Author: World Without Hate

Imagine, you drop off your six-year-old son at school in the morning, only to receive his tiny, lifeless, bullet riddled body instead of his jovial, bubbly self at pickup.  You witness your ten-year-old daughter receiving an award of excellence in school, smiling with you for pictures, then celebrating the end of school with her class before pickup time. You never could’ve known that assembly would be the last time you’d hold your child. Envision your child during an active, mass shooting, covering themselves with their friend’s blood, hoping to look dead, hoping to survive. What about your own spouse, a beloved educator, putting their body between bullets, shielding students from the gunman.

The gunman in the Uvalde school shooting, like so many others, waged weapons of war on classrooms filled with young, innocent children. In addition to his AR-15, he had hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Most of his victims so horrifically disfigured, they could only be identified via DNA identification. Can you imagine this? If your child, or a child you love, was the victim of the gruesome massacre in Uvalde, how would you feel right now? Is this something you can even wrap your head around? What would you expect from society and leaders who have the power to stop these kinds of senseless, brutal slaughters?

By looking at the faces of these little angels, and their beloved teachers, how could you not want to be a part of prevention? Truly, if your heart doesn’t ache, if you don’t feel the pain of the parents, and loved ones, of these children, if your blood doesn’t boil and make you angry enough to demand real change (commonsense gun laws, banning weapons of war, high-capacity magazines, and bump stocks), then you suffer from heartlessness, your moral compass has run amuck. This is about heart, morals, empathy, and humanity. This is not about politics. This is about human life and the value we, as a country, put on it.

In the 10 years since Sandy Hook, there have been 948 school shootings, taking the lives of and wounding more than 35,000 youth (Gun Violence Archive). Through May of this year, there have been 233 mass shootings in the U.S., 27 of which have been in schools. Our schools have become battlefields. Those who survive, providing a sentence of lifelong complex trauma.

In the last three weeks, black people were targeted and killed while grocery shopping in Buffalo, NY. Asian Church goers were gunned down during Sunday Service in Southern California. Nineteen children and two teachers were slaughtered at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, with seventeen more wounded. Four people were slain in a Tulsa Oklahoma hospital. The United States gun homicide rate is 26 times that of other high-income countries.

The population of the United States is 332.4 million. Some argue we need more guns to protect ourselves from the “bad guys,” but there are approximately 400 million guns, 20 million of which are semi-automatic rifles, in American homes. Do we really need more guns?

Fifty Senators have refused to vote for H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019, which passed the House. Why are they not voting on it? This sort of legislation allows for proper protections, while also ensuring responsible gun ownership for hunting and safety is maintained.

90% of Americans, regardless of their political views, want this to pass. Senators holding the American people hostage are doing so for their own power and position.  For them, this is much more important than human life. Shame on them! They provide for and protect their families at the expense of America’s slaughtered children.

If Senator Mitch McConnel and all those Senators opposing legislation like H.R.8 could truly understand what it feels like to be shot, to experience a child or loved one’s brutal murder, they wouldn’t be the same human beings fighting for gun rights over life rights, playing politics over empathy and respect for all.

As a survivor of gun violence, I know exactly what it feels like to be on the receiving end of a trigger pull. Bullet fragments from the sawed off, double barrel shot gun used to shoot me shattered my face and skull. Twenty years later, more than three dozen fragments remain embedded, health complications continue. This, saying nothing of the complex trauma that remains. My attacker possessed dozens of guns, 100’s rounds of ammunition. Police found them stuffed under his couch and overflowing from the trunk of his car.

Even as a survivor of gun violence, I am not against responsible gun ownership. Like most Americans, I simply want common sense legislation – protections – to reduce senseless gun violence in our country. Let us all come together and demand action of our elected officials. Background checks will save lives. Banning weapons of war, high-capacity magazines, and bump stocks will save lives. Designating resources for mental health services will save lives.

For all the victims and survivors of Uvalde, Buffalo, Tulsa, Newtown, Las Vegas, and the countless other mass shootings, and for your own family, join me in prioritizing human life – because you don’t have to be a victim of gun violence to demand that human rights eclipse gun rights.

~ Rais Bhuiyan, Founder and President, World Without Hate

Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked and unjustified attack on Ukraine has already led to hundreds of deaths, countless injuries, and an innumerable toll on human lives. For most of us, experiencing war is utterly incomprehensible — the sheer terror of missiles falling from the sky, explosions devastating homes, packing your entire life in a suitcase, unsure if you’ll ever return.

In this increasingly divisive world, most of us have come together in shared outrage. At the very core, we are incensed by the loss of and impact on life. Humanity binds us. With ongoing coverage, we are real time witnesses. We watch people fleeing, doing what they can to protect their loved ones. We see people with one or two suitcases, their entire lives packed, perhaps never to return. Parents with children and pets hunkered down in subways stations, crying in fear and agony.  Older folks facing horrors and trauma they never imagined experiencing again, most angry they are too old to fight. When war like this breaks out, we remember the preciousness of life. 

