Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
But not broken
choice of food we eat. To fear the way we pray, the way we practise our faith.”
Mohamed Altaf, 52, came from Wellington with family members to Christchurch to pay his respects.
He said: “The victims were my brothers and sisters.
“By coming here we are showing how united we are as a country. We’re all one nation.” The call to prayer was broadcast across the country and followed by a nationwide two-minute silence. Later, 5,000 mourners – a 10th of New Zealand’s Muslim population – attended a mass funeral. Among the 26 victims buried in the city’s Memorial Park was three-year-old Mucaad Ibrahim, the youngest to die.
He was gunned down after getting separated from dad Adan and brother Abdi in the panic.
Mucaad was born in New Zealand to a Somali family who fled fighting in their home country more than 20 years ago.
His tiny body, wrapped in a white shroud, barely filled half the wooden casket it was held in. He was carried aloft to his grave by 10 male Somali relatives wearing dark robes.
Last night, 27 victims were still in a Christchurch hospital, five of them critical. Four-year-old Alen Alsati and dad Wasseim are being treated in Auckland. Tarrant is due in court on April 5 charged with murder.
Two men, aged 34 and 38, have been arrested after five mosques had their windows smashed in Birmingham.