It has been interesting to watch the world's response to the recent terrorist attacks in Paris.
The acts themselves were nothing short of horrific.
Innocent people were killed for something that they had nothing to do with. The acts achieved nothing, other than sewing fear among millions.
The response by some has been to target Muslims in acts of violence. These acts of vengeance have occurred in many parts of the world. Others have called for an end to the flow of refugees from the Middle East.
They conclude that these people must be terrorists as well.
These responses have served to shine a light on something ugly in our society that we do not like to look at, Islamophobia. What we often forget is that groups like Daesh (I prefer not to use the acronym ISIS because I see it as a misnomer) no more represent the views of Islam than a group like the Ku Klux Klan represents the views of Christianity. Islam has the same spiritual roots as Christianity and Judaism, and it has similar values. Islam also includes teachings on just warfare, teachings which groups like Daesh and Al Qaeda completely disregard.
The spirit of the vast majority of people around the world was summed up beautifully in a conversation between a Parisian child and his father. The child speaks of his fear of bad people and tells his father that they need to move.
The father replies that there are bad people everywhere.
When the child points out that bad people have guns, the father replies that "we have flowers."
At first the child does not see the power of the flowers, but then the father points out that there are people with flowers all around them. The child also notices the candles and concludes that the flowers and candles are there to protect us. The father confirms this and smiles.
Flowers and candles honour those who have died, and they also symbolize hope and peace.
How many world changing movements have grown through massive, peaceful candle light vigils?
It has been encouraging to see the government response to the Paris bombings. Police and politicians have made it clear that we are a multi-cultural society in Canada, and everyone needs to feel safe. People are entitled to their opinions, but hate crimes will not be tolerated. In addition, there have been no plans put in place to decrease the number of Middle Eastern refugees coming to Canada. Our government understands that these are people who know all too well the fear caused by terrorism; they want to get away from it and have no desire to bring it to their new country.
Perhaps our best defense against extremism is to embrace our Muslim sisters and brothers, both here and abroad. Extremism rises out of ignorance.
A good education teaches compassion and eliminates ignorance.
May we share flowers and walk together holding candles because we indeed are much more powerful than any weapon of violence.
