(!) Postcard from London

A Family Joins the Battle against Terrorism Bernard Hibbs

LONDON, 23 July 2005 – As I start to write this article in an Internet cafe in East London, I look at the BBC and see that there is more news of terror. This time, there has been an incident at the Mile End Tube Station, about a mile from my house. The police have arrested a man. They shot a man yesterday, suspected of carrying a bomb.

On the 7th of July, four bombs ripped apart the lives of 56 people and their families. Seven hundred others were injured. Just three days later, my wife, my 4-month-old baby, and I moved to a house in East London, just a few miles from the centre of London. We came to live in community withanother family who had moved there only two weeks before. Why move to London, only three days after such an atrocity?

We were sent by our church to encourage the family living here, but also to try to bring hope and to show love to the people around us. Terrorism does accomplish its goalit spreads fear. We walk past hundreds of people each day on the street, each one of them worried about something. To say a friendly word to someone or to notice their problems is all it takes. The knowledge that someone cares about you is the perfect antidote to fear.

A few nights after the bombing, we met a Christian man walking in the park. We spoke for a while about different issues we agreed on, such as family values and abortion. But when he found out where I lived, he said, Im glad I moved away from there; its just infested with Muslims! (My neighbourhood is about 70 percent Muslim.) I tried to reason with him that to live with this hatred in his heart would certainly not bring about the peace he longs for. He was so scarred by the bombings that he hated all Muslims for the acts of a few.

The next day I asked a Muslim friend what he felt. He said that the men who carried out these acts have no understanding for the Koran, and will end up in hell, not paradise. He said that we need to live for love, for relationships between people, for forgiveness, and for peace.

This is the attitude that will protect against the fear of terrorism. Everyone in London is putting on a brave face, saying, We are not afraid. But something doesnt ring true about it. Everyone is frightened as they use the Tube. Everyone is watching that Muslim man with the knapsack standing at the back of the bus.

One evening an Indian man came to our house. I asked him if the bombings frightened him. No, he said, in India, this sort of thing happened the whole time. I was once in a meeting hall when terrorists came in with machine guns and started shooting. Many people were killed, but I escaped. Also, there were bombings every couple of weeks. However, what frightens me is that when I get on a bus with a bag, people look at me because of the colour of my skin.

On Thursday I was leaving work when someone told me that there had been another bombing. This was just minutes before I was to catch the bus home. What do I do, I thought. To walk home would be crazy, and come on, whats the actual chance of being killed or injured? I prayed for safety, that I would be allowed to see my wife and child again, and boarded the bus.

Admittedly, I was on edge, but I really got frightened when we drove past London City Airport and I saw about thirty armed police watching the cars and buses that were driving about. Two stops further on, a man with a large knapsack got on the bus and stood next to me. I got off and walked.

How do we combat this fear that must be in all of us? Surely only by loving our neighbours, respecting each religion as it is, and forgiving each other every day. My wife and I always kiss goodbye before I step out the door, and there is always joy and celebration when anyone returns home.

As I walk down a quiet back street, a woman shouts to me, Keep praying because you never know where the next bomb is going to be!

Maybe prayer is the answer. Every real religion is built on love and respectnone of them encourage killing. So whatever religion you follow, keep praying to your God and following the teachings of God. Only then will we not be afraid.

Reprinted from http://www.bruderhof.com/, used with pernission =================================