Australian Muslims honor New Zealand terror victims

By Recep Sakar

MELBOURNE (AA) - Muslims in Australia held funeral prayers on Friday in absentia for those killed in last week’s Christchurch terrorist attack in New Zealand.

During the Friday sermons, hundreds of mosques throughout the country gave messages of unity and underscored that terrorists aimed to separate the society by spreading fear.

Talha Bozkurt, a Turkish Islamic youth NGO chief in Australia told Anadolu Agency that Muslims were fearlessly keeping Mosque attendance high.

"Events did not turn out the way the terrorists wished," Bozkurt said, adding that the aim of the attack had been to frighten the Muslim community out of going to mosques.

Following the terror attacks, police guarded the first Friday prayers held in Australia.

Friday marked exactly one week since the attacks in which at least 50 Muslims were killed when a terrorist opened fire on worshipers during weekly Friday prayers at the Al Noor and Linwood mosques in Christchurch.

Australian-born Brenton Tarrant, 28, has been charged for the massacre and is being held at a maximum-security prison in Auckland.

*Writing by Dilara Hamit from Ankara