International Day for Tolerance – The only effective response to hatred and fanaticism is dialogue and respect for differences
Editorial by Pierre Bremond – During the night from Friday to Saturday in Paris, the terrorist barbarity has taken a historic step in France, with a coordinated massacre destined to kill the largest number of people, without distinction. After Madrid and London, Europe has once again suffered a terrible wound.
Our most immediate and human reaction is compassion of course. Our thoughts are primarily with the victims and their families. Tomorrow will be for questions and for reasons, it will also be for anger and sometimes, sadly, for hatred and rejection.
The World Day of Tolerance celebrated today should encourage us all to maintain our composure and civic sense, despite the horror that we feel at the magnitude of the tragedy.
We must understand that the primary objective of these murderers is not to dominate the headlines worldwide. Their goal is to stir up hatred, to create division, to set communities against each other. Their only goal is to create fear, to carry the torch of war in France and Europe, throwing all of its countries into a spiral of interconfessional confrontation and latent, endless war.
The role of states if to hunt down those murderers and their accomplices, punish them and prevent more harm to be committed, while thwarting the rise of fanaticism. Our role however, that of civil society, citizens and associations, is to create links between the various communities, because the only effective response to hatred and fanaticism consists in building tolerance, in fostering dialogue and respect for all differences.
