It’s imperative that the seeds of hope grow

Let seeds of hope grow

‘Their blood has watered the seeds of hope.” With those words Imam Gamal Fouda brought a grief-filled week to full circle. Speaking in Hagley Park — seven days after a gunman killed 50 Muslim worshippers at two Christchurch mosques, including his own — the Imam reflected on the light that had emerged from the darkness. “New Zealand is unbreakable. We are broken-hearted but not broken.”

A day later the Imam led prayers at his re-opened Al Noor mosque, draped in a New Zealand flag.

The Muslim community has been a big part of the tunnel of sorrow and healing the country has been through since the shattering terror attack.

As the target of an horrific attempt to sow division, the community could have reacted differently. “At a time when it would have been completely justifiable to close the doors and lock the gates, you did the exact opposite,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said at Masjid e Umar in Mt Roskill, which held an open vigil on Saturday.

Attention has focused on Ardern’s soul and steel, and public sympathy. But it is also notable that the community chose to return the offered embrace.

For once, the stories of victims and heroes dominated the shooting aftermath, rather than the personality and motives of the gunman. That was in part due to the willingness of family, friends and witnesses to speak openly about what happened.

Vigils have been held and people en masse have taken the chance to visit mosques. Islamic leaders have spoken about the attack. An Imam recited an Islamic prayer in Arabic in Parliament. The Islamic call to prayer was also broadcast nationwide from Hagley Park. The rich vocal tradition mixed with the cries of haka, tears, messages and mountainous flower beds in an expression of many as one.

The sincere displays of respect and goodwill are important, not just for our well-being as a society. There is a lot riding internationally on how the attack is perceived overseas.

Muslim-majority populations have borne the brunt of the years-long slaughter from jihadists’ “holy war”. In the West, where fringe extremists sought to divide people, Muslims have suffered Islamophobia. White nationalist terrorism traffics in a similar “clash of civilisations” ideology to jihad, plugged into a fear of immigrants. Isis and al-Qaeda are trying to use Christchurch to recruit, while rightwing extremists have praised the suspect online.

Rita Katz, of the Site Intelligence Group, said: “No one should be surprised when this attack is still a staple of jihadi propaganda and justifications for threats and incitements 10 years from now.”

Peter Neumann, a researcher of radicalisation, said: “I think there’ll be a long-term effect . . . It was conceived in a way that is likely to lead to others imitating him . . .We might very well see at least a handful of right-wing attackers who directly reference him to justify their own actions.”

That’s why we need the new openness and support of the past week to continue so Imam Fouda’s “seeds of hope” can grow. We are in this together.