probably was very intoxicating to my father. i certainly remember recognizing a change in him. we re coming back from friday prayer and i asked him, when did you become such a good muslim? he said, when i came to america and saw everything that was wrong with it. alarmed by her husband s hateful rhetoric, zach s mother convinced saeed to move out of jersey city to the suburbs, hoping to distance him from the mosque, an effort that failed. the night of november 5th, 1990, my mother was sitting in the living room watching television, was interrupted by breaking news. news of murder that was widely reported. attempted assassination tonight of the mayor. a gunman in new york city last night assassinated mayor kahana. he was shot and killed in new york city. mayor kahane was the founder of the jewish defense league, of
into that, that he will most definitely follow into his father s footsteps. i don t want him to feel that he has no choices. you do have choices, and you make your life what you want it to be. you have that power. the power of choice, it s a message that zach carries with him everywhere he goes. and today is no different. in new york, he s about to take his turn about shaping future global policy by speaking to an international audience. as an adult, i decided i was going to use what my father did as a means to bring attention to greater causes. i want people to realize that what is in me is inside of all of them, that our choices matter
he was elect constituted, and he couldn t work because of his injury, and we were on food stamps. he became very withdrawn and started spending more and more time reading his koran and becoming more introverted. the afghan war was raging at the time, and muslims from all over the world were traveling to afghanistan to fight the soviet union. around the world, public demonstrations of outrage against the soviet invasion of afghanistan began to mount. my father very much wanted to go, to be a part of something greater than himself after taking these knocks to his self-esteem. zach s father found that sense of purpose right here in jersey city. actually, there s the mosque right up there. that s where my father started spending more and more time and less time with our family. as a kid, zach often attended mosque with his father. it s here they would listen to a
innocent people are killed. but as a young kid, the main thing for me was just that our family would never be together again. did you realize at the time he was conspireing to commit something catastrophic? no. we had no clue. his actions were such a betrayal to my family. my mother divorced my father not long after the bombing. the idea that our family might some day be together again was tossed out the window. overcome with shame and condemned by outsiders, zach and his family once again began a new round of moving and hiding their identity. i spent a lot of time feeling abandoned by my father. it s not an exaggeration to say i was bullied every single day, getting into a physical fight every other day. school was torment for me.
against the soviet union mount. my father very much wanted to go, to be a part of something greater than himself after take these knocks to his self-esteem. zach s father found that sense of purpose right here in jersey city. actually, there s the mosque right there. that s where my father started spending more and more time and less time with our family. as a kid, zach often attended mosque with his father. it s here they would listen to a preacher, a provocateur known as the blind sheikh. the blind sheikh came into the muslim community in new jersey and began espousing this hatred for anyone whether didn t follow his very strict interpretation of islam. we would listen to him give sermons about hating jews or hating non-muslims for anything