Americans Against Terrorism held an event last Thursday at the Hebrew Educational Alliance in Denver, with Mosab Hassan Yousef – the “Son of Hamas” – as the guest speaker.

For those unfamiliar with Mr. Yousef, he is the son of Hamas founder and leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef. He worked for ten years as an undercover informant for the Israeli Shin Beit, before converting to Christianity and seeking political asylum in the U.S.

As you might imagine, security at the event was tight.

Yousef spent about half of his talk recounting his bio: how he was recruited by the Shin Beit, his initial plans to be a “double-double-agent” spying on the Shin Beit itself on behalf of Hamas, and his gradual disillusionment with Hamas and the Palestinian leadership in general. He didn’t gloss over the fact that he had himself been tortured by the Israeli military after being arrested as a boy during the First Intifada, but later contrasted his torture (being beaten up by a couple of angry soldiers) with the torture he saw inflicted on other members of Hamas in prison by their own people (pins under the fingernails, burning, beatings, etc.). He also pointed out that his mistreatment was against Israeli policy, while the torture meted out by Hamas is their policy, and is less about extracting information from its victims than it is about creating a climate of fear and obedience on which the organization can base its power. It was the recognition of these differences which he credits with opening his eyes to the truth about Israel and Hamas alike.

The other half of his talk concerned the state of things in the Middle East and the prospects for reform within Islam. Regarding both he was surprisingly optimistic, despite giving several reasons not to be. In Yousef’s opinion, authoritarian regimes and terrorist movements in Islamic countries are only able to use Islam to hold power and sway the masses because the masses themselves do not understand their own religion – the Koran being written in an archaic dialect of Arabic quite different from the Arabic spoken on the street and vastly different from the local languages spoken in Islamic countries outside the Arab world. The situation he described somewhat resembled that of pre-Reformation Europe, where limited literacy and education and a Bible written and read from in Latin rather than the local tongues limited the understanding of Christianity by ordinary people.

Were Muslims to better understand their own religion, Yousef explained, including its flaws and contradictions, a reform movement would find fertile ground. To that end, he has been working with others to create new, authoritative vernacular translations of the Koran, with the English and modern Arabic versions already completed and published. He also envisions something almost unthinkable: a movie showing the life of Muhammad, including the rather unsavory episodes, which would aim to inform Muslims about all of their religion and cause them to reflect on what it means in a world fourteen centuries removed from its origins. Understanding their own religion on their own terms, he explained, would deprive authoritarian rulers and terrorist movements of much of the religion-based obedience that underlies their power. And Muslims might come to understand, as he did, that their real enemies are not Israelis, but the Muslim leaders who exploit and oppress their own people.

His optimism stems from the diffusion of the internet throughout the Muslim world. The Egyptian unrest, he said, may look somewhat like that in Iran in 1979, but below the surface it is very different — Egyptians today not only have the example of the Iranian Revolution to learn from (and, by implication, avoid repeating), but they also have better communications and information sources than the Iranians of 1979 and a nearly unstoppable means of organizing opposition. Even if the Muslim Brotherhood should somehow gain power, he predicted, its reign won’t last more than 12-18 months due to the same factors which brought down the Mubarak government. The gist of his message here was that radical Islam was a trend which had already passed an inflection point — its arc may still continue to a higher level of importance or power, but the trend has already crossed into decline.

Overall, a very interesting and informative event.

Videos:

The crowd gathers for the pro-Israel rally on the capitol steps in Denver.

[LOTS MORE PICTURES AFTER THE JUMP...]

Police presence was surprisingly light, compared to the DNC.

I hope so. But sometimes I wonder.

One of the typical sign themes on the pro-Israel side. Note the distinct absence of hate and anger.

Folk dancers entertaining the crowd before the rally…putting the “Levite” in “levitate”, as it were.

A man with a Koran.

This guy was apparently on the wrong side of the street (given the threadbare anti-war message on the equally threadbare poster, which he probably re-used from the DNC).

And yet…he was allowed to remain, throughout the entire rally, undisturbed by the rally-goers or the safety monitors (one of whom is right behind him, with the white armband).

Singing patriotic songs to counter the mindless chants of “Down! Down! Israel!” and the like blaring hour after hour from PA speakers by the counter-demonstrators.

After an half-hour of the anti-Israel, anti-American yelling coming from the park, I actually felt nostalgic for Recreate 68′s imbecilic chants of “Whose streets? Our streets!” at the DNC.

American flags were in evidence on both sides. But many times more frequent on the pro-Israel side, and none of those had been adulterated or formed part of an anti-American placard.

This guy was handing out pamphlets. I gather the people on the sidewalk weren’t too happy with whatever it was, but despite some harsh words nobody accosted him or even made him stop what he was doing.

I saw several examples of pro-Hamas people trying to provoke the pro-Israel side into reacting — including protestors with Palestinian flags and kaffiyehs strutting through the pro-Israel crowd, or driving along the curb shouting obscenities and waving Palestinian flags at them — but the latter never took the bait.

That’s tolerance for the views of others. Given the anger and thwarted outbursts of violence from the pro-Hamas side, I personally would have thought twice — or more — before attempting the same juvenile antics in the other direction. 

Lots of American flags mingled with the Israeli ones.

