The father of an 8-year-old boy killed said, while in a hearse to bury his son on November 9, that he has forgiven the driver who crashed her vehicle into his son’s classroom.
In a Facebook Live video taken between the funeral of 8-year-old Jihad Darwiche and boy’s burial in Rookwood, father Raed Darwiche and his friend Ahmad Hraichie appealed for the abuse and harassment of the driver charged with the boy’s death to stop.
Jihad and his best friend died from their injuries on Tuesday when 52-year-old Maha Al-Shennag drove her car into a demountable classroom at Banksia Road Primary School in Greenacre. The mother-of-four, a widow with children who attended the school, has said that she was distracted by a water bottle that fell at her feet. She was charged with dangerous and negligent driving, ABC reported.
The conversation between Darwiche and Hraichie took was in a mix of Arabic and English, with Jihad’s green coffin clearly visible, and Hraichie noting the police escort. Hraichie said they had a “special message” to the “lady that was involved in the accident.”
“This man lost his son but he know that, Subhan Allah (glorious is God), he gained a boy in Jannah (heaven),” Hraichie said, while translating for the father.
“The father says, all this stuff happening about the threats to this lady and the abuse is not from them. No retaliation is coming from the family of the boy, they have forgiven. If anything, they want to sit with this lady and talk with her and tell her, we forgive you.
“So please brothers and sisters, nobody abuse the school. The school had nothing to do with it. This is the will of the creator, he has ordained this, this was written.”
Al-Shennag, said through her lawyer she was grateful for Raed’s forgiveness, news.com.au reported. Credit: Facebook/Ahmad Hraichie via Storyful
