SLOW down – and think more clearly in order to foster true justice and peace rather than feed a spiral of injustice and violence.
Acting chairman of the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council (ACSJC), Bishop William Morris of Toowoomba, made this call in response to the ongoing terrorist crisis.
‘We’ve all been shocked and saddened by the attacks on the USA,’ he said in a September 28 statement on behalf of the ACSJC.
‘We’ve mourned with the victims’ friends and relatives. We, too, felt anger and confusion.
‘As we gain a little distance from these initial emotions we must ensure that the response of the world community is not hasty, vengeful or a cause of further injustice and suffering.’
Bishop Morris said there had been much anger and violent talk and actual violence and intimidation against people of Middle Eastern background and Muslims in general.
‘To our shame,’ Bishop Morris said, ‘such violence has occurred within Australia.’
Fear of a violent response by the US had driven thousands of innocent Afghans from their homes. They were also fleeing a repressive regime believed to have harboured the terrorists.
‘In a cruel irony they are among the asylum seekers and refugees being prejudged in the public mind as responsible for presumed acts of their own persecutors,’ Bishop Morris said.
‘We must not descend to the level of terrorists. Our responses must not inflict suffering on innocent civilians.’
