Former extremist Israeli settler thanks Allah at new West Bank home
mohammad
Mohammed al-Mahadi, a former extremist Israeli settler, reads the holy
the Koran with his son at his new home in the Palestinian West Bank
town of Hebron 16 June 2005. His recent arrival in the Shaab
neighbourhood of the flashpoint town of Hebron is the latest twist in
the extraordinary life story of Mahadi, who was born to Jewish parents
37 years ago in the former Soviet republic of
Azerbaijan.(AFP/File/Hazem )
With his tattoo of the Star of David hidden from view, Mohammed
al-Mahadi prays to Allah in his new West Bank home near the radical
Jewish settlement where he spent much of the last decade.
His recent arrival in the Shaab neighbourhood of the flashpoint town of
Hebron is the latest twist in the extraordinary life story of Mahadi,
who was born to Jewish parents 37 years ago in the former Soviet
republic of Azerbaijan.
The man then known as Mikhail Shirovsky moved to Israel soon after the
Soviet authorities allowed Jews to emigrate in the 1980s.
After serving in the army as a fitness instructor, he was drawn to
Jewish extremism and decided to move to the hardline settlement of
Kiryat Arba in 1995 soon after one of its residents, Baruch Goldstein,
shot dead 29 Muslim worshippers in Hebron's Tomb of the Patriarchs.
But an unlikely friendship with a Palestinian garage owner led him to
first question his values, then to convert to Islam before marrying a
Muslim wife from his native land.
Mahadi said he has been touched by the warmth of the welcome that he
has received from his new neighbours in spite of his background.
"I was a radical settler and an enemy to them," he told AFP in an
interview at his new home. "They have treated me like a brother and
have offered me all the help that I need."
After his conversion to Islam and marriage to Sabena, Mahadi's life
among the Jews of Kiryat Arba became increasingly fraught.
He says that his wife and four children, were ostracised and harassed
by his one-time friends.
"I was attacked in the settlers in Kiryat Arba many times. They stoned
my house and wrote graffiti against me, saying I'm a Muslim and had to
leave.
"Every time I travelled anywhere, we were harassed because my wife was
wearing a veil.
"I was also often interrogated by the Israel security services, but all
that I care about is that my children continue on the same religious
path as me."
Maadi admits that the man responsible for attracting him to Islam was
garage owner Waleed Zaloum, whose business is located just outside
Kiryat Arba.
Two strong-headed men, they used to argue for hours about the merits of
their respective faiths as Zaloum recalls.
"From the start I felt there was good inside this man, even though I
was not expecting it from a settler from Kiryat Arba," he said.
"The issue became a challenge to me and I told him: 'Either you convert
me to Judaism or I convert you to Islam', but after six months of
discussions and meetings it was him who ended up being converted."
Mahadi said that he had been persuaded to renounce Judaism for
intellectual reasons.
"I discovered that there were too many contradictions in Judaism and at
the same time I realised that Islam is the religion of truth and
wisdom," he said.
"I converted because I am seeking truth because of religious reasons
and not for any other motive."
He is unable to shake off all his Jewish heritage. Tattoos of the Star
of David and of a Menorah (a seven-branched Jewish candelabrum) are
etched indelibly on his hands.
But Mahadi harbours no doubts and his new faith, saying that he is not
interested in the formation of a secular Palestinian state.
"What I want is an Islamic caliphate in Palestine and God willing,
Jerusalem will be the capital of this state," he said.
URL:
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