'Human chain of love' to circle Tauranga Mosque after Christchurch shooting

The tributes and flowers left outside the Tauranga Mosque continue to grow. Photo / Caroline Fleming

A "human chain of love" will circle the Tauranga mosque this Friday to allow the Muslim community to pray in peace a week on from the tragedy.

A Facebook event called NZ Stand Together had been set up, with the idea of urging people to join hands and circle their local mosque to stand in solidarity with their local Muslim community for Friday prayer.

Secretary of the Tauranga Mosque, Ibrahim Hassan, said the chain was a wonderful idea and a nice way to bring people together in light of awful events.

He said things like this were important and the Muslim community had felt support from all around.

The Friday afternoon prayer takes place from 1.45pm to 2.15pm, but people often arrived closer to 1.30pm.

Something like this would be really appreciated by the community, he said.

The human chain was designed to be a nationwide event, with the event page underlining they had the blessing of the police and the Auckland Muslim community liaison officer.

So far, the page has close to 1000 people either interested or going.

The idea was recently done by a group outside a Californian mosque to show support and protection for the Muslim community during prayers.

To get involved people are can head down to their local Mosque this Friday afternoon and join the NZ Stand Together Facebook page.