Christchurch attack victims' families reflect on tragedy five years on
It's been five years since 51 men, women and children, were murdered in a terror attack when a white supremacist opened fire at Al Noor and Linwood mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Now, the victims' families have reflected on the tragic day, and commemorated their loved ones on the five-year anniversary of the attacks.
Dr Maysoon Salama, who lost her son Atta Elayyan, 33, relives the grief of losing her son every day.
“The pain is still fresh,” she told 7NEWS.
Five years on, the good memories she shared with her son still play back in her mind.
“Atta was an amazing son,” she said. “He’s touched the lives of so many people.”
Despite the tragedy, Dr Salama remains strong and finds herself healing through her granddaughter Aya.
“I feel like I see her father when I see her,” she said.
“It’s a really hard journey ... but she has always been my focus.”
Aya was two when she lost her father, and Dr Salama was faced with the heartbreaking task of helping her granddaughter adjust to a life without her father.
“When I look her in the eyes and she will ask, ‘Where is my dad?’, what am I going to tell her?” she recalled thinking.
“How are we going to tell her when she’s so attached to her daddy? She loved him so much.”
Dr Salama's husband, Mohammad Alayan, was among the dozens of people hospitalised following the attack, with doctors at the time saying he was “lucky to survive”.
“He had been shot twice. One in his head and it affected his vision and one in his shoulder and she said it was just a few millimetres away from his heart,” Maysoon said.
The couple run a Muslim childcare centre An-Nur, and have worked together to help children navigate New Zealand's darkest days.
She recalled the sinking feeling when she first heard of the attacks while at work, and how her husband's first instinct was to tell her to protect herself and everyone at the childcare centre.
“I got a call from my husband and he told me he was in hospital and that I have a big responsibility to protect the children and the teachers and lock down, close the doors because he was afraid the shooter would also come to our place because we are a Muslim childcare centre,” she said.
“More families who were distressed started coming to pick up their children, and some of them even had blood on their shirts, some of them witnessed the thing.
“It was really an awful situation.”
Not long after, she learned that her own son had also been injured, but at the time had no idea of the reality of it all.
Aya Al-Umari lost her brother, Hussein, on the fateful day.
“It happened so suddenly, I had no time to grieve,” she said.
Hussein spent the last moments of his life protecting other people, and even though Aya misses his hugs more than anything, she takes comfort in knowing that her brother's legacy will live on.
“He had the opportunity to escape, but he didn’t,” she said.
“He was running towards the terrorist.
“It really goes to show, especially in his last moments, he was always a giver.”
Both Aya and Dr Salama both take comfort in the belief that their loved ones died as as a Shahid – a true martyr who died in the name of their faith in Islam.
Dr Salama hopes that the findings from last year’s coronial inquest, expected to be handed down this year, will provide a sense of closure to the victims' families.
She also hopes that people will use the fifth anniversary of the shootings to reflect on the work that is yet to be done and call for more action in fighting Islamophobia and extremism.
“We can fight Islamophobia by challenging the biases and educating ourselves also and intervening against discrimination.
“See something, say something.”
Canterbury's Muslim community will also gather today to honour the victims with a commemoration service at Masjid Annur in the evening, according to RNZ.
Brenton Tarrant, who was behind the terror attacks, was sentenced to life in jail without parole – the first person in New Zealand's history to receive the sentence because his actions were deemed "so wicked".
Images: 7News