New Zealand Jewish Council calls for success for Islam Awareness Week
President of NZJC Stephen Goodman has sent a message to the Federation of Islamic Association of New Zealand at the beginning of the Islam Awareness Week.
Stephen Goodman
The New Zealand Jewish Council wishes the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand success for this year’s Islam Awareness Week, which has the theme “Dialogue and peaceful co-existence.”
“Dialogue and peaceful coexistence are important for the whole of New Zealand society as well as for the minority religious communities who live here,” said New Zealand Jewish Council president Stephen Goodman.
Jews share with Muslims the difficulties and pain of being stigmatised in this country for activities of co-religionists outside New Zealand’s shores.
Dialogue, and helping other Kiwis understand our religions and lifestyles, is the best way to overcome ignorance and prejudice, and this is what Islam Awareness Week will help achieve, Mr Goodman concluded.
James 1:27 New King James Version (NKJV)
27 Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
I am of maori decent. I came accross this passage of scripture and i thought about what i had heard and read through media about holocaust survivors and stories of muslim tragedies.
I read how some of these orphans from the holocaust are now elderly and are now struggling to survive on the limited pensions they have.
Now imagine this: you are born into this world living in poverty in a european country not your own and then suddenly you have to experience the horriffic trauma of having to lose your parents aunties uncles brothers sisters friends within your tribe all taken away and then by some miracle you survive and somehow return to the place where your people originally called home only to live the rest of your life with out the ones you love. And decades later when you think the worst is behind you a new lot people try to do the same thing and you realise in your old age you are incapacitated in someways to escape reliving the horrors of your early childhood. And your concerns are not for you but your children and your grand children and childrens children and the thought that may through the mind of a person is this. Who will look after my wife or husband if im gone? who will help me raise the grandchildren if the parents are gone? Will i still have a family? Will my tribe still be in existence? Why is God allowing this to happen to me again? Why am i reliving this?
Being raised in New Zealand these things were very foreign to me at first until i researched my own tribal history of my fathers side where we were massacred to one surviving decendant who according to oral history sources was in the womb of his mother. My hapu are Kaitangata. My people NgatiKahu the pa in which we were genocided Okahumoko 1827, Whangaroa in the Far North district of New Zealand. Ranfurly bay scenic is the place where the Government and UNESCO have claimed as a world heritage site. They have put embargoes on archaelogical findings that may prove a genocide or mass murder and only recently pulled some web pages off the net because i complained strongly about them advertising this place as a recreational pig hunting area. Hunting pigs where my ancestors were massacered.
In my Maori culture the term we use to address such atrocities done to us is utu or violent retribution.
Which means this i can slaughter the tribe that attacked my people the decendants of the settlers that colluded with the other tribe that arranged to purchase parts of the land Lord Ranfurly aquired that is now in crown control and on and it goes only to leave a trail of destruction and more orphans and that our governmental systems are already struggling to cope with. So what would it profit me?
So if we allow people the opportunity to create awareness about their beliefs and look at ways to bring tangible solutions to those in need like widows and children and show no discrimination toward either side then perhaps we begin on a journey toward pure religion.
If i hold my peace and let the Lord fight my battles then victory shall be mine because i have learnt to subdue the enemy who tries to rise within me.
My prayer today is that God continues to keep his hand over the jewish council and its leaders and give them the wisdom in dealing with civic matters to bring about His everlasting peace.
A great example of Jewish goodwill, but not right for a political ideology that wants to take over the world and causes jews and christians to flee or die. Being kind and graceful is fine but to wish them success is to partner with the enemy.
This is a great act of goodwill, and to love thy neighbour as you love yourself, being raised to a higher standard in love thy enemy, and to bless those who curse you and do good to those who do you harm, is taking the high ground to Muslims… However while we condescend to descend to the pits of intolerance and hatred espoused by Islam, I believe that our genuine demonstrations of love and compassion of the true G-d must not give way to willful blindness and ignorance as to the ideology that drive the conscience of Muslims all over. While not all Muslims ascribe to its beliefs, as not all Jews conscientiously adhere to Judaism nor all Christians to the teaching of Christ, we cannot be dismissive of the fact that there are some, particularly among the leadership of Muslims, who do. Let us be as innocent as dove but as wise as serpents in this matter. Shalom.
Don’t tell me we have apologist Jews still in the ghetto in NZ too.
I read with interest Stephen Goodman’s message to the Federation of Islamic Associations in NZ
In my opinion while the intent is worthy one section causes me concern and requires correction
“Jews share with Muslims the difficulties and pain of being stigmatised in this country for activities of co-religionists outside New Zealand’s shores ”
Yes it is true that Stepehen’s co religionists (Jews ) have been guilty of some awful atrocities but thse have been few and the perpertrators caught and punished
But there is absolutely no comparison with the hundreds of thousands killed in the name of Islam in Yemen, Lebanon , Syria , Turkey ,Iraq , Pakistan , Afghanistan ,France , Germany , Spain , UK , Australia , USA and on and on – and of course Israel
And the messages are still coming from countless mosques around the world encouraging these actions and encouraging the killing of Jews
To suggest soem sort of cpmparability is ridiculous, odious and entirely unwarranted
Peter Bolot Jerusalem
Yeah right! Until the Muslims stab you.