How friendship changed one man’s heart.Farhad grew up in Afghanistan in the 1990s. Violence was the norm: The mullah taught that “if you attended stonings, God reduced your sins.” His heart became black with hate.
When he arrived in Italy in 2004, he was convinced that Christians were infidels and that therefore they should die: “They told us it was written in the Quran.” It was the “little human gestures” that washed away the darkness of his heart.
Today, Farhad bears witness to what changed his life: “All of my transformation was due to meeting with people who are different. In dialogue with people different from me I found myself and my Islam. I’ve discovered that God is love.”
He lost many friends, and a fatwa was issued condemning him to death, but he keeps on going. “The suffering in my past has become the strength of my present,” he said. “I’m not afraid, because I’ve chosen freedom.”
