Zak Ebrahim > Quotes

“I’m convinced that empathy is more powerful than hate and that our lives should be dedicated to making it go viral.”
― Zak Ebrahim, The Terrorist's Son: A Story of Choice

“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, The Terrorist's Son: A Story of Choice

“...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, The Terrorist's Son: A Story of Choice

“I put people before gods. I respect believers of all kinds and work to promote interfaith dialogue, but my whole life I've seen religion used as a weapon, and I'm putting all weapons down.”
― Zak Ebrahim, The Terrorist's Son: A Story of Choice

“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, The Terrorist's Son: A Story of Choice

“A man is but a product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes. —Gandhi”
― Zak Ebrahim, The Terrorist's Son: A Story of Choice

“Everyone has a choice. Even if you’re trained to hate, you can choose tolerance. You can choose empathy.”
― Zak Ebrahim, The Terrorist's Son: A Story of Choice

“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, The Terrorist's Son: A Story of Choice

“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, The Terrorist's Son: A Story of Choice

“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.”
― Zak Ebrahim

“Turning someone into a bigot is the first step in turning him into a terrorist.”
― Zak Ebrahim, The Terrorist's Son: A Story of Choice

“I'm tired of hating people”
― Zak Ebrahim

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