I am sure most, if not all of you, will have heard about the attacks in Paris.  Some of you may have friends in Paris and will be checking to make sure that they are safe, or know that they are safe already.  Some of you may even be in Paris yourself, and I hope that you are safe.

The CEO of one of the UK's leading campaign groups for equality - Nick Lowles from HOPE not Hate - probably put this best, in a way I could not.  I thought I would copy his email campaign here for you to read.

We wake up this morning to the terrible and heart-breaking news of the horrendous terrorist attacks in Paris. Over 120 people dead and 200 injured. People whose only crime was going out on a Saturday night in one of the world's great cities. Words cannot describe our shock, outrage and disgust at Europe's latest terrorist attack.

As with all terror attacks it had a clear goal, to increase fear, hate and even encourage even more violence. We cannot let those who peddle this vile extremism win. We must stand together.

While more facts about the Paris attacks and the motives of the perpetrators undoubtedly will unfold throughout the day, for now our thoughts are with all those directly affected by these murderous attacks.

...

The terrorists who carried out these attacks wanted to cause maximum carnage but also create a climate of fear and anger in French, and indeed European, societies. Unfortunately, they will likely be assisted in their efforts by extremists of every persuasion, as there will be many on the far right who will be only too willing to spread the fear and anger themselves.

These are dangerous times but it is at moments like this that ordinary people need to stand up and be counted. We need to stand together against the Islamist extremism that appears to have been behind the attacks in Paris. And we also have to stand together to ensure that there is no right wing backlash that splits communities further and targets ordinary Muslims who had nothing to do with these attacks.

We Stand Together, United in HOPE not hate.

The problems that risk coming out now are the same that risk coming out at every similar act over recent years: Muslims will get the blame.  Not any terrorist group, but Muslims.  Ordinary, law abiding, terrorist hating, peace loving Muslims will be targeted because of a group of people that, at this moment, I don't even believe we know belong to the already named suspects of IS.  Political leaders clamour over each other to offer their condolences and some are already laying the finger of blame.  Now is not the time to do that.  Now is the time for us to stand together and voice our opposition against these small pockets of terrorists that are so intent on spreading fear and hatred.  We all should stand as one: Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, black, white, East Asian, male, female, transgender, gay, straight, and every group not named.  We do not need messages like this delight (insert seething sarcasm here) from Rupert Murdoch, posted around the time of the attacks on Charlie Hebdo:

or this one, posted last night:

All of humanity is attacked when terrorists attack.  They are not as discriminative as some of humanity.  They don't care who they kill.  Sure, they have their targets, but anyone else is a bonus.  For suicide bombers, they don't care if they kill one of their own.  That person just adds to the death toll and makes their acts more attrocious and more noticeable.  We can not afford to fall prey to this kind of fear mongering, both from the terrorists that have caused the attrocity and from those quick to condemn others and point the finger of blame.

Last night was an attack on the very nature of humanity.  The very being of civilisation.  Where people from many cultures, backgrounds, social standings, ages, genders, beliefs, people who are all different in their own ways, are able to stand together, shoulder to shoulder, as equals.  We are all the same in our differences.  We exercise our respective beliefs differently, from whatever country we come from.  We all fall in love with our different targets.  We all have anger, however we choose to express it.  We all have hatred.  Fear.  Hope.

I can not believe that, of all of the things that came to mind, the second was "How terrible, I hope that the families of the people that died will come through this, and I hope that those that were injured or suffered in the attacks will heal."  The SECOND.  The first was "Who will blame Islam first?"  The third was rather strange, in comparison:

Yes. The third thing to come to mind was a quote from Yoda.  And I can see this happening.  The terrorists create fear in us, fearful that another act will happen.  Our fear will lead to our anger towards those who committed the acts in Paris.  Our anger will lead to our hatred to those who believe the acts committed in Paris are justifiable, or in the case of some people (and I sincerely hope to God none of you are on AFF), those who are associated to them by the tiniest of margins.  (Like how the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers created a huge anti-Muslim backlash, including attacks on two mosques whilst a full congregation was present, the fire at Al-Rahma Islamic Centre in Muswell Hill (which was used by children), and another fire at Darul Uloom School, an Islamic boarding school in southeast London, which forced the evacuation of 128 students and teachers, because his murderers claimed their attacks in the name of Islam.)  And that hatred will lead to suffering from the acts we commit in retaliation.  Either as precise as the ones I gave in the example above, or by ones our governments will undoubtedly take by armed retaliation. This is what the terrorists want.  They want us to fight back.  They want to say "Look how the people of X country are towards us.  They want to suppress us.  We need to stand up for ourselves."  They want us to be fearful of them.

We can not afford to do this.  We need to stand strong.  We need to stand united.  We need to stand together.

In the campaign email I copied above, there was a link to an image which can be shared on Facebook and Twitter: http://action.hopenothate.org.uk/page/content/stand-with-france/.  I would appreciate it if you could share this and encourage your friends to do the same.  Show others that we won't be silenced.  Show others that we do not fear these acts of terrorism.  That humanity and civilisation is not being harmed.  That we, as people, can look past our differences and stand as one, united in our determination to continue living freely.

Thank you.