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

[0] I might just get everyone to start talking a little bit, I guess, and I'll see how it sounds.

[1] Perhaps you could tell me, I guess, when you got into Christchurch.

[2] I met Abdullah and Hane Alleyan for the first time in Christchurch just over a week ago.

[3] Have you already talked about it?

[4] 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.

[5] It was a blur.

[6] It was definitely a blur.

[7] They went straight to the hospital.

[8] Did we go to look for dad after that?

[9] We did.

[10] Yeah, so we did all the admen.

[11] We went on a hunt to try and find him.

[12] They knew that their dad had gone into surgery.

[13] So they knew that he had definitely been at the hospital at some point, but they hadn't heard about their brother.

[14] So they get to the hospital and their dad's name isn't anywhere and their brother's name isn't anywhere.

[15] So they basically just start rushing from room to room on a hunt to try and find either of them.

[16] We've been told by so many people that he'd seen, came out of surgery that he was okay.

[17] We went to every ward and he couldn't find him anywhere.

[18] And he wasn't on the list either.

[19] 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.

[20] 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.

[21] Eventually, really late at night.

[22] 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.

[23] And they read them out.

[24] Yeah.

[25] 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.

[26] There's one, two, three, four.

[27] And halfway down, dad was read out.

[28] Their father's name is called and they feel this sense of relief.

[29] 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.

[30] Kept hearing more and more names getting rid out.

[31] And the more that got rid out, the more I knew.

[32] Pretty much when the death toll climbed, I think it started at like nine when we first checked.

[33] It went from six to nine to 30 to 45.

[34] Yeah.

[35] The more it climbed, the more we realized what are the chances that they both needed.

[36] Yeah.

[37] And then we just got to the end and our brother's name hadn't been read out.

[38] From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro.

[39] Today, New Zealand is holding a national day of remembrance for the 50 people killed in the mosque shootings in Christchurch.

[40] The majority of the victims and their families were migrants or refugees from countries like Pakistan, India, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

[41] My colleague, Charlotte Cram McLeigh, spent several days with one of the families.

[42] It's Friday, March 29.

[43] So the Alean 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?

[44] Listen, I'm a good question Have you got an hour?

[45] What don't they do?

[46] 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.

[47] And they only came to New Zealand when a university here wanted beef research and that's what their father did.

[48] So that's when Christchurch became artist's home in 1995.

[49] He used to sit on a Macintosh.

[50] Yeah.

[51] Macintosh computer?

[52] Those really old ones with the, what's that duck shooting game?

[53] I'm not sure.

[54] These old old Macs are.

[55] It looked like bricks.

[56] He used to go and sit there while she was doing her work and display that game.

[57] Yeah.

[58] He was an only child for eight and a half years before his siblings came along.

[59] And it seems like he grew up as this sort of golden child.

[60] He was really good at sport.

[61] He scored an own goal once.

[62] And he was a goalkeeper.

[63] However, he also scored a goal from a goalkeeping position.

[64] Which is incredible.

[65] Yeah.

[66] So when his parents first moved to Christchurch, his father was one of the leadership figures at the El Nour Mosque.

[67] But the mosque was integral to kind of bring in our life.

[68] It was beyond childhood.

[69] I was probably there more than most every week, you know?

[70] How did Arta resolve with that in high school?

[71] Because high school is a test for everyone.

[72] It is.

[73] This is kind of that struggle with identity in kind of a Western context.

[74] He went to the same high school as I did.

[75] He was really, really effective at kind of, you know, blending in and being.

[76] being, you know, just like any other Kiwi.

[77] But also in saying that he was one to absolutely embrace his Muslim identity, and you kind of brought that around with him in a really effective way, and the way that it's relatable.

[78] So I think obviously there's a bit of a struggle to assimilation or the opposite.

[79] But I think for me, I'm not the most sporty person out there.

[80] And it's interesting because, I mean, everything I was interested in was not really what defined Christchurch boy's high.

