Last night - a man in Texas was executed.
His name was Mark Stroman - and he was given a lethal injection by the state of Texas because he let himself get consumed with hate.
10 days after 9/11 - Stroman went on a shooting spree hell bent on killing as many Muslims as he could.
On three separate nights he walked into Dallas gas stations with a shotgun -opening fire - killing two Muslim men - and shooting another man in the face.
The third victim - Rais Bhuiyan - just barely survived the shooting.
Bhuiyan will be partially blind for the rest of his life because of his injuries - but he wasn’t interested in eye-for-an-eye justice.
Why? Because his Muslim religion preaches forgiveness.
All the way up until the day that Stroman was executed - Bhuyian petitioned the state of Texas to spare Stroman’s life - launching a global petition to have his sentence commuted to life without parole:
I forgave Mark Stroman many years ago. In fact, I have never hated him. I never hated America for what happened to me. I believe he was ignorant, and not capable of distinguishing between right and wrong, otherwise he wouldn’t have done what he did...
In my faith, forgiveness is the best policy and Islam doesn’t allow for hate and killing.
And Stroman took notice - he was struck by the compassion that was afforded to him by one of his victims - and he changed his ways.
In a message to Rais Bhuiyan from jail - Stroman said:
In the free world, I was free but I was locked in a prison inside myself because of the hate I carried in my heart… It is due to Rais' message of forgiveness that I am more content now than I have ever been.
And last night - Stroman built on the message and used his last breath to issue these last words for us all to hear:
Hate is going on in this world and it has to stop. Hate causes a lifetime of pain.
As a result of what a group of hateful men - and NOT what a religion - did on 9/11 - our nation - just like Stroman admitted to - is often consumed with hate.
We have a man running for President who’s disqualified Muslims from serving in his administration - and argued that our nation has the right to deny Muslims a place of worship.
Scott Keyes: Would you be comfortable appointing a Muslim, either in your cabinet or as a federal judge?
Herman Cain: No, I will not.
Chris Wallace: So you're saying, any community if they want to ban a mosque...
Herman Cain: Yes, they have the right to do that.
We have a prominent member of Congress who is using his powers as Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee to whip up fear in our nation - and investigate American Muslims for radicalism.
Peter King: I believe its important to have this investigation on radicalization of the Muslim community. We’ve seen what happened in England. We know that al Qaeda is trying to recruit people over here, such as they did with the subway bombing in New York last year, the attempted subway bombing, the Times Square bombing. These were all people living legally in the United States…
We have the most popular cable news network - saying all terrorists are Muslims - and warning Americans about “victory Mosques” in New York City and Tennessee - and hate-fueled caliphates springing up to bring Sharia Law to America.
Brian Kilmeade: Not all Muslims are terrorists but all terrorists are Muslim.
Lt. General Tom McInerney: If you are an 18 to 28 year old Muslim man you should be strip searched. And if we don’t do that, there’s a very high probability we’re going to lose an airliner.
Eric Bolling: Building that victory mosque on what's in essence a burial site would be both disruptive and coldhearted to the families of 9/11 victims.
Glenn Beck:Most dangerous scenario is that radical Muslims seize power and put Sharia law into place.
These are all components of a hate-machine - filling us all with fear - and driving some of us - like Stroman - to lash out in violence.
But Islam is not the real threat to America - our own hatred - our own fear - is the biggest threat to this nation.
As the Southern Poverty Law Center points out - there are more than 1,000 hate groups operating across American today - their numbers have grown by 54% since 9/11.
They are neo-Nazis - Klansmen - white supremacists - black separatists - and border vigilantes. They're all over. They're all over the country, the various militiamen. It's filling America.
What they are NOT however...are Muslims.
In fact - according to FBI data - 94% of all the terrorist acts committed on US soil over the past decade were not from radical Muslims - but instead from these very same hate groups that are popping up across America.
And while our news media will feast once every few years on a Muslim attack that was thwarted - they ignore the hate crimes that are carried out every single day in America - often leaving families devastated and communities in distress.
As Mark Stroman said just before the lethal cocktail was pumped into his arm - "Hate causes a lifetime of pain".
So let's not let this story of forgiveness and frankly of enlightenment be forgotten.
Let's end this hateful so-called "war on terror" - and focus on ridding this nation of the far more destructive force...hate and fear.
That's The Big Picture.
