Feel the love, Muslim dad tells son as they mourn family deaths
An Auckland father is using the mourning of a nation after the Christchurch mosque shootings to educate his son about love and solidarity.
Areeb Taimoori and his son Ezaan, 8, flew to Christchurch to pay respects to two cousins and a close friend killed in the terror attack.
But Taimoori told the Herald the trip was not about focusing on the slayings, but to show his son the community’s love and support.
“A lot of people have questioned why I am taking my son with me, but it’s not about showing him what has happened, it’s to show him the love and compassion,” he said.
“As a wider New Zealand community, we have come together. The kind of love people are showing — the beds of flowers — he needs to see this for him to be a good citizen tomorrow and for him to give back to a country that has shown this love today.”
Taimoori said it had been “a horrible weekend”, but he’d chosen to focus on the good that had come from the devastating event.
“This weekend has completely changed people’s perception towards Muslims. Just today my son came back from school and said ‘before it was really hard for people to understand what a mosque was or what I am as a Muslim, but today kids in my class gave me a hug and everybody knew what a mosque was suddenly’.
“The education that has come through from this weekend is just amazing. For the first time Muslims have been hugged.
“It has been a long time coming but sometimes we felt that we were never heard, but today people are not just wanting to hear us but to hug us and stand by us. These are the values I really want him to pick up in Christchurch,” he said.
Taimoori said his son was too young to understand the extent of Friday’s terrorist attack, but his focus was on Kiwis’ response.
“He asked me on Saturday, ‘Dad why did all these people die and who killed them?’ I didn’t really get down in-depth into why and who because he is too young to understand that.
“I just explained that the person was sick and needed help and there might be other people in the future like him — but it is about how we change them as a community by being lovely to them.
“It is more about the fact that people have passed away and the whole of New Zealand has stood by us and are showing their love and support,” he said. “It is about how we as Muslims repay this back to the communities who have showered us with so much love and compassion, and how we can educate the next generation on the amount of love everyone has shown.”
Taimoori said he was not frightened to travel with his son to Christchurch.
“We live in the most beautiful country in the world and one person cannot change that for us.”
People are not just wanting to hear us but to hug us and stand by us. These are the values I really want him to pick up in Christchurch. Areeb Taimoori