The London Blasts: Media Review

DAY 17: Sunday 24 July 2005 Part 1

'I could be very angry, but what would that do? Anger begets hatred, so let's forgive' - Marie Fatayi -Williams

THE FUNERAL (23 JULY)

The Sunday Telegraph: Twelve days ago, she stood in a London street by the wreckage of the Tavistock Square bus bomb and gripped the world with the power of a grieving mother's words and her call for peace.

"How many mothers' hearts must be maimed? Hatred begets only hatred. It is time to stop this vicious cycle of killing."

Yesterday, Marie Fatayi-Williams stood at a funeral Mass in Westminster Cathedral and offered a simple lament for her only son, Anthony.

"He had promised that when I was little, old and grey, his healthy arms would have been my strength and he would have soothed my pain away. Alas, that was not to be."

She looked towards her son's coffin and broke into song. In the Nigerian Yoruba language she offered a haunting rendition of Auld Lang Syne.

Beside her, Dr Alan Fatayi-Williams, Anthony's Muslim father, and Tom Ikimi, Anthony's uncle and a former Nigerian foreign minister, wiped tears from their eyes.

Marie Fatayi-Williams, however, simply stood red-eyed, but proud.

On July 7, her 26-year-old son, an oil executive, boarded the number 30 bus and was blown up by a fanatical suicide bomber.

Even after the funeral, however, as 700 mourners emerged, many in tears, Mrs Fatayi-Williams refused to give in to anger. "Of course I am sad," she declared. "I lost my only son. I am distraught. I am distraught, but I'm not angry.

"I could be very angry, but if I was angry what would that do? Anger begets hatred, begets more violence, so let's forgive."

Instead, the Mass was a celebration of Anthony as the "world citizen" and friend that he was.

Photographs in the order of service showed a smiling son hugging his mother at a wedding, and grinning again as he placed his hand on the shoulder of one of his sisters. Lauretta, 16, and Ayisha, 13, had left their own tributes in the order of service.

Lauretta's tribute read: "I love you forever and I promise not to be a coconut head. Love you, your 'lulsy-bulbs'."

There was, of course, no hatred at this, the funeral of the son of a Catholic mother and Muslim father. Instead, it was possible to spot the turbans of Sikhs, the saris of Hindus, and Anthony's Muslim friends from Leeds.

Tariq Khan, 32, from Headingley, met Anthony at Bradford University. He was still struggling to comprehend what had happened. "He was a lovely person, the kind that would always break the ice at parties," he said.

In her speech near Tavistock Square, Mrs Fatayi-Williams had vowed: "I am his mother, I will fight til I die to protect him, to protect his values and his memory."

Now, in Westminster Cathedral, Mr Fatayi-Williams, representing the Muslim side of the family, declared that this would be done with the setting up of the Anthony Fatayi-Williams Foundation for Peace and Conflict Resolution. "Anthony was a peace-loving person, and his values we will strive to immortalise."

The congregation prayed for the other victims of the bombings, and also for the bombers themselves. For their part, the churchmen found themselves falling back on the words of Mrs Fatayi-Williams, with Bishop Alan Hopes using her words to urge the congregation not to "yield to the abyss of revenge".

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the leader of the Roman Catholics in England and Wales, thanked Mrs Fatayi-Williams: "You have spoken of Anthony as a sacrificial victim, whose sacrifice must not be in vain. You have spoken movingly of the need to reject violence, of the obligation to resist hatred and by your words you have set before us all a beacon of light to guide our response to terrorism."

Inside the cathedral, Julie Coker, 65, one of Mrs Fatayi-Williams's regular fellow worshipers at the Church of the Assumption in Lagos - where a simultaneous memorial Mass was occurring - had lead the congregation in a lilting African offertory hymn. Now, outside the cathedral she smiled.

"Anthony was a wonderful child. His father is a Muslim, his mother is a Catholic. If the bombers thought they were going to spread hatred, to turn us against each other, they reckoned without Anthony. They reckoned without Marie."

The Independent on Sunday (page 19) quotes Marie Fatayi-Williams: 'This terror is not something you just blankly rationalise. You've got to go in-depthy and ask the question why and get the answers.'

