Story highlights
- Kenyan who shielded Christians from Al-Shabaab attack dies during surgery
- Salah Farah, a school teacher, explained his courageous action: "We are brothers"
Kenya (CNN)Kill us all or leave.
That's what Salah Farah told Al-Shabaab gunmen who ambushed a bus he was riding in the Kenyan county of northeast Mandera in late December. The gunmen said they were going to kill Christian passengers.
"They told us if you are a Muslim, we are safe," he then recalled to the BBC. But Farah and other Muslims on the bus stood up to the terrorists and risked their lives by shielding the Christians.
Farah was shot. Over the past several weeks, he has seemed in good spirits, talking to reporters and his family. But on Monday, during surgery, he died.
The school teacher's words of peace and brotherhood are being praised this week in international news coverage.
"People should live peacefully together," he told Voice of America earlier this month. "We are brothers. It's only the religion that is the difference, so I ask my brother Muslims to take care of the Christians so that the Christians also take care of us. ... And let us help one another and let us live together peacefully."
Farah's body was flown on a police helicopter to his home where he was buried. Many gathered at his graveside, wept and prayed. His wife, Dunia Mohamed, is nine months pregnant. They have four children.
Farah was his family's primary breadwinner. The couple also lived other family members including his elderly parents. His mother, Amina Sabdow, was unable to speak when she heard her son had died.
The Kenya teachers commission sent condolences and vowed to help the family financially.
Mandera County Gov. Ali Ibrahim Roba also promised to help Dunia and provide an education for the children.
Farah was a role model, they said.
Al-Shabaab terror
Al-Shabaab emerged largely because of weak government and law enforcement in Somalia. Most recently a small faction of the group pledged allegiance to ISIS.
Al-Shabaab is largely a militant Somali jihadi insurgency that the United States designated as a foreign terrorist organization in March 2008. Their stated goal is to turn Somalia into a fundamentalist Islamic state, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
The group has been blamed for attacks in Somalia that have killed international aid workers, journalists, civilian leaders and African Union peacekeepers as well as civilians.
A 2011 United Nations report stated that Al-Shabaab has raised tens of millions of dollars from extortion, illegal taxation and other illegal means.
첫댓글 죽은 그가 예수님을 믿지 않고 죽어서 안타깝네요. 또 한편으로는 이러한 것이 언론에 퍼져서 사람들에게 이슬람은 평화의 종교이다라고 잘못 알려질 수도 있다고 봅니다.
종교의 신념도 인격나름이란 생각이 듭니다. 이스라엘안에서도 무슬림과 유대교 기독교인들이 화합하며 사는 집이 있다고 어느 다큐에서 본 것 같습니다.
이스라엘이니까 그것이 가능하였을 것입니다. 케냐 또한 이슬람교도가 다수인 사회이기 때문에 문제가 되었을 것입니다.
이스라엘 안에 이슬람이 있다는 것이 신기합니다.
@요안나 이스라엘 밖인 가자의 하마스와 서안지구의 알파타 지역은 물론이고, 이스라엘 안에도 170만명의 이교도들이 있습니다. 베두윈 족과 아랍 무슬림들이 다수인데 그들중에서 시장, 자치단체장들이 나오고 크네셋트 국회의원도 10명 가량 있습니다. 그들은 이스라엘에 항상 반대되는 정책을 주장하고 있습니다. 그러므로 앞으로도 이스라엘은 해결해야할 문제들이 첩첩 산중입니다.
@하토브. 그렇군요.