New dawn at mosque of carnage
THE mosques where 50 died in the Christchurch terror attacks reopened yesterday.
Hundreds of Muslims and non-muslims silently prayed for the 42 murdered at the Al Noor mosque.
The front of the mosque was covered with flowers, banners and messages of peace and goodwill.
At the entrance was draped the flag of Malaysia, from which some victims originally came to New Zealand to start new lives along with migrants and refugees of many other nationalities. Armed police kept watch by the newly-repainted building, where there were no signs of the horror of eight days ago.
Tradesmen worked free to plaster over bullet holes in walls, replace windows broken by victims trying to escape and remove bloody carpets.
Aden Diriye, father of the youngest victim three-year-old Mucad Ibrahim, said: “I am very happy. Allah is great to us. I was back as soon as we rebuilt, to pray.” The Linwood mosque, the second to be attacked during Friday prayers last week, reopened later yesterday.
Meanwhile in Britain, a mosque in Birmingham was vandalised – the sixth in a string of incidents involving broken windows and other damage.
And reports of Islamophobic hate crimes in the UK soared from 13 to 95 in the week following the killings, according to the charity Tell Mama, which monitors such behaviour.