Islam in New Zealand
Small numbers of Muslim immigrants from South Asia and eastern Europe settled in New Zealand from the early 1900s until the 1960s.
[11][12][13] The first Muslim to be buried in New Zealand was a Javanese sailor named Mohamed Dan, who died in Dunedin in 1888.
During the 1990s many migrants were admitted under New Zealand's refugee quota, from war zones in Somalia, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Kosovo and Iraq.
FIANZ was founded in April 1979 by Mazhar Krasniqi, who brought together the three regional Muslim organisations of Canterbury, Wellington and Auckland.
[21][22][23] Later Hajji Ashraf Choudhary served as president (1984–85) before pursuing a political career and entering the New Zealand Parliament in 1999.
[25] In 2008, FIANZ established the Harmony Awards "as part of Islam Awareness Week to recognise the contributions of New Zealanders to improving understanding and relationships between Muslims and the wider community".
In recent years Shia Muslims have become active holding Ashura commemoration programmes in Auckland parks.
Contrary to popular assertions from various community leaders, no one single ethnic group can claim to contribute more than half of the New Zealand Muslim population.
[citation needed] From the mid-1990s, an influx of Malay students from Malaysia and Singapore has increased the proportion of Muslims in some other centres, notably the university city of Dunedin.
[29][34] Islam was estimated to be the fastest growing religion among the Māori,[35][36] however recently there is only a growth of 39 individuals in 12 years between 2006 and 2018.
[39][7] Te Amorangi Izhaq Kireka-Whaanga, leader of the Aotearoa Maori Muslim Association, views tino rangatiratanga as a form of jihad, and Islam as "the perfect vehicle for Māori nationalism".
[40] The leader of the AMMA, Sheikh Eshaq Te Amorangi Morgan Kireka-Whaanga was identified in 2010 among the top 500 most influential Muslims.
[41] In 2004 Sheikh Eshaq led the Quran Tilawat at the "National Islamic Converts Conference" at the Canterbury mosque in Christchurch.
[45] In 2006, two newspapers in New Zealand decided to republish controversial Danish cartoons depicting Muhammad, the prophet of Islam.
Prime Minister Helen Clark and opposition leader Don Brash both made statements that the cartoons were not appreciated if they deeply offended members of the New Zealand community, but that such decisions were for editors to make, not politicians.
[46][47] In November 2016, Mohammad Anwar Sahib, the Imam of the Al-Taqwa mosque in Manukau, Auckland and a religious adviser to the FIANZ, drew controversy when he made offensive remarks about Jews, Christians, and women in a series of speeches that were posted by the right-wing blogger Cameron Slater on YouTube.
[51][49] In late October 2017, it was reported in the media that the first secretary of the Iranian Embassy Hormoz Ghahremani, the visiting Iranian cleric Hojatoleslam Shafie, and community elder Sayed Taghi Derhami had made remarks denying the Holocaust and attacking Israel at the Shia Islamic Ahlulbayt Foundation in Pakuranga, Auckland during a meeting to commemorate Quds Day in June.
In response, Foreign Minister Winston Peters countered that the incident had occurred under the previous National government's watch.
[59] However, a week after the attack, a nationwide moment of silence was observed in New Zealand on Friday – ushered in by the Muslim call to prayer.
Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand spokesperson Abdur Razzak said the email video threat brought back memories of the Christchurch mosque shootings in 2019 and urged the National-led government to reconsider its policies of downscaling the previous Labour-led government's national security settings and firearms legislation.
