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Asad Shah


Sinistar
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I'm sure most will be aware of the tragic news about Asad Shah, the shop owner who was brutally murdered last week in Shawlands. I was lucky enough to get to know him well - I went into his shop for years when my son was younger, Asad would let him play on his till, which he loved, and would always give him a sweetie. We used to pop into his shop for supplies on our way to see the Jags on a Saturday. Asad would always be smiling and shake our hands wishing us luck.

 

Everything you read about the man is true - Asad was the kindest, nicest, gentlest soul you could ever meet. We used to talk for hours about religion and I learned so much from him. Asad's motto was love for all, hatred for none, which I now know was an integral teaching of the branch of Islam he followed.

 

I'm devastated at what's happened to him. Seeing Asad's picture online everywhere and on the front page of newspapers in shops this weekend has been awful. I've not been able to stop thinking about him and his family. Knowing I was having a drink round the corner with friends when it happened just makes it worse. It was a callous, horrific thing to do and I don't think I'll ever understand why. I can't imagine what his wife and family must be going through.

 

I know that other Jags fans knew Asad and I'm sure many have donated like me to his family, but if anyone else wanted to help I've posted the link below -

 

https://www.gofundme.com/wuvw2gqk

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Over 20 years ago, a young Asad Shah worked in my local fag shop in the West End. He was a lovely young man.

 

I have lived on the Southside for many years now and hadn't seen him again until three weeks ago. I was walking in Shawlands with a friend when Mr Shah stopped to say hello. It was then that I found out that he had a shop in Minard Road which my friend frequents. The brutal attack happened outside my friend's flat.

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By all accounts Asad Shah was a top bloke, what a dark day for Glasgow.

 

We can get to Mars now, but 50,000 years on and we still haven't worked out that the biggest menace to mankind is religion and sectarianism?

 

If it's not religious maniacs trying to kill us, it's religious goody-goodies telling us to show them mercy; "it's a 'sin' to kill" they say.

 

Aye, very good. Look where that's got us.

 

It might go against Asad's beliefs, but every perpetrator of a cold-blooded murder against an innocent human should be executed every time. The moment you commit such a crime should be the moment you give up your human rights. Put them down like the dogs they are.

 

It might take a 1,000 years, but it's the only way to slowly and surely dilute these ills 'til they're almost non-existent.

 

By all means let folks have their little god fantasies and their Sunday socials, but, for the love of humankind, keep their influence the hell away from law and order. The day politics ceases to fear religion is the day mankind will finally start to make its greatest progress.

 

Enough's enough.

 

Thank you.

 

x

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The appeal for donations to and messages of support for the Shah family will now remain open until Monday 4 April.

 

If you haven't done so, I urge you to follow the link in Sinistar's post and read the very moving messages. Fine tributes to an extraordinary man.

 

I respectfully ask that this thread remains a place of love and peace. For Asad Shah.

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The following is an open letter from the Shah family.

 

In Rememberance of Asad Shah On Thursday evening (24th March), our beloved husband, son, brother and everyone’s friend, Asad Shah, was taken away from us in an act of incomprehensible, mindless violence aimed at quieting his peace-loving, all-embracing faith. We are devastated by this loss but we will not focus on this evil act. Instead, Asad’s friends and family are choosing to respond as we know Asad would respond – united, with messages of peace and love for all. One’s religion, ethnicity, race, gender, or socioeconomic background never mattered to Asad. He met everyone with the utmost kindness and respect because those are just some of the many common threads that exist across every faith in our world. He was a brilliant genius, recognizing that all the differences across people in the world were vastly outweighed by all of our similarities. And he didn’t just talk about this, Asad lived it each and every day, in his beloved community of Shawlands and his country of Scotland. We are all the same. We can be one, if we make the effort to unite with one another. As a family, we would like to express our deepest gratitude to all who have organised and participated in the street vigils, online petitions and messages. You have moved us beyond words and helped us start healing sooner than we thought possible. You have made us prouder about Asad than we already were. The generosity from Asad’s friends and those from around the world who learned about his amazing love for humanity raised more than £50,000 pounds, and we want you to know that Asad’s wife will be the sole beneficiary. Hate may have extinguished one of our brightest lights, but we promise you that it will only be for a brief moment. Asad’s love for all mankind ,and hope for a better world in which we can all live in peace and harmony, will endure and prevail. Asad has left us a tremendous gift, and we must continue to honour that gift by respecting, appreciating, loving and taking care of one another. If there was to be any consolation from this needless tragedy, it came in the shape of the spontaneous and deeply moving response by the good people of Shawlands, Glasgow and beyond, with thousands of messages consistently highlighting the importance of love and respect for all. Asad loved his Scotland and affectionately and innocently called his home the ‘Shahlands’. He loved all of the children in his neighbourhood and treated them as his own. He always had a kind word for all of his customers, and when he said he would pray for you, you knew he meant it. In that vein, our family is proud to announce that we will develop the Asad Shah Interfaith Community Center in Shawlands, a home that will welcome each and everyone to meet, live, laugh and enjoy one another. We will not be making any further comments on this tragedy and ask everyone, especially the media, to allow us the privacy we need to grieve and heal away from the public eye. But we know that you were Asad’s family as much as we are, and we will always remain with you and a part of this community. It is our hope that you will continue to support Asad’s legacy in the years ahead by sharing your stories of peace, love and Asad on www.asadshahmemorial.co.uk and making his home the center of the community once again. We will not let this moment define us. It is Asad that will define us. With deepest appreciation, The Shah Family
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  • 6 months later...

Reports of the Shah family leaving Glasgow as they no longer feel safe.

 

The sentiments above are very real but the usual politicians and community leaders who pop up then disappear have left down the Ahmadi community.

 

Glasgow Central Mosque did not attend an event in solidarity after his murder and a leader there had praised a sectarian killer hanged in Pakistan. Police also confiscated an anti-Ahmadi poster from a shop. Glasgow - a different type of sectarianism.

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  • 4 weeks later...

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