The Hated and the Hater, Both Touch by Crime

This moving story by Timothy Williams in the 7/19/11 edition of the New York Times is a question and answer with the now late Anthony Stroman, a Dallas stonecutter, who shot people he believed were Arabs following the 9/11 attacks and one of his victims, Rais Bhuiyan, 37, a former Air Force pilot from Bangladesh and a muslim, was seriously injured and partially blinded in his right eye. He worked (unsuccessfully, in the end) to spare Mr. Stroman the death penalty, and delivers a message of love and compassion. Excerpt below and link to the full story above:

Q. Mr. Stroman has admitted trying to kill you. Why are you trying to save his life?

A. I was raised very well by my parents and teachers. They raised me with good morals and strong faith. They taught me to put yourself in others’ shoes. Even if they hurt you, don’t take revenge. Forgive them. Move on. It will bring something good to you and them. My Islamic faith teaches me this too. He said he did this as an act of war and a lot of Americans wanted to do it but he had the courage to do it — to shoot Muslims. After it happened I was just simply struggling to survive in this country. I decided that forgiveness was not enough. That what he did was out of ignorance. I decided I had to do something to save this person’s life. That killing someone in Dallas is not an answer for what happened on Sept. 11.