Zak Ebrahim
Benefitting Masterpeace International
Zak Ebrahim's first memories were of a dad who was playful and made the family laugh. But at the age of 7, Zak's father committed an act of hate so radical that he was publicly thanked by Osama Bin Linden. On November 5th, 1990 El Sayyid Nosair shot and killed Rabbi Meir Kahane, the leader of the Jewish Defense League. He was also convicted and sent to prison for his involvement in the 1993 terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center that killed six people. After moving 20 times in 20 years, Zak changed his name and started a new life, taking painful lessons from the radicalization that surrounded his youth, and forging his own peaceful path of empathy and unity for all human-kind.
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Wise Words
“My father had so many opportunities to change the course of his direction that his life was taking. But he made a concerted effort to maintain an alliance with this group of men and that would ultimately lead to him spending the rest of his life in prison.”
“I take that word jihad and I try to highlight it and show that it doesn’t necessarily have to mean an act of violence. It can literally mean taking care of the things that you are responsible for.”
“We were essentially taught to be fearful of almost anyone we interacted with. And to assume that people we didn’t know were actively trying to take us away from the faith.”
“I was able to leave much of the isolation that had surrounded me for many years, and actually interact with many of the people I’d been taught to hate.”
“My mother, I would find out later, could go to the hospital to be with my father. She was watching television when we were all asleep and the program she was watching was interrupted by breaking news, and it said that Rabbi Meir Kahane, the leader of the Jewish Defense League and had been shot and so did his assailant, and neither were expected to live. And they cut the footage of my father covered in blood being put into an ambulance. So this was her introduction essentially to the path that my father chose.”
“By late morning it began to rain and I knew our time was probably coming to an end. So on my last turn, the last bullet I shot hit the orange light that sat on the top of the target and the light exploded. And I wasn’t sure if I was in trouble or not, but my uncle turned to the other men and in Arabic said “like father, like son.” And they all got a really big kick out of that joke. I didn’t really understand what he meant by that at the time, but I suppose later I understood it to mean that, in some way I was exhibiting the same zealotry that my father was.”
“So I went out into the street like a lot of people did, and I protested the wars. And in those experiences, I saw lots of instances where I thought perhaps if people knew my story that not only was I raised Muslim, but more importantly than that, I was subjected to the precise ideology that so many people were fearful of. That I didn’t become radicalized, that I was here promoting peace, then what would that say about the vast majority of Muslims in the world? Well, what would that say about the justifications for my own government, from my own government, being used to justify these wars.”
“After 9/11, Osama bin Laden released a videotape telling people to remember, El Sayyid Nosair, remember my father, and to remember the sacrifices that he made, using my father and his actions to implore others to become involved in the Jihadi movement. And not only that, but Osama bin Laden helped to pay for my father’s defense fund. We didn’t know at the time, but my uncle actually traveled abroad to receive a check from him to help pay for the funds.”
“Frankly of everything that I went through in my childhood, being bullied was the thing that had the longest lasting negative effect on my sense of self worth.”
“And my whole life I’d been taught, and not only were Muslims and Jews, not friends, but we were natural enemies and that we would know that we were natural enemies from across the room without even interacting with each other. So it was the first time in my life I thought, huh, perhaps what Id’ been taught wasn’t true.”
“I’m reminded of the Rumi quote that said, “Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” And that was, I think, one of the greatest lessons that I learned in all of this time.”
“I don’t think that I can or that it’s my place to forgive my father for the way his actions affected so many other people. But for me personally, I knew that my only path to peace was to forgive my father for what he had done to me.”
“I want to live a life that causes the least amount of harm to others as I can.”
Links
Zak’s website: zakebrahim.com
Facebook: Zak Ebrahim Project
Charity: Masterpeace International