"We've had situations where people have come to exhibitions with pre-conceived ideas, and we have had people who actually stood and cried because they were so wrong."
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| Photo credit: Gisborne Herald / Rebecca Grunwell |
Source/Credit: Stuff NZ
By Jane Matthews | February 11 2017
One of the first steps a group of Muslims took when they decided to come to New Zealand was translate their holy Koran into Maori.
"It was very important for us because we were coming into a new environment here and basically the best thing you can do is start looking at integration and a way to do it, so that's what we did," the National President of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Bashir Khan said.
"There was a lot of concern about Maori being a dying language, so from our point of view, as a community, because it is translated in this holy book, that language is now preserved forever."
Today, the full Koran is translated into more than 45 different languages, with many more unfinished versions too.
On Saturday, each of these were displayed at The Holy Koran Exhibition in the Fitzroy Hall, in New Plymouth.
One in particular was the Maori Koran, Kur'anu Tapu, which is written in Te Reo and was completed in 2013 after more than 20 years of work.
This was the first exhibition of its kind to take place in Taranaki and Khan said he felt fortunate that the New Plymouth community had been very accepting of their presence.
"It's very uncommon that we get that sort of reception," he said.
"There's the fear that 'they're coming to town and it's all about conversion'. This is not about conversion. This is about broadening your own knowledge in New Zealand's already accepting society."
Khan said the purpose of the exhibition was to break barriers.
"Out of what we do today, if there is one person who is about to change their view of what Islam is, we've done our job," he said.
"We've had situations where people have come to exhibitions with pre-conceived ideas, and we have had people who actually stood and cried because they were so wrong. Our expression is very clear, we're a non-violent peace loving community, our motto is 'love for all hate for none'."
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community attempts to do two to three exhibitions around the country a year, and are now starting to circulate more.
"We started in Auckland but what we found was people in small towns and cities are more accepting of new things and understanding new faith," Khan said.
Khan said he understands that not everyone is accepting of the faith, but is fascinated by the amount who are.
"It's beyond our dreams that people are starting to go, 'yeah I want to meet you and see what you're like'. And to their surprise, they find out they're very much like me," he said.
"What we're trying to make people understand is there's no fear, we're normal people. We think like you, yes, my faith is different and that's my own belief and I don't want to impose it on anybody."
Khan said that in a perfect world if Donald Trump was brought to the Koran exhibition, he'd change his mind too.
"My job is only to create exhibitions, your job is to come and view it, and make your own judgement," he said.
Tashriq Hanif, the New Plymouth man who recently offered himself up for dates with those who have never met a follower of Islam, said the exhibition went "absolutely brilliant".
"We couldn't keep count," he said.
He said if anyone is interested meet him, contact him on 027 805 6030.
Read original post here: NewZealand: Taranaki's first Muslim exhibition features Koran in Maori
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