Hearts Head to New Zealand

March fifteenth should have been an regular holy Friday prayer in the small city of South Island, New Zealand at Christchurch Mosque, but quickly turned into one of the bloodiest and ruthless mass shootings in Europe.

The mosque which is the house of worship, and most sacred place for the Muslim community was faced with an attack on their holiest day. This horrific act was broadcast and streamed live on multiple social media platforms, for the whole world to witness.

Facebook and Youtube corporations have made it clear that as soon as they were made aware of this, their teams began taking it down, as well as deleting the account of the person who has publicly taken credit for the shooting. The suspect is said to have sent an 87 page testament on the attacks, minutes before, to the prime minister.

This unspeakable and atrocious act of terrorism took the lives of nearly fifty innocent men, woman, and children. More than dozen are still in intensive care and fighting for their lives. Among these fifty was University professor Khaled Mustafa who had fled to New Zealand to escape the terror in Syria. With him were his two teenage sons, one who is currently wounded, and the other a fatal victim.

This gruesome act has left everyone around the world impacted and has brought together millions in solidarity for their muslim brothers and sisters. Memorials, and vigils have popped up across the world and condolences have flooded the survivors and families of the victims.

The devastation of the shooting has strongly impacted the New Zealand government since Friday the 15th, and in the matter of two days, their Prime minister has announced that they will reform all laws involved with guns. CNN reports that this has brought New Zealand Government officials to have recognized that this terror attack brought light to their “range of weaknesses in their gun laws”.

Throughout the entire world, members of the Muslim religion, multiple celebrities, government heads, and different cultures have shared their grievances with the Christ Church community in New Zealand, often citing how the hatred present in this act and others will only continue to grow, and cause atrocities such as this if it is not put to a stop.

Here, in the New York and New Jersey areas, police were reinforced and heavily seen patrolling popular Mosques, and religious places of worship in wake of the shooting. With no imminent threat facing New York, the NYPD has stated that they will continue to heavily patrol, and watch over these places in the spirit of prevention.

Certainly this has brought millions around the world to stand in solidarity with this community, and it showed hatred’s true face, but as New Zealand’s prime minister intended, his name will not be mentioned. CNN provides a very powerful and meaningful quote, of a few words left on the one of the many vigils for this attack; “They make take our innocence but we will show the world the meaning of love and compassion”.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/15/asia/new-zealand-gun-control-intl/index.html