'In Anthony's funeral mass programme I wrote a prayer for them [the bombers].'

'If I'm going to talk of peace in the world I have got to start by showing the example that I forgive. If people forgave them perhaps there would not be so much hatred. God will judge the ones who have gone.'

'I'm hoping that my plea and this foundation will reach those who are alive and considering this kind of thing. If my appeal stops just one potential suicide bomber then I will be happy. Then I will say, yes Lord, take Anthony's death as a sacrificial lamb for peace to reign in the world because we need a turning point.'

THE SPEECH (12 JULY)

Marie Fatayi -Williams:

"This is Anthony, Anthony Fatayi -Williams, 26 years old, he's missing and we fear that he was in the bus explosion ... on Thursday. We don't know. We do know from the witnesses that he left the Northern line in Euston. We know he made a call to his office at Amec at 9.41 from the NW1 area to say he could not make [it] by the tube but he would find alternative means to work.

Since then he has not made any contact with any single person. Now New York, now Madrid, now London. There has been widespread slaughter of innocent people. There have been streams of tears, innocent tears. There have been rivers of blood, innocent blood. Death in the morning, people going to find their livelihood, death in the noontime on the highways and streets.

They are not warriors. Which cause has been served? Certainly not the cause of God, not the cause of Allah because God Almighty only gives life and is full of mercy. Anyone who has been misled, or is being misled to believe that by killing innocent people he or she is serving God should think again because it's not true.Terrorism is not the way, terrorism is not the way. It doesn't beget peace.

We can't deliver peace by terrorism, never can we deliver peace by killing people. Throughout history, those people who have changed the world have done so without violence, they have [won] people to their cause through peaceful protest. Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, their discipline, their self-sacrifice, their conviction made people turn towards them, to follow them.

What inspiration can senseless slaughter provide? Death and destruction of young people in their prime as well as old and helpless can never be the foundations for building society.

My son Anthony is my first son, my only son, the head of my family. In African society, we hold on to sons. He has dreams and hopes and I, his mother, must fight to protect them. This is now the fifth day, five days on, and we are waiting to know what happened to him and I, his mother, I need to know what happened to Anthony.

His young sisters need to know what happened, his uncles and aunties need to know what happened to Anthony, his father needs to know what happened to Anthony. Millions of my friends back home in Nigeria need to know what happened to Anthony. His friends surrounding me here, who have put this together, need to know what has happened to Anthony.

I need to know, I want to protect him. I'm his mother, I will fight till I die to protect him. To protect his values and to protect his memory.

Innocent blood will always cry to God Almighty for reparation. How much blood must be spilled? How many tears shall we cry? How many mothers' hearts must be maimed? My heart is maimed. I pray I will see my son, Anthony. Why? I need to know, Anthony needs to know, Anthony needs to know, so do many others unaccounted for innocent victims, they need to know.

It's time to stop and think. We cannot live in fear because we are surrounded by hatred. Look around us today. Anthony is a Nigerian, born in London, worked in London, he is a world citizen.

Here today we have Christians, Muslims, Jews, Sikhs, Hindus, all of us united in love for Anthony. Hatred begets only hatred. It is time to stop this vicious cycle of killing. We must all stand together, for our common humanity.

I need to know what happened to my Anthony. He's the love of my life. My first son, my first son, 26. He tells me one day, "Mummy, I don't want to die, I don't want to die. I want to live, I want to take care of you, I will do great things for you, I will look after you, you will see what I will achieve for you. I will make you happy.' And he was making me happy.

I am proud of him, I am still very proud of him but I need to now where he is, I need to know what happened to him. I grieve, I am sad, I am distraught, I am destroyed.

He didn't do anything to anybody, he loved everybody so much. If what I hear is true, even when he came out of the underground he was directing people to take buses, to be sure that they were OK. Then he called his office at the same time to tell them he was running late.

He was a multi-purpose person, trying to save people, trying to call his office, trying to meet his appointments. What did he then do to deserve this. Where is he, someone tell me, where is he?"

Text: Guardian Video: BBC

Audio (interview): BBC

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