The piece below was written by Imam Yassin Aref to a friend, and supporter, in Albany. In 2004, the government brought bogus terrorism-related charges against him in an FBI sting operation and he is now serving 15 years in a special prison unit in Terre Haute, Indiana.

” I have told you where I come from, but I do not really know where the Kurds come from. Ten or fifteen generations ago, the people living in what is now Kurdistan were Arabs. Some of my ancestors must have been Arabs. So I am an Arab! Forty generations ago, there was no Islam, there was Christianity. Some of my ancestors must have been Christians. So I am a Christian! Seventy generations ago, Jesus had not been born yet, so there was only Judaism. Some of my ancestors must have been Jews. So I am a Jew! We are all from one single source. As Mohammed said ” We are all from Adam and Eve – from the dust!””