Christchurch survivor: I forgive massacre gunman who killed my wife

Roger Maynard29 March 2019

A survivor of the Christchurch mosque atrocities today told a national remembrance service that he forgives the gunman who killed 50 worshippers including his wife.

Husna Ahmed’s name was among those read out by members of the Muslim community in front of 20,000 people on an emotional morning in the city’s Hagley Park.

She was killed trying to rescue her wheelchair-bound husband Farid during the attack by an alleged white supremicist on the Al Noor mosque two weeks ago today.

In a stirring speech to the crowd, Mr Ahmed said: “I don’t want to have a heart that is boiling like a volcano.

“A volcano has anger, fury, rage. It doesn’t have peace. It has hatred. It burns itself within, and also it burns the surroundings. I don’t want to have a heart like this.”

Mosque shooting survivor Farid Ahmed
AP

He added: “This heart doesn’t like the pain I have gone through... that any human being should go through that kind of pain. That is why I have chosen peace, I have chosen love and I have forgiven.”

New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern received a standing ovation as she took to the stage wearing an indigenous Maori cloak.

New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Arden took to the stage wearing an indigenous Maori cloak (Reuters )
Reuters

Ms Ardern, who has been widely praised for her response to the attacks on March 15, said the world had been caught in a vicious cycle of extremism which must end.

“We are not immune to the viruses of hate, of fear... we never have been. But we can be the nation that discovers the cure,” she said.

It was the third major memorial held in Christchurch since the shootings of worshippers who were inside two mosques for Friday prayers. Australian Brenton Harrison Tarrant, 28, has been charged with the murders.

The latest memorial service was a more formal occasion, with Australian prime minister Scott Morrison and other foreign dignitaries attending. Mr Morrison later told reporters the service “was a thing of absolute beauty”.

Crowd gathered at the Christchurch service at Hagley Park (Reuters )
Reuters

Police put on a show of force, closing nearby streets and patrolling the park with semi-automatic weapons. But the atmosphere during the 90-minute commemoration itself was relaxed.

The featured musical guest was British singer Yusuf Islam, better known as Cat Stevens, who converted to Islam in 1977.

He said: “We learn about things through their opposites. And it’s through opposites like this, the evilness of that act, what drove it, we find its opposite, which is the love and kindness and unity that has sprung up right here in New Zealand.”

A poignant moment came when a girl named Salma, daughter of slain worshipper Ashraf El-Moursy Ragheb, got up on stage to remember her “really nice” father.

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