Saud Anwar

Senator Anwar Addresses All-Faith Gathering at Berlin Mosque in Wake of New Zealand Tragedy

State Senator Saud Anwar addresses an interfaith gathering at the Islamic Association of Greater Hartford in Berlin on Friday, March 15.

BERLIN, CT – Today, State Senator Saud Anwar (D-South Windsor) addressed an all-faith gathering at the Islamic Association of Greater Hartford (Berlin Masjid) in Berlin during afternoon prayers, discussing how faith communities can overcome tragedy. The gathering came in response to Friday’s tragic terrorist attack against two New Zealand mosques that left at least 49 dead and many more wounded.

On Sunday, Sen. Anwar, Lieutenant Governor Susan Bysiewcz, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal and many other elected officials and faith leaders will attend an event at the Islamic Association of Greater Hartford, standing united in the face of hatred. The event will also address improving protection of all places of worship in response to terrorist attacks committed against them in recent years.

Friday’s terror attacks come after similar attacks against a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania synagogue in 2018, a Quebec City, Quebec mosque in 2017, a Charleston, South Carolina church in 2015 and a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin in 2012, among others.

“If hate takes seed in the mind of an individual,” Sen. Anwar said in his address to the all-faith gathering, “it can become a disease and it can become a cancer that can manifest and hurt our society. The only way to take care of that hatred is to fill hatred with love and do the right thing, and to spread a message of love and respect for all people. An attack on one faith is an attack on every faith.”

“Today, it is a blessing to have people of all faiths unite together,” said Sen. Anwar. “We need to, as the state of Connecticut, have a plan to make places of worship safer for all. Every faith community has been attacked across the country in past years – our Jewish, Sikh, Christian and Muslim brothers and sisters have all been attacked. We need to have a plan of action: how do we build resiliency in the community and in places of worship so we don’t have to have these conversations? We need to have conversations about spreading love, and spread the message of the brotherhood and sisterhood we share in all faiths.”