Now we must come together for the people of Ukraine. Clearly, Putin and his morally corrupt circle care about power and dictatorship, not human life. It is easy for him to order troops to invade, lecturing from the ivory tower to justify actions, then to be on the ground witnessing, fighting, and risking his own life. Perhaps, he would think twice before launching the war if his own children or family had to join. Where are they? Of course, they are in safety, enjoying freedom, and luxury while the innocent Ukrainian children, men and women are facing the horror of war. We must not forget, and not stop demanding, that no innocent person should ever face such terrifying, barbaric, and inhumane experiences.

While we come together for Ukraine, let us also demand peace and end all other occupations and human suffering. Sadly, Russia’s attack is yet another in a long history of human suffering. This reckless battle is a grave breach of international law and human rights. What is happening on the ground today is inevitably going to cause tremendous pain and suffering in the long run — not only for the people of Ukraine, but also for the Russians, and people around the world. Those who have described this barbaric attack as genius, praised Putin with respect, or even entire countries that have remained silent — history will remember you as the villain, an enemy of human rights and humanity. Part of the catastrophe for us all is the loss of democracy. We have the power to hold our leaders accountable and must put pressure on them to stop this human suffering.

President Eisenhower, during the horrors of World War II said, “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.”

Our leaders must take heed. We must remind them. Call or write to your elected officials and let them know we must stand strongly with the people of Ukraine. Share your thoughts in an op-ed or utilize social media to call for peace and safety for Ukraine. Continue to witness, watching and listening closely to what is unfolding and why. Freedom is not free. While we must raise our voices for Ukraine’s freedom, we must also ensure that no Russians face discrimination because of who they are. They did not ask for this. In fact, many are risking their lives in protest. Let’s remember, America’s own democracy hangs in the balance too. We will not realize a world without hate if we do not actively work for it. We must remember, as Martin Luther King Jr. said, “injustice anywhere is threat to justice everywhere.”

Let us come together as one, human family and chant – we want a world without violence, a world without victims, and a world without hate.

~ Rais & Jessica Bhuiyan

Thanks to you, our donors & friends, we are thrilled to share these 2021 Highlights:

• World Without Hate was nominated for and won the 2021 Human Rights Organization Award from the City of Seattle Human Rights Commission.
• Rais served as a panelist for Seattle Human Rights Commission’s 2021 Human Rights Day event, Overcoming Hate: Reflections on Healing Post 9/11.
• Invited to apply for organizational support, World Without Hate has received its first-ever grant from the Doris Duke Foundation.
• Working with Congresswoman Eddie Bernie Johnson’s office (Dallas), World Without Hate’s authored House Resolution 662 was introduced on September 21, 2021 (the 20^th Anniversary of Rais’ shooting). This resolution serves as official acknowledgement for all victims and survivors of 9/11 hate crimes. Currently, our resolution is under review by the House, led by the Oversight and Judiciary Committees. 
• Under our National Healing & Reconciliation initiative, we:
  • developed and launched a special video calling for unity as we marked the 20^th Anniversary of 9/11.
  • participated in national and international interviews, stories, and short documentaries reflecting on the 20^th Anniversary of 9/11 such as CNN, ABC, NPR, PBS, BBC Radio, Al-Jazira, Voice of America (Urdu), Iranian TV etc.
  • are currently working on the development and production of a documentary entitled, Enemy. Stories humanize people and challenge us to reflect on our own learnings, morals, and beliefs. Enemy is designed to share human stories, debunking myths, and stereotypes about the “other,” defeat intolerance, racism, and violence. Enemy challenges all of us to treat each other as human first.  

• The Lucky Seven Foundation awarded World Without Hate with a grant to support the enhancement of our Empathy Ambassador Program, including curriculum updates and a new Virtual Reality component.
• We partnered with national and international organizations on various virtual events, including the:
  • U.S. Department of State, Office of International Religious Freedom; Promoting Mutual Respect Through Dialogue & Compassion
  • U.S. Consulate of Quebec City, Montreal, Canada & One World Strong; Empowering Youth against Extremism 
  • City of Winnipeg, Rotary Peace Builders of Winnipeg, Canada, & CRRIC; Anti-Racism week 2021. 
  • Voice of Islam, Christchurch, New Zealand; The Message of Peace o Rotary Social Justice Convening, Portland, OR; Racial Justice
  • Rais was chosen to serve as a 2021-2023 Humanities Washington Speakers Bureau member and has been connecting with people and communities around WA State in need of World Without Hate’s messages.

I will never forget having been in Manhattan that fateful day twenty years ago. The billowing smoke. The disappearing traffic. Thousands running for their lives. Instinctively, I fell into the crowd and ran, too. Remembering, my heart swells, recalling my own fear and the best of humanity I saw that day. More

World Without Hate has been hard at work on a very special project debuting for the 20^th Anniversary of September 11^th. A few behind the scenes photos showcase some of the incredibly generous individuals who came together to make this possible. Stayed tuned as all will be revealed shortly.   

In the meantime, we hope you will join us. Join us in honoring all those lost and affected on or because of the 9/11 terrorist attacks by:

• Getting to know someone seemingly unlike you
• Pledging to proactively denounce ignorance, intolerance, and hate
• Treating all individuals as humans first, honoring and embracing our visible and invisible diversity.

Together, we can create the world we all deserve – a world without violence, a world without victims, and a world without hate.