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CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand, March 23, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Muslims held emotional prayers
inside Christchurch’s main mosque on Saturday for the first time since a white
supremacist massacred worshippers there, as New Zealand sought to return to normality
after the tragedy.
The Al Noor mosque had been taken over by police for investigations and security
reasons after alleged gunman Brenton Tarrant gunned down Muslims gathered there and at
a smaller mosque for Friday prayers on March 15, killing 50 people.
Al Noor was handed back to the local Muslim community on Saturday and began allowing
small groups onto its grounds around midday.
“We are allowing 15 people at a time, just to get some normality,” said Saiyad
Hassen, a volunteer at Al Noor, adding that there were no plans yet to fully reopen.
Among the first to enter was massacre survivor Vohra Mohammad Huzef, who said two of
his roommates were killed and that he managed to live only by hiding under bodies.
“I could feel the bullets hitting the people and I could feel the blood coming down
on me from the people who were shot,” said Huzef, a Christchurch civil engineer
originally from India.
“Everyone wants to get back in again to give praise and to catch up. This is the
central point of our community.”
– Concert evacuated –
The attacks shocked a country of 4.5 million that is known for its tolerance and
prompted global horror, heightened by Tarrant’s cold-blooded livestreaming of the
massacre.
New Zealand came to a standstill on Friday to mark one week since the bloodshed, with
the Muslim call to prayer broadcast across the country followed by two minutes of
silence.
The ceremonies saw poignant scenes of Maoris performing the traditional haka war
dance, and non-Muslim New Zealand women donning makeshift Islamic headscarves in
solidarity.
MORE/AU/16:20 hrs
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A day earlier, the country outlawed the military-style rifles used in the assault
with immediate effect.
But one of four concert sites at a music festival in the capital Wellington was
evacuated on Saturday night just before a planned minute of silence for Christchurch,
underlining lingering apprehensions.
Police cited unspecified “concerns about a person”, but later called it an “innocent
misunderstanding” and the concert was slated to proceed.
– Tears and prayers –
In Christchurch, police also handed back Linwood Mosque, the second killing zone
several kilometres away from Al Noor, but no plans to allow visitors were announced.
An armed police presence will remain at both mosques, as well as others around New
Zealand.
Workers have rushed to repair the mosques’ bullet-pocked walls and clean blood-
spattered floors.
At Al Noor, visitors knelt at a garden tap to wash their feet and faces in ritual
pre-prayer ablutions.
Some wept quietly inside the mosque, where bright sunlight streamed through windows
and the air smelled of fresh paint. No bullet holes were seen.
Men and women then knelt and prayed on a padded carpet underlay taped to the floor,
still awaiting replacements for the mosque’s blood-stained rugs.
Several members of Christchurch semi-professional football club Western A.F.C.
arrived in team colours to honour three victims who were known to the team due to
their interest in the sport. The players left a bouquet of flowers outside the
entrance to the mosque’s grounds.
The victims included 14-year-old Sayyad Milne, who dreamed of playing in goal for
Manchester United, according to his father.
“We all love playing football and the best thing we can do is just to go out and
enjoy it really, and obviously play for those guys that have been lost and think about
them while we are doing it,” said team member Aaron McDonald, 20.
– ‘Manifesto’ outlawed –
The mosque’s imam Gamal Fouda arrived draped in a New Zealand flag.
The day before, Fouda delivered an impassioned memorial service at a park next to the
mosque that was watched globally and in which he praised “unbreakable” New Zealand for
uniting in the tragedy’s wake.
Around 2,000 people gathered Saturday at the same park to join a “March for Love”
procession through Christchurch.
Officials and police said two relatives of victims had died, with New Zealand
identifying one as 65-year-old Suad Adwan, who had arrived from Jordan for the burial
of her son Kamel Darwish, 38.
The grief-stricken mother was found Saturday morning having apparently died in her
sleep, just hours after her son’s burial, of what police called a “medical event”.
No other details on the deaths were given.
But normality slowly returned to Christchurch as children played cricket near Al
Noor and a previously scheduled 100-kilometre (62-mile) cycling race went ahead as
planned.
New Zealand, which has already charged two people for distributing the gruesome
livestreamed video of the attack, has now also made it a crime to share the alleged
killer’s “manifesto”, local media reported.
In the document, Tarrant says the killings were in response to what he termed a
Muslim “invasion” of Western countries.
“Others have referred to this publication as a ‘manifesto’, but I consider it a
crude booklet that promotes murder and terrorism,” Chief Censor David Shanks was
quoted as saying.
BSS/AFP/AU/16:25 hrs