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Israel - The Frontline Is Everywhere, page 2
by Lloyd Howell
Ibrahim was by birth a Muslim. However he was above such labels. Other people were simply God’s children and therefore part of his family. I remember him once approaching an orthodox Jew in the hotel lobby and asking, in Hebrew, if he could talk with him. For whatever reason he was quickly given a cold ”No.” and said to me, ”It is difficult with my Jewish cousins.”
Ibrahim had traveled the world and had friends everywhere. If you said you needed to rent a bus then he would reach in to his coat pocket and pull out one of his address books and there would be the bus company owner’s name and phone number. If you said you were from Long Island, as I did, he would, on the spot, produce the name of someone from Long Island he had once befriended. He was so well connected that I often caught him holding both of his cell phones, one to each ear!
Jesus had spoken of this type of man in his story of the good Samaritan. It was easy for Ibrahim - he just asked everyone he met ”Can I help you? What do you need?” During the campaign he stood in the lobby asking people if they needed a ride somewhere. If you did he’d call a taxi or, if they were free, one of his family members would come to drive you to your destination. As I mentioned his good deeds were unconditional and crossed all boundaries. Most amazingly they would come back to find him. He mentioned how when visiting a synagogue in Washington State he came across a Jewish lady who he had once helped when her car stopped while driving near the Mount of Olives. Then there was a thirsty man who he once gave a bottle of water to at one of the gates to the old city of Jerusalem. That man recognized Ibrahim years later as he walked through Central Park in New York.
Ibrahim’s special passion was children. He said he had hundreds of them! At first, I wondered how many wives he had! But discovered there was only one! These so-called children were the orphans of East Jerusalem. He would take the visitors to Israel that he met to visit these orphanages. However Ibrahim was not one to directly ask a person to make a donation. He left it to one’s sense of heart. He did it under the guise of tourism. If his visitor/tourist grasped the reality of what he was seeing and how he was better off than those he was visiting then Ibrahim had no doubt that they would help in some way or another. He was simply providing an opportunity for everyone to be blessed. To Ibrahim it was obvious that he could always spare something for those in need, so why not others.
One of Ibrahim’s long term house guests told me of the time Ibrahim’s sons had saved up money to buy him a decent but used car only to find out that a week later Ibrahim had sold the car and used the $6,000 or so dollars to care for some orphans for the next six months.
Twice during the campaign Ibrahim, like Santa Claus, showed up with a bag of Muslim souvenir hats and gave one to everyone who wanted one. Soon the lobby of the Renaissance looked like a convention of Masons was going on! Always giving - like an endless fountain.
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