Walid Shoebat

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Criticism of Islam

Walid Shoebat (Arabic: وليد شويبات‎) is a Palestinian American Christian who converted from Islam.[1] He lectures on the dangers of Islamic radicalism[1] and is a strong supporter of the state of Israel. Born to a Jordanian Muslim father and a American mother, Shoebat lived in the occupied territories during the early part of his life in the village of Beit Sahour,[1] near Bethlehem.

A self-proclaimed apostate Muslim, [1] Walid Shoebat says he converted to Christianity in 1993 and began spreading the word about the "dangers of Islam". He has been interviewed as a terrorism expert on several television programs, including a handful of appearances on CNN and its sister network, HLN, in 2006 and 2007. Critics have questioned his alleged PLO affiliations, which he cites as the grounds for his authority on the subject of militant Islam. [2][3]

Shoebat is also a frequent speaker at Biblical prophecy conferences comparing End Times eschatology in the Judeo-Christian and Islamic sacred texts. Videos of his speeches are easily accessible via the Internet.

Shoebat's account of his life

According to the biography on his official website (http://www.shoebat.com/bio.php), Shoebat was born in Bethlehem, the grandson of the Mukhtar of Beit Sahour, whom Shoebat describes as an associate of Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Mohammad Amin al-Husayni. Shoebat joined the Palestine Liberation Organization in his youth, and was involved in an attack against an Israeli bank.[2]

Shoebat says that upon his release, he continued his anti-Israeli activism until going to the United States, where he became involved with the Arab Student Organization at Loop College in Chicago.[citation needed] Shortly afterwards Shoebat worked as a software engineer and became a US citizen. In 1993, Walid converted to Christianity.[2]

Lack of Evidence Supporting Shoebat's Autobiographical Account

Shoebat claimed that he threw a bomb at Bank Leumi, an Israeli bank, in Bethlehem.[4] However, the bank has no record of the incident. Also, Israeli newspapers at that time did not report any such incident.[5] The authenticity of Shoebat's account has been disputed by many sources.

The Jerusalem Post also disputed the authenticity of Shoebat's account of his alleged terrorist history. The paper stated that the bombing claim made by Shoebat has been rejected both by Bank Leumi, which claims no such attack took place, and by Shoebat's own relatives. The Post said that Shoebat had contradicted himself on this matter. When, in 2008, the Jerusalem Post asked him if there were news reports about the bombing, he replied,[4]

I don't know. I didn't read the papers because I was in hiding for the next three days.

But, in 2004, he had told Britain's Sunday Telegraph,

I was terribly relieved when I heard on the news later that evening that no one had been hurt or killed by my bomb.

During a telephone interview with the Post, Shoebat was unable to recall the date or time of year of the attack. While Shoebat says he was pressured by teachers to adopt an extreme Islamic philosophy, the Jerusalem Post article reported that his uncle, who still lives in Bethlehem, said religion did not play a major role in his education, and that he had actually left Bethlehem by age 16.[4]

On April 9, 2008, Shoebat responded to the Jerusalem Post's skepticism on that paper's op-ed page. He wrote that the Jerusalem Post had been duped. According to him, the sources who disputed his own account of his upbringing (including his relatives) were themselves involved in terrorism. He claimed they want to see him discredited, probably because of his conversion to Christianity . He also claims that reputable witnesses who could confirm the bombing operation of Bank Leumi were not interviewed.[6] He also posted a response on his website.[7]

Shoebat also addressed the specific accusations above in a YouTube video aimed at refuting similar accusations made on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360.[8] A textual refutation of the CNN report links to an U.N. document which mentions two bombings in Manger Square where the bank was located at the time.[9]

Appearances

Shoebat has appeared in several interviews, documentaries and radio programs. Most notably in the documentary OBSESSION: Radical Islam's War against the West. A comprehensive list is detailed on his foundation's website "Shoebat.com"

Views on Israel

After the September 11 attacks in 2001, Shoebat became an active advocate against Islamism and a fervent supporter of the State of Israel.

