Page 37 - Taliesin's Rainbow

At Reed College, Taliesin had taken a Comparative Re-
ligions class, where he focused on racial issues. Islam
is the second largest religion. 25% of the world’s pop-
ulation is Muslim, they pray for peace five times a day!
He attended Race Talks, a lecture series approaching
racism through education. He wrote a paper about
Race Talks praising the approach of one lecturer, Wa-
jdi Said, whose viewpoint Taliesin honored as the ap-
proach he would adopt to solve these issues.

After Taliesin died, Wajdi Said came directly to our
family to assist, without knowing that Taliesin had
attended his lecture. As the president of the Muslim
Education Trust, he arranged an interfaith memorial
as well as setting up the Crowd Fund that helped our
family through the difficult aftermath.
Our family was immediately embraced by the Muslim
community. Thousands of Muslim people said prayers
in Taliesin’s honor. He received Hero awards from Mus-
lim organizations across the nation. Boxes full of cards
with heartfelt sentiments were received. I was hugged
by hundreds of women with compassion and empathy.
I have never experienced such kindness from people I
had never met before.