Duty of Tolerance

Dec 28, 2016 | News | 0

Duty of Tolerance is the key message that the well-known elderly resident of Port Vila, Caroline Mermer who is in her 80s, is sharing with other people ahead of the coming New Year.

Ms. Mermer was commenting on a recent parade in Port Vila by various church groups and leaders against the establishment of Islam faith in Vanuatu.

“What have our forefathers who fought for our Independence put in place for protection of other religions?

“If we claimed that we are a Christian country then we should never hate and discriminate other religions through such protest.

“I believe that any parade to protest against something is a political philosophy where people fight for power but if we are truly Christians living in a Christian country and are unhappy about something then we should fast and pray to seek God’s advice and counsel about it. That is the right thing we should to do.

“We allow them to come into our country in the first place because it is in our constitution,” Ms Mermer said.

She said many people stereotype Muslims as terrorists and that is very discriminating because some men don’t treat women well in Vanuatu and also the issues of killings in Port Vila are similar to acts of terrorism.

“Why scared of terrorists?”

“But if we fight and kill each other that is already terrorism.”

Grandma Caroline quotes from Matthew 5 vs 45 and Leviticus 25 vs 23 as the key message for everyone to read as the country approaches New Year.

She said everyone living in this world is only transiting temporarily here and so people should never hate and discriminate against each other.

Ms. Mermer says the number of Muslims make up a large number of the world’s population and even many of them are leaders in some of the big nations of the world, for example the current Mayor of London Mr. Sadiq Khan.

Concluding her message the elderly woman says she is a Christian and her message is not about hurting anyone but to share and express the love everyone should have for every other person.

She ended her message by wishing everyone a Happy Prosperous New Year 2017.

SOURCE: VANUATU DAILY POST

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