“Hell is a world gone mad where we do not understand our neighbours; where politicians can declare crusades and holy wars against an idea…
“The way out of hell is love. Love is the recognition of the Other; the acknowledgement that the person before us is a fellow human being whose life is an abundant store of emotions, feelings, memories of hope and loss, tears, smiles, laughter. Love is the prerequisite of communication, even when that communication is difficult and one is not always understood. But love dictates that we need to understand, or at least make the effort to understand; and not to demonise, to scapegoat, to sully, to abuse. Love is the thing that stops the finger as it presses on the trigger; it is the thing that stills the hand before it reaches for the knife.” – “Qu’ran and Cricket”
Dr Farish A. Noor wrote that in 2007 when he visited Holland after Theo Van Gogh, the controversial Dutch director, was killed in broad daylight in a busy street in Amsterdam by a young Muslim.
The circumstances that inspired those words are different today… but the sentiment is the same.
The Malaysian Insider - Joan Lau
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