Last Saturday a brave and inspiring act took place in Oslo. Here is a report about it in the Christian Science Monitor.
And here is the Editorial from the Daily News Briefing:
Editorial: The Monitor's View
How to encircle Islamic State
The Monitor's Editorial Board
The common response to Islamic State’s atrocities or recent jihadist attacks in Europe has been to be afraid, to fight back, or simply to flee to a safer place. Some people, however, have sought an alternative response, one that displaces the very hate that lies behind such attacks.
Last Saturday, hundreds of Muslims held hands in a “ring of peace” around a Jewish synagogue in Norway. They wanted to display symbolic unity with all Jews in light of recent attacks on Jews in Europe.
Such events or words are rarely top of the news. Their effects take place in thought and are not as visible as bombs, beheadings, or battles in Iraq or Syria. They may seem mushy or useless to many. Yet they still startle by their core message, such as the fact that religion can never justify terror.
An even more startling message has been one of forgiveness. After Islamic State (IS) militants beheaded 21 Coptic Christians in Libya, for example, Bishop Angaelos of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom said he forgave the killers. He called on others to pray for them “that the value of God’s creation and human life may become more evident to them.”
Loving those who persecute you may still seem as radical today as when Jesus preached and practiced the idea two millenniums ago. Yet when Muslims, Jews, or Christians rise up and act on the idea in the face of today’s bigoted violence, it should not be ignored.