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The Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand
(FIANZ) was set up in April 1979 by Mazhar Krasniqi
and other Muslim community
leaders to draw together the regional Islam organisations of Auckland, Wellington and Canterbury into one centralised New Zealand-wide
body.
Overview
In 1981 Sheikh Khalid Hafiz was appointed
Imam of Wellington, a post he held until his death
in 1999, and employed as such by the International Muslim
Association of New Zealand. Soon after his arrival he was appointed
senior religious advisor to the Federation of Islamic Associations
of New Zealand.
In June 1984, the Federation signed the first annual contract
with the New Zealand Meat Producers Board (later the Meat Industry
Association) to provide Halal
certification services in exchange for a modest remuneration. The
first contract was for $60,000 in 1984. Currently the figure is
closer to half a million dollars and helps subsidise much of the
Islamic activities across New Zealand.
In November 2005, the Federation celebrated its 25th anniversary
(a year late) and Eid al Fitr in Parliament House, Wellington. The event was
attended by the current FIANZ president Muhammed Javed (Zaved)
Iqbal Khan, the inaugural president Mazhar Krasniqi, and a former president
Dr Hajji Muhammed Ashraf Choudhary.
Former
FIANZ Presidents
- 15 April 1979 - Hajji Mazhar Krasniqi, Q.S.M.
- 15 September 1979 - Hajji Abdul Rahim Rasheed, Q.S.O.
- 6 April 1980 - Rahim Ghouri
- 18 April 1981 - Hajji Abdul Rahim Rasheed, Q.S.O.
- 10 April 1982 - Hajji Abdul Rahim Rasheed, Q.S.O.
- 2 April 1983 - Dr Mohammad Hanif Quazi
- 23 April 1984 - Dr Hajji Muhammed Ashraf Choudhary, Q.S.O.
- 14 April 1985 - Dr Hajji Muhammed Ashraf Choudhary, Q.S.O.
- 10-11 May 1986 - Dr Hajji Khalid Rashid Sandhu, Q.S.O.
- 2 May 1987 - Dr Hajji Khalid Rashid Sandhu, Q.S.O.
- 21-22 May 1988 - Dr Hajji Saleh Al Samahy
- 24-25 June 1989 - Dr Hajji Khalid Rashid Sandhu, Q.S.O.
- 8-9 September 1990 - Abdur Rahman Khan
- 1991 - Muhammed Azim Khan
- 30-31 May 1992 - Hajji Abdul Hafeez Rasheed
- 19-20 June 1993 - Imam Ali
- 6-7 July 1996 - Imam Ali
- 13-14 June 1997 - Dr Hajji Anwar-ul Ghani
- 12-13 June 1999 - Dr Hajji Anwar-ul Ghani
- 26-27 May 2001 - Dr Hajji Anwar-ul Ghani
- 28-29 June 2003 - Muhammed Javed (Zaved) Iqbal Khan
- NB. Over the past 25 years the FIANZ constitution has been amended on
several occasions. Some presidents served terms of one year whilst
others served two. In order to simply the information here, the
dates and names presented are confirmed Annual General Meetings AND
elections. Strictly speaking the elections are supposed to be held
every “second quarter”.
Canterbury Mosque, New Zealand; June 2006. Built over 1984-85 it
was the world's southern-most mosque until 1999.
