Some are saying pray for Paris, the dead and the maimed. Some are blaming religion, a creed. Some are saying let’s stop all immigrants from entering Europe because they cause mayhem, destruction.

I too weep, like millions more, for France, for the dead, for their families.
But it is not France that is targetted. It is humanity. And the biggest sufferer is freedom. Even the thought of being in Paris and being told to stay inside is a shocking thought against freedom.

Terrorists have once again attacked one of the hearts of western society which has long embraced multi-culturalism. God forbid our freedom is thwarted. But let not our reaction be worse than the terrorists’ actions. Let us not in this darkest hour embrace exclusion and condemn a whole religion, a whole creed.

Terrorists, whatever they scream out before causing destruction and death, can never be true representatives of God or anything connected to a supreme - and hopefully benign - being. They are terrorists, killers, executioners.

Hopefully our answer to hatred is not more hatred. We should never descend into a spiral of more violence and intolerance. One sure winner in this horrid scenario of carnage is the strengthening of the far-right with its xenophobic ideas.

The west and liberty were hurt in Paris; but let not hatred, intolerance and exclusion win.


 

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