Walid Shoebat () is a Palestinian American speaker, author and a critic of Islam. He was born in the West Bank to an American mother, and converted to Christianity from Islam. Shoebat has claimed to be an ex-PLO terrorist in a CNN television interview. He is a self-proclaimed expert on the dangers of Islam and is also a strong supporter of the State of Israel. Shoebat has also claimed that he firebombed the Israeli bank Bank Leumi; however, after thoroughly investigating this claim, reporters and officials have found no evidence of any attack on the bank in 1979. Early life According to the biography on his official website, Shoebat was born in Bethlehem, the grandson of the Mukhtar of Beit Sahour, whom Shoebat describes as an associate of Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Mohammad Amin al-Husayni. Shoebat said that he joined the Palestine Liberation Organization in his youth, and also says he was involved in an attack against an Israeli bank. There was no evidence for Shoebat's claims when investigated by journalists. According to Shoebat, upon his release , he continued his anti-Israeli activism until going to the United States, where he became involved with the Arab Student Organization at Loop College in Chicago. Shortly afterwards Shoebat worked as a software engineer and became a US citizen. Shoebat says he converted to Christianity in 1993. Career as Activist, author and speaker In 2004 and again in 2006, Shoebat was denied entrance to Canada on security grounds due to his self-described affiliation with the Palestinian Liberation Organization. He had been scheduled to speak in Ottawa at an event organized by the Simon Wiesenthal Center; Zachariah Anani spoke in Shoebat's place. Showbat was a frequent, if controversial, public speaker on terrorism and Islam in the 2000s. Shoebat has been introduced as a terrorism expert on several television programs, including appearances on CNN and its sister network HLN in 2006 and 2007. However, CNN points out that Shoebat makes errors in his presentation, including his assertion that the Transportation Security Administration could have prevented the September 11 attacks, even though the TSA was not created until after the attacks. He is the author of three self-published books. Books Why I Left Jihad: The Root of Terrorism and the Return of Radical Islam, 2005 Why We Want to Kill You: The Jihadist Mindset and How to Defeat it, 2007 God's War on Terror: Islam, Prophecy