank God for not making them gentiles.
"Blessed are Thou, Lord Our God," Khatib began in the traditional Jewish blessing, but ended it with, "for not making me a Jew."
Following note from Muslim Quran online Blog
The first lesson to be learned by all Muslims is the importance of the Reading Quran Online. All Muslim should learn holy Quran online is the Book of Allah All mighty. Every word which the quran reciter recites or he read quran is the word of Allah it is mentioned in Quran in Arabic that it is the guidance which has come from Allah. That is why we as Muslim say it is the Holy Book. We should learn quran and focus on quran teaching thought by the quran tutor to the students and the tutor should arrange the kids quran lessons in such an easy manner so they can understand it easily and make there quran recitation online as beautiful as he could and teach them that the words of Koran were sent by Allah to our beloved Prophet Muhammad (SAWW) through the angel Jibraeel. And further more elaborate wile reading quran with teaching them the quran tafseer and the tajweed quran with its rules let then do quran memorization in the proper manner We as Muslim should respect the teachings of Quran and in every other manner when we are reading it or when we listen to Quran wake up Muslims and spread the word of Islam to
End of the note by quran education
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