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CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand – Mucad Ibrahim wore small white socks, the kind with handles on the bottom so that toddlers do not slip, when he was taken to the Al Noor mosque in this city.
His shoes were still at the entrance, where he had left them when he arrived for Friday prayers with his father and big brother. His big brown eyes, usually lit with laughter, were closed as he headed for the ambulance.
It was the last time his family had seen him.
Mucad Ibrahim, three, is the youngest victim of mbad shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand. (Abdi Ibrahim / AP)
They hope to finally wash and pack his tiny body and bury it Monday, much later than in Islam, which requires that bodies be buried quickly, preferably within 24 hours.
[[[[Live Updates: After the Mbadacre, New Zealand Debates Firearms Laws]
Mucad, whose name is pronounced Mou'ad but who was more commonly called by the Arabic diminutive "Mou'adee", was 3 years old. He was born in New Zealand to a Somali family who had fled fighting in their home country more than 20 years ago.
Mucad was "energetic, playful, and loved to smile and laugh," wrote his teenage brother Abdi on Facebook. "I will miss you dear brother."
Abdifatah Ibrahim, in the center, and his brother Abdi, on the right, are walking Sunday with an unidentified friend in Christchurch, New Zealand. Mucad was their younger brother. (Mark Baker / AP)
He was the youngest of 50 victims of attacks on two mosques that shocked New Zealand and in particular this city, which is no stranger to the tragedy after the devastating earthquake of 2011 that killed 185 people .
But just as the Sandy Hook mbadacre in Connecticut caused great grief because of the innocence of the first-clbad victims, Mucad's death also sums up the inexplicable nature of this man-made disaster.
"He could have become a brilliant doctor or prime minister," said Mohamud Hbadan, a 21-year-old Somali community member with about 60 families. He shook his head, expression of the common chorus after all the shootings: "Why?
[[[[What we know about the people killed during the shootings in New Zealand]
Mucad's father, Adan Ibrahim, had gathered him around noon to take him to Friday prayers at the mosque, as usual. After the prayer, the young men would often play football in Hagley Park, across the road, and Mucad would often go with Abdi.
But when the shooter burst into the mosque about 10 minutes after the sermon began and started firing indiscriminately round the men's section, little Mucad seemed to think it was a scene like video game that his older brothers loved to play. He ran towards the shooter, said Hbadan. In the midst of chaos, his father and brother ran in different directions.
After the carnage was over, a devotee took him to the doctor who was arriving.
On Sunday night, Mucad's father was waiting at the hospital, hoping to see his smallest son for the first time since his death, hoping it would be the day he could finally rest his youngest son. .
"In truth, we belong to God and we will come back to him. We will miss you dear brother, wrote Abdi.
Families are frustrated by the time it took the authorities to release the bodies.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said at a press conference Sunday that some bodies would be returned to their families that night and that she hoped all would be found by Wednesday.
"Just give us back the bodies," a woman shouted Sunday afternoon at the television screen as members of the local Indonesian community gathered to support Air New Zealand engineer Lilik Abdul Hamid's family. , killed during the attacks.
Some 90 persons responsible for the identification of disaster victims, including 20 foreigners, use it to identify victims. But the Christchurch coroner said it was a lengthy process that involved identifying clothes, obtaining medical records and fingerprints.
Wally Haumaha, the deputy police commissioner, said he understood that not being able to comply with religious funeral rites only added to the trauma of families.
"Our only goal is to get their loved ones back and respect cultural traditions such as washing and scrubbing their loved ones," he said on Sunday.
Heavy machinery was used to dig dozens of graves at Memorial Park Cemetery in Christchurch, not far from the site of the second attacked mosque. A local funeral home has been designated to receive bodies for families to perform ritual washes.
But families still do not know where the funeral will take place. The mosques in Christchurch are still closed.
In front of the Al Noor mosque, where 41 victims were killed, floods of people continued to surrender on Sunday at the police cordon in the park in front of the mosque. Many laid flowers and left notes expressing their condolences or asking them to "kia kaha" – "stay strong" in Maori.
Some people held placards offering free hugs, others gave homemade cookies to the families of the victims. Members of Black Power, a group of bikers, performed a haka, or Maori dance, in the street in front of the mosque. The haka is often performed to show strength and unity.
And members of the Muslim community shuttled between a family center in a community college and a hospital, located on the other side of the park in front of the mosque.
The men of Pakistani origin wore All Blacks rugby jerseys over their traditional salwar kameez outfits. New Zealanders of Bangladeshi, Syrian, Palestinian and Indian descent greeted each other with hug and sorrow. The sounds of the Arab hellos ricocheted around the concrete entrance of the hospital.
Ibrahim Ali, a leader of the Somali community, greeted men he did not know: "Hey, where are you from?" "Auckland," the taqiyah men replied. "No, before that." Their families were from Fiji.
But by that time, it was clear that they were all New Zealanders.
"It does not change my feelings about New Zealand," said Said Abdukadir, whose 70-year-old father was killed in attacks, allegedly carried out by an Australian in the US. only purpose to cause a haven shock. Abdukadir was late at the mosque that day and stopped just as the shooter was leaving.
"That's what the terrorist wanted," he said, recalling how much his father liked to cross Hagley Park to get to the mosque. "He wanted us to feel like we were safe nowhere. But we know what is New Zealand.
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