[81] Like I did drama and debating and all these kind of more cultural things that literally no one respected.

[82] So one thing he kind of advised me was that getting into sport really does unlock doors socially and absolutely in hindsight I can completely see that he wasn't wrong.

[83] Being into his sports just made him more accessible to people that he otherwise wouldn't be.

[84] and 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.

[85] He'd gone through a lot of this stuff himself.

[86] You know, he was always teaching us from his mistakes.

[87] It sounds like he...

[88] That's going to be something we're going to really miss. Yeah, yeah.

[89] I mean, I'm pretty stubborn in general and I don't really take advice from a lot of people.

[90] But any time I want some advice, I'd go to him for everything, and he'd always have the answer for everything.

[91] And it would be the perfect answer every time.

[92] How do you begin to process something like that is?

[93] I mean, yeah, look, I'm going to be totally honest with you.

[94] I think processing it is going to take a very long time.

[95] I don't think we've started.

[96] Yeah, we haven't.

[97] 100 % haven't started processing yet.

[98] 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 Raman Fara, but it's going to be a long, long road.

[99] 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 Ata about this, or he's not here, kind of thing.

[100] I'm sure that's going to be years of pain for all of us.

[101] I don't think there's enough words to describe what it means for them influence.

[102] The only reason that I'm doing architecture is because I saw one of his graphics projects pinned up on his wall.

[103] I mean, in hindsight, I actually kind of hated it.

[104] 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.

[105] And interestingly, It's something he sacrificed to stay close to home.

[106] He didn't want to go to Wellington to study architecture because he didn't want to be far from home.

[107] He wanted two things.

[108] He wanted to be an architect or a dentist.

[109] And this one's an architect, and I'm a dentist.

[110] Yeah.

[111] And Arta put both of those dreams on hold because he didn't want to split the family up.

[112] Arta stayed in Christchurch.

[113] He decided to study computer sciences, and after his degree, he developed a business and app design.

[114] It was during this time that he met Fara.

[115] Atta was an angel, honestly, not because he was my husband.

[116] It was too good to be true.

[117] She lived in Jordan at the time, and so they had this long -distance courtship for a while.

[118] I felt that this was the man I want to marry.

[119] 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 the man. So where was the wedding?

[120] It was in Jordan.

[121] and tell me about it what was it like the best 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 and it was a beautiful moment Then they had a little girl, a baby, named Aya.

[122] He never sang before that.

[123] He never sang before his daughter.

[124] I'd never heard him sing.

[125] She's nearly two.

[126] How do you explain to Aya?

[127] What have you talked to her?

[128] So far Aya has been busy with, you know, like a lot of children around.

[129] Just maybe two days ago, she woke up in the middle of the night crying and she was calling for her dad.

[130] 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 at night he went to Oakland to where Abdullah is his brother so I'm like yeah mama baba he yeah he's gone but not to Oakland this time he went to Jinnah 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 he's He's gone to this place, whereas it's heaven, not Oakland.

[131] So right now we're just waiting to get the call from the police to say you can come see the body now.

[132] And after that, we can get started on the steps towards the burial.

[133] And after that, we're just going to wait.

[134] So two days later, our photographer, Adam, was with the family when Abdallah got the call.

[135] That it was time to go and receive Atta's body.

[136] And Adam said their composure broke just for a moment.

[137] And they went to go and get Atta.

[138] Then overnight they washed him.

[139] Abdallah looked after that and they shrouded him.

[140] And then they went to bury him in a mass funeral with 25 others.

[141] I was able to attend Atta's funeral.

[142] I stood in the section with the women.

[143] there were 5 ,000 people there.

[144] Last week's event is proof and evidence to the entire world that terrorism has no colour, has no race and has no religion.

[145] To the people of New Zealand, New Zealand.

[146] Thank you.

[147] Thank you for your tears.

[148] Thank you for your flowers.

[149] Thank you for your love and compassion.

[150] And to all the wonderful people who have shown us that we matter and are not forgotten.

