SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) – Almost a year after her father was killed in the San Bernardino terror attack last December, Kate Bowman etched the word “love” in yellow chalk on the sidewalk outside a mosque.
It was just one of the messages of peace the 15-year-old Lutheran and her mother have left in an effort to unify Muslims and Christians in the hardscrabble city east of Los Angeles against the violence that many community members feared might divide them.
“What angered me most after Dec. 2 was the amount of hate speech going on,” Bowman said, recalling the day her father, Harry Bowman, and 13 others were killed by husband-and-wife assailants at a lunch meeting for county health inspectors in San Bernardino.
“I just kind of didn’t understand how people could be that ignorant about another religion to think that the acts of a few (.) make them blame the entire community,” she said.
Her actions were among efforts in the city to counter what some feared would be a prolonged, hate-filled backlash. Victims’ families, such as Bowman’s, encouraged dialogue and tolerance. The Muslim community undertook its own campaign to educate neighbors about Islam. Clergy organized interfaith talks.