Prayers for New Zealand massacre victims.

Byline: Kevin Featherly

Attorney General Keith Ellison and House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park (center of frame above), join in prayer Saturday during a gathering at Bloomington's Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center.

The event packed the center's gymnasium, despite being hastily organized after Friday's murder of 50 at two Christchurch, New Zealand, mosques by an avowed white supremacist.

The center's Executive Director Mohamd Omar, Imam Asad Zaman and Rabbi Adam Stock Spilker all addressed the crowd, as did Ellison, Hortman, U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar and numerous others.

Ellison said he plans to use his statutory authority to convene either a task force or working group to explore hate crimes "of multiple types" in the wake of attacks on churches, synagogues and mosques in...