Meet the Muslim HERO of the Kosher Grocery

[MohRokTah]

Lassana Bathily, Muslim Employee At Kosher Market, Saved Several People During Paris Hostage Situation

Lassana Bathily, a Muslim employee at Paris Kosher grocery store Hyper Cacher, saved several people by hiding them in a walk-in freezer when a gunman laid siege to his workplace on Friday.

Amedy Coulibaly burst into the market and opened fire, killing 4 people. He took several shoppers hostage and threatened to kill them if police stormed the printing shop where Cherif and Said Kouachi, who killed 12 people in an attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo earlier in the week, were holed up in a village to the north.

Bathily, identified by French media as a "Malian Muslim," helped several customers to safety as the chaos unfolded. "I went down to the freezer, I opened the door, there were several people who went in with me. I turned off the light and the freezer," Bathily, 24, told French network BFMTV. "I brought them inside and I told them to stay calm here, I'm going to go out. When they got out, they thanked me."

It's unclear exactly how many people Bathily managed to hide inside the freezer in the store's basement. City councillor Malik Yettou said that six people and a baby escaped the gunman by hiding there, while BFMTV put the number at about 15.

...

HuffPo Link

[JustAnotherGen]

1. A man with a good and brave heart

[MohRokTah]

8. He put his life on the line for those he protected.

He told them to be quiet and stay hidden while he left the freezer to check out the situation.

A true hero.

[JustAnotherGen]

9. I suspect

He is a human being first - who saw people - his fellow paysan in trouble.

[Depaysement]

3. Shhhhh . . .

These facts don't fit the narrative of some people.

[Jack Rabbit]

5. Then shout those facts out from the rooftops

And, in memory of staff of Charlie Hebdo, make fun of demagogues like Rupert Murdoch and Marie LePen who are trying to make hay from this tragedy by sowing the seeds of division.

[PatrynXX]

6. yep. get a bump in my throat reading about this

they are reading the wrong book this cult..

[m-lekktor]

4. no he is just a HERO we can't talk about religion.

seriously we are only allowed to talk about their religous affiliation if they do something good. if it was bad. HE ISNT A MUSLIM!!11

[Burf-_-]

7. Absolutley ,thank you....

Yeah what exactly does his Religious identification have to do with it anyway?

He made the decision to act morally and save lives, it wasn't Islam. In fact no morality is bestowed upon you by a religion or a god of any kind .You are a human, who makes your own choices to act as a benfactor, selfishly, or maliciously. Those choices come from within your own person and define who you are. Yet, here we have just another thread of DU apologists who are refusing face the reality that RELIGION is actually to blame here, and many other places(boko haram). If there is any "narrative" here on DU about relgion in general(yet especially to Islam), it's one of blind apologetics and capitulation. Time to get real DU !

[a2liberal]

10. wow, way to prove his point (nt)

[Behind the Aegis]

11. Actually, your saying much the same in reverse.

If religion can be blamed for actions, it can equally be praised for actions. I don't like how people are trying to claim the shooters weren't "real" Muslims, yet, when it comes to this man, he is praised for being Muslim, as well as his actions. IMO, he's religion probably did play a part in his actions, including his humanity. What he did is the very definition of heroism and he should be lauded as a the hero he is, and if that includes mentioning his religious identification, then so be it.

[oberliner]

12. Seems like basic human dignity

I can't imagine any half-way decent person not doing what he did under those circumstances.

[tblue]

13. Oh that's good to hear

in these days when the news is full of bad, bad guys. It does my heart good to read about someone who SAVED lives.

[sus453]

14. I think the reason this is important is because

he's a member of a certain group of people who are singled out and demonized in these situations. It's symbolically important. As an aside (not to change the subject), it would be nice if there was the same outcry when Muslims are slaughtered by ISIS or Al Qaida.

[Berlin Expat]

18. Look at

what the takfiri in Boko Haram did - they killed something close to 2,000 people in northeast Nigeria in what I can only describe as an epic killing spree. That's a death toll that's damned near 9/11 levels.

And yet.....very little coverage on this atrocity.

Earlier today (Saturday) several were killed in Tripoli, Lebanon when two suicide bombers set themselves off in a cafe.

Perhaps it's what many in the West consider "run of the mill" for that part of the world. The sad reality remains that the bulk of those killed by groups like al-Qaeda or IS are Muslims.

The reason they end up dead? They're the 'wrong kind' of Muslims. IS in particular has, as one of its objectives, a "purification" of the Ummah in mind as their primary goal. And they intend to achieve that "purification" through mass murder.

I have my own view - the problem, quite bluntly, is Salafism/Wahhabism. It is a cancer that is destroying the Islamic world. And what's worse - America's putative allies, the House of Saud, has spent tens of billions of dollars since the mid-1970's to propagate this toxic and virulently fanatical doctrine on a global basis. Indeed, IS is perhaps the most extreme manifestation of Wahhabism, so extreme that they're now wanting to go after Saudi Arabia itself, viewing them as insufficiently "pure".

The logical end result of extremism. And Sufis such as myself know to keep our heads down because these fanatics have made it known in no uncertain terms that people like me are - in their view - apostates who are to be killed without question.

Wahhabists have killed more Muslims than in Pamela Geller's wildest fantasies. Sad but true.

[narnian60]

15. 880 views

38 recs. ????????

[Liberal_in_LA]

16. age 24 from Mali, West Africa

[freshwest]

20. I love him for this. We all need good hearted people, we can't afford to lose them.

He looks sad and shocked... Sorry he has had to see all of that, it had to be horrifying but he did the right thing.

[Dr. Strange]

23. WAIT A MINUTE--IS THAT A HOODIE???!?!

[cwydro]

17. A brave man.

We can only hope we would respond that way.

[mylye2222]

19. He deserves

The Medal of Righteous among Natilns. As well as Légion d'honneur.

[HeiressofBickworth]

21. I was just thinking the same thing -- he should get an award of some kind

It would go a long way to smooth relations among both the Jewish community and the Muslim community. And, above all, HE DESERVES AN AWARD. He was quick-thinking and heroic.

Oh, and PS, he is Muslim employed at a kosher store. Irony? Diversity!

[kelliekat44]

24. An award would be nice. A monetary, sizable reward would be nicer. He didn't do it for money

but i bet money would do him a lot of good.

[smirkymonkey]

22. He is a good human being. Thank god

for people like him who value human lives over ideology. If only there were more people like him.