[151] Oh, Allah, protect New Zealand.

[152] Oh, Allah, protect New Zealanders and the world.

[153] Amen, amen.

[154] And I'll give us allah.

[155] Innais, every day.

[156] We're on bury, 27 of our...

[157] When the parties proceeded into the burial area, they were asked just to keep the party small for safety reasons.

[158] They didn't want to mix up the plots.

[159] They didn't want anyone falling in those homes.

[160] They didn't want anyone to accidentally slip and fall into a grave.

[161] And so people were asked to only bring forward the closest family to bury their loved one.

[162] They read out the lists of names in groups of five.

[163] You're used to seeing at a funeral, a couple of cluster of family around a grave.

[164] But what was so striking here is that you saw five clusters of family, around five graves, and then you had ten.

[165] And people were trying to have this kind of private farewell where they were all circled really closely together around each grave.

[166] But they were so close to the other families doing the same thing.

[167] 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 shehida, sister and we don't know what he said inshallah and in the third group of five the first name that was read out was Arta's every five will take at a time before Arta's 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 Fara and Maysoon after his mum Hanin his sister and some other relatives and they were all supporting each other and holding on to each other.

[168] And then Uttar's body was brought in and I knew it was him because I could see Abdelah among those carrying the coffin.

[169] They had these open coffins with low sides so you could see the shrouded body inside.

[170] And then Uttar's dad, Muhammad, supporting himself on a cane, got out of the wheelchair and stood by the grave as Arta's body was lowered in.

[171] And everyone had their hands on him, it seemed like everyone had a hand on his back.

[172] And they were all supporting each other.

[173] And they all just stood there for a long time, surrounded by all of these other families doing the same.

[174] And the Sheikh sang, Allahubah, God is great, before the bodies were lowered.

[175] They picked up their shovels, and they started to shovel Earth into the grave.

[176] And Abdullah at his brother was going around and giving everyone hugs, but these really completely stock -still hugs.

[177] He would hold each person, and they would just stand really still for a long time.

[178] The inner floral arrangement was placed on the grave, and the men filed out.

[179] They still had their hands on each other's backs.

[180] 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 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.

[181] So I just hope that, inshallah, one day will be again reunited in Jinnah in heaven.

[182] And this is what will give me the strength, you know, to continue our dreams and goals that we could not achieve together and that we have already said.

[183] And I'm going to raise our daughter to know who her father was.

[184] Be very proud of her father.

[185] And yeah, I love him.

[186] We'll always do.

[187] years old.

[188] Officials in New Zealand now say that all 50 victims of the shooting have been identified and buried.

[189] We'll be right back.

[190] Here's what else you need to Notre Day.

[191] 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 -bone summary required by law and offered a detailed explanation of his conclusions.

[192] No, thank you, Mr. Attorney General.

[193] We do not need your interpretation.

[194] Show us the report, and we can draw our own conclusions.

[195] 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.

[196] We don't need you interpreting for us.

[197] It was condescending.

[198] it was arrogant and it wasn't the right thing to do.

[199] So the sooner they can give us the information, the sooner we can all make a judgment about it.

[200] 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.

[201] Under the ban, which was put in place after a bumpstock, was used in a mass shooting in Las Vegas.

[202] 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.

[203] The Daily is produced by Theo Valcom, Lindsay Garrison, Rachel Quester, Annie Brown, Andy Mills, Claire Tennisgetter, Michael Simon Johnson, Jessica Chung, Alexandra Lee Young, and Jonathan Wolfe, and edited by Paige Cowan, Larissa Anderson, and Wendy Doer.

[204] Lisa Tobin is our executive producer.

[205] Samantha Henig is our editorial director.

[206] Our technical manager is Brad Fisher.

[207] Our engineer is Chris Wood.

[208] And our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsberg of Wonderly.

[209] Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Michaela Bouchard, Stella Tan, and Damien Cave.

[210] That's it for the Daily.

[211] I'm Michael Barbaro.

[212] See you on Monday.