How do devout Muslims born in the West feel about Jews? How do they feel about Western values in general? Kasim Hafeez, who was raised a devout Muslim in England, explains.
I was born to hate Jews. It was part of my life. I never questioned it. I was not born in Iran or Syria. I was born in England.
My parents moved there from Pakistan. Theirs was the typical immigrant story: Move to the West in the hope of making a better life for themselves and their children.
We were a devout Muslim family, but not extremist or radical in any way. We only wished the best for everyone -- everyone except the Jews. The Jews, we believed, were aliens living in stolen Muslim land, occupiers who were engaged in a genocide against the Palestinian people. Our hatred, therefore, was justified and righteous.
And it made me and my friends vulnerable to the arguments of radical extremists. If the Jews were as evil as we had always believed, mustn’t those who support them – Christians, Americans, and others in the West – be just as evil?