7-year-old shows compassion to hate-crime victims in touching act of kindness

'This gives me hope...'

Following a hate crime at a Texas mosque that involved smeared feces and torn pages from the Koran, seven-year-old Jack Swanson decided to donate his life savings of $20 to help.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The hate crime included torn pages from the Koran and excrement strewn outside and on the walls of the Islamic Center of Pflugerville. In a beautifully compassionate act of kindness, one boy decided to help those he viewed not as "radical Muslims," but as "people."

"We were talking in the car how someone smeared poop on their church," Jack's mother, Laura, told KXAN, "and that was a really, really awful thing to do and we had a good conversation what churches are for and how everybody's churches are important."

Swanson added, "I think it's really good to get kids involved and to let them know what the important stuff really is."

Jack decided he wanted to donate his saving to the mosque, so the mother-son duo got his piggy bank and cashed in the coins. The child's bank held nothing but pennies, but they added up to $20. Though it wasn't much, Jack was determined to give.

Faisal Naeem, a board member at the Islamic Center of Pflugerville, said he was touched by the child's display of compassion. Naeem has his own seven-year-old son and was able to fully understand what a piggy bank of carefully counted and collected coins would have meant to the boy.

"It's 20 bucks, but coming from Jack collecting his pennies it's worth 20 million bucks to me and to our community," Naeem admitted.

He went on to say that he would rather greet the person or persons responsible and welcome them into a conversation to help them understand what real, non-radical Muslims believe.

"This gives me hope because this means it's not one versus the other. He or she, who ever did this, or they, doesn't represent anybody but themselves. If I find the guy or girl who did this I would welcome them with open arms, to have a conversation with them.

"If this person wants to come and talk to us about why he did it and how we are not connected to what is happening in Paris or the Middle East. Last thing we want is anybody: my kids, anybody's kids, Muslims, non-Muslim, doesn't matter, getting hurt." 
Meanwhile, Swanson said she hopes the people responsible are caught because "[I]t's disgusting, it's gross, it doesn't matter what you believe, what I believe, what he believes or anybody believes, all faith is important."

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