Friday prayer will return to Masjid Al Noor
The two mosques at the centre of New Zealand’s worst mass shooting are hopeful of reopening for prayers tomorrow, one week after the terror attack.
A gunman entered the Masjid Al Noor on Deans Ave about 1.40pm last Friday and shot dead 42 people as they prayed. Seven more died at the Linwood Masjid and one man died at Christchurch Hospital from his injuries.
Police said yesterday evening they were ‘‘working relentlessly’’ to allow the Muslim community back into the Masjid Al Noor for Friday prayers.
The Linwood Masjid would also be open this week, a spokeswoman said. Police would maintain a presence at both mosques for the public’s reassurance and safety.
After police finished their scene investigation on Tuesday night, Christchurch businesses have rallied to clean and repair walls riddled with bulletholes and stained with blood.
Carpet layers, plasterers, glaziers, painters, builders and gardeners have been working to clean and repair the Al Noor Mosque in the hope the Muslim community can return to pray there tomorrow afternoon, the day the Muslim community traditionally comes together.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has also announced there will be a national call to prayer broadcast on TVNZ and RNZ tomorrow and two minutes’ silence to mark a week since the atrocity. The announcement came as the first burials were held of the shooting victims with more expected today.
Anwar Alsaleh, 65, who hid in a bathroom at the Masjid Al Noor while the gunman killed many people he knew, said he would attend Friday prayers – also known as Jumu’ah – at the mosque if it reopened in time.
‘‘I’m not afraid,’’ Alsaleh said. ‘‘I’m lucky to be alive.’’
Many in the Muslim community would be nervous about returning to the scene where their friends and family were killed and injured, and tight security was needed to make them feel safe.
Muslim Association of Canterbury president Shagaf Khan said he would pray at the mosque if it opened, as would many others in the Muslim community.
‘‘Whatever has happened, it’s not going to happen again. The majority [of the Muslim community] . . . can’t wait to go back because they want to . . . pray as normal.’’
Khan said he understood Muslims from across New Zealand planned to converge on Christchurch for prayers tomorrow and it was unlikely the Masjid Al Noor would have the capacity to accommodate them.
It is understood a number of businesses involved in the mosque clean-up have donated their time and materials.
The owner of a garden maintenance firm, who did not want to be identified, said several of his staff were pruning trees, mowing lawns and spraying weeds at the mosque free of charge.
Painters and other tradespeople were also at the site.
The businessman said he was approached by a ‘‘government agency’’ to carry out the work and had been told it needed to be completed by tonight so Friday prayers could be held at the mosque.
‘‘It’s not about our business, it’s about trying to restore some normality back into the town. To help is a really good feeling.’’
The first funerals for the 50 victims of the massacre in Christchurch have been held after an agonising wait for the city’s Muslim community.
Laid to rest were Khaled Mustafa and his 15-year-old son Hamza, a student of Cashmere High School, while younger son Zaid looked on from a wheelchair, also a victim of the shooting.
The family had arrived in New Zealand only a few months ago, escaping conflict in Syria. The father and son were victims of the massacre at the Al Noor Mosque on Friday.
Just after 12.20pm yesterday, a funeral procession arrived at the Memorial Park Cemetery, led by a police car.
Shrouded and lying in open caskets, the two were carried by mourners into a marquee set up in the Islamic section of the cemetery.
Less than 20 minutes later, the caskets were lowered into the ground with the family watching.
In a sign of how tense Christchurch remains after the massacre, large parts of the section have been fenced off for days. Police armed with assault rifles remain on guard.
Jamil el-Biza, from the Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaah Association in Sydney, said it was horrific to attend a funeral where the first words spoken were emergency evacuation procedures.
He said moments before the funeral began he heard the victim’s younger brother, Zaid, 13, who was in a wheelchair after being wounded in the attack, say to his father and brother, ‘‘I don’t want to be here alone’’.
El-Biza said the funeral was a demonstration of humanity
‘I don’t want to be here alone’
and this was why so many people have travelled thousands of kilometres to be present.
He also said Australian politicians and media figures needed to learn a lesson from the atrocity in Christchurch.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison in particular needed to find a new way to communicate with the Muslim community and win trust.
‘‘I don’t know if that’s going be possible given his past, but he needs to try it and if you can’t, he doesn’t deserve to be the prime minister.’’
It is expected that funerals will be held at 11am and 3pm over coming days as bodies are released by the coroner.
A mass burial is expected to take place at some stage.
Inside the new fencing, the 50 graves have been prepared in accordance with Muslim tradition, though it is expected that some of the victims of Friday’s shootings will be repatriated to their home countries.
The father and son buried first occupied plots 87 and 88.
Members of the Muslim community have been frustrated at the amount of time it has taken to release the bodies for burial, though leaders say they understand why the process has taken so long.
Abdul Aziz, the Afghani Australian hailed as a hero for fighting off the attacker from the Linwood mosque, said he supported authorities taking their time to ensure that the attacker faced justice.
Ali Reza, a Pakistani New Zealander who lost 12 friends in the attack on the Al Noor Mosque, said the community had been overwhelmed by the support of the New Zealand community and Government, and in particular by the leadership of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
‘‘Anything they can do, they do,’’ he said, noting how quickly visas had been arranged for families to travel to New Zealand and financial support provided for the funerals. ‘‘I am proud to live in New Zealand.’’
In a demonstration of solidarity, the New Zealand Government invited an imam to intone the Koranic bismillah in praise of Allah at the opening of the parliamentary session on Tuesday.
Ardern followed up by saying ‘‘Wa alaikum salaam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh’’ – ‘‘May the peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be with you too.’’
Ardern was in Christchurch yesterday visiting emergency workers and Cashmere High School, which lost two students and a recent past student.