The murder of Daniel Pearl still outrages and sickens me. His family seeks to redirect my feelings and those of others around the world on his birthday, October 10:
- his family and countless friends are preparing to mark his 39th birthday on Oct. 10 — the first since he was murdered by Islamic extremists in Pakistan — with concerts around the world.
It's a gesture they think would have delighted Pearl, a classically trained musician who jammed on mandolin, fiddle and an electric violin wherever the Wall Street Journal posted him, from Atlanta to Tehran.
"When we took him to the airport to go to Stanford (University), he took his violin but he didn't have any sheets and towels," his mother, Ruth Pearl, recalled. "I don't think Danny ever traveled without a musical instrument."
...."I don't forgive them, but I realize they are not a homogeneous group," Judea Pearl said of the his son's killers. "I want to give a platform for moderates so they prevail over the terrorists. That's vengeance, isn't it?"
REMEMBER LIFE NOT DEATH
Judea Pearl, who was born in Israel, and Ruth Pearl, who was born in Iraq, both want the hopeful notes of their son's life to overshadow the painful circumstances of his death.
"All his life he wanted to bring people together to inspire, to communicate by dialogue and music," Ruth Pearl said.
A number of musical tributes to Pearl already took place alongside the honors heaped on him by fellow journalists, world leaders and Jewish groups.
The first happened by accident in Tel Aviv on Feb. 21, the day the world learned he had been murdered. That night, George Pehlivanian, a neighbor and close friend of Daniel and his wife Mariane in Paris, was scheduled to lead the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra in Tel Aviv as a guest conductor.
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