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Today is World Refugee Day. Right now, there are 43.4 million refugees around the world, a figure that could double in the next decade, according to the head of UNHCR.

Refugees are human beings. Individuals who’ve fled their countries to escape violence, persecution, war, ethnic cleansing, and genocide, seeking safety and security in another nation. According to the UNHCR, at least 117.3 million people around the world have been forced to flee their homes. Of the nearly 43.4 million current refugees, around 40% are under the age of 18. There are also millions of stateless people who have been denied a nationality and lack access to basic rights such as education, health care, employment, and freedom of movement.

Throughout my life’s journey, I have met many refugees— children, young adults, and the elderly—in places like Germany, Italy, the USA, and Bangladesh. Their stories are both harrowing and inspiring.

In Bangladesh, I met children at the largest refugee camp in the world. These individuals traveled day and night to cross the border, constantly fearing the Myanmar military’s violence. In Germany, I encountered children from Syria, Iraq, and African countries who once dreamt of becoming doctors and engineers like their parents or loved ones, their dreams overshadowed by an uncertain future. A young adult from Afghanistan, whom I met in Germany, shared that he was born in war, never knowing a single day without bloodshed and death. Despite this, having secured refugee status in Germany and learning the language, he was hopeful about attending medical school and serving humanity.

Through my visits to refugee camps and my conversations with refugees, it became clear that no one wants to be a refugee. Everyone I spoke with longed to return to home, where they had a life and beautiful memories. They do not wish to be looked down upon simply because they were forced to flee. Like all of us, they simply want to live. During a visit to a facility in Germany, I met university students, doctors, lawyers, and pharmacists who spend their evenings teaching refugees the German language. When I asked why they were doing this despite their demanding schedules, they responded, “We don’t want to be defined by our previous generations’ mistakes, but rather by what we’re doing for humanity.” This response deeply moved me. These young German students are paving the way for a world built upon empathy, dignity, and humanity, offering valuable lessons for all of us.

Especially relevant are the countries that export arms and import refugees. These nations need to stop their war-driven economies, which produce refugees abroad while fostering hate and intolerance against them at home. When I asked Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh what they wanted most, they overwhelmingly told me they wanted to go home. War is a business of the rich and powerful, keeping poor and weak nations in perpetual conflict, supporting dictators and brutal regimes and allowing them to persecute their people. If these leaders and arms manufacturers considered that they feed their children at the expense of other children’s lives, their luxurious lifestyles earned by the death and destruction of innocent people, perhaps they would act more humanely.

On this World Refugee Day, let us commit to building a world where empathy, understanding, and peace prevail over conflict, violence, and persecution. Together, we can create a future where no one is forced to flee their home, and everyone can live with dignity and hope.

Honorable Members of Congress,

I write this with a heavy heart, burdened by the weight of our nation’s continual mass shootings. Horrific events like the Rob Elementary School massacre in Uvalde, TX – now more than a year ago –seem to have become a normal part of American life. Mass shootings in the U.S. are on record pace for 2023. Roughly every week a community in our country faces this kind of deadly violence, just the other day in Chicago. In the aftermath at Sandy Hook Elementary School, over a decade ago, the entire nation cried out for help. Instead of valuing human life with meaningful reform, you shared hollow prayers and empty condolences. You, the very people who are elected to protect us. 

Your prayers didn’t stop the murderers from purchasing weapons of war, nor have they stemmed the tide of violence that continues to claim innocent lives. From Sandy Hook to Buffalo to Charleston and far too many more, lives are forever lost. It is time for you, our elected to transcend partisan politics, money, and power to keep safe those you took an oath to protect. It is time for action.

It is simply unfathomable to me that anyone would play politics with human life. For the thousands who have been silenced by mass shootings, and the 352,000+ children who have experienced gun violence in school since Columbine, we must rise above impasses and strive for a society where our children, loved ones, and fellow citizens are shielded from harm.

