Amid the terror in Tunisia, there's still love

Blog: Brothers' gesture of respect for Sousse victims shared tens of thousands of times on Facebook, while campaign launched to raise funds for brave hotel staff.

Narrated

2 min read

Dalal Jebril-Rogers

03 Jul, 2015

The Tunisian brothers' message. Photo from Facebook page

Amid sadness and anger at the Tunisian beach massacre, messages of love, peace and tolerance have also emerged.

Two brothers from Tunisia have sent the world a message of respect for the victims by placing flowers at the scene in Sousse. The brothers were wearing traditional Islamic wear, and wrote messages saying 'we are sorry' to the victims.

The photos were shared more than 40,000 times within two days of being published on a Facebook page named Brotherhood in Islam.

Despite some negative comments, most of the responses showed how appreciative the people were of the brothers' gesture, and expressed their respect for the Tunisian people.

comment 1

comment 2

We spoke to the administrator of the page, Mohammad, who said the brothers were unknown to him but the response to their gesture was overwhelming.

"I could never have imagined how strongly the brothers' message would resonate on the page. I was pleased to see that the post had reached so many people, and hoped to create dialogue as a form of reconciliation," he said.

"As a result people have messaged me wanting to know more about Islam, to clear any misconceptions they may have picked up along the way."

In another gesture, Nathan Priestley has begun a crowd funding campaign online to raise fund to the Tunisian hotel staff members.

His goal was to collect $1,600 but has had almost $12,500 pledged in three days. The collection is still rising.

Priestley was touched by the hotel staff bravery in shielding tourists and trying to save them from the gunman Seifeddine Rezgui. Yet he noticed that their bravery did not resonate in mainstream media.

He writes in his introduction: "One thing that has not had enough coverage is the bravery of the hotel staff and how they helped save so many lives that day.

"They are incredibly distraught about the situation and their jobs are on the line as a result of 90 percent of the guests leaving."