Forgiveness News
Forgiveness: Finding the Gift in the Wound
Huffington Post. Marina Cantacuzino, founder of The Forgiveness Project in London, reports on a recent talk by Azim Khamisa, a Sufi Muslim from Kenya who lost his son to murder on an American street 17 years ago. His heart-felt sense of forgiveness has led him to speak “in front of a million young people,” as a way to reduce violence and increase forgiveness. According to Khamisa, “I reached the conclusion that there were victims at both ends of the gun.” The full story is here.
Mr. Khamisa’s story also is featured in the award-winning documentary film, The Power of Forgiveness. Watch a short video clip of Dr. Robert Enright, who was also featured in that documentary, talking about justice, forgiveness and mercy.
President Obama’s Apology Accepted by Afghan President
Alaskadispatch.com. An excellent article in the Alaska Dispatch discusses not only President Obama’s recent apology over the burnings of the Koran at a NATO base in Afghanistan but also reviews some of the incidents of apology by other recent American presidents. It is worthy of note that when two Americans were killed in the recent violence in Afghanistan, “the Afghan defense minister, Abdul Rahim Wardak, called up Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and apologized. It was heartily accepted.”
Asking for Forgiveness: Will Self-Forgiveness Follow?
LivingstonDaily.com. A tearful Corrine Baker asked the judge, who sentenced her to 13-30 years in prison for the second-degree murder of her young son, for forgiveness “for the horrible choices” she made. She lives with the death of her son “every single day.” Full story is here.
German Chancellor Begs Forgiveness
The Telegraph in London reported on Friday, February 24, 2012 that the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, asked forgiveness of families who lost loved ones at the hands of a neo-Nazi group that operated between 2000 and 2007. Merkel asked forgiveness because of police errors, which included false accusations toward family members who lost loved ones to the murders.
Is Government Apology Appropriate?
Irish Central. A prominent BBC presenter, Jeremy Paxman, blasts Tony Blair 15 years after he apologized (in 1997) to the Irish people for the mid-19th century “Potato Famine.” Paxman called the apology, issued about 150 years after the tragedy, “moral vacuousness” because no one presently alive was involved in the massive loss of life in 1847.