The brother of a woman killed during the terrorist attacks in Paris said over the weekend that he hoped authorities would not respond to violence with violence as the United States had done after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
Alexis Breuil, 26, told Time magazine that his family found out from a friend that his 23-year-old sister, Elodie, had been killed while an Eagles of Death Metal concert.
The friend, who wished to remain anonymous, overheard one of the gunman say that the attacks were “for everything that’s happening in Syria.”
“Can you imagine?” Breuil lamented to the magazine. “One day you’re just a happy teenager, playing video games. The next you’re laying in a pool of blood with corpses all around you.”
“I understand the anger. I’m not angry. Maybe I will be, but I’m not right now,” Breuil continued. "I worry that we’ll make the same mistake as before, when the U.S. was attacked, by responding to violence with violence."
Elodie's brother hoped that authorities would "show the other cheek."
"Instead of responding with violent acts we have to understand what is the cause of the problem and work together to try and prevent it," Breuil said, adding a Bible verse from Mathew 5:39: “But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.”
Breuil noted, however, that he believed religion was part of the problem.
“People say these extremists are stupid. They aren’t stupid," he explained. "They have another culture. They have a different climate, a different economy, a different language, a different culture. A different religion. And you have to try and put yourself in their place."
Breuil concluded with this request to Times's Jay Newton-Small.
“All you can do is inform the world about these horrible things that we do to ourselves,” he said.
