An international Muslim group has apologised after announcing a competition to win a free trip to New Zealand to meet the families of the Christchurch terror attack victims.
Muslims of the World (MOTW) posted the competition to Instagram on Thursday.
"Win a FREE TRIP to New Zealand to meet the families of the victims as well as visit the masjids," read the caption.
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The group describes itself as a platform "designed to give a voice to Muslims around the world."
It has 300,000 followers on Instagram and a further 236,947 followers on Facebook.
The competition promised a free trip to New Zealand accompanied by author Khaled Beydoun, the founder of MOTW Sajjad Shah as well as scholar and Imam Suhaib Webb.
In order to win, people were asked to tag three friends in the comments and follow the three men on Instagram.
Christchurch woman Maha Elmadani, whose father Ali died in the massacre, commented on the post, calling it "disgusting."
"You guys are turning this horrific massacre into some f***ing excuse to vacation in NZ and you're doing it on the backs of the victims that died," she wrote.
"My dad died in that mosque and so did 49 of the most beautiful souls that walked this earth... you and your idiot friends are not welcome to come here and look at us like some animals in a zoo."
She then accused Beydoun of providing the public with false information, and making the attack about him.
"Why don't you just leave us to grieve properly and go feed your f***ing ego somewhere else?"
Joseph Willits, an employee for the Council for Arab-British Understanding, called the competition "a really disturbing act of voyeurism."
The group posted an apology on its Instagram on Friday morning.
"Our intention was to visit New Zealand in the hopes of being agents of healing and community," the post read.
"However, our wording was insensitive and we take full ownership of it. We apologise for our offensive post and ask for your forgiveness. We are trying our best to bring goodness into this world and we did make a serious mistake,"
Commenting has been turned off on the post.
Newshub.
