New Zealand church ‘outraged’ by Muslim prayer
Anthony Mundine has joined a crowd of Muslims at a call to prayer event in Christchurch, as New Zealanders honour the victims of last week’s massacre.
Anthony Mundine has joined Muslims at a Call to Prayer event in Christchurch a week on from last week’s massacre.
The outspoken Australian boxer greeted community leaders outside the Al Noor mosque - the first of two houses of worship targeted in last Friday’s attack - after earlier visiting some of the 50 people wounded in hospital.
Mundine also joined the Call To Prayer event in Hagley Park, opposite the mosque, where he was seen comforting community members.
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At 1.30pm local time (11.30am AEDT) the Islamic Call to Prayer was broadcast on television and radio across New Zealand, followed by a two-minute silence for the dead and the injured.
“New Zealand mourns with you. We are one,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told the assembled crowd.
The Al Noor mosque’s imam, Gamal Fouda, thanked New Zealanders for their support.
“This terrorist sought to tear our nation apart with an evil ideology. ... But, instead, we have shown that New Zealand is unbreakable,” the imam said. “We are broken-hearted but we are not broken. We are alive. We are together. We are determined to not let anyone divide us,” he added, as the crowd the city estimated at 20,000 people erupted with applause.
“We appreciate the support that the people of New Zealand have given to us at this time, and the opportunity to do this,” community leader and head of the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand, Mustafa Farouk, said.
“We are so happy that this prayer will be broadcast to the entire world so that everyone can be a part of it.”
Later in the day, a mass funeral was held to bury 26 of the victims at a cemetery where more than a dozen already have been laid to rest. Family members took turns passing around shovels and wheelbarrows to bury their loved ones. Friday’s burials included the youngest victim, three-year-old Mucaad Ibrahim, who was at the al Moor mosque with his father and big brother.
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The leader of Destiny Church — a Pentecostal Christian organisation — claimed the prayer service was going too far.
“Two minutes of silence is okay but the Islamic prayer will sound? It contains this line ‘there is no God but Allah’, well I disagree,” Destiny Church’s leader Brian Tamaki said on Twitter.
“Jesus Christ is the only true God … this is not us!”
Tamaki also criticised New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for “allowing ‘Allah as the only true God’ to be sounded in Muslim prayer across the airwaves in our nation”.
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The prayer is due to take place just before 1.32pm local time, followed by two minutes of silence.
“How we choose to reflect during the silence will be different for each of us,” Ms Ardern said.
New Zealanders today will stand in solidarity to mark one week on from the massacre that took 50 lives — one of the darkest days in New Zealand’s history.
Mosques in Auckland are expected to open their doors to anyone who would like to join in remembrance.
Ms Ardern will be in attendance at the reflection and when the call to prayer begins at 1.30pm, which will be broadcast live across the country.
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Meantime, the world has reacted to Ms Ardern's swift decision to outlaw all military-type semiautomatic weapons within a month.
Democratic Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders praised Ardern for taking immediate action following last Friday’s atrocities.
But a representative for the National Rifle Association in the US, Dana Loesch, replied to Mr Sanders’ tweet, drawing comparisons between the rights of Americans and New Zealanders.
“The US isn't NZ. While they do not have an inalienable right to bear arms and to self defence, we do,” Ms Loesch said.
New York-based Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also tweeted her admiration of Ms Ardern's decision.
A Muslim candidate for the US Senate took to Twitter to compare the approach New Zealand took following a mass shooting to that of America’s.
Actor Taika Waititi shared his sarcastic response with his followers.
While actress Julianne Moore expressed her admiration for Ms Ardern.
Magda Szubanski developed new terminology for Australians to use in the wake of the attack.
TV host Jimmy Kimmel also chimed in with his approval of Ms Ardern’s actions.
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Ms Ardern said a gun buyback of all semiautomatics was expected to cost between $100-200 million, but she would no longer tolerate private ownership of such high-powered weapons and large-capacity magazines.
All military style semiautomatics, all assault rifles, all high-capacity magazines, all parts that can convert any firearm into a military-style semiautomatic and any part that generates anything close to automatic gunfire will be banned.
“The attacker on 15 March took a significant number of lives using primarily two guns,” Ms Ardern said. “They were assault rifles and they were purchased legally on an A-category gun licence, the standard licence held by gun owners in New Zealand.”
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