A lot of fear is emerging since November’s ISIS massacres in Paris, Beirut, and on a Russian airplane. Fear is to be expected. It’s a natural reaction. Anger is also an expected and a natural reaction. But when fear and anger are acted out and turned into contempt and hatred, it can get dangerous. And when hatred is acted out onto innocent people—it’s a big problem. Muslims around the world are suffering from the misjudgment due to misinformation, which is causing some people to link all Muslims to terrorists.
Then we have the positive side of a tragedy—when people with courage break through walls of hate to show great acts of kindness. One of those acts of kindness took place in a small town outside of Austin, Texas.
The Islamic Center of Pflugerville, a mosque in a strip mall in the suburbs of Austin, Texas, was vandalized on Monday. On the way to morning prayers, community members of the mosque found feces smeared on the sidewalk and torn pages of the Quran, the Islamic holy book, scattered outside the center.
"It's disgusting; it's gross," said Laura Swanson, who lives in Pflugerville. "It doesn't matter what you believe, what I believe, what he believes or anybody believes, all faith is important."
Laura Swanson’s 7-year-old son, Jack, heard about what happened and decided he wanted to help. Piggy banks often rate very high on a child’s list of treasured possessions. Jack Swanson took his treasure and donated it to the mosque, via a board member of the Islamic Center named Naeem, who has a son the same age. Naeem was very moved:
"It's 20 bucks, but coming from Jack collecting his pennies, it's worth 20 million bucks to me and to our community," Naeem said.
A police investigation is taking place and police say they are committed to find the culprits. In a time when emotions are high, this is story, of a little boy’s compassion, is a breath of fresh air. Many Muslims are speaking out to let the world know they are not the terrorists. And Jack Swanson—well, he’s already figured that out.