Hope
The dreadful atrocities in India have saddened me this week. But this Independent article gave me hope.
I recommend it. Here's an extract...
''Whoever was behind the bombings appears to be trying to exploit those tensions. But this time, there have been extraordinary scenes as Mumbai's Muslims have come out in defiance to defend the unity of the city. Muslims queued for hours to give blood for Hindus injured in the bombings. Even the leaders of the hardline Hindu nationalist Shiv Sena, a party rarely given to praising Muslims, said they were "overwhelmed" by the reaction. "Hindus and Muslims walked hand in hand yesterday," said Manohar Kargaonkar, a party official.
Tanweer Sheikh, a Muslim from the Bandra station slum, said: "They are trying to split us, but they cannot. We are 99 per cent Muslims living here, but we were the first to go to help the people on that train. The police did a good job, don't get me wrong, but they don't have a police station here. We were the nearest so we had to help.
"We didn't care if we got Hindu blood or Muslim blood all over us. As far as we are concerned in this neigbourhood, we are Indians first, and Muslims or Hindus only after that.''
All along the tracks, it was the poorest of Mumbai's citizens, Hindu and Muslim, who were first to rush to the aid of the injured on the trains, the migrant slum-dwellers whose shanty towns lie alongside the tracks..."
Link
I recommend it. Here's an extract...
''Whoever was behind the bombings appears to be trying to exploit those tensions. But this time, there have been extraordinary scenes as Mumbai's Muslims have come out in defiance to defend the unity of the city. Muslims queued for hours to give blood for Hindus injured in the bombings. Even the leaders of the hardline Hindu nationalist Shiv Sena, a party rarely given to praising Muslims, said they were "overwhelmed" by the reaction. "Hindus and Muslims walked hand in hand yesterday," said Manohar Kargaonkar, a party official.
Tanweer Sheikh, a Muslim from the Bandra station slum, said: "They are trying to split us, but they cannot. We are 99 per cent Muslims living here, but we were the first to go to help the people on that train. The police did a good job, don't get me wrong, but they don't have a police station here. We were the nearest so we had to help.
"We didn't care if we got Hindu blood or Muslim blood all over us. As far as we are concerned in this neigbourhood, we are Indians first, and Muslims or Hindus only after that.''
All along the tracks, it was the poorest of Mumbai's citizens, Hindu and Muslim, who were first to rush to the aid of the injured on the trains, the migrant slum-dwellers whose shanty towns lie alongside the tracks..."
Link
posted by Rachel at 8:37 am
that is wonderful and hopeful indeed....i have managed not to read a single paper this week although radio 4 still wakes me (& my neighbour - he complained last week!) up in the morning.
Lovely to find hope though. It is so easy to read about these horrors and feel that the world is falling apart with hatred and violence but we must always remember that it is but a few who harbour such evil...the rest of us a pretty much ok really & surely we must prevail.
Enjoy the beautiful sun honey (oops i called you
'honey' again! ;-) )
xx
Rachel, that is awesome! Sometimes in darkness you need a little bit of light to keep the faith in humanity. I think that some of my readers would be interested in this and the stuff in the saturday post, so if it's ok I will link to these posts. Pippa.