Editor's Letter
WOMEN'S
EUROPEAN & AMERICAN
Muslim Conversion Tactics
m
uslim missionaries present the newest threat to
Israel's survival as a Jewish state. Diaspora Jews must
wake up to this danger.
I was surprised to read that Yad L'Achim, the counter-mis-
sionary organization in Israel, has zeroed in on a Muslim group
that aims to, and has actually succeeded in, converting Jews.
Over the last three years, Yad L'Achim
has identified 10 conversions, a byprod-
uct of personal distress or brainwash-
ing, with untold numbers of Israeli Jews
approached.
Muslim terrorists have tested Israel's
resolve with suicide bombers, roadside
bombs, sniper fire and Kassam rock-
ets. But Muslims also are becoming
feared on the spiritual battlefield as
well. Clearly, Christian cults don't have a
stranglehold on that phenomenon.
In an e-mail alert, Rabbi Moshe
Cohen, who heads a special unit of Jerusalem-based Yad
L'Achim, warned that in the past year, he has seen stepped-up
efforts by an Islamic network that seeks to influence Jews to
become Muslims.
"After several months of intensive field work," he declared,
"we've managed to make direct contact with a number of Jews
who have gone over to the other side. They've been converted in
Islamic religious courts, live in Arab
villages and carry papers that identify
them as Muslims."
That's scary given the backdrop. It
takes proselytizing to the next level.
Yad L'Achim was founded in 1950,
two years after statehood, to combat
missionaries who view Israel as fertile
ground because of its concentration
of Jews. In recent years, it has targeted
the rescue of Jewish girls duped by
Arab men.
Who Is Vulnerable?
The story that Rabbi Cohen tells is both haunting and daunt-
ing. He gives this example: One field operator, Salim Tawill, is
a nurse in a Jerusalem hospital. While extending care, he iden-
tifies Jews in distress and offers them Islamic literature. Those
who want more information are referred to another activist,
named Abdullah, who then is responsible for the potential
converts and winning them over.
"Yad L'Achim has learned that Abdullah recently gave up his
job as a cab driver in Hebron and now works full time for Al
Dawaa," Rabbi Cohen said. "His job includes traveling to Egypt,
Jordan and Turkey where he raises significant funding for Al
Dawaa's activities."
Yad L'Achim also has identified three more Al Dawaa activists,
all from Hebron, who seek to enlist Jews.
"One of them sells building supplies in the Old City of
Jerusalem and does small construction jobs in the haredi [fer-
vently Orthodox] community',' Rabbi Cohen said. "In recent
weeks, he has been spotted by Yad L'Achim, together with his
brother, in the Neve Yaakov neighborhood of Jerusalem:'
Fighting Back
Yad L'Achim knows of 15 missionaries. Its quick response to
the campaign has scuttled seven conversion attempts.
Al Dawaa is bold enough to run centers not just in outlying
areas, but also in Givat Shaul, at
the entrance to Jerusalem. The
centers house a sharia court where
Jews are brought for conversion
and receive new names.
"Yad L'Achim has maintained
intensive contacts with five Jews
who converted to Islam in an
attempt to bring them back','
Rabbi Cohen said. "They lived
until recently in Jerusalem,
Beersheva and Ashkelon."
Rabbi Sholom Dov Lipshitz
chairs Yad L'Achim. He said the
motive in releasing details of Al Dawaa's activities is "to save
these five Jews who have already converted and to make people
aware of the new kind of missionary — the Muslim mission-
Yad L'Achim warned that
in the past year, there have
been stepped-up efforts
by an Islamic network
that seeks to influence Jews
to become Muslims.
The Conversion Spur
The Muslim conversion campaign is the work of Al Dawaa
headed by Sheik Abu Yassin of Kafr Manda, an Arab Muslim
community of 15,000 people in northern Israel's Lower Galilee.
A key accomplice is Ibrahim Naader of Shechem, a biblical area
near modern-day Nablus in the West Bank. Naader served jail
time in Israel for murdering an Israeli girl.
This Middle East Muslim group, partially funded through
World Al Dawaa in New Delhi, grew from Yassin's conversion of
Yosef Cohen. The American Jew arrived in Beersheva a few years
ago and converted to Islam.
"Cohen, who today calls himself Yusaf al-Hattab, forced his
wife and three children to convert:" Rabbi Cohen said.
The family lives in the A-Tur neighborhood in Jerusalem at
the foot of the Mount of Olives, a biblical mountain. And at-
Hattab isn't an innocent convert.
"In interviews with the news media" Rabbi Cohen said,"al-
Hattab presents himself as a Hamas member who sends his
children to Hamas educational institutions and hopes that some
day they will be shaheeds [martyrs] for the sake of the jihad."
That means al-Hattab hopes his kids, one day serving as sui-
cide bombers on behalf of Allah, murder Jews.
It's admirable that Yad L'Achim hopes to rescue these five
Jews and spotlight their stories in a public relations blitz to deter
other potential converts. While I'm skeptical that a PR campaign
is the answer, it certainly can't hurt.
Jews continue to be attacked not only by terrorist and anti-
Semitic acts, but now also by an expanding missionary front
that we must confront to counter its seeds of deception and
vitriol.
If we can't protect our own from spiritual attacks, let alone
terrorism, our future as a people indeed doesn't bode well. C]
0 : Can Jews fend off conversion efforts on
I — •
tn 1 6 multiple fronts?
0
Z z How can diaspora Jews bolster Jewish
0 0 pride in Israel?
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January 24 . 2008
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