Current Executive
Committee
The current (18 July 2009+) Exceutive Committee
includes :
President - Dr Anwar Ghani / Waikato Muslim
Association
First Vice President - Muhammed Javed (Zaved)
Iqbal Khan / South Auckland Muslim Association
Second Vice President - Mohamed Eshaq Ali / New Zealand Muslim
Association
Secretary - Dr Hajji Mohammed Musa / Muslim
Association Canterbury
Assistant Secretary - Hajji Abdul Lateef Smith
/ Manawatu Muslims Association
Treasurer - Adam Awad / International Muslim
Association of New Zealand (Wellington)
Assistant Treasurer - Steve Ali Akbar / Otago
Muslim Association
Criticisms
Over the past thirty years, with growing numbers of Muslims in
New Zealand, there
have been a number of serious and ongoing complaints directed at
the Federation. The most serious issue centres around whether FIANZ
is primarily a religious minority organisation or an ethnic
minority cultural outfit : it has been suggested that the
Federation conducts its affairs more like a Third World organisation than a New Zealand one. As
early as 1983 one Arab Muslim resident in Wellington dismissed FIANZ as "a group of
Fijian labourers"[1]. More
recently FIANZ leadership was tagged "..as a conservative
businessmen's club of relaxed Muslims, well integrated in New
Zealand society and benignly sexist."[2]
Other lingering criticisms reflect cultural matters.[3] Despite
a veritable obsession with the "public" appearance of following the
Sunnah, the Federation in fact
remains a very personal vehicle. At critical and often seemingly
random points, administrative decisions and recognisable general
policies (or perspectives), hold little grip : highly
subjective evaluations seem to spontaneously decide and attempt to
smother further communal discussion on various issues. Positions
within the Federation Executive Committee and staff (and indeed
staff salaries) seem to be settled less by actual talent or
qualification than by arbitrary and fluctuating whims. Above all
other considerations, it appears to be the largely undefined and
changing will of the Federation president that determines policy
which is later presented as conforming to the Sunnah. A good exmple of this has been the
recent (2008-2009) dispute over the Halal certification of Nando's in New Zealand : after securing the
approval of the Federation ulema
FIANZ issued a Halal certificate
for chickens served at the restaurant chain,
however many Muslims remain unconvinced pointing to the
machine-kill of the chooks (which many Muslims find
unacceptable).
There is a widespread suspicion among many New Zealand Muslims
that a vague small fluctuating group - a Nomenklatura -
are manipulating the Federation to keep themselves in positions of
authority without any real interest in either advancing the welfare
of the New Zealand
Muslim minority or spreading
Islam in the country. The
president selects his Executive Committee from among the most
compliant members of the Federation Council at an AGM and then
determines their tasks, not according to the legal constitution,
but according to personal ambition : he decides his own role
within the Federation, and his own tasks and even his own
successor. Organised chaos.[4]
There have also been criticisms directed at the close
relationship between certain Federation leaders and the New Zealand Labour Party after
it was disclosed that FIANZ had contributed over $10,000 to their
failed 2008 election campaign.
Literature
- Berryman, Warren, and Draper, John, “Meat exporters resist
costly Islamic crusade” in The
National Business Review (May, 1979), Volume 9, No.16
(Issue 333), p.1.
- Bishop, Martin C., ` “A History of the Muslim Community in New
Zealand to 1980”, thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the
requirement for the degree of M.A. in history at the University of Waikato’ (Waikato University, 1997).
- “Growing Support For Queen St Protest March” in The
Auckland Star (26 August, 1968), p.3.
- "3000 stage city protest” in The Auckland Star (28
August, 1968), p.1.
- Clarke, Ian, "ESSENTIALISING ISLAM: MULTICULTURALISM AND
ISLAMIC POLITICS IN NEW ZEALAND" in New Zealand Journal of
Asian Studies 8, 2 (December, 2006) pages. 69-96.
- Berryman, Warren, "Insensitivities created halal meat
difficulties" in The National Business Review (19
December, 1983), page.13.
- De Graaf, Peter, “The Kiwi Kosovars” in Metro (June,
2001), pp.89–93.
- Drury, Abdullah, “A Short History of the Ponsonby Mosque, New
Zealand” in Al-Nahdah (Malaysia), Vol.19, No.3,
pp.36–38.
- Drury, Abdullah, “A Short History: New Zealand’s First Mosque”
in The Muslim World League Journal
(Dhul-Qa‘adah 1421 - February 2001), Vol.28, No.11, pp.45–48.
- Drury, Abdullah, “A Short History of the Ponsonby Mosque,
Auckland” in Da’wah Highlights (Rabi-ul Awwal 1422 - June
2001), Vol.XII, Issue 6, pp.43–50.
- Drury, Abdullah, “A Tribute to the Illyrian Pioneers” in Al
Mujaddid (March 2002 - Muharram 1423), Vol.1, No.16,
p.10.
- Drury, Abdullah, Islam in New Zealand: The First
Mosque (Christchurch, 2007) ISBN 978-0-473-12249-2
- Drury, Abdullah, "Islamic federation milestone a good time for
soul-searching" in The New Zealand Herald (24
August, 2009).
- Drury, Abdullah, “Mazhar Krasniqi Now QSM” in Al
Mujaddid (20 March 2003 - Muharram 1424), p.16.
- Drury, Abdullah, “Mazharbeg” in Al Mujaddid (21 June
2003 - Rabiul Thani 1424), Vol.1, p.14.
