Norwegian PM attends Somali girl's funeral
OSLO — Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday attended the Muslim funeral of Somali-Norwegian 18-year-old Mona Abdinur, one of the 69 people killed in the July 22 massacre on the island of Utoeya.
Stoltenberg was accompanied by his wife Ingrid, her head covered with a black scarf, when he arrived at the Muslim section of an Oslo cemetery just after 1:00 pm (1100 GMT) to eulogise over the young murder victim's coffin, draped in a Somali flag and a ribbon in the red, white and blue of the Norwegian flag.
Abdinur was a member of the youth division of Stoltenberg's Labour Party, which had organised the camp on Utoeya that was attacked on the afternoon of July 22.
"Mona was our sunshine, is what her friends and family have said. They now have to continue their road ahead without Mona. In their pain, I want to say, they are not alone," the prime minister said.
"There are many of us who are crying with them. (You are) a small family, but you are part of the big Norwegian family," he added in the address that was broadcast live.
Due to Muslim traditions which call for burial as quickly as possible -- preferably within the first 24 hours -- all the victims of last month's twin attacks who have so far been laid to rest have been Muslim or originally from Muslim countries.
A national ceremony will be held on August 21.
It will be attended by the families of all 77 people who died when rightwing extremist Anders Behring Breivik went on his "crusade" against multiculturalism and Islam, first bombing government offices in Oslo before massacring mainly teenagers on Utoeya.
Ilaahey ha u naxariisto and may Allah lessen her family's grief (Amiin).
