A father whose son tragically died after a car ran into a Sydney school has said he forgives the woman responsible, even inviting her to “sit with the family and have a meal”.
On the way to his eight-year-old’s funeral, with Jihad Darwiche’s coffin visible in the background, appeared alongside undertaker Ahmad Hraichie and begged people to stop attacking Maha Al-Shennag, the 52-year-old woman who crashed her car.
“We have a special message here for the lady that was involved in the accident,” Hraiche said, translating the father’s message.
“The father said that all this stuff happening about the threats to the lady and the abuse is not from them,” he said.
“No retaliation is coming from the family of the boy. They have forgiven.”
“If anything they want to sit with this lady and talk to her and tell her we forgive you,” Hraiche said.
“Once it’s over she is welcome to come and sit with the family, to have a meal, and talk about how they can move forward, with this problem, what’s happened.”
The moving message of forgiveness was described by Hraiche as “the way a proper Muslim acts in a time of calamity and tribulation”.
Al-Shennag, who was reportedly distracted by something outside the vehicle, crashed her car almost entirely into the Banksia Road Primary School demountable. It is believed there were 17 children and one adult teacher in the classroom at the time.
Two eight-year-old boys died after being critically injured in the incident. A nine-year-old girl is in a severe condition following the crash which also saw another two eight-year-old girls injured but stable.
Police charged Al-Shennag with four counts, including two counts of dangerous driving occasioning death, dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm and causing actual bodily harm by misconduct.
Police don’t believe the crash was intentional.
