{"id":122,"date":"2011-07-19T22:40:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-19T22:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/preacherskid\/?p=122"},"modified":"2011-07-19T22:42:09","modified_gmt":"2011-07-19T22:42:09","slug":"a-muslims-act-of-forgiveness-speaks-louder-than-al-qaedas-terror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/2011\/07\/a-muslims-act-of-forgiveness-speaks-louder-than-al-qaedas-terror.html","title":{"rendered":"A Muslim&#8217;s act of forgiveness speaks louder than Al-Qaeda&#8217;s terror"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_126\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-126\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/preacherskid\/files\/2011\/07\/bhuiyan1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-126\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/279\/2011\/07\/bhuiyan1-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-126\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bhuiyan, before healing, and forgiveness<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday, July 20, convicted Texas killer Mark Stroman will be executed \u2013 unless a campaign by the <em>most unlikely <\/em>of champions succeeds in winning a stay, and possibly commutation of his sentence to life behind bars.<\/p>\n<p>That champion is a soft-spoken, yet determined Muslim man \u2013 the only survivor of three convenience store clerks shot by Stroman, then a white supremacist seeking revenge for his sister&#8217;s death during the 9\/11 terror attacks a decade ago.<\/p>\n<p><em>The irony is mind-blowing<\/em>: Islamic extremists tried to bring America to its knees when they hijacked four jet liners, managing to plow two of them into the World Trade Center Towers and Pentagon, while the fourth crashed in a Pennsylvania field when passengers overwhelmed their captors. Three thousand people died that day, an event that triggered two U.S. wars with hundreds of thousands more deaths, and still counting.<\/p>\n<p><em>And now,<\/em> it is that survivor of Stroman\u2019s killing rage in 2001, a Bangladeshi named<a title=\"Rais Bhuiyan\" href=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/43241014\" target=\"_blank\"><em> Rais Bhuiyan<\/em><\/a>, who wages a campaign of forgiveness. Blinded in one eye and still bearing scars from Stroman\u2019s shotgun pellets, Bhuiyan\u2019s explanation is simple: He says<em> his Islam<\/em>, so different from the bloody jihad embraced by the 9\/11 hijackers, is a faith that teaches <em>forgiveness<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cHate doesn\u2019t bring a peaceful solution to any situation, which I realized after I became a victim of a hate crime because of the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center tragedy,\u201d<\/em> he writes on his website (<a title=\"World Without Hate\" href=\"http:\/\/www.worldwithouthate.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">World Without Hate<\/a>).<em> \u201cThis single incident changed my entire life and helped me to realize that hate only brings fear, misery, resentment and disaster into human lives. It creates obstacles to healthy human growth, which, in turn, diminishes society as a whole.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Islamic extremists continue plot terror and carry out bombings and assassinations worldwide. But who knows? Bhuiyan\u2019s simple yet profound act may end up doing more than the polished words of a thousand imams and mullahs to show that holy acts always trump mere words and sentiment.<\/p>\n<p>That is certainly the case for Stroman. By the time you read this, he likely will be dead. But<a title=\"On Wednesday, July 20, convicted Texas killer Mark Stroman will be executed \u2013 unless a campaign by the most unlikely of champions succeeds in winning a stay, and possibly commutation of his sentence to life behind bars. That champion is a soft-spoken, yet determined Muslim man \u2013 the only survivor of three convenience store clerks who Stroman, then a white supremacist seeking revenge, shot in the wake of the 9\/11 terror attacks a decade ago. The irony is unavoidable. Islamic extremists tried to bring America to its knees when they hijacked four jet liners, managing to plow two of them into the World Trade Center Towers and Pentagon, while the fourth crashed in a Pennsylvania field when passengers overwhelmed their captors. Three thousand people died that day, an event the triggered two U.S. wars and hundreds of thousands more deaths, and still counting. And now, it is that survivor of Stroman\u2019s killing rage in 2001, a Bangladeshi man named Rais Bhuiyan who wages a campaign of forgiveness. Blinded in one eye and still bearing scars from Stroman\u2019s shotgun pellets, Bhuiyan\u2019s explanation is simple: He says his Islam, so different from the bloody jihad embraced by the 9\/11 hijackers, is a faith that teaches forgiveness.  \u201cHate doesn\u2019t bring a peaceful solution to any situation, which I realized after I became a victim of a hate crime because of the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center tragedy,\u201d he writes on his website (World Without Hate). \u201cThis single incident changed my entire life and helped me to realize that hate only brings fear, misery, resentment and disaster into human lives. It creates obstacles to healthy human growth, which, in turn, diminishes society as a whole.\u201d Islamic extremists continue plot terror and carry out bombings and assassinations worldwide. But who knows? Bhuiyan\u2019s simple yet profound act may end up doing more than the polished words of a thousand imams and mullahs to show that holy acts always trump mere words and sentiment. That is certainly the case for Stroman. By the time you read this, he likely will be dead. But he was at peace as he faced his execution, telling documentary filmmaker Ilan Ziv recently that, &quot;I received a message that Rais loved me and that is powerful. . . . He has forgiven the unforgiveable and I want to tell him that I have a lot of love and respect him.\u201d Love you enemies? Pray for those who despitefully use you? Hmm. Seems I\u2019ve heard that somewhere before . . . . http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/43241014 http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=vOCy0vcuU1o http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2011\/07\/18\/rais-bhuiyan-pleads-to-spare-mark-stroman_n_902137.html http:\/\/www.worldwithouthate.org\/\" href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2011\/07\/18\/rais-bhuiyan-pleads-to-spare-mark-stroman_n_902137.html\" target=\"_blank\"><em> he was at peace<\/em> <\/a>as he faced his execution, telling documentary filmmaker Ilan Ziv recently that,<em> &#8220;I received a message that Rais loved me and that is powerful. . . . He has forgiven the unforgiveable and I want to tell him that I have a lot of love and respect him.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Love you enemies? Pray for those who despitefully use you?<\/em> Hmm. Seems I\u2019ve heard that somewhere before . . . .<\/p>\n<p>(To see more about this remarkable man, click on this<a title=\"video link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=vOCy0vcuU1o\" target=\"_blank\"><em> video link<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; On Wednesday, July 20, convicted Texas killer Mark Stroman will be executed \u2013 unless a campaign by the most unlikely of champions succeeds in winning a stay, and possibly commutation of his sentence to life behind bars. That champion is a soft-spoken, yet determined Muslim man \u2013 the only survivor of three convenience store&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":432,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,88,8,91,70,80,89,7,16,1],"tags":[95,94,565,96,92,93],"class_list":["post-122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-al-qaeda","category-death-penalty","category-faith","category-forgiveness","category-healing","category-islam","category-muslim","category-pop","category-tolerance","category-uncategorized","tag-capital-punishment","tag-execution","tag-islam","tag-rais-bhuiyan","tag-stroman","tag-texas-death-row"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Muslim&#039;s act of forgiveness speaks louder than Al-Qaeda&#039;s terror - Preacher\u2019s Kid: Honest Faith, Real World<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/2011\/07\/a-muslims-act-of-forgiveness-speaks-louder-than-al-qaedas-terror.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Muslim&#039;s act of forgiveness speaks louder than Al-Qaeda&#039;s terror - Preacher\u2019s Kid: Honest Faith, Real World\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; On Wednesday, July 20, convicted Texas killer Mark Stroman will be executed \u2013 unless a campaign by the most unlikely of champions succeeds in winning a stay, and possibly commutation of his sentence to life behind bars. 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