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COUNTRY MATTERS: A SHORT HISTORY OF THE MUSLIMS OF NEW ZEALAND History of NZ continues – 2021 The first Muslims to visit New Zealand were Asian sailors, lascars who worked on board European vessels. Two Indian Muslim sailors toured the Northland coast in December 1769 on a French ship named the Saint Jean-Baptiste — ‘Mamouth Cassem’ (presumably Mahmud Qasim) and a 16 year old Bengali named ‘Nasrin’. Following this date many British East India Company ships with lascar crews and even a few sepoys (Indian soldiers) visited New Zealand. The first Muslim family to reside permanently arrived in 1854, when Wuzerah and his family entered Lyttelton and settled in Cashmere, in the Canterbury province, to work for Sir John Cracroft Wilson. Wuzerah was involved in transporting stone from the Port Hills to the (Anglican) Christchurch Cathedral when it was constructed. He died in 1902 and was buried in Sydenham. From the 1890s onward men from the Punjab and Gujarat regions of India started arriving to work across the country. After the 1930s some of these men or their sons began to bring out wives and children. In 1950 the first Islamic organisation in this country was created when the “New Zealand Muslim Association” (NZMA) was formed in Auckland. At the time there were around 200 Muslims in the entire country. In 1951 the MS Goya brought in dozens of Muslim refugees from Europe. In 1959 the NZMA acquired a property for use as the first Islamic Centre in the country and the following year Maulana Ahmed Said Musa Patel (1937-2009) arrived from the Gujarat to serve as the first official Mullah. The Association constructed the first purpose-built mosque in New Zealand over 1979-1980, in Ponsonby, central Auckland. Over the 1960s and 1970s there was a modest and quiet trickle of migrants, refugees and students who helped create new Muslim organisations in the regions outside Auckland. Over 1962-1964 the Wellington-based “International Muslim Association of New Zealand” was formed and in 1977 the “Muslim Association of Canterbury”. In 1979 there were around 2000 Muslims across New Zealand and agents of the various Islamic Associations convened to build a nation-wide Muslim organisation to co-ordinate communal affairs at a national level. In April 1979 the “Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand” was created and in 1984 the Federation secured its first annual Halal meat contract with the NZ Meat Producers Board. In 1982 Sheikh Khalid Kamal Abdul Hafiz (1938-1999) from India arrived to serve as Imam in Wellington. In March 2019 over 50 Muslims were murdered at prayer inside two mosques in Christchurch by a lone gunman. In August the Australian terrorist responsible was sentenced to life in gaol. According to the 2018 census there are presently 57,276 Muslims in New Zealand. For further information, see: Abdullah Drury, “Mahometans on the Edge of Colonial Empire: Antipodean Experiences” in Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, Volume 29, Issue 1, 2018, pp. 71-87. Sheppard, William, “New Zealand’s Muslims and Their Organisations” in New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies Volume 8, Number 2 (December, 2006), pp. 8–44. ENDS. Published in 12th Edition – 2021
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History continues ..
STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS : A SHORT HISTORY OF THE MUSLIMS OF NEW ZEALAND – 2015 – 6th E A Brief History of NZ Muslims – 2016 – 7th E BELIEVERS TO THE BRIGHT COAST: A SHORT HISTORY OF THE MUSLIMS OF NEW ZEALAND – 2017 – 8th E GOD’S TRUTH: A SHORT HISTORY OF THE MUSLIMS OF NEW ZEALAND – 2018 – 9th E THE TABLE SPREAD: A SHORT HISTORY OF THE MUSLIMS OF NEW ZEALAND – 2019 – 10th E THE HEIGHTS: A SHORT HISTORY OF THE MUSLIMS OF NEW ZEALAND – 2020 – 11th E COUNTRY MATTERS: A SHORT HISTORY OF THE MUSLIMS OF NEW ZEALAND – 2021 – 12th E MATCHINGS SCARS: A SHORT HISTORY OF THE MUSLIMS OF NEW ZEALAND – 2022 – 13th E SOMETHING ELSE: A SHORT HISTORY OF THE MUSLIMS OF NEW ZEALAND – 2023 – 14th E |