One day, a feeling of curiosity led me to start looking online for life changing speeches. On YouTube, I came across an interesting speech entitled “The Terrorist’s Son.” After a while, I realized that it was uploaded by the famous TED YouTube Channel. I guess that some of us are aware of their famous starting-quote “Ideas worth Spreading.” In addition to that, their aim is to spread genuine opinions, and throughout their ten-to-twenty minute talks, help making the world a better place.
However, while I was watching the speech, I was amazed at the man’s story and it moved me a lot.
So, let me talk about it for a while. This intriguing speech was performed by a Middle-Eastern American man named Zak Ebrahim. Throughout the entire talk, Zak Ebrahim exposed the environment where he grew up, and explained the circumstances that shaped his life.
On November 5, 1990, his father assassinated Rabbi Meir Kahane- the leader of the Jewish Defense League. Nevertheless, he was not found guilty at that time. But while he was serving time on other charges, he and another man began planning for other extremist attacks in multiple places.
According to Zak Ebrahim, before his father went to jail, both used to spend some father-and-son time together. But he was not raised like the other kids. Zak’s father always taught him to judge others based on their look, race, religion, and so on. And by the time Zak turned 19, he and his family had already moved twenty times from city to city and state to state.
Following Zak’s father finally getting charged for his crimes, Zak tried to hide his identity from his peers as much as possible. But at the end of the day, he was picked on for being the silent, new, chubby kid in the classroom. Moreover, Zak says that he suffered a lot. He was exposed to another side of Islam throughout his father’s teachings, and has barely socialized with his peers at school.
Nevertheless, he did not let all of those circumstances define who he was. The major turning point that challenged his way of thinking, Zak says, is when he participated in the 2000 presidential elections. He had to interact with different people from all lifestyles.
Throughout intense talks with other people, Zak says, “I do it in the hopes that perhaps someone someday who is compelled to use violence, may hear my story and realize that there is a better way, that although I had been subjected to this violent, intolerant ideology, that I did not become fanaticized. Instead, I chose to use my experience to fight back…”
I was personally moved by his words and story. Frankly, I felt ashamed. I was a person with a prejudging personality. I was pretty much blindfolded by it. I used to prejudge others from first sight, whether it was for their different religion, race, or look. I was not paying attention to how much prejudging had shaped my worldly vision, not until I saw Zak Ebrahim’s story. It got me wondering, why did I not spot this disease before? Why did I not question myself before? Why did I not have taken actions to correct this before? It is very sad when I recall my past, but I am thankful now. I am thankful that I had seen his story. And I am thankful that his story helped me to clean my smokescreen.
Zak Ebrahim was a person raised on hate and dogmatism. He was presumed by everyone to follow his father’s steps; and everyone saw in him a smaller, destructive version of his father. Yet, he chose his own path. The idea that echoes behind all of this is that we all have multiple choices in life, and a person’s look, race, history, or religion should not intertwine with his personality. His words are a mantra to me now; I try to work by them every day.
“Everyone has a choice, even if you are raised to hate, you can choose tolerance. You can choose empathy…” Zak says. Even though he was named the terrorist’s son, he was not ashamed of it. Zak Ebrahim is a living proof that hatred and intolerance are not inherited within one’s race, look, or religion. His father being a terrorist meant nothing to him. He was not his father. He is not his father; he is “himself.” The big picture is that he is the terrorist’s son, but not the terrorist. We have to paint the big picture of our own. At least I have painted mine. And thanks to him, my vision is finally clear.
