Islam in New Zealand
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Islam in New Zealand has grown with inward immigration to that country.
History
The first Muslims in New Zealand were Chinese golddiggers working in the Dunstan gold fields of Otago in the 1870s. In the early 1900s three important Gujarati Muslim families came from India. The first Islamic organisation in New Zealand, the New Zealand Muslim Association (NZMA), was established in Auckland in 1950. In 1951 the refugee boat SS Goya brought over 60 Muslim men from eastern Europe, including Mazhar Krasniqi who would later serve twice as president of the New Zealand Muslim Association. These Gujarati and European immigrants worked together in the 1950s to buy and house and convert it into an Islamic Centre in 1959. The following year the first Imam arrived in New Zealand - Maulana Said Musa Patel from the Gujarat. Students from South Asia and South East Asia helped establish the other prayer rooms and Islamic centres elsewhere from the 1960s onwards, although New Zealand had a relatively tiny Muslim population until many years later.
In April 1979 Mazhar Krasniqi brought together the three regional Muslim organisations of Canterbury, Wellington and Auckland, to create the first and only national Islamic body - the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand (FIANZ). He was honoured for his efforts by the New Zealand government in 2002, receiving a Queens Service Medal. Later Dr Hajji Ashraf Choudhary would serve as president (1984-85) before pursuing his political career and entering New Zealand parliament in 1999.
Large-scale Muslim migration began in the 1970s with the migration of Fiji-Indians for work. This was exacerbated after the first Fiji coups of 1987. These were working class in the 1970s, followed by more professional social elements in the late 1980s. Early in the 1990s many migrants were admitted under New Zealands refugee quota, from war zones in Somalia, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Kosovo and Iraq.
There are also small communities of Muslims from Turkey, the Indian Subcontinent (Pakistan, India and Bangladesh) and South-East Asia, all of which communities are concentrated in the major cities of Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, and Christchurch. In recent years an influx of foreign students from Malaysia and Singapore has increased the proportion of Muslims in some other centres, notably the university city of Dunedin. Dunedin's Al-Huda mosque is reputedly the world's southernmost, and is further from Mecca than any mosque in the Southern Hemisphere.
There is a small but growing amount of conversions among the wider New Zealand population, and there is a Māori Muslim movement called the "Aotearoa Maori Muslim Association" (AMMA) with roots in the Hawkes Bay province. The 2001 census revealed 700 Māori registered as Muslim by faith and 3000 European.
Contemporary Islam in New Zealand
New Zealand now has a number of mosques in the major centres, and two Islamic schools (Al Madinah and Zayed College for Girls). New arrivals at Auckland International Airport can easily sight the new South Auckland mosque on the left of the motorway as they travel to the city. There are approximately 25,000 Muslims in New Zealand although it is hard to get accurate figures as the government is more concerned with "ethnicity" and Muslims come from at least 42 different ethnic groups. The community is noted for its harmonious relations with the wider New Zealand community, with various interfaith efforts from all sides contributing to this situation. This was strained somewhat after a speech by nationalist politician Winston Peters who during the 2005 election campaign described the New Zealand Muslim community as a "multi headed hydra, waiting to strike" and questioned their loyalty to New Zealand.[1]
Cartoon Controversy
In 2006, two newspapers in New Zealand decided to republish the Danish cartoons. The Muslim community registered their displeasure through press statements and a peaceful march in Auckland. The editors said they did not mean offence but would not back down. New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and opposition leader Don Brash both made similar statements that the cartoons were not appreciated if they deeply offended members of the NZ community, but that such decisions were for editors to make, not politicians. Muslim leaders and the editors got together with the race relations office, and Jewish and Christian representatives in Wellington. As a result of this meeting the editors said they would not apologise but in good faith would refrain from publishing the offending images again. The New Zealand Muslim leadership, through FIANZ, then proceeded in good faith to consider the matter closed and furthermore draft letters to 52 Muslim countries asking that NZ products not be boycotted.
See also
Notes
- ^ The End Of Tolerance, an address by Rt Hon Winston Peters to members of Far North Grey Power, Thursday 28 July 2005, Far North Community Centre, Kaitaia, 2pm.