In the days following the tragic, yet entirely preventable, Uvalde massacre, I visited the site to pay my respects. The air was heavy with grief, a profound pain weighed on my chest, and tears filled the eyes of everyone silently passing by. I witnessed children, some no older than six or seven, offering flowers as a token of love and respect for their fallen peers. As I sat on the ground, paralyzed with sorrow, I was once again transported to the moments when I lay on a cold, concrete floor, my own blood pooling beneath me, having been shot in the face by a white supremacist in the aftermath of 9/11. I could not comprehend the thoughts that must have consumed those little angels during these similar, terrifying moments of life and death. Did they cry out for their mothers as I did? How can those who claim to be civilized allow such barbaric and senseless killings to occur — and repeatedly? How can our elected officials, those who possess the power to halt this madness, turn a blind eye to their fellow human beings, their own children, loved ones, and even the God they proclaim to pray to when these catastrophic events occur?

Honorable members of Congress, the time for change is now. Even as a survivor of gun violence, I’m not against responsible gun ownership, but it is crucial to acknowledge that citizens of a civilized society do not require weapons of war. The responsibility lies with you to rise above partisan divides and act in the best interest of the people you were elected to serve. There is no excuse. The cries for sensible gun reform and the demand for measures that protect the lives of our children and citizens cannot be silenced any longer. We implore you to let your actions speak louder than your prayers. Demonstrate the courage and resolve necessary to enact meaningful change. Do not let the legacy of Sandy Hook, Uvalde, Buffalo, Nashville, Allen, and countless other tragedies only be inaction and empty condolences.

As someone who knows what it feels like to be on the receiving end of a bullet, I implore you to find the strength to lead with empathy, integrity, and a commitment to the welfare of all Americans, to human life.

With sincere hope,

Rais Bhuiyan, Survivor & Founder, World Without Hate

World Without Hate’s documentary Pain and Peace, in post-production, captures stories from survivors and former perpetrators of hate-fueled violence, an antidote to divisive forces and toxic messaging.

As I stood in the crowded East Room during the conclusion of the first of its kind, United We Stand Summit, President Biden reminded us that “The power is within each of us to transform the story of our time to rise together against hate, to show who we are. We are the United States of America. There nothing, nothing, beyond our capacity.” The President’s address, my fellow panelists, and the elected officials, civil rights groups, law enforcement, faith, and community leaders, and all who attended renewed my hope for peace, understanding, and healing.

Attending the Summit was an incredibly emotional experience. I couldn’t help but reflect upon the last 21 years – from lying in my own blood fighting to stay alive, to this very moment, being invited to the White House to share my story and commitment to combating hate and violence. I’m always honored to share my experiences in hopes of inspiring others to get to know the other because once you do, it is hard to hate them.

When I first arrived in the U.S. and later when I moved to Dallas, I found Americans to be friendly, often curious about where I was from and what brought me to America. Immediately after September 11^th, 2001, everything changed. Even the regular customers who came into the convenience store where I worked looked at me with suspicion. Others became angry at me. I no longer felt safe, or even welcome, in the country and community that had embraced me just days before.

Anti-Muslim sentiment was immediate. My faith and dark skin now made me feel like a target. I realized my life in America would never be the same. In the instant it took the pull the trigger, my American dream turned nightmare. I lost everything except for my life, but held tightly to my hopes, dreams, and faith. Though my face and skull are riddled with bullet fragments, and I lost sight in one eye, but gained another kind of vision in my heart, a vision to help create a world based upon mutual respect, dignity, and understanding where we, and our next generations, can coexist peacefully. While I continue to make peace with my pain, there isn’t a day that goes by that I’m not reminded or affected by my attack.

Occasionally, I hear that my story is “old” and too many people only know me as a 9/11 hate crime survivor. While it may seem irrelevant to most, I believe it is vital to continue sharing stories like mine because tragically, hate fueled violence continues to grow in our country. And those of us who bear the brunt don’t have the luxury of putting the experience behind us — ever. The ongoing physical, mental, and emotional ramifications of being a hate crime victim are felt every day. Every. Single. Day. Part of my mission to prevent and disrupt hate and violence is to save others from having to live a life like mine. I wish it for no one.

To make matters more complicated, after 9/11 hate in the U.S. took a dramatic turn. Multiple groups such as Muslims, Sikhs, and people of Arab and South-Asian descent — or those perceived to be members of these groups — were suddenly labeled as threats, as terrorists living among us. As the years went on, anti-Muslim rhetoric and hate fueled violence skyrocketed. Tragically, the trends continue today. According to Cynthia Miller-Idriss, Professor, School of Public Affairs & School of Education at American University from a study last year, only half of Asian-American-Pacific Islanders said they feel safe going out. I can certainly attest to this.

