I had the wonderful opportunity of meeting Kasim Hafeez, who calls himself "a proud Muslim Zionist", while in Manchester last November, where we both were attending theBig Tent for Israel Conference, and am glad he's now getting the recognition he deserves.
"As a child, Kasim Hafeez often heard his father praising Adolf Hitler, lamenting only the Nazi tyrant's failure to kill even more Jews during World War II. A son to a British family of Pakistani origin, he grew up in a fundamentalist Muslim community that called for the destruction of all Jews and taught him to believe that that Israel is a terror state.
But after years of taking part in anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic activity, Hafeez's beliefs took an unexpected 180-degree turn.
The activist and blogger's perception of the Jewish state changed a few years ago, after he came upon a copy of Alan Dershowitz’s "The Case for Israel."
He initially dismissed the book as "vile Zionist propaganda," but decided to read it after all – a decision that stirred what he calls "a real crisis of conscience" and led him to a period of research and soul-searching. His studies and a visit to Holy Land eventually taught him to love Israel and prompted him to join StandWithUs.
Hafeez arrived in Israel for a four-day visit, earlier in the month, as part of his effort to battle misinformation about the Jewish state."
In a meeting with Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon and the Israeli press on June 3, Hafeez noted that much of the hatred and intolerance of Israel stems from ignorance.
No comments:
Post a Comment