Three days after the funeral for slain Greenacre school boy Jihad Darwiche, the Muslim undertaker responsible for recording and translating Ared Darwiche’s message of forgiveness for his son’s death has spoken out.
Ahmad Hraichie has praised the show of strength and kindness by the Greenacre community after the tragedy that saw two eight-year-old boys lose their lives, three children hospitalised and seventeen treated by paramedics.
The father-of-four and Lebanese Muslim Association funeral director is also the man responsible for bathing and preparing Jihad’s body in the Islamic tradition.
Mr Hraichie has praised the show of strength and kindness by the Greenacre community
Jihad Darwiche and his friend, both eight, were killed after a car crashed into their classroom
Jihad’s father Ahmed has forgiven the driver in an extraordinary speech videoed in the hearse
In the touching video, Mr Darwiche said that forgiveness was ‘the way a proper Muslim acts in a time of calamity and tribulation’.
‘No retaliation is coming from the family of the boy. They have forgiven – if anything they want to sit with this lady and tell her we forgive you,’ Mr Hraichie translates for Mr Darwiche.
‘Forgive her. It’s an honest mistake. It could have happened to any one of us. We don’t throw the world down on our brothers and sisters when an accident happens.
‘When all of this is over she is welcome to come and sit with the family, have a meal and talk about how they can move forward.’
The footage also shows the moment that Mr Hraichie broke down and praised Mr Darwiche for his forgiveness, saying, ‘I only hope I can be half the man he is.’
Mr Hraichie said on Saturday that he was ‘overwhelmed’ with positive comments after the video, and wants to extend the message to the rest of Australia.
Mr Hraichie said the ‘vast majority’ of the Aussie Islamic community is ‘passionately patriotic’
The waiting hearse driven by Mr Hraichie containing the late little boy’s coffin is pictured here
‘People like Pauline Hanson need to be stopped,’ said Muslim funeral director Ahmad Hraichie
He told the Daily Telegraph he was worried than anti-Islamic messages from politicians is driving misunderstanding and racism towards to the Muslim community.
‘We all love living in Australia,’ he said, noting that he calls himself a ‘patriotic Muslim Aussie’.
Mr Hraichie said that the ‘vast majority’ of the Australian Islamic community is ‘passionately patriotic’ and misunderstood thanks to Islamophobia spread by public figures.
‘People like Pauline Hanson need to be stopped,’ he said.
He also said that young Muslims in the community are yearning for someone who they can look up to – a role model for them to emulate – and he has striven to be one of those people in the community.
Mr Hraichie (right) also said he hopes to be a role model for young Muslims in the community
Ms Al-Shennag allegedly accidentally drove her cat into the school’s 3T demountable building
The classroom Ms Al-Shennag allegedly ploughed her SUV into has since been boarded up
Jihad and his friend, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were killed on November 7 when a when a car ploughed into Banksia Road Public School.
Maha Al-Shennag, 52, has been charged with dangerous driving and had her license suspended after she allegedly slammed her Toyota Kluger into a third grade classroom.
Speaking through her lawyer, she said she was ‘very grateful’ for the tenderness shared by Mr Darwiche on Thursday.
‘Ms Al-Shennag has told me that she is very grateful for Mr Darwiche’s message of forgiveness and compassion,’ said her lawyer Nick Hanna.
‘Ms Al-Shennag wishes to apologise with all of her heart to Mr Darwiche and to each of the victims, their families and the community in general. Her thoughts and prayers are with all of those affected by this tragedy,’ News.com.au reports.
She has been charged with dangerous driving occasioning death and had her driver’s licence suspended.
Investigators currently believe that Ms Al-Shennag’s crash into the classroom was accidental
Ms Al-Shennag, 52, has been charged with dangerous driving and had her license suspended
A map shows the car-park where Maha Al-Shennag was allegedly driving before the accident
Following investigations, police laid an additional two charges of dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm and causing actual bodily harm by misconduct.
Police will allege the new charges relate to the injuries sustained by the three girls, two aged eight and one aged nine, who remain in hospital recovering.
She has been granted conditional bail and is scheduled to appear at Bankstown Local Court on November 29.
Maha Al-Shennag cried as she left the Bankstown Police Station escorted by a police officer
Both boys have now been laid to rest in traditional Islamic funeral services at the Lakemba Mosque.
Dozens of men carried the boy’s little coffin, swathed in an Islamic dressing, up the stairs and into the mosque on Thursday for the service, just hours after the touching video of Mr Darwiche and Mr Hraichie,
His heartbroken mother was comforted by a group of women as they entered around the side of the mosque moments later.
The boy’s funeral was followed by traditional Islamic prayers. The mosque was so crowded mourners had to pray on the steps outside.
Goodbye, little one: The boy, eight, was carried from Lakemba Mosque following the service
Members of the community carried the small, fluoro green coffin in and out of the service
The funeral was followed by prayers – with the mosque so full the crowd had to pray outside
Grieving students returned to Banksia Road Public School on Wednesday, just on day after the tragedy.
Extra counsellors have been sent to the school to help traumatised children; many of whom watched on helplessly as their two classmates lay trapped beneath the 4WD.
‘My grandson is a 6 generation at this school, all prefects, captains and community leaders,’ a relative of one boy wrote. ‘(The boy) loved everyone and died with his best friend.’
Floral tributes line the footpath outside the small local primary school in Sydney’s south-west
Heartbroken families pay tribute to the two eight-year-old boys outside Banksia Road Public
People gathered outside Banksia Road Public School on Wednesday evening to leave flowers
Parents, students and members of the wider community have come together to mourn the two young victims of the tragic car crash.
People gathered outside the school on Tuesday evening, laying flowers and remembering the young lives that were lost.
A large notice was posted, handwritten by students from the year above the 3T class that saw their room collapsed by the out-of-control vehicle.
‘Rest in Peace…you will never be forgotten,’ the sign reads.
‘We will never forget you’: One of many tribute posters hanging out the front of the school
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