Condolences.

I know I speak for everyone when I express deepest sympathy to the friends and families of the victims of the Manchester terrorist attack. My thoughts and prayers are with them and with those who have been injured or traumatised.

Needless to say it was a terrible act and is much condemned. It has become so frequent these days for ISIS to carry out such terrorist activities and then proudly claim responsibility for it! But every time innocents are killed and their lives and dreams are smothered, my heart aches. And it aches much more because these suicide bombers think or are led to believe that they are doing it for their “religion”! It is only stupid to think that killing innocents would serve the purpose of Islam. God knows it doesn’t. I can only apologise for such heinous acts carried out in the name of my religion.

I always will remember the words of Antoine Leiris who lost his wife when terrorist gunmen opened fire at the Bataclan theatre in Paris in 2015.

“On Friday night, you stole the life of an exceptional being, the love of my life, the mother of my son, but you will not have my hate. I don’t know who you are and I don’t want to know. You are dead souls.” He would not, he added, give the terrorists the “satisfaction” of hating nor of fearing them: “You want me to be scared, to see my fellow citizens through suspicious eyes, to sacrifice my freedom for security. You have failed. I will not change.” And he added that his baby son’s happiness (Melvil was 17 months) would continue to defy them: “Because you will not have his hate either.”

The only purpose of these terrorist is to inculcate fear and hatred among people. Let us not let them win. Let’s not give them the satisfaction.

#YouWillNotHaveMyHate