Saudi Arabia mosque bombing: Mother of man who died stopping Isis suicide attacker offers her condolences to terrorist's mother

The mother of a young man who died stopping an Isis suicide bomber from killing hundreds of worshippers at a mosque in Saudi Arabia, has offered her condolences to the family of the man who killed her son.

Mohammed Hassan Ali bin Isa and his two cousins, Abdel Jalil and Mohammed al-Arbash, were guarding a civilian checkpoint as volunteers, when they turned an attacker away from the Imam Hussein mosque in the eastern city Dammam.

The men were killed as they chased the bomber away and he detonated the explosives in the mosque car park, Mohammed Idris, an eyewitness, told the Associated Press.

Days before he died, Hassan Ali bin Isa had graduated from high school and planned to travel to London to improve his English before he started university.

In a poignant piece entitled “Goodbye forever, my son”, writer Kowther al-Arbash praises Ali bin Isa for his “fearlessness”, calls on the nation to tackle deadly ignorance, and attempts to comfort the mother of the suicide bomber who she says is also mourning a loss.

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“My son [...] gave his life to protect worshippers – instead of running away from a terrorist bearing a belt of explosives, he jumped towards him,” al-Arbash writes in Middle East Eye.

“He loved life, but he chose the more difficult path," she adds.

Lovingly recalling her son’s “easy manner”, his growing ambitions and his love for helping others, al-Arbash highlights Hassan Ali bin Isa’s “strong belief in the concept of humanitarianism” and “his fearlessness and his refusal to flee.”

“Mohammed left behind him an act that will never be forgotten by hundreds of worshippers, millions of citizens and even the entire world," the mother writes.

Offering a stark warning of the threat of extremist, al-Arbash invokes her son’s distaste for sectarianism, and tells readers: “After all the immense sadness, the voice of truth remains – we must all pay attention to it. We are all targets: our flesh, our society, our solidarity are all at risk.”

“These attacks won’t stop unless we revise our religious and cultural heritage, and unless we identify the real enemy: ignorance[...]we must not be carved apart by calls for sectarianism and exclusion."

Extending her thought to the mother of the suicide bomber, she concludes: “As well as consoling myself, I express condolences to the mother of the man who killed my son. I know that your heart is just like mine now – afflicted and full of pain.”