Adapted from an interview by Ryan Lash, The Long, Scary Journey from A ‘Terrorist’s Son’ To A Peace Activist.
In 1990, when Zak Ebrahim was seven years old his father, El Sayyid Nosair, killed the founder of the Jewish Defence League. The man, Meir Kahane, was a rabbi who was a conservative, anti-Arab extremist. His father was imprisoned, but even from prison, he helped plot the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing — and was later convicted as one of the conspirators.
Both Zak and his mother were shocked to learn what his father was capable of. His father’s violent terrorist acts caused his family’s situation to get worse and worse. Zak’s mother kept moving the family to protect them. By the time he turned 19 they had moved 20 times. They lived on the edge of poverty. Zak lied to people about who his father was because he didn’t want to be the target of bullies. But being the chubby, new kid in class was enough to spark it.
Zak said, ‘Growing up in a bigoted household I wasn’t prepared for the real world. I had been raised to judge people based on arbitrary measurements like a person’s race or religion.’
His eyes were opened when he participated in the National Youth Convention in Philadelphia, which was part of a college preparation program. Zak worked in a group on the topic of youth violence and, having been the victim of bullying for most of his life, this was a subject which he was passionate about. Toward the end of the convention Zak discovered that one of the boys he had become friends with was Jewish. It had taken several days for this information to be revealed and Zak realized that there was no natural dislike between them. He had never had a Jewish friend before and felt a sense of pride that he had overcome a barrier – between people of different faiths – which he had grown up believing was impossible to overcome.
Zak said that since he was bullied as a child, he had developed a sense of compassion toward others who suffered. This meant that he couldn’t imagine treating others unkindly, even though there were differences between them. He was able to compare the stereotypes that he had been taught as a child with real life experiences and interactions. He said that the television shows he watched, such as The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart, had helped him realize that ‘a person’s race, religion or sexual orientation had nothing to do with the quality of one’s character.’
The first two people whom Zak explained his identity to were his two closest friends, and it really was a very positive experience because they didn’t judge him for his father’s actions. The third person he told was not able to look past them and tried to injure Zak. Zak realized that not everyone was going to react the way his two friends had.
Zak realized that while you could try to explain this action that his father had taken in killing Meir Kahane as a terrorist killing another terrorist, things were only made worse by trying to use violence to solve our problems.
A few years ago, Zak decided to tell the world his story and to show them how someone who was raised by a terrorist could grow to embrace peace. He hopes that by speaking out and showing he does not agree with his father’s actions people will see that violence isn’t in-built in someone’s religion or race. That the son does not have to follow his father’s ways.
Our biases, the stories that we make up about people before we even know who they are, can cause discrimination. Zak has shown that we can overcome these biases. Are you aware of any such biases around you? What can you do to overcome them?
Sources: http://www.npr.org/2014/09/18/349571638/the-long-scary-journey-from-a-terrorists-son-to-a-peace-activist and https://youtu.be/lyR-K2CZIHQ
