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New Zealand Mosques Reopen 8 Days After Attacks.



Worshippers have returned to the Al-Noor mosque in Christchurch for the first time since a mass shooting there in which dozens of people were killed.

The building had closed so police could investigate the attack but on Saturday small groups were allowed to return.

Fifty people were killed in shootings at two mosques on 15 March.

As the Al Noor mosque reopened, some 3,000 people walked through Christchurch on Saturday for a 'march for love' intended to honour victims.

Many walked in silence and some carried placards calling for peace and opposing racism.

"We feel like hate has brought a lot of darkness at times," said Manaia Butler, a 16-year-old student who helped to organise the march. "Love is the strongest cure to light the city out of that darkness," she said.

Most victims of the shooting, which New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern quickly denounced as a terrorist attack, were migrants or refugees and their deaths reverberated around the Islamic world.



Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan, who visited the Al Noor mosque, said the attack assailed human dignity.

“This is a moment of deep anguish for all of us, all of humanity,” he said.

Police said they were reopening the nearby Linwood mosque, the second to be attacked during Friday prayers last week, as well.

New Zealand has been under heightened security alert since the attack with Ardern moving quickly with a new tough law banning some of the guns used in the March 15 shooting.

Ashif Shaikh, who was in the Al Noor mosque on the day of the massacre in which two of his housemates were killed and who came back on Saturday, said he would not be deterred.

“It is the place where we pray, where we meet, we’ll be back, yeah,” he said.




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