Farhana Rahman made many people very happy with a single exuberant Facebook post Monday that expressed her admiration and love for Israel and the Jews – and the emotion she expressed created an intercontinental ripple.
Her post has received over 1,600 likes, almost 700 shares, and 170 comments, and as Farhana wrote Wednesday in a follow-up post, “those numbers pale in comparison to the number of messages (and message requests) I received in my inbox, which easily exceeded a thousand.”
“People poured their hearts onto each of their messages to me, and praised me for many things,” she happily informed all and sundry. “They also openly shared their stories with me, and it was all just so sweet. I didn’t receive a single anti-Semitic private message! Crazy right? I was kind of ready for it, but it didn’t happen. Awesome!”
The coverage her post received on Arutz Sheva (with over 12,000 ‘recommends’) led to several hundred more private messages, she said, while various blogs offered to translate her piece to their native languages, “to continue spreading the message” – and this is not all:
“Here’s the best part though. Muslim Zionists were the ones that sent me the most messages! TONS! They hailed from many Arab countries, South Asian countries, and European countries. Each of them told me of their efforts to spread the truth in their respective communities and social media. It gave me a lot of comfort to know that the younger generations of educated Muslims are indeed stepping up. Our efforts are but a drop in an ocean of madness, but it is something, and in time, over a few generations, it will create a glorious ripple effect. I feel great about this. I love watching them band together to tackle anti-Semites.”
The basic message they spread, she explained, is that one cannot say the terrible things that many say about Israel and her people “if you don’t personally know – and you don’t really know until you GO!”
20 glittering speaking engagements
Other welcome byproducts of Farhana’s courageous post included several hundred new Facebook friends, some of whom are Muslims from Israel, and about 20 “glittering speaking engagements,” including offers to fly her over to other countries to give speeches, to be a guest on talk radio shows, and to lecture before different youth groups.
While she is still waiting for the “golden” invitation to return to Israel, MK Anat Berko of Likud has already invited her to meet her in the Knesset when she does return.
“So yes, my 15 mins of fame changed my life,” she summed up her hectic week. “It also shot my confidence and self esteem sky high. Only a tiny handful of skeptics came my way in different group comments, but they didn’t concern me at all. My new strong band of friends tackled each of them within seconds. HELLZ YEA!”
All this emotion did not cause her to break her stride as she helped launch ZCast, a new live-podcast app created by Zula, the Israeli start-up she is employed in. Perhaps one day, she will use it to unite pro-Israeli Muslims worldwide in a podcast of positivity? One can only hope.
