Forgiveness

[Mockingbird]

I heard this story on the radio today, but the only news article I could find is kinda pathetic. Hopefully I'll be able to find something that has more detail, but for now; http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/14/national/main1398309.shtml

It is about the mother of Zacarias Moussaoui (guy currently being charged with the WTC bombing). She asked for a meeting with some of the 9/11 victim's families so she could meet them...
 

[Shammu]

Moussaoui's mother comforted by 9/11 mom at church gathering

March 13, 2006, 9:26 AM EST

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) _ The mother of Zacarias Moussaoui was tearfully embraced by the mother of a World Trade Center victim at a church gathering.

Aicha el-Wafi appeared at the "welcoming gathering" on Sunday in White Plains, about 25 miles north of ground zero, before returning home to France. The event included peace workers, anti-death-penalty activists and mothers from Memorial United Methodist Church.

A sentencing trial entered its second week Monday in Virginia for Moussaoui, a confessed al-Qaida conspirator, who could face the death penalty.

At Sunday's gathering, Connie Taylor, who lost her 37-year-old son, Bradley, on Sept. 11, stepped toward el-Wafi and embraced her. Many of those who formed a circle around them also began to cry, The Journal News reported.

Taylor said she had concluded that el-Wafi's plight was greater than her own.

"She is blaming her son, in part," Taylor said. "That must be so horrible. I didn't experience that."

"The hardest suffering in the world today is that of parents who lose their children," el-Wafi said in French. "There will never be an explanation to justify this. The suffering will last forever."

El-Wafi, who raised four children alone while working as a cleaning woman, said that she lost her son to an Islamist movement just as another mother might lose hers to drugs or a cult.

She said that her older son has also joined an Islamist movement, in Lebanon. "In these movements, they look for the little cracks to get into people's minds and control them," she said.

El-Wafi said her future might include work for peace and justice causes. In the fall of 2002, she arranged to meet in New York with six people who lost loved ones on Sept. 11.

But for now, her life is in a holding pattern.

"I am only a mother," she said.

Moussaoui's mother comforted by 9/11 mom at church gathering

[bluelake]

I heard this story on the radio today, but the only news article I could find is kinda pathetic. Hopefully I'll be able to find something that has more detail, but for now; http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/14/national/main1398309.shtml

It is about the mother of Zacarias Moussaoui (guy currently being charged with the WTC bombing). She asked for a meeting with some of the 9/11 victim's families so she could meet them...
 

I just read this today . I thought you might enjoy it too,

Subject: THE BEST POEM IN THE WORLD!




I was shocked, confused, bewildered
      as I entered Heaven's door,
      Not by the beauty of it all,
      nor the lights or its decor.
   
   
But it was the folks in Heaven
     who made me sputter and gasp--
     the thieves, the liars, the sinners,
     the alcoholics, the trash
   
   
There stood the kid from seventh grade
     who swiped my lunch money twice.
     Next to him was my old neighbor
     who never said anything nice.
   
   
Herb, who I always thought
      was rotting away in hell,
      was  sitting pretty on cloud nine,
      looking incredibly well.
   
   
I nudged Jesus, "What's the deal?
      I would love to hear Your take.
      How'd all these sinners get up here?
      God must've made a mistake.
   
   
"And why's everyone so quiet,
      so somber? Give me a clue."
      "Hush, child," said He, "they're all in shock.
      No one thought they'd be seeing you."
   
   
Judge NOT.

 
bluelake