New Zealand should have been a safe harbour for Khaled Mustafa and his family. They are Syrian refugees who arrived here in 2018 after spending years in a camp in Jordan. Khaled is a farrier and he thought New Zealand would offer a future for him, his wife and three children. Last Friday Khaled and his son Hamza were murdered in a Christchurch mosque where they were saying their Friday prayers. And nothing will ever be the same – for Salwa, Khaled’s wife and Hamza’s mother, their son and brother Zaid, who is recovering from two gunshot wounds to his leg in Christchurch hospital, and their 10-year-old daughter and sister. And nothing will ever be the same again for any New Zealander.
It is shocking and heartbreaking. These events erode us as a human race. Finding ways to look each other in the eye and pass on love and acknowledgement of our both our difference and our sameness becomes more urgent every day. Sending healing thoughts to your beautiful country.
Thank you, Simone. We are heart-broken.