‘We are one family’
On Friday, March 15, 2019 some 50 Muslim worshippers were brutally — a point-blank range — murdered in a mass shooting at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. Twenty others have been injured. They include toddlers and teenagers, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, grandparents and friends — people like you and us.
The Interfaith Council of Southwestern Connecticut condemns this hate and atrocity, stands with our Muslim sisters and brothers and sends our solidarity and deepest condolences to our Christchurch, New Zealand, family. We send more than condolences to our communities and our elected officials. We send us all a wake-up call, a call to action — prevent gun violence through education, coalition, public awareness, effective law enforcement and sensible legislative change NOW.
Mass shootings have disrupted and brutally ended the lives of worshipers in Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Penn., First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal in downtown Charleston, S.C., the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, Wisc., and a mosque in the Sainte-Foy neighborhood of Quebec City, Canada. Gun violence is a horrific, an immoral and an unacceptable act anytime, anywhere. It is especially monstrous in places where communities gather to learn, love and worship.
We stand brokenhearted but not broken-spirited with our Muslim sisters and brothers after the Christchurch tragedy. As faith leaders and community members, we are united in condemning these acts of hate, intolerance, immorality, amorality and xenophobia. We are one family.
The Board of Directors of The Interfaith Council of Southwestern CT: Kareem Adeeb, Ph.D., president, Muslim The Rev. Mark Lingle, executive director, Christian Azra Asaduddin, Muslim Inni Kaur Dhingra, Sikh Sara Hakim, Treasurer, Baha’i
Rabbi Joshua Hammerman The Rev. Michael Hyman,
Secretary, Baptist Christian
Peter Lilienthal, Jewish Regina Miolene, Roman Catholic Christian
Betsy Nagurney, Roman Catholic Christian Marie Orsini Rosen, vice president, Jewish The Rev. ReBecca Sala, Unitarian Universalist