Turnout for tolerance made me feel proud

Being a Kiwi bloke, I’m not really into public displays of emotion. Truth be told, I’m not into private ones either. Though I was appalled by the terrorism in Christchurch, I’d never been to a vigil before. However, we live in a neighbourhood with a high Muslim population and my wife was keen to go to show her support. I’m so glad we went.

We arrived at the Adelaide Rd southern entrance of Basin Reserve at 5.30pm on Sunday with a whole half-hour to get in. I never even arrive at sports games that early.

A helpful marshal directed us to the end of the queue. ‘‘It’s very long,’’ she said. Talk about an understatement. We looked for the end of the queue – and looked and looked. By the time we found it, we were almost at the northern entrance.

But it didn’t matter. The crowd was sombre but friendly. And what a crowd. I expected a middleaged, liberal bunch, but I was amazed by its youth and diversity. A feature was the large number of Muslim families present.

They were unfailingly friendly, positive, visible and welcoming. ‘‘Hello and thank you,’’ said an Indonesian man as I queued. Had I played him in Sunday League soccer? No, he was just being friendly.

We could hear classical music performed by musicians from Orchestra Wellington and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and a spontaneous haka. There were so many people about that everything seemed at a standstill. It was the first time I’ve seen cars at the Basin Reserve move faster than pedestrians.

As we queued, it was obvious that we wouldn’t make it inside on time, but it didn’t really matter. We were there and that’s what was important. A young Somali woman jokingly suggested jumping over the fence to get in. I told her I did exactly that when I was 9 years old to get into a cricket test – the trick being that you climbed a tree first. But there were no armed police around in those days.

When we finally got in, such was the size of the crowd that it was impossible to see and difficult to hear, but we were there and that was the important thing.

Mayor Justin Lester was an excellent MC – gracious and compassionate. This tragedy has brought out the good side of most of our politicians, especially our prime minister.

Most of the speakers I heard were Muslim and were understandably upset – still processing the epic scale of the tragedy. We heard how our spy agencies in the past have focused far more on supposed Left-wing and Islamic terrorism than the Right-wing, white supremacist kind.

Apparently even some of the peaceful worshippers at the Linwood Mosque, where seven people were killed, were under surveillance.

Given my father was spied on by the SIS because they believed the Committee for the Abolition of Corporal Punishment in Schools, to which he belonged, was a subversive organisation committed to violence, I found this easy to believe.

The vigil over, we left the Basin and strolled past the old Caledonian Hotel. I remembered I was standing in the exact same spot where rugby supporters hurled abuse and beer glasses at a protest I attended during the Springbok Tour. Though that time the police weren’t assisting me to cross the road liked armed school safety wardens as they were on Sunday night.

As we walked home up Adelaide Rd there was a family ahead of us – Mum, Dad, a boy and a girl. The boy suddenly stopped and looked up. ‘‘Hey Mum, Dad, look at that,’’ he said, a little alarmed. Above a building was a large poster, belonging to a gun store, showing a dad teaching his very young son and daughter how to shoot air rifles. ‘‘That’s not right,’’ he said, ‘‘they’re shooting guns.’’

I remembered a politician saying to me some years ago after a town mobilised to save their hospital, ‘‘New Zealanders can really piss you off at times but then they suddenly do something that just makes you feel great.’’

In the past, people in high places have created fear about Islamist extremists, and yet I have never heard any member of this country’s Islamic community promote anything but peace. Other politicians have warned that Islam is homophobic.

Yet last night members of the Rainbow community were warmly welcomed by Muslims present. I’ve never heard a New Zealand Muslim say the Christchurch earthquake was caused by gay marriage.

A NZ First MP even warned that Muslim immigration could lead to the prohibition of alcohol. Come on. No-one stopped me dropping in for a drink in a Newtown bar after Sunday’s vigil.

It’s been a tough few days, especially for Christchurch and the Muslim community. But on a beautiful March night I stood in my favourite Wellington sports ground. Even though I couldn’t see and couldn’t hear much, I looked at more than 11,000 Wellingtonians turning up for tolerance and humanity and felt incredibly proud of this city.

This tragedy has brought out the good side of most of our politicians, especially our prime minister.