Shoebat is the founder of the Walid Shoebat Foundation, an organization that claims to "work to fight for Israel in the Media [sic]." [10]

Shoebat believes Israel should retake the Gaza Strip as it is Jewish by right, saying, "If a Jew has no right to Gaza, then he has no right to Jaffa or Haifa either." He advocates that Israel deport anyone who denies its right to exist, "even if they were born there."[4]

Views on Islamism and Sharia

Shoebat has appeared on mainstream media around the world, and has been portrayed as an expert witness on a number of documentaries on Islamism.[11]

Shoebat gives lectures to local police departments regarding his belief that "most Muslims seek to impose Sharia in the United States. To prevent this, he said in an interview, he warns officers that "you need to look at the entire pool of Muslims in a community.'"[12] According to the Washington Post:

"When Shoebat spoke to the first annual South Dakota Fusion Center Conference in Sioux Falls . . . he told them to monitor Muslim student groups and local mosques and, if possible, tap their phones. 'You can find out a lot of information that way,' he said."[12]

Views on Islam and Nazism

Shoebat argues that parallels exist between radical Islam and Nazism. He says, "Secular dogma like Nazism is less dangerous than Islamofascism that we see today ... because Islamofascism has a religious twist to it; it says 'God the Almighty ordered you to do this'.... It is trying to grow itself in fifty-five Muslim states. So potentially, you could have a success rate of several Nazi Germanys, if these people get their way."[13]

Criticism and Allegations of Fraud

Critics such as Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for Council on American-Islamic Relations have questioned Shoebat's background story, along with others like him, saying they "belong to an 'industry' that is often perpetuated by fundamentalist Christians" and aren't former Muslim terrorists.[5]

Skeptics [14] have also questioned why Shoebat has been able to retain his US citizenship if it is true that he was involved in acts of terror.[5]

One well known Conservative blogger, Debbie Schlussel [14] exposes what she says is proof of him being a fraud and plagiarizing one of her works.

The Jerusalem Post states that Shoebat has profited from his story that he was formerly a Muslim terrorist, but has rejected Islam for Christianity.[4] When the Post asked Shoebat whether the Walid Shoebat Foundation is a registered charity, he said that it was registered in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania State Attorney's office said it had no record of such a charity. When asked again, Shoebat claimed it was registered under a different name, but that he was not aware of the Foundation's registered name, nor any other details, which were known only to his manager. Dr. Joel Fishman of the Allegany County Law Library in Pennsylvania expressed doubts about Walid Shoebat Foundation's donation process. He noted that if the money were being given to a registered charity, the charity would have to make annual reports to the state and federal government.[4] On the contrary, Shoebat says that Daniel Pipes has supported him and his claims.[6] Here is the website for his foundation.

On July 13, 2011, CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" reported an investigative piece into Walid Shoebat's claim to authority based on being a former terrorist. The report found that according to Israeli government officials, the bank that Walid Shoebat claimed to have attacked, and his own relatives, no record of his supposed terrorist history existed. A two-week prison term in an Israeli jail, another of Shoebat's claims was also unsubstantiated, with Israel having no record he was ever jailed. His cousin, interviewed in the report, stated that he had never known Shoebat to have ties to any movement, and that his claims of being a former terrorist were "for his own personal reasons".[2]

These claims have been addressed in detail on Shoebat's website including the Anderson Cooper 360 report.[15][16] Shoebat asserts that sources quoting certain family members fail to note their own connection to terrorists:

FACT: CNN failed to ask Daood Hassaan Shoebat if he had any links to terrorists. He did. How could Daood Shoebat, the uncle of famed terrorist Arin Shoebat and Raed Khalil Awadallah Shoebat be a credible witness since both terrorists can be verified without a shadow of doubt. Arin Shoebat was the renowned mastermind of the dual Operation Reshon Letzion in which Issa Bdeir detonated a bomb, killing him along with civilians. Arin survived, hesitating to kill children, a similar account to that of Walid's, who published his story years prior to Arin's activity. Raed Khalil Awadallah Shoebat is on the list of official martyrs. Anyone can use google translate in Arabic can confirm both links in which these names match 100%.

