Re: “Cities around the world welcome 2026 with thunderous fireworks and heightened security” (Dec. 31, Nation & World):
It was disheartening that yet one more hate crime occurred on a worship neighborhood with the assault in Bondi Seaside in Sydney, Australia. As a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Neighborhood within the Higher Seattle space, I condemn this heinous act that focused harmless members of the Jewish neighborhood.
Islam upholds the sanctity of human life and teaches that killing one harmless individual is equal to killing all of humanity. Moreover, it instructs that defending one life is akin to defending all humanity. These ideas lay significance even to the comparatively smaller-seeming actions that enjoin goodness and forbid evil. We should defend each other as a human household and stand guard towards forces of hatred that divide us.
As we wind down from the vacations the place many neighborhood members from throughout religions sought to apply better acts of kindness, generosity, compassion and forgiveness, let’s proceed to recollect these practices as we welcome within the new yr.
Tahir Ahmad, Seattle
