‘I’ll never speak his name’

MOSQUE SHOOTING: PRIME MINISTER DISOWNS GUNMAN, PRAISES BRAVERY DURING MASSACRE

ew Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday praised the bravery and courage by mosque worshippers as a lone gunman massacred their friends and family, saying the nation stood with its grieving Muslim community in this “darkest of days”.

As preparations for the first burials were under way for the 50 people killed on Friday in the Christchurch mosques mass shooting, Ardern singled out three worshippers, including one of the first killed in the attack.

Hati Mohemmed Daoud Nabi, 71, opened the door to the Al Noor mosque. Ardern said he “uttered the words ‘Hello brother, welcome.’ His final words”.

“Of course he had no idea of the hate that sat behind the door, but his welcome tells us he was a member of a faith that welcomed all its members, that showed openness, and care,” she said.

Ardern said she never anticipated having to voice the grief of a nation and ended her speech with the Arabic greeting “Al salam Alaikum”, meaning “Peace be upon you”. Australian Brenton Tarrant, 28, a suspected white supremacist who was living in Dunedin, on New Zealand’s South Island, was charged with murder on Saturday.

Tarrant was remanded without a plea and is due back in court on April 5, where police said he was likely to face more charges.

“The families of the fallen will have justice,” said Ardern, adding she would never mention the alleged gunman’s name.

“He may have sought notoriety, but we in New Zealand will give him nothing. Not even his name.”

The victims, killed at two mosques during Friday prayers, were largely Muslim migrants, refugees and residents from countries including Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Turkey, Kuwait, and Somalia.

Bodies of the victims were being washed and prepared for burial in a Muslim ritual process yesterday, with teams of volunteers flown in from overseas to assist.

A wheelchair-using worshipper who survived the slaughter at the Al Noor mosque, but whose wife was killed, has offered an olive branch to the gunman, saying he would like to meet him and tell him “I still love you.”

“I don’t agree with what you did … you took a wrong decision, a wrong direction, but I want to believe in you. That you have great potential in your heart,” said Farhid Ahmed, 59.

The attack also left 50 people injured with 30 still in the Christchurch hospital, authorities said. Nine of them are in a critical condition. One four-yearold child was transferred to a hospital in Auckland in a critical condition. –