Santa Barbara vigil held to remember men, women and children killed in New Zealand mosques

The founders of The Blessed Tree Foundation invited people to a vigil at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse on Sunday to honor 50 people killed in New Zealand mosques during Friday prayers.

Yama Niazi said, “The entire community felt a great loss from the tragedy and we’d like to bring everyone together so that we can remember the victims and so that we can share positive feelings and sentiment so it can be a message to others that these things won’t bring us down. “

Niazi said this will bring communities together.

“The point is we are trying to demonstrate that we are unified as one big human family.”

Leaders from other faiths joined in.

“With all this negativity and all this hatred and violence we want to be on the opposite side with love and compassion sharing that message of humanity “

Niazi said, “Whether you are Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, whatever you may be, the message of love and compassion is straight through all the religions.”

AIda Aminzai, Niazi’s wife, spoke to the crowd about the first man gunned down by a gunman described as a white supremacist.

“His last words were. “welcome brother” he welcomed this man into mosque and was received with bullets.”

As a mother Aminzai said how much it hurt to read about the children who lost their lives.

” I have a five year old at home, and there is a three-year-old who passed away a four-year-old who passed away, killed senselessly, while they were running scared for their lives.”

Congressman Salud Carbajal spoke, too,

Rep. Carbajal said this is the time to mourn the loss of 50 lives cut short.

A similar remembrance will take place at the University of California, Santa Barbara on Monday at noon.