Australian Muslims honor New Zealand terror victims
Hundreds of mosques send messages of unity amid funeral prayers for fallen in white supremacist terror attack
People perform funeral prayer in absentia for those who lost their lives during twin terror attacks in New Zealand mosques, after Friday Prayer at Meadow Heights Mosque in Melbourne, Australia on March 22, 2019. ( Recep Şakar - Anadolu Agency )
MELBOURNE
Muslims in Australia held funeral prayers on Friday in absentia for those killed in last week’s Christchurch terrorist attack in New Zealand.
During the Friday sermons, hundreds of mosques throughout the country gave messages of unity and underscored that terrorists aimed to separate the society by spreading fear.
Talha Bozkurt, a Turkish Islamic youth NGO chief in Australia told Anadolu Agency that Muslims were fearlessly keeping Mosque attendance high.
"Events did not turn out the way the terrorists wished," Bozkurt said, adding that the aim of the attack had been to frighten the Muslim community out of going to mosques.
Following the terror attacks, police guarded the first Friday prayers held in Australia.
Friday marked exactly one week since the attacks in which at least 50 Muslims were killed when a terrorist opened fire on worshipers during weekly Friday prayers at the Al Noor and Linwood mosques in Christchurch.
Australian-born Brenton Tarrant, 28, has been charged for the massacre and is being held at a maximum-security prison in Auckland.
*Writing by Dilara Hamit from Ankara
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