Emotional Muslims return to mosques after shooting

CHRISTCHURCH: Smelling of fresh paint, the two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch where a gunman killed 50 worshippers last week reopened their doors on Saturday, with many survivors among the first to walk in and pray for those who died.

At the Al Noor Mosque, where more than 40 of the victims were killed by a suspected white supremacist, prayers resumed with armed police on site, but no graphic reminders of the mass shooting, New Zealand’s worst.

Muslims held emotional prayers Al Noor Mosque for the first time 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.

Al Noor Mosque 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.”

Aden Diriye, who lost his 3-year-old son, Mucad Ibrahim, in the attack, came back to the mosque with his friends. “I am very happy,” he said after praying.

“Allah is great to us. I was back as soon as we rebuilt, to pray.” Most victims of the shooting, which New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern quickly denounced as a terrorist attack, were migrants or refugees and their deaths reverberated around the Islamic world.

Prince El Hassan Bin Talal of Jordan, who visited the Al Noor Mosque, said the attack assailed human dignity.

“This is a moment of deep anguish for all of us, all of humanity,” he said.

Police said they were reopening the nearby Linwood mosque, the second to be attacked during Friday prayers last week, as well.

In the wake of the terrorist attacks on two New Zealand mosques, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has announced his intention to launch a UN action plan for the safeguarding of religious sites, declaring that “mosques and all places of prayer and contemplation should be safe havens, not sites of terror.”

Guterres was addressing representatives of the press at the Islamic Cultural Centre of New York, to show his solidarity with the worldwide Muslim community.

The UN chief spoke, with a “heavy and full heart,” of the grief and sympathy felt for the families of the victims, and the moving displays of “leadership, love and community from the people of New Zealand.”

“Around the world, we have seen ever-rising anti-Muslim hatred, anti-Semitism, hate speech and bigotry. The cancer is spreading. It is our duty to find the cure,” Guterres added.

Although the attack was “utterly appalling,” he said that it was not utterly surprising, because “around the world, we have seen ever-rising anti-Muslim hatred, anti-Semitism, hate speech and bigotry.”

New Zealand has been under heightened security alert since the attack with Ardern moving quickly with a new tough law banning some of the guns used in the March 15 shooting.  Ashif Shaikh, who was in the Al Noor mosque on the day of the massacre in which two of his housemates were killed and who came back on Saturday, said he would not be deterred.

“It is the place where we pray, where we meet, we’ll be back, yeah,” he said.

Earlier on Saturday, about 3,000 people walked through Christchurch in a “march for love” as the city seeks to heal from its tragedy.

Agencies