A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
Opinion
At the end of an emotional, sombre week that has also seen strength, inspiration and hope for a better, more tolerant future, New Zealanders came together yesterday to remember and to honour the victims of last Friday’s terror attack; to stand with our Muslim communities, and against extremism and discrimination.
We heard the call to prayer that rings out five times a day from mosque minarets, floating down through the air and alleyways of cities, towns and villages throughout the Muslim world. Then, together, we bowed our heads in two minutes of silence.
“The terrorist sought to tear our nation apart,” said Al Noor Mosque imam Gamal Fouda at a service attended by thousands in Hagley Park, opposite where 42 of his flock were killed a week ago.
“But we have shown that New Zealand is unbreakable and that the world can see us as an example of love and unity. We are broken-hearted but we are not broken. We are alive. We are together.”
The world has taken note of our response, too. Stunned, like us, that such a mass terrorist slaughter would happen in “safe”, little, isolated New Zealand; in shock also that the atrocity was broadcast on social media. Taking inspiration, like us, from the unifying words and compassion of a young prime minister, and the contrast to so much divisive rhetoric from other leaders these days. Seeing the weapons of mass murder banned six days later, standing starkly against the inability of the world’s leading power and leading centre of mass gun murders to take this obvious step.
