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STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS : A SHORT HISTORY OF THE MUSLIMS OF NEW ZEALAND In April 1854 the first Muslim family arrived and settled in New Zealand. Wuzerah and Mindia, and their sons, came from the Indian subcontinent employed in Canterbury by Sir John Cracroft Wilson (1808-1881), a retired Anglo-Indian civil servant. Wuzerah and sons settled in Cashmere and later worked in transporting stone for the famous 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 settling here permanently and after the 1930s these men or their sons began to bring out wives and children. In 1936 the first international Muslim student arrived when Abdul Habib Sahu Khan (1918–2007), an ethnic Indian from Fiji, enrolled at Otago University to study medicine. 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 SS Goya brought dozens of Muslim refugees from eastern Europe to Wellington and in 1953 Avdo Musovich (1919-2001) from Montenegro jumped ship in Auckland and claimed political asylum. Musovich quickly 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 same 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) from Gujarat, India, arrived to be the first trained Imam. 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 (in the Wairarapa and Waikato regions respectively) and undertook the first commercial Halal slaughter of animals here. 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 as inaugural president. He was immediately followed by the much respected 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 there. 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. 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, especially in Auckland. 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 Islamic Education and Dawah Trust was created in 1990 and currently operates the Al Madinah School and Al Zayed Girls College in Mangere, Auckland. The Otago Muslim Association was formally registered in July 1995 and the Southland Muslim Association in April 2008. In 2002 Sheikh Eshaq Te Amorangi Morgan Kireka-Whaanga established the Aotearoa Māori Muslim Association (AMMA) and became involved in Dawah activities amongst indigenous folk. In January 2008 the growing Shia minority held their first Ashura commemoration programme in Auckland, led by the Fatima Zahra Charitable Association. According to the 2013 census there are currently 46,149 Muslims in New Zealand : approximately 21% were born in the Pacific Island, 25% in New Zealand, 23 % in Africa and the Middle East and around 26% in Asia. In the final analysis of these long historical excurses and surveys, looking to the future, one can only hope that the community structures built on these historic foundations will be substantive rather than decorative. New Zealand Muslim History is populated by fascinating individuals carving out their own personal or familial definition of Muslim identity negotiated according to their own education and comprehension of the faith. ENDS. Published in 2015 – 6th Edition |
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 |