Heard about the attacks on London Bridge and Borough Market last night and again this morning.
So sad to think that these kinds of incidents are preventable.
The London Bridge/Borough Market area is not a million miles away from where I live. In fact, it's just down the road from where I used to live.
Since I heard the report last night, and switched on the news again this morning, I've been crying and crying, as I did when I heard about the Manchester attacks. I'm not frightened for my own personal safety. I am upset because London is disintegrating, this society is disintegrating.
Have we forgotten how to talk to each other, and listen to each other? Are we going to start to see more and more of the religious violence that has been experienced in other parts of the world?
I don't understand why these people are committing these atrocities, why they lash out at members of the public in these ways. I don't understand what they want or why they are choosing to behave in this way. This is very confusing. I am confused.
I only know that we need to TALK to each other and LISTEN to each other, honouring each other's feelings and needs. To repeat: it's about PREVENTION.
Go here for my interview with Imam Arif Khan, where he states that Islam requires peace and nonviolence.
Go here for my interview with Ike Lasater, author of From Conflict to Connection. Ike has worked in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the U.S.A.
Go here for more blog posts from the Blogging Carnival for Nonviolence.
It's up to us to restore and maintain peace. It's our responsibility as members of this society - and all societies.
Go here for books about nonviolence and NVC.
Professionals in nonviolent conflict resolution are finding that there are different kinds of terrorists depending on the ideology they operate by. Those which have a purely political ideology without extremist religious elements behind their actions can possibly be reached and connected with and convinced to be more humane and nonviolent and even lay down their arms, but those with an apocalyptic absolutist ideology are mostly unreachable even by the most highly trained specialist in nonviolent communications methodology. To simplify the situation - it is because they simply see your death as the key to their entry into heaven, and seeing words coming out of your mouth as having simply no meaning is an integral part of their daily religious practice.
ReplyDeleteThanks very much for your comments. Marshall Rosenberg found that he did not need to know the history and/or ideology behind people's violent actions in order to change the situation to a nonviolent one. He needed to use his skills in NVC to connect with people from the heart. However, the one situation in which this did not work was in Israel and Palestine. In that situation, he preferred to work with the children, sowing seeds for a nonviolent future.
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