Christchurch holds
public call to prayer at site of mosque attack
Nationwide silence, Muslim call to prayer observed a week after
50 people were shot down in mosque attacks.
Christchurch, New Zealand -
Thousands of people gathered in Christchurch for the Muslim call to prayer and
two minutes of silence on Friday, a week after 50 people were killed and scores
of others wounded in an attack
on two mosques in the city.
Attendees met at Christchurch's central Hagley Park in New
Zealand and observed a nationwide silence, called for by Prime
Minister Jacinda Ardern, after the call to prayer was broadcast on national
television and radio stations.
Ardern, who was present at the ceremony held less than 500 metres
away from the Al Noor mosque, where 42 people were shot down on Friday,
quoted the Prophet Muhammad during a brief address to the crowd.
"When
any part of the body suffers, the whole body feels pain," said Ardern,
wearing a black headscarf. "New Zealand mourns with you, we are
one."
Remembrance
ceremonies and public vigils were set to take place across the Pacific nation
on Friday.
Imam
Gamal Fouda, the prayer leader at the Al Noor mosque who was present during
last week's attack, told mourners he "saw hatred and rage in the eyes of
the terrorist".
"Today,
from the same place, I look out and I see the love of and compassion in the
eyes of thousands of fellow New Zealanders and human beings from across the
globe," Fouda said.
"We
have shown that New Zealand is unbreakable, and the world can see in us an example
of love and unity. We are broken-hearted, but we are not broken."
'A special day'
Many of
those who arrived to pray in Christchurch had travelled from all over New
Zealand, home to about five million people, and elsewhere across the world.
Their
shoes, lined up along low makeshift barriers in the open-air prayer areas, were
too many to count.
Participant
Imran Khan, who arrived from Auckland on Friday morning with four friends, said
it was important to be present as a "show of support" for his friend
Ashraf Azad's family. Azad was one of the 50 shot dead last week, in what
Ardern has labelled a "terrorist" attack.
"Whenever
you look at the mosque you get the picture of what it must have been like for
the people that were here at that moment [of the attack]," Khan told Al
Jazeera, his voice trembling with emotion.
"[But]
the support we are getting from other groups in society is unbelievable… It
shows that religion is not everything, it's the love and the unity that
matters, people are standing up for that," he added.
Others,
such as Christchurch local and regular Al Noor attendee Ahmed Osman, said the
event proved that Friday's gunman - alleged to be Australian-born Brenton Tarrant, 28 - had failed to achieve
his self-stated aim of sowing societal division.
"The
thing has happened but we will always be together … From now on we are going to
be more supportive of each other and more together; we are looking forward
now," Osman, whose cousin was among those killed on Friday, told Al
Jazeera.
"Today
is a special day for our hearts… The people of Christchurch will stand
together," he added.
New Zealanders in support
Thousands
of non-Muslims attended the ceremony, forming a sea of silence behind the
prayer areas while the Friday prayers took place, close to a police cordon
restricting access to the mosque.
Among
them, many women of all backgrounds opted to wear headscarves in a show of
solidarity with the Muslim community, which numbers no more than a few thousand
locally and about 50,000 nationally.
Christchurch
resident Jeanine Benson said she had chosen to wear the garment as a "show
of respect" to the city's Muslims, adding it was important to "come
together as one in New Zealand".
"I
know everyone goes on about this [attack] isn't New Zealand, but this shouldn't
happen anywhere," Benson told Al Jazeera.
"I
used to drive past this mosque [Al Noor] every single day going to work, and to
think what happened there makes me feel physically ill," she added.
"For
everyone, this is not the end, this is just the start of a healing
journey."
Mosques set to reopen
The
gathering came after another victim of the shootings, which also saw the nearby
Linwood mosque attacked, was laid to rest earlier on Friday.
At least
26 more burials were expected to take place later in the afternoon,
Christchurch Council said in a statement.
A
"March for Love" rally is scheduled to take place in Christchurch on
Saturday. Thousands of people are expected to attend.
Both the
Linwood and Al Noor mosques are also expected to reopen on Saturday, a
spokesperson for New Zealand Police told Al Jazeera.
"[Both]
have been restored and will be handed over to the community," the spokesperson
said. "The community will communicate their plans for prayers going
forward."
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