A Shia mosque was vandalized by sprayed hate text on Saturday night in Helsinki. On the next day, people from different faiths showed their solidarity and support in cleaning up the wall out of "hate" together before the Eid al-Fitr.
They showed together that they want to maintain and build friendship and good relations: We don't accept the violence.There is no room for hate but for caring each other.
The idea of this event came from a long friendship between Paula Kemell, who chaired the council of Resalat Islamic community for many years and who has been an active participant in URI Cooperation Circle activities in Helsinki, and me, who also has been actively involved with URI for years (and now I work as a pastor at the Union of Lutheran Parishes in Helsinki in promoting interfaith cooperation). Imam Abbas Bahmanpour is the youngest imam in Finland (and also the son of Paula Kemell). He participated in our interfaith activity for the first time at the age of 16, about 15 years ago.
The newspaper Helsingin Sanomat published two short articles about this occasion.
