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17th Nov 2015

French man pens defiant message to ISIS after his wife was killed in Paris terror attacks

'I will not give you the gift of hating you'

Kevin Beirne

During the hardest times, it’s always amazing to see those who respond with love and positivity.

Antoine Leiris has more reasons than almost anyone to feel hatred and bitterness about what happened in Paris on Friday.

The Parisian’s wife, and mother of his 17-month-old son, was killed when gunmen opened fire on the crowd watching a gig at the Bataclan theatre.

But Leiris says he will not indulge in hatred, penning this moving status on his Facebook page.

“Vous n’aurez pas ma haine” Vendredi soir vous avez volé la vie d’un être d’exception, l’amour de ma vie, la mère de…

Posted by Antoine Leiris on Monday, 16 November 2015

In English, he says:

‘On Friday night you stole away the life of an exceptional being, the love of my life, the mother of my son, but you will not have my hatred. I do not know who you are and I don’t want to know, you are dead souls. If the God for whom you kill so blindly made us in His image, each bullet in my wife’s body would have been a wound in His heart.

‘We are only two, my son and I, but we are more powerful than all the world’s armies… every day of his life this little boy will insult you with his happiness and freedom.

Paris Turns Blue, White and Red For Victims Of Friday's Terrorist Attacks

‘Therefore I will not give you the gift of hating you. You have obviously sought it but responding to hatred with anger would be to give in to the same ignorance that that has made you what you are. You want me to be afraid, to cast a mistrustful eye on my fellow citizens, to sacrifice my freedom for security. Lost. Same player, same game.

‘Of course I’m devasted with grief, I will give you that tiny victory, but this will be a short-term grief. I know that she will join us every day and that we will find each other again in a paradise of free souls which you will never have access to.

‘We are only two, my son and I, but we are more powerful than all the world’s armies. In any case, I have no more time to waste on you, I need to get back to Melvil who is waking up from his afternoon nap. He’s just 17 months old; he’ll eat his snack like every day, and then we’re going to play like we do every day; and every day of his life this little boy will insult you with his happiness and freedom. Because you don’t have his hatred either.’