“I absolutely know that in anybody’s eyes I was a traitor,” Mosab Hassan Yousef told the Wall Street Journal before the release of his book Son of Hamas. “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.”

By “traitor,” Mosab—the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a founder and leader of the terrorist group Hamas—refers to his radical conversion from an extreme faith to Christianity. It also reflects his departure from Hamas after more than a decade of serving the terrorist group alongside his father.

Though the terrorists he once served now threaten his life, Mosab considers himself a free man, a man depicted in Romans 6:19 who was previously a slave “to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin,” but is now a slave “to righteous living so that [he] will become holy.”

“I converted to Christianity because I was convinced by Jesus Christ as a character, as a personality. I loved Him, His wisdom, His love, His unconditional love,” Mosab says. “I found that I was really drawn to the grace, love, and humility that Jesus talked about.”

Mosab relishes following and proclaiming the God who sent His Son Jesus to “bring good news to the poor . . . comfort the brokenhearted . . . proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed . . . [bring forth] the Lord’s favor . . . give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair” (Isaiah 61:1-3).

A new man, Mosab now says, “My goal is not to defeat my enemy. It is to win over my enemy.”