Concerning his time in jail which CNN reported it could not confirm, Shoebat wrote:

2) Even if Mr. Griffin did check prison records, he was searching the wrong name. Had CNN examined our records that were offered to them, it will prove beyond doubt that Mr. Griffin made an error. When Mr. Shoebat was arrested he turned in his U.S. passport and not his birth certificate or I.D. card. His U.S. passport had a different last name.

Bibliography

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Walid Shoebat

See also

Documentaries Involving/Featuring Walid Shoebat

References

  1. ^ a b c d "'Ex-terrorist' rakes in homeland security bucks". CNN. July 7, 2011. http://articles.cnn.com/2011-07-11/us/terrorism.expert_1_walid-shoebat-israeli-police-homeland-security?_s=PM:US. 
  2. ^ a b c d Drew Griffin and Kathleen Johnston (July 13, 2011). "'Ex-terrorist' rakes in homeland security bucks". CNN. http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/07/11/terrorism.expert/index.html?hpt=hp_t2. 
  3. ^ http://www.shoebat.com/
  4. ^ a b c d e f Luyken, Jorg (March 30, 2008). "The Palestinian 'terrorist' turned Zionist". Jerusalem Post. http://www.jpost.com/Home/Article.aspx?id=96502. Retrieved March 23, 2010. 
  5. ^ a b c Omar Sacirbey, "Skeptics challenge life stories offered by high-profile Muslim converts to Christianity," Washington Post, June 26, 2010.
  6. ^ a b Shoebat, Walid (April 9, 2008). "Right of Reply: I was a terrorist". Jerusalem Post. http://www.jpost.com/Home/Article.aspx?id=97668. Retrieved March 23, 2010. 
  7. ^ "WalidShoebat.com". Shoebat.com. http://www.shoebat.com/credentials.php. Retrieved May 2, 2010. 
  8. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikS6WSOuDWo
  9. ^ http://www.shoebat.com/documents/cnn_smear2.htm
  10. ^ Make a donation to Walid Shoebat foundation; Justice for Israel and the Jewish people
  11. ^ Shoebat's autobiography on Shoebat.com
  12. ^ a b Priest, Dana and Arkin, William (December 2010) Monitoring America, Washington Post
  13. ^ Wayne Kopping & Raphael Shore (2005). Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West. http://www.obsessionthemovie.com/12min.htm. [dead link]
  14. ^ a b "Enough, Walid Shoebat: Why is Sean Hannity’s Fake Terrorist Harassing Me?". www.debbieschlussel.com/. http://www.debbieschlussel.com/4245/enough-walid-shoebat-why-is-sean-hannitys-fake-terrorist-harassing-me/. Retrieved January 15, 2012. 
  15. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikS6WSOuDWo
  16. ^ http://www.shoebat.com/documents/cnn_smear2.htm
  17. ^ a b "Books by Walid Shoebat". Shoebat.com. http://www.shoebat.com/books.php. Retrieved March 23, 2010. 
  18. ^ amazon.com
  19. ^ "WalidShoebat.com". Shoebat.com. http://shoebat.com/videos/riverToSea.php. Retrieved March 23, 2010. 
  20. ^ "WalidShoebat.com". Shoebat.com. http://shoebat.com/videos/firstSatThenSun.php. Retrieved March 23, 2010. 
  21. ^ "WalidShoebat.com". Shoebat.com. http://shoebat.com/videos/forsakenPromise.php. Retrieved March 23, 2010. 
  22. ^ "WalidShoebat.com". Shoebat.com. http://shoebat.com/products/cultureDeath.php. Retrieved March 23, 2010. 
  23. ^ "WalidShoebat.com". Shoebat.com. http://shoebat.com/videos/silent_exodus.php. Retrieved March 23, 2010. 
  24. ^ "WalidShoebat.com". Shoebat.com. http://shoebat.com/videos/hateLove.php. Retrieved March 23, 2010. 
  25. ^ "WalidShoebat.com". Shoebat.com. http://shoebat.com/videos/westNeedKnow.php. Retrieved March 23, 2010. 

External links

Videos