Zak Ebrahim Quotes

After Zak Ebrahim accidentally sets a shooting target on fire, his uncle exclaims “ibn abu”. This phrase translates to “like father, like son” and compares Ebrahim to his terrorist father. The quote is a simile, since Ebrahim’s (accidental) action of burning a test dummy is compared to his father’s plan to commit a murder. Not only that, but the the quote foreshadows the father’s violent plan for murder, by connecting the violence of Zak’s act to him. This quote summarizes Ebrahim’s relationship with his father and that essentially Ebrahim had to be like him. This was an issue for Ebrahim, since a life of bigotry and hate was not as appealing to him as it was to his father. Whenever Ebrahim tried to act out of his father’s fanatic beliefs,

When Ebrahim begins to train himself to forget his racist and fanatic doctrine, he adopts a jewish comedian ,John Stewart, as his idol. Zak even states “it seems only fitting that my new role model is Jewish”. The quote’s tone is humorous, which gives the impression that Zak finds his old ways of fanaticism as so stupid that they are laughable; it almost feels as if Zak is making fun of himself, in order to get his point of across. Ebrahim views Stewart as a “role model”, because he ridicules the ignorant bigotry in societies around the world, including the racism in some Islamic communities.. As Ebrahim’s views on things like race and religion change, he starts to open up to previosly forbidden concepts, like listening to Jewish comedians. Zak finds the fact that his new idol is Jewish “fitting”, since previously he viewed jews like Stewart as evil and apalling. The more Ebrahim relates to Stewart’s messages of equality among all, the more he sees his learned racism from his dad as deception of the world rather than of

After Ebrahim has had many experiences with people who he used to hate - due to his racism- he states that “Bigotry is stupid, it only works if you never walk out your door.” Outside of anyone’s door translates to away from home and comfort. The metaphor in the quote of “walk out your door” signifies exploring the world that is foreign to your beliefs, practices, and races. This quote is saying that racism cannot exists if you get to know the people you are racist against. Abraham states this, because at this point in his life, he has lived as a member of both sides of the views on race (racist and unprejudiced) and can make a logical conclusion about whether race, sexual preference, or religion matters. After years as living as a racist, experiencing only hate in return, Zak reforms into an accepting, impartial person and is for the first time treated with kindness by others. Through this he learns that what others identify as is not as important as who they are. As Ebrahim’s life goes on and he experiences more and more, he realizes how the only cause of his racism was