'It's been a beautiful thing' - Christchurch's Muslim community return to their mosques after darkest day

March 18, 2019

Survivors, friends and family of those killed were able to return to their mosques today.

Across Hagley Park they walked back to Deans Avenue for the very first time since Friday, when the gunman came.

Of the 50 killed in the horrific shootings at two Christchurch mosques, 43 of the victims were at the Deans Avenue mosque.

Christchurch's Ngāi Tahu iwi led the survivors back, standing together against hate.

"You can see today the coming together of our communities," Ngāi Tahu's Take Justin Tipa told 1 NEWS.

"Our Māori community and our Islamic community, and it's been a beautiful thing. Albeit out of a tragic, very sad event. But, you know, I think it's had the opposite effect of what the guy intended."

Everywhere you looked, expressions of love were on display, hundreds gathering to pay their respects at the Linwood Mosque.

Father El-Baramoussy from the Coptic Church met with Imam Ibrahim Abdul Halim, the two faiths coming together as one.

"We need continuously, to live and love," Father El-Baramoussy said.

Imam Ibrahim Abdul Halim's message similar, that Muslim's deserve the right to live ordinary lives.

"We are human beings also. We have the same natural functions. Eating. Drinking. Desire. And so on like that," he said.

"We are human beings, like all people."

Imman Ibrahim believes the moment we all understand that, what happened here on Friday will never happen again.

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