See also: Fouder starring in: Rights of Husband
While this government is making it impossible to be able to discuss why Tarrant did what he did by banning the manifesto, Fouder seeks to make it impossible to critique either the social and religious horrors of the koran or even daily life that NZ Islamics keep hidden from the media. We would no longer be able to discuss the education, recruitment, financing and training of those here in NZ who wish to live in an Islamic State.
As we have seen the money flowing in from the Saudi, Turkish and other governments, so we should be able to freely critique the global Islamic teachings they are importing here into NZ.
This bill will not only stop us being able to speak about Islam, but also stop the flow of information on the internet about the atrocities that Islamics commit globally against women, children, minority groups and even animals in their own countries and abroad.
Twenty four hours after the sentencing of the Christchurch terrorist gave his community the salve it has long yearned for, Imam Gamal Fouda had one wish left.
He believes there should a memorial “to document this tragedy and for the future generations who did not witness it”.
The imam’s hope has already reached the corridors of power – a spokesman for Jacinda Ardern saying the Government was “very open” to suggestions for how to acknowledge what happened.
At Friday prayers at the Masjid An-Nur (Al Noor mosque) Fouda looked like a man with a weight off his shoulders, one who has taken his first easy breath for the first time in almost 18 months.
“It’s good now, we succeeded together so now we celebrate the victory of love over hate,” he told Stuff ahead of delivering a sermon.
“For the victims no punishment is going to be enough, or bring our people back. The damage has been done, and now we continue again the message of love that we started after March 15.
“We’ll continue the healing together as a nation – we have won and he has lost and failed.”
Fouda also hopes for an annual conference to ensure the lessons of what happened are not lost, and for new legislation to criminalise hate speech.
That wish may take longer, though – hate crime is not currently recorded as such, and a proposal to make it a criminal offence has stalled due to insufficient support within the government to make any changes before the election, though Justice Minister Andrew Little said he would continue to pursue such laws if he returned to his role after the election.
Recent dialogue has shown they are incapable of considering the consequences of their own actions.
See also: Perhaps we brought this on ourselves?
