GRIEF ACROSS ASIA Immigrants killed in New Zealand mosques are mourned abroad
The attack on two New Zealand mosques took the lives of 50 worshippers Friday and left dozens more wounded. Here are the stories of some of those killed.
Husna Ahmed, 45
Farid Ahmed refuses to turn his back on his adopted home, despite losing his wife, Husna, in the Al Noor mosque attack. They had split up to go to the bathroom when it happened.
The gunman livestreamed the massacre on the internet, and Ahmed later saw a video of his wife being shot. A police officer confirmed that she died.
Despite the horror, Ahmed — originally from Bangladesh — still considers New Zealand a great country.
“I believe that some people, purposely, they are trying to break down the harmony we have in New Zealand with the diversity,” he said. “But they are not going to win. They are not going to win. We will be harmonious.”
Syed Areeb Ahmed, 26
Ahmed had recently moved from Karachi, Pakistan, for a job in New Zealand to help support his family back home.
One of his uncles, Muhammad Muzaffar Khan, described him as deeply religious, praying
five times a day.
“Education had always remained his first priority,” Khan said. “He had gone to New Zealand recently where he got his job. He had only started his career, but the enemies took his life”
Ahmed was an only son who had immigrated to New Zealand for work, his uncle said.
Farhaj Ahsan, 30
The software engineer moved to New Zealand six years ago from the city of Hyderabad in India, where his parents live, according to the Mumbai Mirror.
Ahsan was married and had a 3-year-old daughter and infant son.
Adullahi Dirie, 4
Four of Adan Ibrahin Dirie’s five children managed to escape Friday’s attacks, but the youngest, Abdullahi, was killed, his uncle, Abdulrahman Hashi, told the New Zealand Herald.
Dirie also suffered gunshot wounds and was hospitalized. The family fled Somalia in the mid-1990s as refugees and resettled in New Zealand.
“You cannot imagine how I feel,” said Hashi, a 60-yearold preacher at Dar Al Hijrah Mosque in Minneapolis.
He added: “This is a problem of extremism. Some people think the Muslims in their country are part of that, but these are innocent people.”
Ali Elmadani
Elmadani and his wife emigrated from the United Arab Emirates in 1998. The retired Christchurch engineer always told his children to be strong and patient, so that’s what they are trying to do after the tragedy, his daughter, Maha Elmadani, told Stuff.
“He considered New Zealand home and never thought something like this would happen here,” she said.