A Hawke's Bay Muslim man is calling on "souljahs of Allah" to make their way to Hastings and join him in forming the "Islamic State of Aotearoa".
Te Amorangi Kireka-Whaanga, of Hastings, who heads the Aotearoa Maori Muslim Association, said in a Facebook post yesterday he had changed the organisation's name to the Islamic State of Aotearoa.
Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule said Mr Kireka-Whaanga's Facebook posts were "very concerning," considering the Islamic State's violent reputation in the Middle East.
"I don't think any normal, law-abiding Kiwi would think there's any time or place for this kind of behaviour. When you have our own citizens setting up a terrorist-style cult within New Zealand, then the agencies on behalf of New Zealanders will do anything they can to stamp them out. I don't think there's any place in New Zealand for these Islamic cults."
Mr Kireka-Whaanga has previously pledged his support for Islamic State on social media, saying it would bring down Western civilisation and true Muslims were behind Islamic State.
In 2010, he was named as one of the world's 500 most influential Muslims, one of two New Zealanders to make the list, by a group in Jordan.
Isis, or Islamic State, has been taking over cities in Syria and Iraq and conducting high-profile beheadings of hostages, as it tries to establish an Islamic caliphate in the region.
source : The New Zealand Herald
Monday
1 December 2014
9:35:33 AM
655234
A Hawke's Bay Muslim man is calling on "souljahs of Allah" to make their way to Hastings and join him in forming the "Islamic State of Aotearoa".