JCU Sends Condolences to American University of Afghanistan

John Cabot University expresses its deepest sorrow for yesterday’s heinous attack against our sister institution, the American University of Afghanistan, which has left 12 people dead and many others wounded. We send our most heartfelt condolences to President Mark English and the entire AUAF Community in this tragic and painful moment, which struck at the heart of AUAF’s mission.

As so poignantly stated by Dr. Celeste Schenk, President of the American University of Paris, and of the Association of American International Colleges and Universities, in her message today to American University of Afghanistan’s President, “As presidents and provosts of 26 American universities abroad, we share your belief that education is the only meaningful response to the problems of our time;  yet, an attack such as yesterday’s shakes all of our deeply held beliefs momentarily, even as it stirs us to ever more efforts on behalf of international, intercultural and interfaith communication, the fostering of tolerance, the valuing of knowledge, and the recognition of other people’s very different preoccupations and concerns from our own.”

Brutal murderers, and ideologues of hate, want to change the way we live, to uproot the spirit of international solidarity and tolerance, and destroy the very mission of intercultural education to which we have dedicated our lives. They shall not succeed. Like all sowers of evil, these murderers shall disappear as the passion of the human spirit for freedom and progress is stronger.

President Franco Pavoncello