Next Sunday marks the one year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks in which 51 people lost their lives.
This week, I read a book called Husna’s Story: My Wife, the Christchurch massacre and my journey to forgiveness.
It’s written by Farid Ahmed, one of the survivors of the terrorist attack that took place on 15th March 2019. His wife lost her life as she was looking for her husband who was in a wheelchair at the Al Noor Mosque.
You’ll know Farid. A grieving husband and father, he found the courage to speak at the National Remembrance Service. While we as a nation mourned and raged in equal parts that someone had come to our country to commit such an atrocity, Farid spoke of peace, love and forgiveness.
The way Jacinda Ardern dealt with his tragedy 18 months into her first term as Prime Minister was exemplary. Love or hate her politics, she led us all through this tragedy with dignity, compassion and a steadfast determination to make changes.
Our ‘it will never happen here’ naiveté came to a brutal end that day. You couldn’t help by notice a subtle shift in our psyche. “We will never be the same again” people said.
And yet, one year on I can’t help but think, what’s changed?
The banning of some automatic weapons and the gun buyback and amnesty scheme seemed like a sensible idea to any who didn’t have a gun, but with only 50,000 out of a potential 170,000 guns in circulation handed in, only time will tell if it’s a success.
Will it prevent another Christchurch massacre? I hope with all my heart it will, and yet every week we read of gun violence across New Zealand.
As Coronavirus hysteria took hold in early February, so too did anti-Chinese sentiments and xenophobic attitudes. Telling any Asian to “Go Back to China” in a response to Covid 19 is awful, racist and the worst form. How about asking New Zealand Chinese where their extended family is from, and whether they are OK?
Post the attacks we said, “this is not us”, but maybe we’re a little more racist than we’d like to admit.
Two weeks out from the massacre anniversary, New Zealand First MP and senior Minister Shane Jones quite happily attacked Indian Students for ruining our educational institutions. He knew his loose comments made under the guise of free speech would be inflammatory, and get attention - its election year, after all.
I don’t have a problem with having a conversation about population growth in NZ and whether our infrastructure and institutions can keep up with it, but can we have it without calling out minorities?
And that brings me back to Farid Ahmed’s book. I picked up Farid’s book with trepidation – it does describe the attack, the harrowing days that followed, and the lasting impact of the attack.
But it is so much more than that. It’s also a love story, a tribute to a mother and wife, and an important member of the community who tirelessly supported and nurtured those who needed her.
It’s a story about love, peace and forgiveness and how Husna’s approach to life, now embraced by her husband, can help us all get through the most horrific of tragedies. It’s a book aimed to bring us together, and most importantly at this time when you too might be wondering if anything has changed since March 15th, it gives hope.
Husna’s Story is out now, and all royalties go to St John Ambulance.
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