The number of Muslims joining the Islamic State from New Zealand will only “surprise” most people because they have no idea that the Islamic State is not twisting and hijacking Islam, but actually presents a claim that clearly resonates with large numbers of Muslims worldwide, despite condemnations of the Islamic State from Muslim leaders all over. The claim that has such appeal and resonance, of course, is the assertion that they have restored the caliphate.
“Kiwi cash helping Islamic State,” by Tracy Watkins, Stuff.co.nz, November 3, 2014 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
Funds are being moved from New Zealand in support of the chilling terror campaign waged by Islamic State (Isis) in Iraq.
Prime Minister John Key has spelt out the Kiwi link ahead of his first major national security speech on Wednesday in which he is expected to detail the number of New Zealanders backing Isis, either by signing up to its cause as fighters, or by supplying funds.
His speech will detail “the number of people we think are a very credible risk . . . who either want to leave the country and be foreign fighters, or people financially supporting that cause”….
“My own view is these people present one of the more significant threats in modern times.”
Key has warned that the number of Kiwis actively engaged with Isis, including those wanting to take up arms with the terror group, will “surprise” most people….
Meanwhile — this will surprise you — Muslim leaders in New Zealand are claiming victim status and blames non-Muslims in New Zealand for the fact that Muslims from there are going to join the Islamic State:
The head of the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand, Dr Anwar Ghani, said he hoped New Zealand would stop short of sending combat troops to Iraq.
“We don’t need to get involved in somebody else’s war.”
Muslims in New Zealand have increasingly become the target of abuse and harassment on the back of publicity about the rise of Isis, Ghani said. Members of the Muslim community raised the matter with police at a meeting in Auckland on Saturday.
“The women folks and the younger women and school children are facing hostility from people that were making comments which are totally unacceptable.”
But a Muslim convert now living in Indonesia, Bilal Morpeth, said if any Kiwis had gone abroad to fight for Islamic causes, it was because they were ostracised by Muslim communities within New Zealand.
“I’m deeply concerned for the welfare of young Muslims and converts in New Zealand. Personally I’d like to be back there.”
Morpeth previously worshipped at the same Sydney mosque as self-proclaimed Kiwi jihadi Mark Taylor, who is now in Syria with an al Qaeda offshoot.
Taylor is subject to travel restrictions. His Indonesian wife said yesterday she was scared that Isis would kill her husband. Her husband also hated Isis, she said.
Taylor appears to have signed up to another al Qaeda offshoot.
Taylor burnt his New Zealand passport on arrival in Syria but sources have confirmed he has since inquired about a new one.
His wife said he could not afford the application fee and he had only burnt his passport because a “criminal” had attacked him and tried to take it off him….
Yeah, sure, that’s it. It was all because of a “criminal,” see? Now give him another passport: he has good intentions!