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Heart and Soul: The Right Thing: Saving the man who shot me

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The right thing: Saving the White supremacist who shot me

26/02/2021 GMT

The Right Thing: Saving the man who shot me

BBC World Service - Heart and Soul, The Right Thing: Saving the man who shot me

Shot in ‘revenge’ for 9/11, Rais Bhuiyan tried to save his attacker’s life

Shot in ‘revenge’ for 9/11, Rais Bhuiyan tried to save his attacker’s life.

Mike Wooldridge tells the story of Rais Bhuiyan, who In his 20s, traded a job in the Bangladeshi Air Force for a life in the US. He was working at a petrol station.  A man with baseball cap walked in and pointed a double-barrelled shotgun at him. Rais offered all the money in the till to him, but the attacker asked him where he was from. Rais was confused, and said ‘Excuse me?’, but as he spoke, he was shot. He said it felt like a million bees stinging his face. He fell to the floor and started reciting from the Koran, begging God not to take him that day.

White supremacist Mark Stroman’s attack left Bhuiyan partially blind, and two other men died during Stroman’s killing spree. In court Stroman said he had intended to target Muslims in revenge for the 9/11 attacks. Stroman was found guilty and received the death penalty, but Bhuiyan forgave his attacker and campaigned against the execution, saying that his faith told him that saving one life was like saving the whole of mankind.

As well as Rais, we hear from his friends, those who worked alongside him to save Mark Stroman, and the brother-in-law of one of the other victims, Waqar Hussein.

(Photo: Rais Bhuiyan. Credit: WFFA ABC Channel 8, Dallas)

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