Vigil for bombing victims
AROUND 200 people united in a show of solidarity with Manchester at a vigil in Bridgend.
Remembering those whose lives were taken or shattered by the suspected suicide bombing at Manchester Arena, the crowd sang Bridge Over Troubled Water after hearing speakers talk of how love would always triumph over hate.
Twenty- two- year- old Salman Abedi has been named by police as the suspected bomber.
Bridge FM presenter Lee Jukes, who helped to organise the Wyndham Street vigil last Wednesday after being encouraged by listeners, said: “On Monday 22 people went into the Manchester Arena and never came out.
“They were people just like you and just like me. People who loved other people and who were loved.
“It was an act that was supposed to divide us and send a message of fear through us. Is that what it has done? No, it hasn’t. It has brought us together.
“We are showing love for each other tonight by being here.
“To that minority of people who can’t see past the hate, we are here to say ‘you will not divide us, you will join us’.”
Former mayor of Bridgend town, Suleman Hawas, spoke on behalf of the Muslim community in Bridgend.
He said: “My thoughts and my prayers are with victims and the families of victims.
“These people cannot divide us, but actually make us come together. We love each other. We are here to stay.
“I want to say on behalf of the Muslim community, we are with you and you are with us.”
Labour’s Parliamentary candidate for Bridgend, Madeleine Moon, said: “For families, there is no way of knowing how they can carry on – the grief must be tearing their lives apart but knowing that people in towns across the country are coming together with their families and sharing that grief, sharing that love and sharing that hope for the future for their children is so important.”
Labour’s Parliamentary candidate for Ogmore, Chris Elmore, said the vigil sent a clear message to those “who wish to divide us with acts of mindless violence and with hate”.
“You will not win,” he said.
Angela Thurlow, 39, and Antony Fagan, 44, attended with their sons Iestyn, six, and Ioan, three.
Antony said: “I was brought up in Manchester and it’s just such a shame to see it on TV for all the wrong reasons.”
He added that he did not want the attack to be used for propaganda by right wing extremists.
“I have a lot of Muslim friends from college and to try to tar two billion people with the same brush is ridiculous.”
Angela said: “What’s happened has just hit home because we have got kids and kids were involved.
“We are not going to let them win.” the politics of