Esoteric Voices 6: The Journey of Forgiveness

Azim Khamisa talks about his journey of forgiveness after his 20-year old son was shot and killed in a gang ritual in 1995. He founded the Tariq Khamisa Foundation in order to teach the non-violent principles of forgiveness to at-risk youth.

Khamisa talks about following the three steps towards forgiveness. He also talks about how the origins of our criminal justice system are from a monarchy where the state owned the land and the people. This frame of reference has caused the state to become a party within the court system to represent the victim such as in his son's murder case. He talks about the difficulty of having true justice in our current criminal justice system when the State is representing the victim, making it hard for offenders to reintegrate into society, and not really accounting for how to have healing within the community.

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Music by scottaltham, courtesy of Creative Commons license.