On September 21, 2001, Rais Bhuiyan was working at a gas station in Dallas when he was shot in the face by a man named Mark Stroman. Stroman was an unstable man on a shooting spree, targeting people who appeared to be Muslim or of Middle Eastern descent. For his actions, Stroman is scheduled to be executed on July 20. Meanwhile, Rais required medical attention years after the attack. The bullet hit him on the right side of the face, leaving severe injuries. When his family discovered what had happened, his father suffered a stroke- another trauma.
Despite all the pain and suffering endured, Rais, the only survivor of the attacks is fighting to save Stroman’s life. “According to my faith in Islam, there is no hate, no killing. It doesn’t allow anything like that,” Rais says. “Yes, Mark Stroman did a horrible thing, and he brought a lot of pain and disaster, sufferings in my life. But in return I never hated him. I strongly believe executing him is not a solution. We will just simply lose a human life without dealing with the root cause, which is hate crime. In Islam, it says that saving one human life is the same as saving the entire mankind. Since I forgave him, all those principles encouraged me to go even further, and stop his execution and save another human life.”
Even after he had recovered somewhat, Rais was unable to fly home to Bangladesh to see his parents out of fear that the pressure changes in the plane might have caused his injured eye to explode. Almost 10 years later, the only visible signs of his shooting are a sagging eye and a slight stiffness in his face when he speaks. “My mother taught me that if people hurt you, don’t hurt them back. Today or tomorrow, they will ask you for forgiveness.”
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