{"id":136817,"date":"2021-08-26T06:09:23","date_gmt":"2021-08-26T06:09:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/?p=136817"},"modified":"2021-08-26T06:09:23","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T06:09:23","slug":"mum-of-manchester-arena-victim-on-forgiving-terrorist-to-break-cycle-of-hate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/mum-of-manchester-arena-victim-on-forgiving-terrorist-to-break-cycle-of-hate\/","title":{"rendered":"Mum of Manchester Arena victim on forgiving terrorist to break cycle of hate"},"content":{"rendered":"

The mother of a victim of the 2017 Manchester Arena terrorist attack has spoken of forgiveness and positivity in the face of tragedy in a new feature-length documentary.<\/p>\n

Figen Murray is the mother of Martyn Hett, who was one of 22 people killed when a bomb exploded at an Ariana Grande concert.<\/p>\n

And while many people would be understandably filled with pain and rage, that is not how she chose to live her life after the atrocity that killed her son.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not just saying this because I\u2019m his mother, but Martyn was one of the most positive people I\u2019ve ever met, so me sort of crumbling under the weight of everything would\u2019ve upset him, and I just didn\u2019t want to do that,\u201d says Murray who lives in Manchester with her husband and four children.<\/p>\n

Murray is one of the contributors in A Manchester Story, a new feature-length documentary from first-time filmmaker Anton Arenko, 23.<\/p>\n

Arenko shines the spotlight on how people reacted in the aftermath of the attack, and the positive actions that emerged through the horror.<\/p>\n

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There isn\u2019t one image from the atrocity during the 90-minute film, which includes interviews with Adam Lawler and Eve Senior, who were both injured in the blast, as well as Petra Jordan and Cath Hill who set up the Manchester Survivors Group and Choir respectively, and Michael Cox who founded the memorial motorcycle ride.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnton\u2019s a young man doing something really positive because he doesn\u2019t want to focus on the sensational, negative, or shocking aspects of the attack. That\u2019s not relevant at all in Anton\u2019s film.<\/p>\n

"He wants to show the opposite to everybody else and Martyn would\u2019ve loved the fact he was doing something so positive. It felt like it was something Martyn might do,\u201d says Murray whose resilience is remarkable but also necessary, she notes, not only for her own wellbeing but to honour Martyn\u2019s memory.<\/p>\n

\u201cHate breeds more hate and anger breeds more anger and I just don\u2019t want to engage in that game. I feel it\u2019s really important to break that cycle and go the opposite way, which is why I forgive the terrorist, and his brother [Hashem who\u2019s been jailed for participating in the plot], and those who may have made mistakes,\u201d she says, referring to the findings of a public inquiry opened in 2020 to investigate the deaths of the arena victims.<\/p>\n

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