The Daily - One Family’s Story of Survival and Loss in New Zealand

Episode Date: March 29, 2019

New Zealand is holding a national day of remembrance today for the 50 people killed in the mosque shootings in Christchurch. Our colleague spent several days with one family of one man who died in the attack. Guest: Charlotte Graham-McLay, who spent time with the family of Atta Elayyan. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

I might just get everyone to start talking a little bit, I guess, and I'll see how it sounds. Perhaps you could tell me, I guess, when you got into Christchurch. I met Abdullah and Hanin Alayan for the first time in Christchurch just over a week ago. Have you already talked about it? No. They started telling me about what happened on the day of the terror attack in Christchurch at the mosque where their father and brother attended. It was a blur. It was definitely a blur. They went straight to the hospital.

Did we go to look for dad after that? We did. Yeah, so we did all the admin. We went on a hunt to try and find him. They knew that their dad had gone into surgery. So they knew that he had definitely been at the hospital at some point, but they hadn't heard about their brother. So they get to the hospital and their dad's name isn't anywhere and their brother's name isn't anywhere. So they basically just start rushing from room to room on a hunt to try and find either of them. We'd been told by so many people that he'd been seen. Yeah.

Seen, came out of surgery, that he was okay. We went to every ward and couldn't find him anywhere. And he wasn't on the list either. There's this list at the hospital and there's a number of anonymous patients on the list, people who have been in surgery but they don't have names for them. So kind of earlier in the night we were thinking okay well if there's still 17 unconfirmed people then there's hope that our brother's also here as one of those anonymous patients. Eventually, really late at night, after kind of just chaotic back and forth with

the police and whoever's handling it, they did end up finding out exactly who every single one of those anonymous patients were. And they read them out. Yeah. A doctor who's part of the Muslim community in Christchurch comes into a waiting room and he essentially stands up and he starts reading the names. There's one, two, three, four. And halfway down, dad was read out. Their father's name is called and they feel this sense of relief. But as more and more names are being called and they don't hear their brothers, they just start to feel their chests clench up. Kept hearing more and more names getting read out. And the more that got read out, the more I knew.

Pretty much when the death toll climbed, I think it started at like nine when we first checked. It went from six to nine to 30 to 45. To 49. The more it climbed, the more we realized what are the chances that they both made it. Yeah. And then we just, we got to the end

and our brother's name hadn't been read out. From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. Today, New Zealand is holding a National Day of Remembrance for the 50 people killed in the mosque shootings in Christchurch. The majority of the victims and their families were migrants or refugees from countries like Pakistan, India, Malaysia, and Indonesia. My colleague, Charlotte Cram-McClay,

spent several days with one of the families. It's Friday, March 29th. So the Alayan family, Muhammad is their father, Maysoon is their mom, and the three kids are Atta, Hanin and Abdallah. Atta was born in Kuwait City in 1985, which is where his parents were living at the time. And what do they do?

Listen, I'm a good question. Have you got an hour? What don't they do? They're ethnically Palestinian and were both scientists. I've heard so many accounts of mum juggling raising her son and kind of lecturing and sorting out her PhD and bringing him into really unsafe labs. And they only came to New Zealand when a university here

wanted beef research, and that's what their father did. So that's when Christchurch became Arta's home in 1995. He used to sit on a Macintosh. Yeah. Macintosh computer. Yeah. Those really old ones with the, what's that duck shooting game? I'm not sure.

These old, old Macs that look like bricks. Yeah. Used to go and sit there while she was doing her work and display that game. Yeah. He was an only child for eight and a half years before his siblings came along. And it seems like he grew up as this sort of golden child. He was really good at sport. He scored an own goal once. And he was a goalkeeper.

However, he also scored a goal from a goalkeeping position. Which is incredible. Yeah. So when his parents first moved to Christchurch, his father was one of the leadership figures at the Elnor Mosque. But the mosque was integral to kind of bringing him. In our life, it was beyond childhood. I was probably there more than most every week, you know.

