The XYZ Let’s Roll Award is handed out to civillians who risk their lives to save others against attacks by islamic terrorists. This award is named in honour of the passengers of Flight 93, who kicked off their on-board rebellion against the Islamic hijackers on September 11, 2001, with the now immortal line, “let’s roll.” The inaugural Let’s Roll Award was handed to Byron Price, who stopped a knife wielding jihadi with his bare hands at the University of California, Merced, on November 4, 2015.
Today’s recipients are a group of Kenyan muslims. They were on a bus near the border with Somalia, when a band of Al Shabaab terrorists sprayed the bus with gunfire and stormed the vehicle. As has become the pattern with attacks by Al Shabaab and IS, they attempted to seperate the muslims from the Christians, so that they could murder the Christians.
But the muslims, at the risk of their own lives, refused to play this deadly game. They got the men to put jackets over their heads and stand amongst them, and gave the christian females muslim headdresses so they would be disguised. When the terrorists realised that the passengers would not cooperate, they gave up and ran away, warning pathetically that they would be back.
We could not be prouder to award The XYZ Let’s Roll Award to the muslims on that bus in Kenya. Two passengers were murdered, and more were wounded, but the physical and moral courage they displayed to resist the islamic terrorists saved the lives of their fellow Kenyans.
There is so much more to take from this story, but I will try to be brief. The XYZ has made a very big deal this year about the danger posed to all of us by the ideology of islam. We have attempted at all times to distinguish between the ideology of islam and the people who follow it, muslims. I can find no better example than this to illustrate our point. What I would argue is that the Al Shabaab terrorists were certainly motivated, and instructed, by islam, to murder the Christians on that bus. Whether the muslims whose bravery saved the Christians were motivated and instructed by the same, will rightly be the subject of debate.
Their kindness will not stop me questioning and critiquing the ideology of islam, and calling for its reform. It will not stop me questioning the level of islamic immigration to the West, or even stop me entertaining the possibility of complete separation between Islam and the West.
But what I will never question is the humanity of muslims, and the fact that in their heart, lies good.
To the muslims on that bus, I say thank you.
Photo by Jeff Kubina 