WELLINGTON, New Zealand — They arrived in New Zealand from across the Middle East and Asia, forming a tightly bound community of Muslims whose roots stretch to the mid-19th century. In recent years, migrants came to attend universities, open restaurants or to escape wars in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

It felt as if everyone knew everyone. Mosques were not for Pakistanis or Somalis or Bangladeshis, but for anyone in town.

So when a gunman stormed two mosques in the city of Christchurch during Friday Prayer, killing 49 people, the news moved quickly through New Zealand’s nearly 50,000 Muslims and the wider Islamic world.

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Throughout the Middle East, Asia and Oceania, families frantically sought visas so they could race to the bed sides of the injured. And they tried to get someone in New Zealand to answer their calls.