“We even gave some non-Muslims our religious attire to wear in the bus so that they would not be identified easily. We stuck together tightly,” Abdi Mohamud Abdi, a Muslim passenger recalls.Credit: Associated Press The terrorists tried to encourage division. They promised the Muslims safety, instructing them to simply get back on the bus. This had to be incredibly tempting, especially for Salah Farah -- a school teacher with four children and a wife who is nine months pregnant. RELATED: A 95-year-old saved from Nazis fights ISIS to pay it forward But Salah chose to stand for peace. He bravely told the militants to "kill them together or leave them alone." He was shot for this statement, and later died in the hospital during surgery. While at the hospital, prior to the surgery, Salah said,
"People should live peacefully together. We are brothers. It's only the religion that is the difference, so I ask my brother Muslims to take care of the Christians so that the Christians also take care of us...And let us help one another and let us live together peacefully."Salah Farah, in the hospital after being shot by Al-Shabaab militants Credit: VOA News via CNN Unfortunately, in addition to Salah, one other life was lost in the attack. But ultimately, unity won out and the terrorists left after the bus banded together.
“These Muslims sent a very important message of the unity of purpose, that we are all Kenyans and that we are not separated by religion,” said the Interior Minister, Joseph Nkaissery. “Everybody can profess their own religion, but we are still one country and one people.”As news of the standoff spread, folks took to social to applaud the heroism of the passengers, using the hashtag #ManderaHeroes.
[rsnippet id="2"] The show of solidarity was truly inspiring, and a beautiful reminder of what it truly means to love thy neighbor.Let my heroism be judged by how I stand with you at your weakest, most vulnerable point. Kenya, grow more heroes like the #ManderaHeroes.
— σθένος (@Kimaani) December 21, 2015
"And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is none other commandment greater than these." Mark 12:30-31