Having grown up with #Antisemitism as a "norm" around me, #Zionist was always a dirty word, reserved for the most "heinous" people. So it's quite refreshing to see people wear it as a badge of honour in their bio. It still gives me the chills, but I'm working on it!

Just to clarify, there was no anti-semitism in my household at all, I'd picked it up from the wider community. I live in a city with a high South Asian community, and going to school where over 90% of students were of the same ethnicity and faith group, prejudices against #Jews >

> soon rubbed off and was normalised. Even though none of us had ever even (knowingly) met a Jew, we just knew they were bad, as they conspired against Muslims and were the "enemies of Islam." The thing is, it's a big thing still within certain communities, and many of our own >

> failings are blamed on the "controlling" Jews who want to "make us look bad," but in reality, we're doing a pretty good job of that by ourselves. My sister and I once had a fight about me using her hair straighteners, and in the argument she called me a Jew as an insult. My >

> father overheard this, stormed into our room and went absolutely crazy at us for saying such a thing. We were confused a little, but settled on thinking that Jews were so terrible, we should never insult each other like that, which we'd picked up from kids at school. We never >

> used the word at home again. I'm actually really sad that I never spoke to my father about anti-semitism, because I grew up thinking awful things about Jews, and it seemed justified by how angry my father got that day when we were kids. But I recently learned why he reacted >

> like that. We grew up hearing stories from dad about his childhood days, about him and his best friend Yusuf back in Lebanon. He'd have a story about everything, always him and Yusuf. It turns out, Yusuf is a Jew. I only found this out recently. I was astonished. I couldn't >

> actually believe it. My whole life, I'd held this prejudice against a people, yet my father's best days were spent with them. The fact that Yusuf is Jewish only came out because I asked where he was now, and dad said he had to leave Lebanon, because of ethnic cleansing. The >

> only thing I could manage to say was "why didn't you tell me Yusuf is Jewish?" And it must have sounded such a stupid question, as dad looked at me as if I'd got single digit addition wrong. He never saw the need to mention Yusuf's religion, to him he was just Yusuf, his >

> friend. I was so upset with myself and called my sister straight away, who wouldn't believe me and had to confirm with dad. I'm just sad that I grew up with such prejudices, and if I'd only just asked dad about it as a child, how different my thinking may have been. But, >

> the lesson for me here is, it's never too late to change your thinking. Embrace people for being people. This is all fairly new to me still, but it has forced me to research Judaism, and of course the Jewish homeland, something I could never have entertained previously. So >

> I guess what I'm trying to say is, we can only move forward as people when we drop our prejudices, and want the best for others as well ourselves. I know there is this perception that all Muslims hate Jews, but this is something that is just learned from insular circles >

> where the same old myths keep doing the rounds, generation after generation. As individuals, we're not all like that, even the religious - my father is an Imam. Sorry for taking so much time, but I felt I really needed to say this, for anyone who didn't follow my old account.