Mosab Hassan Yousef, a son of one of the founders of Hamas and author of Son of Hamas (Tyndale House Publishers), has been spotlighted by mainstream media for his memoir--which details a six-year-long conversion process that originated with a Bible study in Jerusalem and resulted in his departure from the Palestinian terrorist organization.

In his book, Yousef, 32, reveals that he became one of the top spies for Israel's internal security arm, the Shin Bet. "I absolutely know that in anybody's eyes I was a traitor," he told The Wall Street Journal. "To my family, to my nation, to my God. I crossed all the red lines in my society. I didn't leave one that I didn't cross. ... The problem is not in Muslims. The problem is with their God. They need to be liberated from their God. He is their biggest enemy. It has been 1,400 years they have been lied to."

The newspaper observed that Son of Hamas was "a Le Carréesque thriller wrapped in a spiritual coming-of-age story." The Washington Post noted that Yousef's "insights into (Hamas) and its machinations are unique, and may be a refreshing change from the sound bites and vitriol heard over and over for generations."

Noting that neither Shin Bet nor Hamas tried to prevent his story from being published, Yousef told the BBC that his book will soon be published in Arabic, and most copies will be distributed free of charge.

After consideration about whether to move up the street date for the book due to a pre-publication story on Yousef in Haaretz--Israel's oldest newspaper--Tyndale decided not to advance its original March 2 date in order to be fair to retailers.

"As the story broke unexpectedly overnight in Jerusalem, we realized that not all of our customers would have books available yet if we decided to release the book earlier," said Dave Endrody, vice president of sales at Tyndale. "So in the interest of fairness, we are holding to the original street date and will enforce it with customers according to agreed-upon policies that could have consequences for the release of future street-dated titles."

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