Saturday, March 1, 2014

Visit to the Holocaust Museum in DC

The highlight of my trip to DC wasn't the wonderful company of my Columbia colleagues and alums, it wasn't visiting the breath taking monuments of DC, it wasn't even my interview at the World Bank, it was the emotional 3 hours that I spent at the Holocaust Museum.
Growing up as Shia Muslims, repentance and mourning becomes part of our DNA as two months every year we mourn the injustices perpetrated on the family of Muhammad A.S. 1400 years ago. Maybe that is why I felt at peace crying for the plight of millions of Jewish men, women and children who where shot, gassed,burnt alive and starved to death for no crime that they committed other than being born Jewish and no one dared to come their help until is was too late for most. The stench of their burnt and blackened shoes will always stay with me, as a reminder that I will never, till my last breath on this earth, remain silent or stop working to fight injustice wherever I see it. That I will not be sucked into turning my life into a pursuit of mere worldly comforts, that I will not be blinded by the lights that make you forget what is actually happening to the majority of people on this planet. I may never succeed at achieving anything, but I will be content knowing that I died trying.

"Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children's children" Deuteronomy 4:9