Goodness is stronger than evil; Love is stronger than hate;
Light is stronger than darkness; Life is stronger than death...
from a chorus
Whoever says, “I am in the light,” while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness. Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light, and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates another believer[ is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know the way to go, because the darkness has brought on blindness.
1 John 2:9-11
Makeshift Memorial in London, Ontario
In the wee hours of this morning I was awake and pondering hatred. A couple of days ago we heard about several pedestrians struck by a vehicle and killed in London Ontario. This was tragic on its own, but since then we've been informed that this was a family, out for an evening walk, who were struck with intent because they were People of Colour and Muslim. The driver was a young man, I'm assuming White, who probably doesn't know anything about Islam other than the poisonous world of the Islamophobic rantings of the internet. It appears that this was a premeditated act directed at peace-loving citizens the murderer had never met.
This sort of terrorism is not new in Canada, and while racism is common, crimes against Muslims are too often deadly. In this case, a grandmother, parents, and a child were brutally murdered and another child is orphaned and in hospital. The cowardice in these cases is staggering, as is the depth of the hatred.
With coffee in hand we listened to a spokeperson for the Muslim community in London, a lawyer named Faisal Joseph who was eloquent in his remarks about what had transpired. We were both moved when he concluded by saying that love will prevail over hatred.
Every person of good will, every Christian, must stand in solidarity with Muslims in Canada and this message of hope
2 comments:
I think terrorism should be added to the charges against him... this is so sad !
There can be no doubt that this was terrorism Judy, and once again an young white male was the terrorist. It will be interesting to see how the law addresses this. Along with murder charges this will surely be considered a hate crime. We'll see.
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