SA family mourns NZ massacre victim
A SOUTH African family are mourning the loss of a relative who was one of the 50 people killed in the Christchurch, New Zealand, massacre on Friday.
Faziela Asvat, of Joburg, said that her niece’s son, Junaid Ismail, 36, was among the dead.
She said they were still waiting for his body to be released by authorities to perform his last rites.
Asvat said after she learnt about the shooting from TV reports, she immediately called her niece Sara Ismail.
“I was worried for my family when I learnt about the shooting. I called Sara, who also lives in Christchurch, but the call went unanswered.
“I then called her sister, Fatima, who was on holiday in India. All she could say, was that Junaid was missing.
“We prayed that he had managed to escape the shooter by hiding but that was not to be. We later heard that he had been killed.”
Asvat said that they were a close family and being so far away made their grief even more difficult.
“When I called Sara on Monday, she said they were trying to be brave as they waited for police to release Junaid’s body.
“His siblings had also tried to meet officials to get his body released soon for his funeral.”
Junaid had been praying at the Masjid Al Nur mosque when gunman Brenton Tarrant entered the premises with a modified military-style semi-automatic rifle and opened fire on worshippers.
According to Asvat, Junaid’s twin brother, Zahid, escaped the attack by seconds. She said he had been delayed and arrived for prayer after Tarrant had entered the mosque.
“His wife was with him. As they drove into the mosque premises they heard the gunshots and sped off.”
Asvat said she last visited New Zealand with her late husband, even before Junaid was born.
“Sara, Fatima and their husbands had moved to New Zealand from India in search of a better life for their families.
“I never met Junaid face-to-face but often spoke to him and his wife on the phone. They had three kids aged between five and three.”
Asvat added that Junaid’s father had died 10 years ago and he took care of his mother. As the family’s breadwinner, Junaid ran a café, which has been closed since the shooting.
This week, an 18-year-old appeared in a New Zealand court for distributing the live-stream video of the shooting.
He was also charged with publishing a photograph of the mosque with the message “target acquired”, and for inciting violence.
Philanthropist Ahmed Vally Mohammed said the time had come to unite against extremism.
“It takes a really evil character to plan such a heinous act. We saw the prime minister (Jacinda Ardern) take a bold step and offer to pay for the funerals of those killed and we also saw her offer support to the victims. My heart warmed watching scenes from the TV as non-Muslims prayed and placed flowers outside the mosques.
“It’s unacceptable what has happened. I believe it’s time to take a stand together rather than divide because of different religions.”
The secretary-general of the Jamiatul Ulama KZN Moulana Rafiek Mohamed said: “Any place of worship, irrespective of the faith it belongs to, is considered sacred and inviolable. Such violations of places of worship are certainly abhorrent and clearly indefensible. This attack is part of the hatred and Islamophobia prompted by forces who have no respect for human life and religious values.”
Faisel Suliman, of the South African Muslim Network, said: “It was a well thought out and well executed plan. The perpetrator actioned his feelings but there are millions others out there who are spewing their own hatred (against Islam) online 24/7, 365 days.”
CHRISTCHURCH in South Island, New Zealand, might be thousands of kilometres away, but the vast difference in time and distance did little to temper South Africans’ shock and sheer outrage over the horrific attacks on two mosques.
At least 50 people were killed and scores injured last week.
This was a cowardly and evil act of terror, born out of hate and committed by someone consumed by violent extremism which leaders across the world have stridently condemned.
That the tragedy took place in the normally peaceful country of New Zealand has come as a shock to many and attracted intense interest here because of the large number of South African expats settled permanently in that country.
Many of them, who chose to leave South Africa before the dawn of democracy in the 1990s and are working and living permanently in New Zealand, were stunned when news of the atrocity broke.
A common theme from Facebook messages they sent to their families over the weekend was one of incredulity that such a carefully planned and horrifically racist attack could take place in their adoptive country.
While we mourn the loss of innocent lives lost in this senseless attack and pray for the speedy recovery of those who survived, South Africans should also see it as a lesson of what can happen if racism, hate speech, xenophobia and religious intolerance are allowed to escalate out of control anywhere in the world.
Many South Africans have made the mistake of assuming all our problems over race and discrimination have been resolved now that apartheid laws have been expunged from the statutes.
The reality is that the laws might have changed and a new democratic constitution might have been adopted, but have people’s attitudes changed?
The Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill, adopted by the Cabinet, defines hate crime as an offence motivated by a person’s prejudice or intolerance towards another because of characteristics that include race, culture, age, ethnic or social origin, nationality and sexual orientation.
Can we honestly say we have freed ourselves from the racial and religious prejudices and stereotypes that governed our lives for so many decades under apartheid and colonialism?
Hate did not come naturally to people – but just as people learnt to hate, they could be taught to love, said former president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nelson Mandela.
That’s because “love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite”.