Post by Fr David Neuhaus SJ | 29 June 2026
If you tolerate this, your children will be next
My dear friend and collaborator Rob Riedlinger posted this on his Facebook page on June 8. We have been praying for Rob and now he is back home. I salute his courage to speak out now and continue to pray for his health:
I stand against xenophobia in South Africa. Plainly. Without qualification. And I need to be honest: it frightens me to say this publicly. But fear is not a good enough reason to stay silent.
Xenophobia is not patriotism. It is not “protecting our own.” It is fear being turned into hatred, and hatred being given permission to harm people who are already vulnerable.
No person should be threatened, humiliated, chased away, assaulted, or dehumanised because they were born on the other side of a border. A person’s accent, surname, language, nationality, or paperwork does not cancel their humanity.
South Africa knows too well what happens when people are labelled as less worthy, less human, or less deserving of dignity. We should be the last country to tolerate that kind of thinking.
The Manic Street Preachers captured the warning in the title of their song: “If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next.”
View song here:
Silence is not neutral. Looking away is not peace.
In the song, the singer wonders whether it is gravity keeping his head down and his mouth shut … or whether it’s shame. I don’t want that shame to be mine one day.
I don’t want my grandchildren to ask how their grandfather allowed this to happen.
I stand with dignity.
I stand with humanity.
I stand against this hateful xenophobia.
South Africa, we must be better than this.