New Zealand Muslim Association (NZMA) hosted Hon. Christopher Finlayson, Minister in Charge of the NZ Security Intelligence Service and Minister Responsible for the GCSB at Avondale Islamic Centre on Friday 18 March 2016. Mr Finlayson was interested in getting the Muslim community involved in any changes being made to the GCSB and SIS laws. He spoke about the importance of the community and emphasised that it was never the community that was targeted but the incident at hand.
He was interested to build bridges with key organisations like NZMA and Federation of Islamic Associations of NZ (FIANZ) in order to be more consultative when new legislations are proposed in NZ. Hon Sam Lotu-Iiga, Minister of Ethnic Affairs reiterated the words of the Mr Finlayson. Inspector Rakesh Naidoo and Jacqui Whittaker from the New Zealand Police also attended this event along with the past and present president of FIANZ, Dr. Anwar Ghany and Hazim Arafeh.
The event was well attended and received good comments from the public, many congratulated NZMA for organizing this event in order to highlight some community concerns and work more closely with the law as law abiding citizens of New Zealand. Many had the opportunity to have informal conversations over dinner with the Ministers. We look forward to working closely with the NZ government and law enforcement in the future.