San Bernardino shooting victims remembered
LOMA LINDA, Calif. — In a nondescript strip mall across the street from a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant, people of all faiths gathered at the Islamic Community Center of Redlands on Sunday morning to remember the 14 people killed Wednesday during a mass shooting in San Bernardino.
A display of photos of the victims sat on a bed of white lace, each with its own "Peace Tree," where people could write messages on green paper hearts and hang them on the branches above the pictures. Candles near each framed photo were lit just before the 11 a.m. PT service began.
An estimated crowd of 200 filed the mosque to listen to words of peace, love and encouragement from speakers ranging from the president of ICCR, Congressman Pete Aguilar, Pastor Linda Carrier of Trinity Evangelical Church in Redlands and Ryan O’Keefe, a student at the University of Redlands and friend of the Islamic Community Center.
Esther and Stanford Shu are friends of Carrier’s.
“It was very inspiring,” Stanford said. “Things have been so difficult and it’s good to see many different faiths get together. It’s very encouraging.”
“It was very emotional for some of the people that spoke today,” Esther Shu said. “I think this is an opportunity for them to come together and seek unity with different faiths. The last young man that spoke (O’Keefe) said it quite well in terms of educating ourselves about peoples’ cultures, their religious backgrounds and what they believe in. I think it’s important to gather information so that we can speak with some sort of intelligence — let’s not just assume, make assumptions.”
Sheraz Marati, a member of the ICCR, expressed her condolences to the families of the victims, praised first responders for putting their own lives in jeopardy to protect the community, and spoke about the unifying power of prayer.
“When we are traumatized, we turn to our creator, in prayer, to seek solace and to comfort the aggrieved and to ask him, our dear Lord to ease our pain and to relieve us of our anguish,” Marati said during her opening remarks. “Whether moved by need or hope or faced with misfortune or danger, believers instinctively call upon God … I pray that we as people of all faiths and traditions continue to strive together for the common and the greater good to become worthy recipients of God’s grace."
Khaled Bahijri, a professor at Loma Linda University School of Public Health, shared a conversation he had with a colleague a day after the tragedy.
“She said, ‘Anytime I hear the news on TV, I’m always afraid — I hope it’s not one of us,’” Bahijri said. “And truly, that’s was the thought that we had — ‘I hope it’s not one of us.’ Regardless, does it really change how we feel about this? Would our feelings be anything different if it was anybody else, of a different religious background or an ethnic background? It shouldn’t, the act in itself is a tragedy.”
“Quranic principal is very, very clear. Whoever crosses the barrier of killing one person, is like killing the entire humanity. We are as shocked as anyone else out there — this act clearly does not represent who Muslims are. I read the Quran, we read the Quran and we see the values that it teaches. We have been living with these principals for over 1,400 years. And the extreme vast majority of the time, we know that the Islamic values that people have taken and understood from the Quran are the values of peace."
When Ajarat Bada, a registered nurse who is active in the interfaith community, was introduced, she was in such sorrow it took her nearly a minute to compose herself, then softly began speaking through her tears. Many in the audience were similarly moved, some weeping silently.
The victims died in Wednesday's mass shooting at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino in an attack that left 21 others injured.
Authorities say Syed Farook, 28, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, 27, were armed with two handguns and two rifles when they opened fire in a room that was occupied by about 80 people.
The pair fled, but died hours later in a shootout with authorities.
Officials said Malik pledged allegiance in a Facebook post to the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The FBI is treating the shooting spree as a "federal terrorist investigation," although there is no indication the killers were part of a cell or network or were directed by a terrorist group.
The Islamic center also announced Sunday that the Muslim community and the MiNDS community and health network have raised about $50,000 for families of victims.
People all over the region are finding special ways to remember those who were slain. Alex Guillen, a supervisor for Inland Early Steps Services in Corona, an agency that works with the Inland Regional Center, is encouraging people to create painted handprints with words of encouragement for the center’s traumatized staff.
Guillen chose handprints because he works with children and "it's just more of a child action to be playing with paint," he said. Anyone who creates one may post it on social media with the hashtags #supportirc and #prayforsb.
None of Guillen's friends died in the shooting. But last week, he briefly spoke to Daniel Kaufman, who ran the center's coffee shop. Guillen was shocked to learn Kaufman was among those who died.
"It was a surreal moment that something of this magnitude could happen to someone who was clearly in arm’s reach," Guillen said.
Follow Denise Goolsby on Twitter: @denisegoolsby