How did Arthur wrestle with that in high school? Because high school is a test for everyone. It is. This is kind of that struggle with identity in kind school because high school is a test for everyone it is this is kind of that struggle with identity and kind of a western context he went to the same high school as i did he was really really effective at kind of you know blending in and being you know just like any other kiwi but also in saying that he's he was one to absolutely embrace his muslim identity and he kind of brought that around with him in a really effective way

and the way that it's relatable. So I think obviously there's a bit of a struggle to assimilation or the opposite. But I think for me, I'm not the most sporty person out there. And it's interesting because, I mean, everything I was interested in was not really what defined Christchurch Boys High like I did drama and debating and all these kind of more cultural things that literally no one respected so one thing he kind of advised me was that getting into sport really does unlock doors socially

and and absolutely in hindsight I can completely see that he wasn't wrong and being into his sports just made him more accessible to people that he otherwise wouldn't be and we we often kind of discussed our high school experiences and I've always lived through kind of his mistakes and his experiences and he literally was like my second father he'd gone through a lot of this stuff himself. He was always teaching us from his mistakes. It sounds like he... That's going to be something we're going to really miss. Yeah.

I mean, I'm pretty stubborn in general, and I don't really take advice from a lot of people. But anytime I want some advice, I'd go to him for everything, and he'd always have the answer for everything. And it would be the perfect answer every time. How do you begin to process something like this? Yeah, look, I'm going to be totally honest with you. I think processing it is going to take a very long time.

I don't think we've started. Yeah, we haven't. A hundred percent haven't started processing yet. I mean, the first day and the second day were pretty tough, but I think we've kind of pulled it together a little bit for the sake of mom and father, but it's going to be a long, long road. And I think things are going to come up every now and again where, I don't know, for me it's going to be, oh man, I want some advice or I want to talk to Arthur about this or

he's not here kind of thing. I'm sure that's going to be years of pain for all of us. I don't think there's enough words to describe what it means for them in voice. The only reason that I'm doing architecture is because I saw one of his graphics projects pinned up on his wall. I mean, in hindsight, I actually kind of hated it.

It was like this yellow Simpsons-looking house. And it's pinned up on his wall, and I just saw the floor plans and the sketches, and I was so inspired. And interestingly, it's something he sacrificed to stay close to home. He didn't want to go to Wellington to study architecture because he didn't want to be far from home. He wanted two things. He wanted to be an architect or a dentist. And this one's an architect and I'm a dentist.

Yeah. And I had to put both of those dreams on hold because he didn't want to split the family up. After staying in Christchurch. He decided to study computer sciences. And after his degree, he developed a business in app design. It was during this time that he met Farah. Ata was an angel, honestly, not because he was my husband.

It was too good to be true. She lived in Jordan at the time, and so they had this long distance courtship for a while. I felt that this was the man I want to marry. I was very sure that I wanted Atta to be the father of my children, because he had every single thing that I wanted in a man. So where was the wedding? It was in Jordan. And tell me about it. What was it like? The best part for me was when Farah sang to him. We didn't know she could sing.

That's something we didn't know about her at the time. And no one expected that she kept it as a surprise. And she walked in partway through. We heard some singing. We didn't realize it was her. But she walked in singing a beautiful song in Arabic and English. And she sang it to him and he cried and we all cried. It was a beautiful moment. Then they had a little girl, a baby named Aya.

He never sang before that. He never sang before his daughter. I'd never heard him sing. She's nearly two. How do you explain to Aya what you've talked about? So far, Aya has been busy with, you know, like a lot of children around. Just maybe two days ago, she woke up in the middle of the night crying and she was calling for her dad. And then I calmed her down and she slept back. And then the other day she heard the plane

and she's like, Baba. I'm like, yeah. She's like, Oakland? Because just Monday night, he went to Oakland to where Abdullah is, his brother. So I'm like, yeah, Mama, Baba. Yeah, he's gone gone but not to Oakland this time he went to Jannah which is heaven

so for now this is what I'm going to tell her that he traveled to this place but we can't call him and that he's gone to this place where it's heaven not Oakland so right now we're just waiting to get the call from the police to say you can come and see the body now,

and after that we can get started on the steps towards the burial. And after that we're just going to wait. that we're just going to wait. So two days later, our photographer, Adam, was with the family when Abdallah got the call that it was time to go and receive Atta's body. And Adam said their composure broke just for a moment. And they went to go and get Atta. Then overnight they washed him.

Abdallah looked after that and they shrouded him and then they went to bury him in a mass funeral with 25 others. I was able to attend Atta's funeral. I stood in the section with the women. There were 5,000 people there. Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. Last week's event is proof and evidence to the entire world that terrorism has no color, has no race, and has no colour, has no race and has no religion. To the people of New Zealand,

Thank you. Thank you for your tears. for your tears. Thank you for your flowers. Thank you for your love and compassion. And to all the wonderful people who have shown us that we matter and are not forgotten. O Allah,

protect New Zealand. O Allah, protect New Zealanders and the world. Ameen. Ameen. Ameen. Wa aqib as-salah. Inna as-salatat anha'a min fahsha'i min fa'a. Wa laikum allah, ya khair.

