Ebrahim Hamedi Quotes

No one's ever sat me down and taught me what empathy is or why it matters more than power or patriotism or religious faith. But I learn it right there in the hallway: I cannot do what's been done to me. ~ Zak Ebrahim

But even people who've been raised since birth, people whose minds have been warped and weaponized, can make a choice about who they want to be. And they can be extraordinary advocates for peace, precisely because they've seen the effects of violence, discrimination, and disenfranchisement firsthand. ~ Zak Ebrahim, Jeff Giles

There's a reason that murderous hatred has to be taught- and not just taught, but forcibly implanted. It's not a naturally-occurring phenomenon. It is a lie. It is a lie told over and over again- often to people who have no resources and who are denied alternative views of the world. It's a lie my father believed, and one he hoped to pass on to me. ~ Zak Ebrahim

It wasn't until my mid-twenties that I met a woman named Sharon who made me feel like I was worth something- and that my story was, too. It's the story of a boy trained to hate, and a man who chose a different path. ~ Zak Ebrahim, Jeff Giles

People try nonviolence for a week, and when it 'doesn't work,' they go back to violence, which hasn't worked for centuries. ~ Zak Ebrahim

Ebrahim made him understand that, no matter what, he could not advance beyond the white line, for that would be in defiance of God's laws. ~ Freidoune Sahebjam

...turning someone into a bigot is the first step in turning him into a terrorist. You find someone vulnerable - someone who's lost his confidence, his income, his pride, his agency. Someone who feels humiliated by life. And then you isolate him. You fill him with fear and fury, and you see to it that he regards anybody who's different as a faceless target - a silhouette at a shooting range like Calverton - rather than a human being. But even people who`ve been raised on hate since birth, people whose minds have been warped and weaponized, can make a choice about who they want to be. And they can be extraordinary advocates for peace, precisely because they`ve seen the effects of violence, discrimination and disenfranchisement firsthand. People who have been victimized can understand more deeply than anyone how little the world needs more victims. ~ Zak Ebrahim

Last Night My Soul Cried O Exalted Sphere Of Heaven

Last night my soul cried, "O exalted sphere of Heaven, you hang indeed inverted, with flames in your belly.
"Without sin and crime, eternally revolving upon your body in its complaining is the indigo of mourning;
"Now happy, now unhappy, like Abraham in the fire; at once king and beggar like Ebrahim-e Adham.
"In your form you are terrifying, yet your state is full of anguish: you turn round like a millstone and writhe like a snake."
Heaven the blessed replied, "How should I not fear that one who makes the Paradise of the world as Hell?
"In his hand earth is as wax, he makes it Zangi and Rumi , he makes it falcon and owl, he makes it sugar and poison.
"He is hidden, friend, and has set us forth thus patent so that he may become concealed.
"How should the ocean of the world be concealed under straws? The straws have been set adancing, the waves tumbling up and down'
"Your body is like the land floating on the waters of the soul; your soul is veiled in the body alike in wedding feast or sorrow.
"In the veil you are a new bride, hot-tempered and obstinate; he is railing sweetly at the good and the bad of the world.
"Through him the earth is a green meadow, the heavens are unresting; on every side through him a fortunate one pardoned and preserved.
"Reason a seeker of certainty through him, patience a seeker of help through him, love seeing the unseen t ~ Rumi

...shame spreads through his body like a drop of red dye in water. ~ Zak Ebrahim

Ahmed is not a murderer like my father, but within the walls of our apartment - among people he claims to love - he is every inch a terrorist. ~ Zak Ebrahim

A man is but a product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes. - Gandhi ~ Zak Ebrahim

I'm proud of the path I've chosen. And I think I speak for my brother and sister when I say that rejecting our father's extremism both saved our lives and made our lives worth living.
To answer the agent's question, here is what happened to the children of El-Sayyid Nosair:
We are not his children anymore. ~ Zak Ebrahim, Jeff Giles