Mosque forgives Vandal and pays his fine.
After a Mosque was vandalised in Fort Smith Arkansas with Nazi Swastikas and hate speech, the vandal was soon hit by an unexpected response. Abraham Davis had vandalised Masjid Al-Salam (The Mosque of Peace) with two of his friends in October 2016 and was later charged by the authorities. It was an act of bigotry that he deeply regretted and the repercussions had caused him much stress. He also failed to provide the money for bail and was thus left in prison waiting for the court date. In an act of painstaking remorse and regret, he penned a letter to the Mosque he had vandalised from his prison cell seeking their forgiveness.“Dear Masjid Al-Salam Mosque,” Abraham wrote. “I know you guys probably don’t want to hear from me at all but I really want to get this to Y’all. I’m so sorry about having a hand in vandalising your mosque. It was wrong and Y’all did not deserve to have that done to you. I hurt Y’all and I am haunted by it. And even after all this you still forgave me. You are much better people than I. “I don’t know what’s going to happen to me, and that is honestly really scary. But I just wouldn’t want to keep going on without trying to make amends. I wish I could undo the pain I helped to cause. I used to walk by your mosque a lot and ask myself why I would do that. I don’t even hate Muslims. Or anyone for that matter. “All in all,” he concluded, “I just want to say I’m sorry.”The Mosque Board was deeply overwhelmed by his plea for forgiveness and forgave him immediately. They, in fact, attended the sentencing and pleaded with the Judge for mercy on Abraham, and in doing so, he was released from prison. Hashim Yasin the Director of Masjid Al-Salam, later commented that this incident was one of the best things that happened to the Muslims in Fort Smith as it shed light on who the Muslims truly was. He commented a verse from the Quran “You might hate something that happens to you, but actually it’s excellent for you”. But despite the Mosques act of forgiveness, Abraham was still a felon, and he was constantly faced with daily reminders of this including over $3200 worth of court fines and restitution. To make matters worse, if he stopped making repayments, he would, in fact, face prison for six years.
