NEW ALBANY, Ind. — The son of the mastermind behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing comes to IU Southeast with a message of peace.
“We must embrace tolerance and nonviolence,” Zak Ebrahim said. “Who knows this better than the son of a terrorist?”
Ebrahim, author of “The Terrorist’s Son: A Story of Choice,” will speak at the Richard K. Stem Concert Hall in the Paul W. Ogle Cultural and Community Center at IU Southeast on Tuesday, Oct. 11, at 7:30 p.m. It is free and open to the public.
He will give a lecture on speaking out against terrorism and spreading his message of peace and nonviolence. Immediately following his presentation, Ebrahim will be available to sign copies of his book.
Ebrahim’s father, El Sayyid Nosair (convicted of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing), had hoped Zak would follow in his footsteps and become a jihadist. Instead, Ebrahim was at the beginning of a long process of understanding his past and “choosing” a future.
Ebrahim kept his family history a secret as they moved from place to place. In 2010, he realized his experience as a terrorist’s son not only gave him a unique perspective, but also a unique chance to show that if he could escape a violent heritage, anyone could.
In 2013, Ebrahim was selected to speak at the TED2014 conference in Vancouver, BC. The following year, he published “The Terrorist’s Son: A Story of Choice,” a memoir written with Jeff Giles about the path he took to turn away from hate.
“The Terrorist’s Son” was selected as the Common Experience’s common reading for 2016-17. Ebrahim describes his book as a “portrait of a young man who was raised in the fires of fanaticism and embraced nonviolence instead.”
“With terrorism in the news during an election year, Zak Ebrahim’s message ‘I am the son of a terrorist, and here’s how I chose peace’ is timely, important, and instructive for all to hear,” said Cliff Staten, director of the Common Experience at IU Southeast.
Cover photo courtesy of zakebrahim.com.