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Breakfast speaker advises following peaceful path by Julia Le Oakville Beaver Staff 3 | Friday, November 20, 2015 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com Zak Ebrahim remembers the day his father El-Sayyid Nosair and his friends took him to a shooting range on Long Island. When it was his turn to shoot, his father helped him hold the rifle to his shoulder and explained how to aim at the target about 30 yards away. Squeezing the trigger with sweaty palms, Ebrahim, then seven years old, recalls hearing the noise ring through his ears. Later, the last bullet he shot that day hit a small orange light atop the target. "While I stood there, not being sure if I was in trouble or not, I looked over my shoulder and I saw my father smiling and my uncle turned to the other men and said, `Ibn abuh' -- like father, like son," he remembered. The comment was followed by all the men laughing. It wasn't until a few years later that he would understand they thought they saw in him, the same destructiveness of which his father was capable. Now, a peace and nonviolence advocate, Ebrahim had no idea the men he was spending time with that day would end up carrying out the World Trade Center bombing in early 1993. Ebrahim told a soldout crowd at the YMCA of Oakville Community Breakfast for Peace yesterday (Nov. 19), those men placed a van filled with 1,500 pounds of explosives at the World Trade Center's North Tower, causing an explosion that killed six people and injured more than 1,000 others. "These were the men I looked up to. These were the men I called ammu -- uncle," he shared with attendees at the Oakville Convention Centre. Ebrahim, the author of The Terrorist's Son: A Story of Choice, grew up amid terrorism. A few months after going to the shooting range with his father, Nosair assassinated the Jewish Defense League leader Rabbi Meir Kahane. In prison for killing Kahane, Nosair helped plan the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. He recalls visiting his father at maximum-security prisons. "I was seven years old when my father went to prison and there's not a day that goes by Zak Ebrahim | photo by Riziero Vertolli ­ Oakville Beaver that I don't wish he chose a peaceful life with his family," shared Ebrahim. "Instead, he exposed me from a very early age to the intolerance and radical nature of extremism. And yet I stand before you all today with a simple message. That no matter the level of violence you have been exposed to, it doesn't have to define your character. That, in all of us, is the ability to change our path." Ebrahim has chosen his path to promoting peace. He's been sharing his life story with others to dispel stereotypes and share his views on why he believes in non-violence. "In these times of increased religious prejudice, I feel sharing my story provides greater context to the debate on religious extremism and it serves to me as a reminder that we must work together in order to achieve our goals," he said. "Extremism thrives on the fringes of society. When we divide people into smaller and smaller groups based on one arbitrary distinction or another, we create communities ingrained with hostility toward one another." He noted also, "As a society that values the freedoms afforded to us, we cannot ostracize an entire group of people for the actions of a few." Ebrahim said opening interfaith dialogue and speaking with one another will break down stereotypes and preconceived notions. When people take the time to interact with one another, he pointed out, it doesn't take long to realize for the most part, we all want the same things out of life -- a job with a decent wage, a safe environment to educate our children and to live in a community that doesn't chastise us for our beliefs. Ebrahim also touched on the challenges he faced moving 20 different times by the time he turned 19 because his family was hiding from their identity and was haunted and persecuted as a result of the crimes of his father. It was that upbringing though, that led him to a path of helping others and "understand that hatred only produces more hate, but belief in non-violence at least provides an opportunity to heal." "I'm not my father and with that simple fact, I stand here as proof that violence isn't inherent in one's religion, race and a son does not have to follow the ways of his father," he said. Ebrahim was the keynote speaker at YMCA of Oakville's Community Breakfast for Peace that saw three 2015 Peace Medallion awards handed out. For related story, see p.11 Established in 1997 inside today's Editorial Artscene Beaver www.insideHALTON.com 6 20 Sports Classified 22 25 Holland Park Garden Real Estate New Homes Expeida Starsky Fine Foods CAA TG Appliances In A Nurturing Environment! Enriched curriculum, French and Music programs. PROUDLY PROVIDING QUALITY EDUCATION *All flyers not necessarily delivered to all homes For home delivery & customer service call 905-631-6095, 5300 Harvester Rd., Burlington New subscriptions call 905-631-6095 or subscribe online @ www.oakvillebeaver.com Sore Feet, Sports Injury, Painful Ingrown Toenails? Plantar Warts? We can help! 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