Wa laikum as-salat. This is an official janazah. We don't do these janazahs every day. We don't bury 27 of our beloved ones every day. When the parties proceeded into the burial area, they were asked just to keep the party small for safety reasons. They didn't want to mix up the plots. There are 37 open holes.

We do not want anyone falling in those holes. They didn't want anyone to accidentally slip and fall into a grave, and so people were asked to only bring forward the closest family to bury their loved one. The family of Moim Rashid, please come to your loved one. Please just six or eight people, maximum, insha'Allah. They read out the lists of names in groups of five. You're used to seeing at a funeral a cluster of family around a grave. But what was so striking here is that you saw five clusters of family around five graves.

And then you had ten. And people were trying to have this kind of private farewell where they were all circled really closely together around each grave. But they were so close to the other families doing the same thing. but they were so close to the other families doing the same thing. And then they would encourage them to file out when they were finished, and they would read out the next five names. And can we ask the family of our sister, Shahida, sister,

and in the third group of five, the first name that was read out was Atas. Every five will take at a time. Before Atas' body was brought in, his father, who I recognised from pictures, was wheeled in in his wheelchair. He's been recovering from gunshot wounds in hospital, but obviously he was able to come out for his son's funeral. He was all in black, and he just waited by the grave.

And then the women filed in a little way behind him, Farah and Maysoon, Arthur's mum, Hanin, his sister, and some other relatives. And they were all supporting each other, holding on to each other. And then Atta's body was brought in. And I knew it was him because I could see Abdallah among those carrying the coffin. They had these open coffins with low sides so you could see the shrouded body inside and then Atta's dad Muhammad supporting himself on a cane got out of the wheelchair and stood by the grave as Atta's body was lowered in and everyone had their hands on him, it seemed like. Everyone had a hand on his back.

And they were all supporting each other. And they all just stood there for a long time, surrounded by all of these other families doing the same. And the Sheikh sang, Allahu Akbar, God is great, before the bodies were lowered. Allahu Akbar! They picked up their shovels and they started to shovel earth into the grave.

And Abdullah, at his brother, was going around and giving everyone hugs, but these really completely stock-still hugs. He would hold each person and they would just stand really still for a long time. Then a floral arrangement was placed on the grave, and the men filed out. They still had their hands on each other's backs. The women came to the grave for a moment and stood there too.

Outside the burial area were waiting at his football teammates. They filed out, and then the next group of bodies was brought in. And that kept happening until the funeral was over. Not long after I got home, I got a text from Abdallah, and he just wanted to make sure I'd made it into the funeral okay. I told him I had, and then I asked him how he was doing. And he replied, All I can say is that I feel at peace. We haven't lost everything.

We still have each other and we're going to have to get through it together. There's no other choice. You know, life has to go on. You've got to keep living. We do have faith, even if it's maybe not quite as strong as my dad's faith. We do have faith. We believe in the afterlife. We believe he's in a better place, and we want to meet him there. So I just hope that, inshallah, one day we'll be again reunited in Jannah, in heaven.

And this is what will give me the strength to continue our dreams and goals that we could not achieve together and that we had already set. And I'm going to raise our daughter to know who her father was, be very proud of her father, and yeah, I love him. Will always do. Atah Aleyan was 33 years old. Officials in New Zealand now say that all 50 victims of the shooting

have been identified and buried. We'll be right back. Here's what else you need to know today. On Thursday, the Times found that the report submitted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller was more than 300 pages long, suggesting that Mueller went well beyond the bare-bones summary required by law and offered a detailed explanation of his conclusions. No, thank you, Mr. Attorney General. We do not need your interpretation. Show us the report and we can draw our own conclusions.

So far, those conclusions have been summarized in a four-page document by the Attorney General, William Barr, fueling calls, especially from Democrats, for him to release the full report to both Congress and the public. We don't need you interpreting for us. It was condescending, it was arrogant, and it wasn't the right thing to do. So the sooner they can give us the information,

the sooner we can all make a judgment about it. And the Supreme Court has ruled that a ban imposed by the Trump administration on bump stocks, a device that allows semi-automatic rifles to fire more like automatic rifles, can remain in place. Under the ban, which was put in place after a bump stock was used in a mass shooting in Las Vegas, it is illegal to sell or possess bump stocks, and those who currently own them have 90 days to either destroy them or turn them over to the government.

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