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SOMETHING ELSE: A SHORT HISTORY OF THE MUSLIMS OF NEW ZEALAND History of NZ continues – 2023 The first Muslim family to reside permanently in New Zealand arrived in April 1854, within 15 years of the Treaty of Waitangi. Wuzerah and Mindia, and their sons, came from India and settled in Canterbury to work for Sir John Cracroft Wilson (1808-1881), a retired Anglo-Indian civil servant. The family settled in Cashmere and later worked in transporting stone for the Anglican Christchurch cathedral. Wuzerah’s son Piro drowned in 1862 and is believed to be the first Muslim buried here. Wuzerah himself died in 1902. From the 1890s onward men from the Punjab and Gujarat regions of India started arriving and after the 1930s some of these men or their sons began to bring out wives and children. In 1950 the “New Zealand Muslim Association” (NZMA) was established in Auckland as the first Islamic organisation in this land. There were approximately 200 Muslims in the country at the time. In 1951 the MS Goya brought dozens of Muslim refugees from eastern Europe to Wellington. In 1954 Avdo Musovich (1919-2001) from Montenegro jumped ship in Auckland and claimed political asylum. He became involved in the NZMA Executive Committee until 1981. In 1959 Akif Keskin (1923-1991) from Macedonia established the first Turkish restaurant in all New Zealand, in Dunedin. That year the NZMA acquired a property for use as an Islamic Centre in central Auckland and the following year Maulana Ahmed Said Musa Patel (1937-2009) arrived from the Gujarat to be the first trained Mullah here. Over 1962-1964 the Wellington-based “International Muslim Association of New Zealand” (IMAN) was created and in 1977 the “Muslim Association of Canterbury”. In the 1960s Abbas Ali and Hajji Mohammed Hussain Sahib, both from Fiji, secured employment at freezing works and undertook the first commercial Halal slaughter of animals. Over the 1960s and 1970s there was an influx of east European, Asian and Fiji Indian migrants, refugees and students who made various contributions to the different Associations. In 1969 the first Tablighi Jama’at visited New Zealand and they have been staging regular annual Ijtema gatherings since 1976. In 1979 there were around 2000 Muslims across all New Zealand and representatives of the various Muslim Associations met to create a national Muslim organisation to co-ordinate minority affairs, especially with regard to the Halal meat issue. In April 1979 the “Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand” (FIANZ) was formed with Kosova-born Albanian refugee turned businessman Mazhar Krasniqi (1931-2019) as inaugural president. He was immediately followed by Hajji Abdul Rahim Rasheed (1938-2006) from Fiji. In 1982 Sheikh Khalid Kamal Abdul Hafiz (1938-1999) from India came to Wellington to serve as Imam. Within a few years the Saudi trained Mullah became the senior spiritual advisor to FIANZ. Since 1984 the Islamic Federation has been undertaking Halal certification for export meat. From the 1980s to the present period there has been a steady increase in the number of Muslim immigrants, refugees and students from Asia, the Middle East and Africa. There has also been a corresponding increase in the size, scope and number of Muslim organisations, agencies and institutions, especially in Auckland. The Islamic Education and Dawah Trust was created in 1990 and currently operates the Al Madinah School and Al Zayed Girls College in Mangere, Auckland. In January 2008 the growing Shia minority held their first Ashura commemoration programme in Auckland, led by the Fatima Zahra Charitable Association. Elsewhere the Muslim Association of Canterbury constructed the first mosque in the South Island over 1984-85 and in 2004 hosted the National Islamic Converts Conference. The Otago Muslim Association was formally registered in July 1995 and the Southland Muslim Association in April 2008. 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. REFERENCES: Abdullah Drury, “Mahometans on the Edge of Colonial Empire: Antipodean Experiences” in Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, Volume 29, Issue 1, 2018, pages. 71-87. Sheppard, William, “New Zealand’s Muslims and Their Organisations” in New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies Volume 8, Number 2 (December, 2006), pages. 8–44. Published in the 14th Edition – 2023
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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 |