Protest a worrying sign

Re ‘‘Chris Finlayson … appalled by ‘open support’ for the terrorist organisation Hezbollah’’ at an Auckland demonstration (June 12).

It’s a potentially big problem for New Zealand when a respected national Islamic organisation supports its members (many strident Holocaust deniers) in their support of this terrorist group. There is no law prohibiting the kind of protest that took place, but when the Islamic Ahlulbyat Foundation of New Zealand received so much negative publicity last November over a similar incident involving the promotion of Holocaust denial, one would think they would have learned something; but here their members are again, brazenly dispensing their brand of anti-Semitism.

I agree with Finlayson, this protest ‘‘must be condemned by all’’. I further suggest that groups like Ahlulbyat cannot now be trusted, given this repetition of unacceptable actions (and if they were not directly involved, given their failure to properly educate their members).

I worry the New Zealand Islamic community could become a breeding ground of hatred and terrorism, as happened in the UK. Who is keeping an eye on this group? Did it ever receive Government censure (via the Human Rights Commission, as had been requested by many New Zealanders) over the November 2017 incident? Michael Gould, Brooklyn