New Zealand Muslims targeted, harassed at Customs

New Zealand Muslims targeted, harassed at Customs
5/28/2006 5:00:00 PM GMT

New Zealand Muslims complain of being persecuted by Customs officers
whenever they fly back into the country.

They are constantly harassed by customs simply because they are easily
identified by their names.

Those complaints have almost doubled since September 11 attacks on the
United States and the widespread Islamophodia, thanks to the U.S. biased
media approach which attempts through many ways to defame the Muslim
nations, establishing a fake link between Islam and terrorism.

"They feel intimidated, they feel concerned, they feel that they... are not
treated as equals with the other members of the community," says Javed Khan
from the Federation of Islamic Associations New Zealand.

Muslims are frequently stopped at airports and questioned by officials for
hours, basically because of their Middle Eastern look and religion.

Maher Fauzi lived and worked in New Zealand for six years. He considers the
country his home. But recently, while returning to New Zealand, he says, he
was annoyed by the way custom officers treated him, and held him for long
interrogation as if he was a "potential terrorist".

That was simply because he's a Muslim.

Returning from Duba, Fauzi said that he, as well as fellow Muslims, were
held for two hours long interrogation at Auckland Airport.

"You feel like you are a criminal. Not a criminal, even worse than that you
know. You feel humiliated," he says.

Responding to Customs' persistent rejection of their concerns, claiming that
it does not target people "on the basis of race or ethnicity," a group of
Muslims representing their community raised their complaints to ethnic
affairs officials and expect to get an approval to meet with government
ministers soon.

Currently there are about 23631 Muslims living in New Zealand and the
community is exceptionally diverse- they belong to various branches of
Islamic faith. They also come from different backgrounds and different
cultures, which had its great impact on the community.

http://islamonline.com/cgi-bin/news_service/world_full_story.asp?service_id=2368












.

Relevant Pages