Speaking to the media is not something Gamal Fouda wants to do.
By Sunday's Mark Crysell
“Sometimes I hide from the media and don’t want to answer phone calls because it’s really stressful, it’s very stressful. People think that it is good, but it’s not," says Mr Fouda.
But it’s something the Imam of Christchurch’s Al Noor mosque feels he must do.
He was there when a gunman opened fire halfway through Friday prayers on March 15 last year killing 42 people who’d come to worship.
A week later Gamal stood on a platform in Hagley Park opposite a broken Al Noor and welcomed a huge crowd of Muslims and non-Muslims who’d come together in a numb sense of unified shock.
“We are broken hearted, but we are not broken. We are alive. We are together. We are determined to not let anyone divide us," he said.
Al Noor Mosque Imam Gamal Fouda thanked emergency service workers, the New Zealand Government and public for their support. (Source: Other)
Watch the footage now and it’s a shaky long lens image on a windy day but I was there, and he was strong and true.
What was also true was that the world was watching, especially the Muslim world. The way New Zealand responded to the attacks and the words we used, really mattered.
Gamal, a humble man from a small village on the banks of Nile in Egypt, knew this.
And this is what he said.
“We are here in our hundreds and thousands unified for one purpose, that hate will be undone, and love will redeem us.”
And then he led thousands of Muslims, in the open air of the most English of our cities, in prayer.
“I wanted to stand with my country, with my people because they also stood beside us, because we felt like we are part of the nation. That’s why I had to put this into my words, to say thank you to our nation.”
Gamal wasn’t physically wounded but the attacks have left their mark.
“I get very anxious. Even by shouting, music or radio, or any big gathering of people talking, I, I get very upset," he said.
Over the past year he’s met presidents and princes, won a Kiwibank local hero award and been elected to the Riccarton Community Board.
He’s a proud Kiwi, a great New Zealander, working towards a day when we really are one, not “us” and “them”.
“We’re not perfect, we’re not angels, you and me and everybody, we need to stand up against hate."
Watch Mark Crysell’s story with Gamal Fouda on SUNDAY at 7.30pm, TVNZ1 and TVNZ OnDemand
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