MARCH 21 — Muhammad Haziq Mohd Tarmizi was 17 years old. He had lived for the last year and a half in New Zealand with his family.“[He was] a great young man who had the respect of his mates and teachers.
At 1.40pm that day, a gunman entered Masjid Al Noor and started a shooting rampage. After some six minutes at Masjid Al Noor, he proceeded to Linwood Islamic Centre where he continued his shooting spree. We find ourselves facing the question: what can normal, decent human beings do in the face of such unrelenting, violent evil and madness?
The first session of the New Zealand Parliament since the massacre was opened with a recitation by Imam Nizam ul Haq Thanvi of verses 153-156 from Surat al-Baqarah from the Quran, which read: Extremely strict gun laws in Malaysia have served us well and should continue to do so. The pros and cons of allowing radicalised Malaysians who have fought for organisations like ISIS to return home should perhaps be debated and scrutinised carefully.
We haven’t always navigated these differences as well as we could, but whatever our shortcomings and failures, we still stand together today as a multicultural, multiethnic and multireligious nation. If the Prime Minister of New Zealand can introduce Islamic elements into the most august hall of her country for example, why should the rest of us fear elements of Islam?
If we can succeed in doing so, we can be a beacon of hope for the rest of the world, insyallah — a model nation that can serve as proof that immigrants of different cultures or religion need not be feared, and can be integrated positively in a way that does not threaten anybody. In the aftermath of Christchurch, we are reminded of how difficult it is to live in times where such violence seems to be around every corner.‘“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.