Wellington: In a touching show of solidarity with Muslims and a strong rebuttal of islamophobes, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern Tuesday began her address with Asslam o alaikum while the Special Session of the Parliament called to pay tribute to Chirstchurch mosque shooting victims in itself opened with recitation of Holy Quran.
Asslam o alaikum is Muslim greeting and it means peace and blessings upon you. Holy Quran is the book revealed on Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). It is the most widely recited book in the world. Also, there are hudreds of thousands of Muslims world over who have memorised Holy Quran - verse by verse, and chapter by chapter.
Dressed in black, the 38-year-old leader opened her remarks in parliament saying, "Asslam o alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh (May peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be with you)."
She also paid her tribute to Pakistani national Naeem Rashid, one of the martyred of the Christchurch terrorist attacks who sacrificed his life trying to stop the shooter.
"Naeem Rashid laid down his life to save the lives of worshippers gathered inside the mosque", she said.
The prime minister promised that the man responsible for last week's deadly mosque massacres would face "the full force of the law", as she vowed never to utter his name.
"He sought many things from his act of terror, but one was notoriety —that is why you will never hear me mention his name," Ardern said.
"I implore you: Speak the names of those who were lost rather than the name of the man who took them," she told the gathering in Wellington, four days after the massacre in the southern city of Christchurch.
"He is a terrorist. He is a criminal. He is an extremist. But he will, when I speak, be nameless", news agency AFP quoted the Prime Minister as saying.
Jacinda Ardern closed her address by noting that “on Friday, it will be a week since the attack, members of the Muslim community will gather for worship on that day. Let us acknowledge their grief as they do.”
“As the Cabinet, we were absolutely unified and very clear: the terror attack in Christchurch on Friday was the worst act of terrorism on our shores, it was in fact one of the worst globally in recent times, it has exposed a range of weaknesses in NewZealand’s gun laws,” she said.
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