Warm welcome for Koran
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.
Today, the full Koran is translated into more than 45 different languages.
On Saturday, each of these were displayed at The Holy Koran Exhibition in the Fitzroy Hall, in New Plymouth.
This was the first exhibition of its kind to take place in Taranaki and Khan said 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.
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’’.
‘‘What we're trying to make people understand is there's no fear. ’’ Bashir Khan