Translator: TED Translators admin Reviewer: Emily Marturano
Kia ora! Shalom. Tēnā koutou.
Frieden. 和平 Hépíng. Shaanti. Pyeonghwa.
Hello everyone my name is Gamal Fouda.
I am the Imam, or the Religious Minister
at Deans Avenue mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand.
I am honored to address you today, and it is my pleasure to share with you my story
and my journey when I first came to New Zealand in 2003.
I went to Al Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt.
I studied Islamic Theology, and graduated in 1998.
For two years, I worked as an Imam, or Religious Minister
in the ministry of Religious Affairs in Egypt.
Then the president of the Muslim Association
of Greater Rockford in Illinois in the USA,
came to know about me from a friend, who visited the USA.
He called me in Egypt to see if I will agree to become an Imam
in their mosque in Rockford.
The congregation of that Islamic center interviewed me
after one of the Ramadan night prayers in the USA time.
It was early morning in Egypt.
The interview went very well and they decided to offer me the job.
Few days later, the president of the association flew to Egypt
and came to my village to visit me
and we went together to the Minister
of the Religious Affairs in Egypt to actually get the approval and finish
the process and probably get a visa to the USA.
Unfortunately, this was directly after September 11th attack on New York.
It was early 2002.
The Egyptian officials told us that
it is not safe to send such a young man to the USA.
Instead, they said they were going to send me to
one of the safest countries in the world.
It was New Zealand.
We all thought it would be safe.
I searched the internet about New Zealand, and unexpectedly,
I found it in the bottom of the world.
Initially, I thought that it must be close to Holland or Switzerland in Europe.
I got really disappointed because I am going to be sent to a country
in the bottom of the world which is very, very far away from my home country.
Anyway, I started the process of my posting to New Zealand as an Imam
in Palmerston North, in the lower North Island of New Zealand.
I arrived in Palmerston North in January 2003.
It was really hard for me to start my job there as an Imam who
needs to address people in English.
I did not have long experience enough to understand the Western mentality
so that I can address people in the right way.
There was something else which made me very anxious.
It is the feeling that people assume that Muslims are bad people.
This stereotyping was the norm of the day for many people
in the world at that time, especially after September 11.
Sadly, it is still the norm today.
I felt very frustrated and anxious at the same time.
When I arrived in Palmerston North, believe it or not,
I stayed in the mosque for around 4 months!
I never went out.
Frankly speaking, I was so scared to go out and meet people out there.
I was very frightened to walk in the street wearing the Imam uniform
because people will recognize me as a Muslim, and they might harm me.
After 2 months, I started to go out of my room and cautiously stood
by the gate and read the Holy Quran.
Whenever I hear any noise of a car coming towards the mosque,
I quickly run inside to save my life.
I thought that if someone recognizes me, he would kill me instantly.
You might wonder how I got my food then.
Well, people from the mosque used to do shopping for me,
and sometimes generously cook food for me as well.
One day I said to myself let me wear a shirt and trousers,
so that people can not recognize me as Imam.
The first person I met in the street approached me and said, “Hello, bro.”
I asked myself, "What is this man saying?"
Later on, I asked a person in the mosque who
lived in New Zealand for quite some time about what the man said,
and my friend told me that this is a short form of, “Hello, brother.”
I said to myself, “This is nice. People here must be very peaceful then…”
Ladies and gentlemen:
On the 15th of March, 2019,
a terrorist walked into our mosque
when I was delivering my Friday speech.
One of our worshippers went up to the man and said,
“Hello, brother.”
The terrorist killed him in cold blood,
along with other 51 people.
He wounded 47 more.
On March 22nd, one week after the 15th of March terror attack,
I addressed thousands of people in Hagley Park, and said,
“Hate will not divide us, and love will redeem us.”
A week later, I visited Berlin Wall and the Checkpoint Charlie, which was
a crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War.
I paid a historic visit to the biggest Synagogue in Berlin,
where I addressed some students and preachers.
I told them that Muslims and Jews are siblings to each other.
The Jews felt the pain of discrimination by Nazis.
Now Muslims are passing through the same path of agony and disgrace.
After September 11, when many countries participated in the “War on Terror,”
Islam and Muslims have frequently been treated as public enemies,
and hate speech against them has been widely normalised.
People assume that Muslims and Jews are enemies.
But we are not.
Judaism and Islam and Christianity are religions from God,
and God told us to love each other, and work together
for the benefit of the people around us.
Religion is there for people to learn how to love.
It is not there to build a wall between you and the people around you.
Islam as many other religions in our world teaches us to love each other
and to care about each other and for each other.
Any religion that teaches violence is not from the true God.
Who created you and me, because God loves us.
He created us.
He cares for us.
We are from him.
He is our Creator.
He gave us everything.
He gave us our hearts, our eyes, the power, the abilities,
the health and wealth.
Everything we enjoy is from God.
And it is His wisdom to make us different from each other
in colour, in language, and beliefs, so that we can enjoy this Earth together.
If you want to be a doctor and I want to be a doctor and everyone
wants to be a doctor, who is going to be a teacher
or a builder or a hairdresser?
If everyone wants the same tomato,
we end up killing each other for a tomato!
But it’s up to us, we need to make good choices.
To work with each other and to cooperate with each other,
and to care for each other.
Though we are different but we can still enjoy each other and love each other.
New Zealand and the New Zealanders have set a role model for the world
to emulate in peace and harmony among its people.
New Zealanders must retain and strengthen this beautiful image.
We are very proud that we are together, we are not broken.
We have taught the world how to care for and love our people.
We still have lots of work to do to eliminate racism in our country.
We are not angels.
We are not perfect.
There are people there who still need more education
to learn how to tolerate others and understand others,
and accept others who are different to them.
In 2038, half of New Zealand will be immigrants,
which means that one day, we will probably have an immigrant Prime Minister.
I have moved from my home country to New Zealand, and now this is my land.
It is my place.
It is the place of my family.
It is the place of my children.
It is my tūrangawaewae.
I love this soil.
I love this place.
I love these people.
I love us, because we are one.
Diversity is the superpower of any nation.
When people love and care for each other, the whole nation
will be very strong and powerful.
When we hate each other, the nation becomes weak and shattered.
The prophet Muhammad said, “The believers are like one body.
When any part aches, the whole body will feel the pain.”
I believe that when any one of us aches, we all feel the pain.
That is what happened on the 15th of March.
The whole nation felt the pain.
It was an attack on all of us, not only against Muslims.
The Honourable Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church,
and sovereign of the Vatican City State.
Dr. Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar in Egypt,
is the head of the vast majority of Muslims around the world.
They together signed a historic document on Human Fraternity
for World Peace and Living Together.
In this document, they invited all people of good will,
believers and non-believers, to reconciliation and fraternity.
They appealed to every upright conscience to reject violence and blind extremism.
They reminded us of the greatness of faith in God that unites
divided hearts and elevates the human soul.
And they declared that God has created us to understand one another,
cooperate with one another, and live as brothers and sisters
who love one another.
We have been through a terrible thing in this country.
The only way we can heal is to love one another,
and to continue the role model we have set to the whole world.
Hate will not divide us
if love unites us.
Thank you.