{"id":281846,"date":"2016-11-30T05:51:56","date_gmt":"2016-11-30T04:51:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/nz-controversial-cleric-stood-down-by-islamic-federation\/"},"modified":"2016-11-30T05:51:56","modified_gmt":"2016-11-30T04:51:56","slug":"nz-controversial-cleric-stood-down-by-islamic-federation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/nz-controversial-cleric-stood-down-by-islamic-federation\/","title":{"rendered":"NZ- Controversial cleric stood down by Islamic Federation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"\">\n<p>A Muslim cleric criticised for anti-Semitic speeches at an Auckland mosque has been permanently stood down from his role in the Federation of Islamic Associations (FIANZ).<\/p>\n<p>The speeches made by Shaykh Dr Mohammed Anwar Sahib at the Al-Taqwa mosque, in Manukau, have been widely condemned, but the cleric said he had been misinterpreted.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Sahib was the secretary of one of the federation&#8217;s committees. He retains his role as the president of the Al-Taqwa mosque.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement released this morning, FIANZ said it &#8220;vehemently opposed all teaching promoting intolerance, prejudice and discrimination against the followers of any faith&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The Human Rights Commission is investigating the comments and FIANZ said it would fully cooperate with the commission.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We thank New Zealanders for their feedback, solidarity and support,&#8221; its statement said.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"314\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/E9zfYD4Dx_Q\" width=\"560\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The comments emerged in video footage published on the blog Whale Oil, which Dr Sahib said had been compiled from several different sermons and taken out of context.<\/p>\n<p>FIANZ president Hazim Arafeh said the organisation did not agree with any comments made by Dr Sahib.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We do have a consultation process that we go through, and then FIANZ decided that it has to distance itself from any anti-Semitic or hate speeches.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Dr Sahib has declined a request for an interview.<\/p>\n<p>Ethnic Communities Minister Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga welcomed FIANZ&#8217;s move, saying he believed that was the right thing to do.<\/p>\n<p>New Zealand Jewish Council spokesperson David Cumin said,&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/redice.tv\/news\/controversial-cleric-stood-down-by-islamic-federation\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Muslim cleric criticised for anti-Semitic speeches at an Auckland mosque has been permanently stood down from his role in the Federation of Islamic Associations (FIANZ). The speeches made by Shaykh Dr Mohammed Anwar Sahib at the Al-Taqwa mosque, in Manukau, have been widely condemned, but the cleric said he had been misinterpreted. Dr Sahib [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2520,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-281846","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2520"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281846\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}