Anniversary of a Great Tragedy

It is with great anguish that we are communicating our heartfelt condolences to the near and dear ones of the brothers and sisters, whose lives were cut short by the thoughtless cruelty and religious bigotry of some misguided fundamentalist youths on this  fateful day an year ago.

We remember the thousands  of  brothers  and sisters, who were literally butchered, for no fault of their own and  pray to the G.A.O.T.U to bless them with everlasting peace.

Mere condemnation of the dastardly crime against those innocent  and  unarmed persons assembled peaceably attending to their business, unaware of the impending doom will not prevent any recurrence of such crimes. We feel that certain basics have to be understood for remedying the deep-seated malady. Mere counter violence will also be unproductive. Let us explore the remedy.

We feel that the basic tenets of freemasonry have to be spread among non masons also particularly that of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of  mankind  together with the three grand principles of  brotherly love, relief and truth. Every human being must realize that we have all been created by the Almighty God, with equality and with certain inalienable rights, which include, the  freedom of conscience. Hence, every human being can follow any religion, he or she likes and adopt any form of worship. All the religions proclaim that committing homicide is a sin. No religion permits killing of persons even of other religions. We find several persons in different parts of the world declaring a holy war on other nations or persons from time to time. I do not think that any of those persons have any semblance or even an iota of holiness in them. No religion permits all and sundry to declare holy war on others. No law of any civilized country empowers any of its citizens to declare war either holy or otherwise on others for any cause or purpose. It is rather strange that the name of God is invoked by terrorists and criminals to justify their criminal acts. It is time that all nations outlaw jihad and the International Community declares jihad as an offence against humanity and all the civilized governments prohibit and prevent any of its citizens carrying out any acts of terrorism in any form.

That apart, we think, that it is the duty of every Freemason to strive and make the world a better to place to live, which can be achieved by spreading and inculcating in others tolerance and respect for the rights of others. Every individual in this world has the inherent right to life and the right to live with human dignity. We have been taught that we should do to our neighbour as, in similar cases, we would wish he should do to us. Hence, our duty to our neighbours requires that their rights are respected. We should inculcate that sense of duty to the neighbours in all non masons also.

On this anniversary of the great tragedy, while remembering and praying for all those, who had lost their lives, due to terrorism, let us rededicate ourselves to spread the message and tenets of Freemasonry throughout the world, which alone can save mankind from the ills of hatred and terrorism.

Webmaster on behalf of Masonic Research Circle conveys our sympathies and prayers. We further pray that the Most High of His unbounded wisdom and goodness may be pleased to bestow peace, tranquility, progress and universal brotherly love and affection on all the Nations.