Killed shopkeeper Asad Shah's family pay tribute to 'everyone's friend'
|
Version 0 of 1. Asad Shah “emphatically embodied” the hope for a world where all races and religions live in peace and harmony, according to his family who have spoken of their loss following the popular shopkeeper’s “incomprehensible” killing. In a statement, the Shah family describe the 40-year-old who was stabbed to death outside his newsagent’s in Glasgow last Thursday as “a beloved husband, son, brother and everyone’s friend”. “A person’s religion, ethnicity, race, gender or socioeconomic background never mattered to Asad,” the statement says. “He met everyone with the utmost kindness and respect because those are just some of the many common threads that exist across every faith in our world. He was a brilliant man, recognising that the differences between people are vastly outweighed by our similarities. And he didn’t just talk about this, he lived it each and every day, in his beloved community of Shawlands and his country of Scotland.” Shah was discovered with serious injuries outside his newsagent shop in the Shawlands area of Glasgow, a few miles south of the city centre, just after 9pm last Thursday and was taken to Queen Elizabeth University hospital, where he was pronounced dead. On Tuesday, 32-year-old Tanveer Ahmed, from Toller in Bradford, appeared in private at Glasgow sheriff court charged with Shah’s murder. He did not enter a plea. Since the killing, which shocked the multicultural community of Glasgow’s south side, more than £100,000 has been donated to an online fundraising page set up by customers of the much-loved shopkeeper. Thanking people from the local area and beyond for the outpouring of sympathy and support that has followed the killing, the family say: “If there was to be any consolation from this needless tragedy, it came in the form of the spontaneous and deeply moving response by the good people of Shawlands, Glasgow and beyond. As a family, we would like to express our deepest gratitude to all who have organised and participated in the street vigils, online petitions and messages. “You have moved us beyond words and helped us start healing sooner than we thought possible. You were Asad’s family as much as we are and we will always remain with you.” Referring to Shah’s legacy, the statement concludes: “One of our brightest lights has been extinguished but our love for all mankind and hope for a better world in which we can all live in peace and harmony, as so emphatically embodied by Asad, will endure and prevail. Asad left us a tremendous gift and we must continue to honour that gift by loving and taking care of one another.” |