JERUSALEM (AP) — The father of an Israeli who has been arrested in Lebanon insisted on Sunday that his son is not a spy, saying the young man converted to Islam several years ago and immersed himself in Arab culture.

Lebanese officials announced the arrest of Daniel Sharon on Saturday and said they had handed him over for military interrogation because he visited Lebanon frequently. The incident has threatened to inflame tensions between the enemy states.

Sharon, who is in his early 30s, has Israeli and German citizenship and entered Lebanon on his German passport. On Sunday, his father, Moshe Sharon, told Israel's Army Radio that his son had only good intentions.

He told of a man who, in searching for his identity, had converted to Islam several years ago and was the first Israeli to study in Jordan after a peace treaty was signed between the countries in 1994.

When asked if Daniel was an Israeli spy, Moshe Sharon said "No, no, there is no chance. This boy doesn't even smoke, he doesn't drink, he's not a criminal."

Daniel was "childish" and it's possible that he could get mixed up "with the wrong people and didn't know what he was getting into," Sharon said.

The younger Sharon had visited Lebanon 11 times in the past two years using his German passport and was arrested by police at a Beirut hotel Thursday, Lebanese officials said.

The elder Sharon said he learned about the matter through the press on Saturday. The Israeli Foreign Ministry told him Saturday evening that authorities were dealing with the matter.

"We are feeling totally helpless because we are an enemy country and there is nothing I can do besides receive information about him and let the authorities deal with it," Sharon said, adding that he feared that his son could be held in Lebanon for years.

The Foreign Ministry said Sunday that it was looking into the matter but had no further comment.

The younger Sharon's mother has German citizenship, Moshe Sharon said, and the German authorities have told her they are looking into her son's case.

Sharon said he did not know his son was in Lebanon, but believed he was in Cyprus.

Lebanese police also arrested a Lebanese security agent over his relations with Sharon since the two maintained contacts through the Internet, the Lebanese security officials said.

The Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar reported Saturday that the man's arrest came after an investigation into the murder of a Lebanese citizen found dead in Beirut's southern suburbs.

Police found that the victim had been shot with a gun belonging to a security officer who had been the victim's roommate, the paper said. When questioned by authorities, the roommate said that he had lost his gun and was with a German friend who was staying at a Beirut hotel when the killing occurred, the paper said.

Police later went to the hotel and detained the German friend for questioning, it added. They later discovered that he was also Israeli.

During a preliminary interrogation, police grew suspicious over the nature of the Israeli man's visits to Lebanon and other Arab countries, his financial spending and his ability to speak Arabic, according to the paper's report.

The man claimed that his visits to Lebanon were for tourism and to see friends, report said. Lebanon forbids any contacts with Israel.

During Israel's 18-year occupation of a border strip in southern Lebanon, Lebanese authorities arrested and jailed many people on charges of spying or working for Israel. Israel pulled out of Lebanon in 2000.

In October 2000, an Israeli reserve colonel, Elhanan Tannenbaum, was captured by the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah after he was lured to the Persian Gulf on a false passport. Tannenbaum was held for more than three years before he was released in a prisoner swap.
 

The other non sens in this story is that they pretended that the Israelo-German converted to homosexualism. AFAIK you are gay or you arn't but you don't become one through conversion.