Wednesday, January 19, 2005

The Beginning?

High emotions at the funeral of the Egyptian family slain in New Jersey.
"Grief and rage erupted Monday during the funeral for an Egyptian Christian couple and their two young daughters who were tied up and stabbed to death last week. Mourners fought in the street, pushing, shoving and punching each other as many blamed Muslims for the killings."
Will these kind of things happen more often, if domestic tensions increase?
"One man inside the church began screaming "Muslim is the killer! Muslim is the killer!" He was dragged from the church by five police officers who hustled him into an unmarked police car and quickly drove off. It could not immediately be determined if he was charged."
But some things still providee glimmers of hope for an ecuminical solution:

"The mourners included about two dozen Muslims who took off their shoes as a sign of respect and placed them near the entrance to the church, just as they do in their mosques.

Ahmed Sheded, president of the Islamic Center of Jersey City, was among those attending. He wore a business suit instead of Muslim religious attire 'because that might agitate people.'

'We feel this is something that was very far away from our community,' he said afterward. 'A real Muslim can't do that. Any religious person who believes in God cannot do this, even to an animal.'"
Sometimes grief can run so high, normal judgement is lost and we don't even know who we're lashing out at:
"Once the bodies were loaded into four black hearses that would carry them to a nearby cemetery, more clashes broke out in the street outside the church, including one in which about 35 people pushed and shoved each other and traded punches. The melee prompted police officers to push several against cars to separate them from the fray as the fight spilled into a parking garage."
Mobs are frightening things.

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