Islamophobia is used to create misinformation, intolerance, fear, and hate against a group of people still truly unknown to most. This is ultimately why I was attacked. It is also why I continue to live in fear, never knowing exactly how someone might perceive me along the way. Islamophobia is used as a political weapon — to energize political bases and to divert voter focus from actual, fact-based issues, aiding in political and personal gain. We saw it with former president Obama during his presidential campaigns and we saw it again during the 2016 and 2020 elections. The seed of intolerance, fear, and hate against Blacks, Hispanics, Asian-Americans, Muslims, Jews, Sikhs, LGBTQ, and non-binary folks, and too many others has been nurtured by more power and money than the rest of us can fight against. Prime examples include the evil manifested and displayed on Jan 6^th and the rise of anti-Asian hate due to Covid.

During the last twenty-years, while our country had to fight and dismantle foreign terrorist groups, home grown terrorists and extremist groups have flourished at the detrimental expense of religious and ethnic minorities. Hate knows no bounds. When we allow hate to spread against one group, it eventually spreads to others. We’re living it today, as a highly divided nation, where certain elected officials and the media continue pinning Americans against each other for power and profit. These tactics destroy and take lives.

It’s never too late to do the right thing. I do applaud the Biden-Harris administration for focusing on this issue, taking initiative to prevent the further fragmenting of our nation, working with people across party-line and encouraging all Americans to come together, and to find ways to prevent and disrupt hate and violence. Each of my fellow panelists at the United We Stand Summit – Mayra, Vilma, Pardeep, Joseph, and Dawn have paid the ultimate price because of hate fueled violence. While carrying life-long pain, we have all found purpose – a shared purpose to combat hate and find our way to a more united nation. While the White House’s Summit was just one day, the hard work continues. I am encouraged by the promises Vice President Harris, Ambassador Rice, President Biden and all who shared the vision for ongoing community-wide collaborations made to us. I echo the sentiment of everyone in the East Room on September 15^th – we won’t let hate win. There’s nothing that we can’t fix or achieve when we work together.

I invite you to subscribe to our email list and follow us on social media to join our journey toward a world without violence, a world without victims and a world without hate.

Join Us – World Without Hate

~ Rais Bhuiyan, Founder, 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.

In order to lessen life’s struggles, we need to first acknowledge them with compassion and empathy.

Hunger is a killer in our world. The statistics are staggering. Approximately 3.1 million children die from malnutrition each year. A child under the age of five will die of hunger in the next five seconds. One in every nine people suffer from hunger in the world. Over 10 million children live in food-insecure households in one of the richest countries in world — America.

Have you ever wondered what it must feel like to be a hungry child or a starving parent? Can you imagine what it must be like to feel hungry, while simultaneously contending with the agony of not being able to properly feed your family? Most of us will be fortunate to never know this kind of pain firsthand, but we can look within ourselves, appreciate all that we do have, and ask one another what we can do for others. Acting with empathy is something we can all do. We can move from imagining what it is like to be hungry, we can spend some time truly feeling. Often times, empathy leads us to action, wanting to those in need however we can.

Of many, one purpose of Ramadan is to empathize for the hungry. Depriving oneself from eating and drinking from sunrise to sunset, for a month, helps to realize the pain of a child who goes to bed hungry each and every night or an elder starving because they had to choose medicine over food, or those who walk miles, every single day, just to collect clean water.  While we may not be able to solve the hunger issue all at once, we can start by:

1. Learning to use only what we need. Stop wasting food and water.
2. Taking care of our poor relatives, neighbors, community members, and gradually expanding this circle.
3. Support authentic charities that fight hunger.
4. Standup against the entities using food as a weapon to maintain power and control.

I have been fasting for about two weeks now, with about two more to go. If you are reading this, I invite you to join me in this empathy challenge of fasting for a day. (Please note those with any health issues are always exempt). And if you choose to do so, please invite 3 people in your circle and ask them to do the same. If you except this empathy challenge, let me know (info@worldwithouthate.org) how it went for you. How did you feel? What did you think? How are you compelled to help others?

~ Rais Bhuiyan, Founder & President, World Without Hate