Witnesses to Love and Courage!

Firsthand accounts from members around the world.
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Whitebird Sings
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Witnesses to Love and Courage!

Post by Whitebird Sings » June 4th, 2005, 1:09 pm

Last week... this happened:

19 killed in Islamabad shrine bombing

Last Updated Fri, 27 May 2005 08:25:57 EDT
CBC News

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - At least 19 people were killed and dozens injured Friday in a suicide bombing at a Muslim shrine near Islamabad, according to witnesses.


...and I wrote my friend, Ash... and she gave me permission to post our correspondence...

I wanted you to be witness along with me to the love and courage that people show in the face of such a terrible atrocity... (as set out in Ash's letter)

First let me say, that Ayesha (Ash) is a most awesome and courageous young woman... a woman who lives from her heart... Her family were originally from Afghanistan... Ash was born and raised in Pakistan near the Afghan border...

We have never met in person... but I love her with all of my soul. She is a dear friend... forever and a time!

Here is what we wrote...
Last edited by Whitebird Sings on June 4th, 2005, 1:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by Whitebird Sings » June 4th, 2005, 1:12 pm

Dear Ash,

I just read a news report of a suicide bombing in Islamabad. I am not sure how close you were to where it happened, but I am praying for the safety of you and your family and friends.

I am also praying for those who have died and were injured and their families. In the news report I read, there was a young boy being carried from the shrine who had been physically injured... But I also think of the injuries to his soul -- how he would look upon me if he saw my blonde hair and blue eyes -- how this experience and others he has make him believe that the people in the West are monsters.

Ash it is so important for people like us to change the world through our friendship... through collective action. We must not allow those terrible greedy souls who are in power of war machines to control us by having us hate each other.

We are all sisters and brothers, and the best way for us to defeat the REAL enemy is for us to love one another despite what they would have us believe about each other.

Blessings Ash,
Namaste and Dohiya (peace)
Your friend,
Janette (Whitebird Sings)

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Whitebird Sings
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Post by Whitebird Sings » June 4th, 2005, 1:14 pm

Dear Janette,

Hope you and your family all fine and well! Amen! Thanks my friend for your prayers ...i am fine and safe...the place where i live is just at an hour drive from the cpital i.e Islamabad. But on sunday i was there in islamabad as i had some work to do there. At the time of the blast i was at a place that is quite near to the shrine of bari amam. it was quite horrfying the whole earth shook as if been hit with an earthquake and then the after spasms. We insatnt knew that something is wrong because earthquakes dont happen with so much strength in the this city. we all were worried. i was with few of my friends and we started praying that all be safe and well and then i got the breaking news on my cell phone that its a suicide bomb blast at thje shrine. i felt numb and so did everyone. but we soon gahthered strength to go there and to help with the rescue work .

Normally it takes just 10 min to reach there but at that time it took one and a half hour to reach there. There was such a huge crowd and people were hurrying as if it was the end of the world. I am not angry with all those people because they were worried about their loved ones.
When we reached at shrine it was a very horrifying sight., i dont have the words to describe it. with pieces of human flesh lying here and there , the wails and the continous crying, the mourning sounds ..it takes so much courage to walk amidst all this .

My friends and i along with other people tried helping as much as we could. i helped a woman shazia , who had a huge wound on her head and blood was gushing out , she was with so much injuries looking, searching for someone. on asking she told she was looking for her 5 year old son, who was so sick that was on the verge dying, she had brought him on the shrine to pray for the life and health of her only son..we helped as much as we could but sadly found he was not alive....there was so much flesh that it was impossible to even recognize anyone..it was so heartbreaking for me to tell her that her very son whom she had brought at the shrine to pray for his life was no more!

there were so many other people who lost their loved ones, each had a story to tell, i dont know how will they forget it all...it sick what our enemy is doing with all of us. it doesnt matter to them whether one is muslim or non muslim, whether one is white or black, whether one is asaian or amercian or canadian or african..all they want is human life and blood! i sometimes wonder dont these people have a heart ! how can they do all this! dont they have families! will they like it if the same happens to them! ofcourse they will not! then why with others.

yes, my friend we must unite ! thats the only way we can stop them from doing all this. but most importantly we should not allow feelings to hatred to creep in our hearts. We all are one and belong to just one religion and thnat is humanity. It doesnt matter if one is a muslim and worships Allah, other a Christan , the third a buddhist , the fourth a hindu, the fifth a sikh....it doesn't matter at all. No one's God asks them to kill other human beings..We are not differnt we all are same...we all have blood, the colour red that flows in our bodies, we all have same amount of eyes, heart, brain...we all have families, we all suffer, we all feel, we alll become happy....we are one!

My friend as long as there are people like us, we must resist against those in power who portray us as differnt, we must fight for peace!!

love and prayers to you my friend
ash

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judih
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Post by judih » June 4th, 2005, 10:20 pm

horror captured in first person. That's how it is.

Ash was brave to go into the scene (sometimes, bombers strike twice).

Thanks for posting her report. Truly, that's how it is.

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Post by Whitebird Sings » June 6th, 2005, 9:58 am

Dear j

it is said
that we need to experience the darkness
in order to appreciate the light

why must this be?

what mother or father would want that
lesson
for their children?

not I

...I know that what you write here,
when you write of what you know,
just as with Ash --
that
it comes from first person experience
and my heart weeps

no one as beautiful as you and Ash
no mother
no father
no child
no one
should know what you know
how you know it

I wrap you in my arms
please rest here awhile
where it is safe

let there be peace on earth
...now

and let it begin with us.

Shalom Dear Heart
WB

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