‘Everyone is feeling it’
When Saba Afzal’s father discussed moving to another country 25 years ago, he described New Zealand to his wife as ‘‘heaven’’.
And despite the Christchurch mosque shootings that left 50 people dead and dozens injured last Friday, Afzal still thinks her home is what her father said it was all those years ago.
Afzal, her husband Zayd Ahmed and their two young daughters live in New Plymouth. She is of Pakistani descent, is a women’s representative in the Muslim Association of Taranaki and is a Kiwi. She calls her country ‘‘beautiful’’. Afzal was five when her family was looking to move from the USA after her father completed a PHD there.
‘‘When my Dad had the option of migrating to New Zealand or Australia, when we were young, he described New Zealand to my Mum and he said ‘it’s like heaven’.’’
Never in her ‘‘wildest dreams’’ did she see a mass shooting of her Muslim brothers and sisters occurring in this country. ‘‘It’s devastating that something like this could happen here,’’ Afzal said.
‘‘We were originally in a state of disbelief, and devastated and heartbroken to be honest because it’s such a beautiful and peaceful place.
‘‘It’s important for us to humanise each other. No human could have done what happened – or rather a human could do that, but you wouldn’t do that if you thought the other people were humans.’’
Since the mosque shootings Afzal has received nothing but love from fellow New Zealanders. They just hug her, and apologise with tears in their eyes.
‘‘All of New Zealand is really feeling this. It’s not a Muslim thing, in that sense, everyone’s really feeling it at the moment.
‘‘I feel blessed that we have a wonderful community here, New Zealanders in general are really kind.’’
Afzal has an overriding sense of peace about her – there’s no anger, even though she lost a long-time family friend in last week’s terrorist attack.
‘‘A friend of ours Linda, she didn’t make it out alive. She was this wonderful, lovely, bubbly, vivacious, full-of-life person.’’
Linda Armstrong, 65, grew up in West Auckland and moved to Christchurch to be closer to her daughter and grandchildren.
Like in Christchurch, Friday prayers are the biggest weekly event at the New Plymouth Islamic Centre.
It’s the congregational prayer that goes for around half an hour and is compulsory for men to attend. ‘‘It’s such a beautiful time when you’re quietly reflecting, you’re there peacefully to worship God.’’