Whilst thinking of my friend Sally Brown who noted the crickets one hears when speaking of terrorism committed by people of pale complexion and prompted a good discusion, we can now add Alexandre Bissonnette who is the nasty blagger who took it upon himself to kill at least six people worshipping in their mosque in Quebec City.
There really isn’t any way to spin that other than he was taking a page out of Dylann Roof’s perverted playbook of hatered only this time the victims were Muslim rather than African-American.
What I would love to know is how many people when they heard the story and who was killed had the first thought that it “served them right”. I have no doubt it was north of zero even if people don’t have the guts to admit it.
One would hope the number of people who would have felt shame at having that thought would have been equal to it but I have observed humans long enough to know that is hopelessly naive. However, the thing that gives me hope for us as a species is that I have no doubt it is a lot closer to the first number than it is zero.
Islam is not our enemy and never was. The true enemy is evil and those would would employ evil to their perverted acts. Evil does not know skin colour or religion…nor does it care. Our duty is to know evil when we see it and fight against it with every fibre of our being…now more than ever in a world that is getting darker as the days pass by.
To the victims I would hope that Allah the most beneficient and merciful has called them to paradise and that their families may eventually find peace as well in the knowledge that this person’s actions do not speak for us all.