- “Islamic Meat Trade” in The Otago Daily Times (12
March, 1979), p.1.
- Kolig, Erich, New Zealand's Muslims and
Multiculturalism (2010) ISBN 978 90 04 17835 9.
- Krasniqi, Mazhar, “Message” in Al Mujaddid (January
2000), p.4.
- MacIntyre, Dave, “$3m Being Sent To NZ For Building Of Two
Mosques” in The Evening Post (29 November, 1978),
p.44.
- Mannion, Robert, “Moslems Caught in Classic Dilemma” in The
Dominion Sunday Times (26 February, 1989), p.11.
- “Mohammad Sharif Madhavi Hojatol Islam spends most of his time
supervising halal killing in freezing works.” in The Auckland
Star (14 April, 1980), p.7.
- Moore, Leanne, “Muslims and Catholics in single salute” in
The New Zealand Herald (30
September, 1995), p. 24.
- “Muslims plan mosque for city” in The Auckland Star (4
January, 1956), p.5.
- “Muslims Raising Meat Deal Snags” in The Evening Post
(4 August, 1979), p.8.
- “Obituary Notice” in Al Mujaddid (December 2001 -
Shawaal 1422), Vol.1, No.15, p.9.
- “Obituary” in RISEAP Newsletter (December 2001),
p.4.
- Sheppard, William, "The Muslim Community in New Zealand",
Chapter 5 in Indians in New Zealand, ed. K.N. Tiwari
(Wellington, N.Z.: Price-Milburn, l980). [Purely historical
interest; has no content that is not found in other articles.]
- Sheppard, William, "Muslims in New Zealand", The Journal of
the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs (Riyadh), 4/1-2
(l982): 60-81.
- Sheppard, William, "The Islamic Contribution: Muslims in New
Zealand", in Religion in New Zealand Society, Second
Edition, eds Brian Colless & Peter Donovan (Palmerston North,
New Zealand: Dunmore Press, l985), pp. 181-213.
- Sheppard, William, "Muslims in New Zealand", The Journal of
the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs (Riyadh), 16/2
(l996): 211-232. [Updates 1982 article to 1991.]
- Sheppard, William, “Australia and New Zealand”, authored
jointly with Michael Humphrey, in Islam Outside the Arab
World, eds. David Westerlund and Ingvar Svanberg, Surrey:
Curzon Press, 1999, pp. 278-294.
- Sheppard, William, "Muslims in New Zealand" in Muslim
Minorities in the West: Visible and Invisible, eds., Yvonne Y.
Haddad and Jane I. Smith, Walnut Creek, etc.: Altamira Press, 2002,
chapter 13.
- Sheppard, William, “New Zealand’s Muslims And Their
Organisations” New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies 8, 2
(December, 2006): 8-44. (cf. “Introduction: Muslims In New Zealand”
in the next section)
- Sheppard, William, “Introduction: Muslims In New Zealand”,
New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies 8, 2 (December,
2006): 1-7. Co-authored with Erich Kolig.
- Sheppard, William, "Australia and New Zealand", in The
Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Modern Islamic World (New York and
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), Vol. 1, pp. 154-5.
- Trickett, Peter, “Minarets in Ponsonby” in The New Zealand
Listener (21 April, 1979), pp.18–19.
- Waja, Ismail, “50 Years Celebrations” in Al Mujaddid
(July 2001), p.1-2, 7.
- New Zealand Gazette (10 January 2003), Issue No.2.,
p.83.
- Zaman, Gul, “In Memory Of Marhum Demal Hodzic” in FIANZ
News (March 2006), page.7.
References
- ^
Warren Berryman, "Insensitivities created halal meat difficulties"
in The National Business Review (19 December, 1983),
page.13.
- ^
Kolig, Erich, New Zealand's Muslims and Multiculturalism
(2010) ISBN 978 90 04 17835 9, page.31.
- ^
Clarke, Ian (December, 2006). "Essentialism Islam:
Multiculturalism and Islamic Politics in New Zealand". New
Zealand Journal of Asian Studies 08 (02):
69-96. http://www.nzasia.org.nz/downloads/NZJAS-Dec06/6Clarke2.pdf. Retrieved
2009-10-10.
- ^
See : Drury, Abdullah, Islamic federation milestone a good
time for soul-searching in The New Zealand Herald (24
August, 2009).
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