New Zealand: PM/Friday Prayer Service (Live Recorded)


New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern attends Friday prayers at Hagley Park in Christchurch on March 22, 2019 opposite the Al Noor Mosque, one week after the killing of 50 people in the country's worst mass shooting.

"We are one," Jacinda Ardern told New Zealanders as the nation paid respects, one week on since the Christchurch terror attack.

She spoke before the Call to Prayer, which rung out around the country, followed by two minutes of silence for the victims.

"According to Muslim faith, the Prophet Mohammed - sallalaahu alaihi wa sallam (peace be upon him) - said, 'The believers in their mutual kindness, compassion and sympathy are just like one body. When any part of the body suffers, the whole body feels pain.'

"New Zealand mourns with you. We are one."

The call to prayer and service was broadcast live across New Zealand television and radio (TVNZ and RadioNZ). Some New Zealanders wore headscarves in a show of support to Muslim women.  Thousands attended the Friday prayer service.

Friday Sermon in Christchurch

Imam Gamal Fouda, who was delivering the sermon in Christchurch's Al Noor Mosque when the gunman attacked last Friday, returned to the pulpit a week later, delivering a powerful sermon to the large crowd gathered in Hagley Park.

"Brothers and sisters in Islam, brothers and sisters in humanity, brothers and sisters in New Zealand:

"Last Friday I stood in this mosque and saw hatred and rage in the eyes of the terrorist who killed and martyred 50 innocent people, wounded 42, and broke the hearts of millions around the world."

"Today, from the same place, I look out and I see the love and compassion in the eyes of thousands of fellow New Zealanders, and human beings from across the globe, that fill the hearts of millions more that are not with us physically, but in spirit."

"This terrorist sought to tear our nation apart with an evil ideology that has torn the world apart.

"But instead we have shown that New Zealand is unbreakable, and that the world can see in us."

"We are alive, we are together, we are determined to not let anyone divide us."

"We are determined to love one another and to support each other."

"This evil ideology of white supremacy did not strike us first, yet it struck us hardest."

"To the families of the victims: your loved ones did not die in vain."

 


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