In Response to Paris Attack, ING and Affiliates Affirm Fundamental Values

ING and its Affiliates nationwide join fellow Americans in extending their deepest condolences to the families of the victims of today’s horrific attack at the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris today which took the lives of twelve people. No belief, cause, or grievance justifies such senseless violence. We pray that the perpetrators be found and quickly brought to justice. As Muslims, people of other faiths, and leaders across the world condemn this attack, we affirm the following values and principles:

1. We affirm and uphold the sanctity of all human life, the taking of which is among the gravest of all sins.
2. We affirm the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and speech.
3. We affirm the right to security in one’s livelihood, profession, and residence.
4. We believe that God created us with all the diversity of race, religion, language, and belief to get to know one another, not to despise or hate one another.
5. We believe that Islam is above all a religion of peace and mercy, and that Muslims are obligated to model those traits in their lives and characters and to work for the good of our homeland and society, wherever that might be.

ING and ING Affiliates
January 7, 2015