Editor, Times-Union: I would like to address the Times-Union front-page news article that was published Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2011, regarding Walid Shoebat, and his appearances at The Awakening tent meeting last week. The article discusses the credibility of Mr. Shoebat and includes a telephone interview with me by reporter Dan Riordan. Walid Shoebat was born in Bethlehem of an American mother, and an Arab father. He was raised a Muslim.
He was taught to hate the Jew, Israel and the Western nations that support the Jewish state of Israel.
When he was a teenager, as is common with many lads there, he was recruited into the Palestinian Liberation Organization, better known as the PLO. He was convinced that it was his duty and honor to blow up a bank. It was to be a suicide attack. The bomb he was carrying would be similar to four sticks of dynamite attached to a timer. When he approached the bank there were some children near the entrance. Rather than enter the bank and endangering the kids, he threw the bomb on the bank’s roof and it exploded.
Later, he was twice jailed for participating in anti-Israeli activities. In the early 1990s Shoebat, while trying to disprove Christianity, he instead found in the Bible, what he believed to be the truth, and he converted to Christianity. He studied the Bible extensively, pouring over every word. He realized that what he was taught as a young man was error. That the teachings of Jesus Christ were about love and hope, while the teachings of Islam were about hate, anger and violence. He then became an active advocate for Christianity, and a critic of Islam. This is evidenced by his writings, public speaking, and interviews on many national and international news programs.
The Times-Union article questions whether Shoebat was indeed a Muslim terrorist. This comes from Internet items disputing Shoebat’s claims. A review of those Internet items show clearly that almost all are generated by Muslim authors or sympathizers who are doing whatever they can to shut Shoebat up.
For some reason, the left-wing press and politicians are on board with this. They have been unable to kill him, so they are trying to destroy him with the printed word. After digging into records from some 35 years ago, they have never disproved any of Shoebat’s claims. They even quote a family member who says that he doesn’t remember Shoebat being a terrorist. The relative is a fourth cousin. I don’t even know a fourth cousin of mine, let alone know what they do. It’s just another example of a person being guilty until proven innocent. So many people believe, “it must be true or they wouldn’t print it.”
