When you persecute one of us, you persecute us all. The interfaith community around the world works hard to eliminate religiously-motivated violence. We need everyone–governments, NGO’s, corporations, private individuals–to fight this fight with us. “And then they came for me.” Linda L. Crawford, Executive Director, Interfaith Center at the Presidio, San Francisco, California, www.interfaith-presidio.org. Ms. Crawford refers to the second to last line in the poem below by Lutheran Pastor Martin Niemöller, who was interred in Moabit Prison in Berlin and later in Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps for his opposition to racial laws and persecution by the Third Reich.
First They Came
They came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for me and by that time no one was left to speak up.
