Hisham al-Zarzur, a Syrian survivor of the New Zealand's Christchurch mosque attacks that left 50 people dead in 15 March, has provided Zaman al-Wasl with more details over the terrorist attack.
Al-Zarzur was able to recall with courage all the facts of the Massacre of Al-Nour Mosque, even with his many physical and psychological situation.
The first thing that Hisham noticed was his close relationship with the victim, Khaled Haj Mustafa, who lived hundreds of meters from his house and accompany him in every Friday to pray.
In the shooting day, Khaled passed his neighbor Hisham about 10 minutes earlier. Khaled was with his son Hamza and Zaid, as well as a Malaysian student at Hamza's school.
Everyone went to the mosque, which is about 5 minutes away Khalid parked his car in the garage of Al-Nour Mosque (in the center of Christchurch, New Zealand's third largest city) and everyone got out of the car to walk peacefully towards the mosque.
Khaled and Hisham sat next to each other, after greeting the mosque. Hisham gazed throughout the mosque. Then he began to ask for forgiveness, waiting for the prayer to take place. Then he give two sections Sunnah for the noon prayer then he sit calmly until the prayers began.
As the Khatib of the mosque completed the first paragraph of his speech in Arabic, and began the English paragraph (the Khatib divides his “Khutba” into paragraphs reading every paragraph in Arabic and then attached to the translation of English) Hisham heard gunfire, he thought that it was firecrackers, or a sound of an electric fire, especially since there was one among the worshipers said “it is an electric fire”.
“Although I lived the horrors of the war in Syria for years, and my knowledge of the sound of gunfire but at first glance I did not want to imagine at all that there is an attack on the mosque” he said “New Zeland’s history and present in the world is totally not engaged in conflicts. Its people are self-sufficient and interested in their internal affairs and some of them have not heard of Islam. New Zeland’s people are very peaceful people. the armed attack was something initially excluded” said Hisham.
But once the terrorist emptied his first shot, Hisham realized that the nightmare had become a reality, and he and his companions thought they been besieged by terrorists from all sides.
The criminal was so professional in the shooting. He did not even show any hesitation or confusion and did not utter any word or an insult. His firing was intense and organized. The worshipers assert that there was a vicious band of gangs attacking them.
“At this moment of terror, some worshipers went to the emergency exit in the mosque, but were surprised that it was closed and later learned that the secret code of the door had been changed a while ago, and thus closed in the faces of these one of the doors of survival, and given the opportunity for the terrorist to attack more innocent people” said Hisham.
In the meantime, others are pushing to another door. Some of them were able to get out. The terrorist attacked them when he went out to replace his weapons and stores, after emptying about 5 stores into the bodies of worshipers.
As the terrorist left and the gunfire stopped for a few minutes, some of those who had left the mosque returned to investigate the situation and help the wounded. At that moment the terrorist returned and opened fire again and killed the rest.
Hisham lived for 17 minutes of terror, shooting, breathing, blood from bodies and heads, and the cries of the victims. He lived something more painful and bloody as it was livestreamed. Every second was like years, in the absence of any glimmer of hope for survival.
After that Hisham was wounded and his neighbor Khaled El-Hajj Mustafa with his blood. He heard the last screams. Then the bodies were massed around and above him.
The police were very late in reaching the site of the mosque, although it occurred in the heart of the city, and despite the sound of gunfire that lasted more than a quarter of an hour, the police did not enter the mosque immediately upon arrival, thinking that the criminal (or criminals) is still inside. Saving the injured people and the chance of saving lives could have been saved.
According to Hisham, what happened was an unnatural thing to run into a safe place in their homes and just call the police, so none of the neighbors in the mosque rushed to help the victims, nor even to investigate.
The police are here unarmed and violence is rare, the police have to go back to their headquarters to pick up their weapons and receive instructions.
Hisham painfully remembers that the sons of the martyr Khalid, Hamza and Zabad, managed to get out of the mosque while the terrorist was still attacking. Zaid (the younger son) was wounded in the thigh while Hamza was safe.
Hamza stayed with his mother on the phone for about 20 minutes until he died after bleeding too much, while the ambulance could save him if he came directly.
Hisham also remembers how one of the Muslim women of New Zealand rushed from the women's chapel to her husband to save him, but she killed.
In this context, Hisham denied that the terrorist was aware of the mosque and its doors. If he knew the plan of the mosque, he would enter the women's chapel, and the killing will be doubled, but at the same time the witness asserts that the attack can’t be a single act of planning or naïve
Hisham expressed his confidence for authorities in tracking anyone involved in the massacre planning, incitement or support.
He referred to the New Zealanders' astonishment about Muslims in the darkest moments, embodied by the words of an Afghan prayer who said “hello my brother” to the terrorist when he entered the mosque, which made the New Zealanders feel the enormity of the massacre.
According to Hisham, the first group of bodies was on the right near the chapel connected to the garage.
This group includes about 20 bodies, while the second group had about 15 bodies, and was close to the emergency door. Hisham was among the bodies of this group until the confirmation of the departure of the terrorist by the police who secured him to the hospital.
The terrorist back to these two groups in particular to attack them twice in order to be sure if they died.
Hisham expressed great pain after he heard that the terrorist had published about two months ago a clear statement about his criminal intentions towards Muslims. He sent 9 minutes before the attack to reveal that he was carrying out his attack and circulated it to about 70 officials In the country.
As soon as the terrorist had finished his massacre at Al-Nour mosque, he went to another mosque, which was about a quarter of an hour away and was not objected by the police, but the courage of one of the Afghan worshipers.
The terrorist did not stop, but went to a third mosque, where the police arrested him.
Hisham hoped execution for the criminal who committed an act could not be justified in any law, as killing people in places of worship in particular represents criminality, and exposes the most unjust side of the extremist approach.
He said that anyone who supports terrorism even with words such as the Australian MP Frizer Anninj must be punished by the law.
At the end of his testimony about the massacre, Hisham linked what happened with Syria's tragedies and massacres. The immigration of hundreds of Syrian refugees pushed the extremists to attack the immigrated people in New Zealand government.
Zaman Al Wasl
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