On the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, I reflect on a day that irrevocably changed my life and the lives of my loved ones
On the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, I reflect on a day that irrevocably changed my life and the lives of my loved ones. The heinous acts of terror perpetrated by Hamas desecrated the name of Islam and unleashed one of the most vile forms of hatred known to humankind: antisemitism.
The aftermath of the attacks shocked me. Friends and family initially expressed sympathy but quickly shifted to justifying the violence. Many questioned whether Israelis “deserved it” for “oppressing Palestinians for 70 years.” This response horrified me; no one deserves such brutality. Yet, as I listened to these justifications, I realized that much of the rhetoric I was hearing was shaped by misinformation and an unwillingness to acknowledge the complex realities of the conflict.
My journey into activism: Lessons from Jewish allies
My activism began in the shadow of another tragedy—Sept. 11. As a public-school teacher in California, I was profiled at the airport because of my Pakistani origin, just one of the many caught in false database matches. At school, I witnessed Muslim girls being harassed, called “towel heads”, and blamed for the attacks.
In that difficult time, it wasn’t my Muslim colleagues who helped me navigate the rising tide of Islamophobia—it was my Jewish colleagues. They stood by me, offering guidance on how to channel my voice and raise awareness about the growing wave of anti-Muslim sentiment. With their support, I co-wrote a children’s book about a young Muslim girl asking her mother, “Am I a terrorist?” Together, we challenged the stereotypes that were tearing communities apart.
That period of my life planted the seeds of my deep commitment to interfaith activism. My father, a diplomat and journalist, always reminded me of the shared history between Jews and Muslims.