Joshua Sharf addresses the rally.

And even more American and Israeli flags (same view, I just liked both pics).

Speaking of thwarted outbursts, the guy in the striped shirt was constantly being restrained by the protest monitors on the other side of the street. They’d get him calmed down, and one or two minutes later he’d be leading off from the sidewalk. It looks as though he is exchanging angry words with someone on the Israel side, but I couldn’t see anyone interacting with him — he just looked mindlessly enraged.

On the other hand, I don’t know how mindless it really was. He would allow himself to be pulled back to the grass again and again, and never got much closer to the pro-Israel side than what you see here even with ample opportunity to do so, so I suspect that it was all just impotent braggadocio.

Tom Tancredo addressing the rally.

Hands down, the most stunningly beautiful woman at either gathering.  What a pity that she was on the wrong side.

She was one of the organizers, judging from the chanting instructions she was giving to the crowd.

A car full of Hamas supporters drag a “blood” stained Israeli flag behind their car while waving a Palestinian flag from the sunroof, in an attempt to provoke the pro-Israeli crowd.

One of the “silver statue” mimes from the 16th Street Mall put on a performance in support of the Hamas cause.

Well, okay…I don’t think this tool is really one of the mimes, but he did stand there in this rigid, silly pose for about fifteen minutes.

I think it was supposed to be intimidating. Or something.

Note that even his fellow Hamas supporters are laughing at him behind his back.

A member of the cast of “Cats” shows her support for Hamas.

Another pro-Hamas supporter taunting the pro-Israel crowd, sashaying through the crowd, smirking and whirling his faux-kaffiyeh scarf around.

Terror-abetting useful idiot or no, this guy deserved an ass-whupping just for being such a smug tool. The fact that he didn’t made me wonder if there wasn’t some tiny kernel of truth after all to the counter-demonstrators’ claims that Israel doesn’t deliver “justice”…

Yet more Hamas child abuse.

Note the implicit threat on the sign in the center.

This confused me. The guy in the kaffiyeh milled around on the pro-Israel side for some time near the end of the rally, but despite the symbolism of his neckwear it didn’t look like he was trying to stir up trouble.

Could he have been (*gasp!*) someone who wanted an honest, mature discussion with the pro-Israel side, in preference to shouting slogans and taunts?

Ditto these two. They carried signs with a kumbayaa message of reconciliation, and didn’t appear to be trying to stir up trouble.

On the other hand, they were chatting up the wrong-side war protestor guy (that’s his retread sign visible on the right).

Dan Kopelman.

And no, he wasn’t actually using the bullhorns to shout back at the counter-demonstrators – just carrying them.

One of the pro-Hamas group’s organizers, helping to close down the counter-demonstration.

When the bullhorn guy announced that taxis were available wthout charge to get people home from the counter-demonstration, I half expected the crowd to start dutifully bleating “Free! Free! Cab rides home!”.

“Where Does Terrorism End?”  The ironic view from the car as we were leaving downtown.

This is what the Israel side had to say. 

And then apparently the Hamas side agreed and hung targets on their children.

And then they hid behind them.  (I thought they only did that over in Palestine?)

Meanwhile, the children on the Israel side were coloring.

And let’s take one more look over at the anti-Jew’s side…

 
Well, their symbols are appropriate – I’m certain Hitler would be beaming with pride.

There was little confrontation (thankfully), but the emotion was running high on both sides, and police kept everyone off of Lincoln.

There are tons of photos after the break, and fellow PPCers will update throughout the evening with more photos and video.

The Nazi flag echoed a common theme seen throughout the afternoon.

The opposing crowds face off.

There was a clear police presence, but most of their duty consisted of keeping protesters out of the street.

The anti-war crowd joined in–but it is the sign across the street that is most poignant.

Blue skies and a crisp wind–and shouts of “Allahu Akbar!”

They always show up.

This would be the most dominant theme: Israel = Nazis.

The messaging, at the very least, was consistent.

Native Americans = Palestinians, and a somewhat clever sign.

More Nazi references.

The vocal center.

Absolutely.

And that is look the other way.

Tom Tancredo “nuke Mecca” comment earned pushback from this protester.

There were several hundred on both sides.

Zionism = Nazism, plus bonus misspelled “Gazza.”

An Israeli flag, carried by the wind, is filled by the sun’s luminescence.

Wait, I thought it was all Israel’s fault!

The long face-off.

Um, yeah.

Standard stuff for this type of rally.

A pro-Israeli woman glances at the protesters on the other side of the street.

And the MSM gathers video.

Star of David = swastika.

Dragging an Israeli flag.

The response.

Dead baby on a stick, and a personification of “Palestine” surrounded by missiles.

Looks like we have the truth, at least, in this sign.

“Same crime, different time.”

Is that Rima Barakat?

A beautiful day for free speech in Denver.

They’re at it again because there will be a pro-Israel rally from 2-4pm on the Capitol Steps on Sunday, which these folks will be attempting to a) upstage by starting a half-hour earlier, b) intimidate by being in full swing when the Israel supporters arrive, and c) shout down like playground bullies.  

Should provide some good fodder for a compare-contrast photo essay tomorrow, given what I saw when driving by the rally at the capitol steps last night.