“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
Ahmed el Ahmed may not fit everyone’s definition of light in a hyper-partisan, make-everything-fit-the-narrative world, but he shone blindingly bright in an otherwise dark and stormy time last weekend.
If, like me, you have your phone set to alert you to big news stories, it was one jolt after another as the weekend unfolded. First came reports of a deadly mass shooting at Brown University, for which, as I write this, a suspect still is at large. Then came stories of an even more widespread shooting at a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. That, as we have since learned, was an expression of “Islamic State ideology,” as Australian authorities put it. Finally, Rob and Michele Reiner were discovered murdered in their California home. Their son Nick has been arrested in connection with this.
Darkness and hate come under many guises. Researchers have produced volumes trying to get into the heads of people who commit crimes. Terrorists often try to magnify their own presence, committing crimes so widespread and heinous that they make average people think terror lurks everywhere. It does not.
Light and love are more powerful than darkness
Light and love are far more plentiful. Sometimes they come prepared for great sacrifice, crouching out of sight until the right moment comes to jump on a gunman and wrestle his weapon away.
That’s what Ahmed did, his act caught on video. He was shot several times by the other gunman, but remains alive as I write this.
As a story published by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation put it, “In the aftermath of tragedies, societies reveal not only their wounds but also their underlying moral instincts.”
Ahmed embodied a lot of what gives mankind hope amid a seemingly relentless drumbeat of insanity.
It’s too easy — lazy, even — to break this down into simplistic tropes. A Muslim Syrian man saving the lives of Jews — the narrative comes laden with useless and irrelevant political layers. As Australia’s ABC noted, the internet has exploded with partisans trying to claim him or questioning his religion.
The truth is he wasn’t alone. The New York Times said Boris and Sofia Gurman, a couple approaching 35 years of marriage, were killed while trying to stop one of the suspected gunmen. Their heroism was also captured on video.
Moral courage
Ronald Reagan said, “Above all, we must realize that no arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today’s world do not have.”
Bondi Beach could be exhibit A.
It’s doubtful terrorists will ever learn that lesson. They have been at it a long time. Absorbed in a cause, they likely don’t think of themselves as terrorists, but they have been around a long time.
A century ago, they were known mostly as anarchists. On Sept. 16, 1920, someone led a horse-drawn carriage loaded with explosives into the heart of Wall Street. The resulting explosion killed 38 and injured hundreds more. No one was ever arrested.
A year earlier, anarchists sent mail bombs to several prominent politicians and business leaders. One blew the hands off a senator’s domestic worker. A postal worker was able to intercept 16 of these bombs before they could be delivered to a list that included John D. Rockefeller.
These are acts of darkness long forgotten by the world, which is the fate of most acts of darkness. Meanwhile, the free world has progressed, undaunted, for the most part, by the forces of darkness.
It remains for today’s generation to see light and love and cling to it.
A hero with simple motives
ABC Australia said “moral seriousness” is eroded when human suffering becomes “absorbed into broader political battles.” As a result, “the dignity of both victims and heroes is diminished.”
Sometimes, heroic efforts are simply heroic efforts — a person acting out of moral imperative at the spur of a moment.
As for Ahmed, he can be seen in a video saying from a hospital bed, “I appreciate the efforts of everyone,” and “Thank you to everyone.”
After visiting him in the hospital, a cousin said Ahmed told him he was simply thinking he “couldn’t bear to see people dying.”
Simple words, and a simple motive. No more than that, and no more is necessary.