Backgrounder: Revolution Muslim
Yusuf al-Khatab
Posted: June 1, 2009
Yusuf al-Khatab (a.k.a. Joseph Leonard Cohen), 40, was born in Brooklyn, attended a Jewish seminary in Brooklyn and became a member of the Satmar Hasidic community. In 1998, he and his family immigrated to Israel and moved to a Jewish community in the Gaza Strip and later to a small town in Israel. Al-Khattab obtained an Israeli citizenship.
Al-Khattab says his conversion to Islam started after a series of conversations online with a Muslim from the United Arab Emirates. Based on al-Khattab's account, rejection of Judaism and even hatred of Jews were the focus of their exchange.
Al-Khattab and his wife converted to Islam and together with their children moved to an Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem, where he worked for a Muslim Charity. Around that time, he became involved with a Web site that aims to convert Jews to Islam, called Jews for Allah (JFA). The JFA site was created by al-Khattab's associate, Mohammed Ghounem .
The JFA site contains anti-Semitic content. For example one section called "Judaism: A Religion of Terrorists?" argues that Zionist-Jews are terrorists and explains that "Jews who accept Islam are in reality leaving the proven illegal terrorists and joining the peaceful Muslims."
In November 2002, al-Khattab posted online a seemingly threatening note regarding a New York rabbi. He posted the rabbi's photo and home address and wrote: "Please make every effort to reach this man, and help him understand what its like to suffer under lies…Please Ikhwan [Arabic for "brothers"], just make contact with this man." Al-Khattab later claimed that his home was raided by the police because of a fabricated complaint by this rabbi.
After a brief time living on Tetouan, Morocco, al-Khattab returned to the U.S. in 2007. That year, al-Khattab created RM and currently serves its amir (Arabic for "leader") and "chief executive officer." While reportedly living in Queens and working as a pedicab driver, he seems to spend time in Morocco.
|
