Sixth generation Kiwi Muslims: ‘Integration is the best of both worlds’
Many Kiwis are learning about Islam for the first time since the terrible events of March 15. But, writes Brittany Keogh some Muslim families have been here for more than a century.
A Muslim family who has called New Zealand home for more than a century hopes the devastating terrorist attack on two Christchurch mosques will motivate others to learn more about each others’ faiths and cultures.
As mosques around the country opened their doors to Kiwis of all faiths, three generations of the Bhikoo-Patel family – descendants of Ismail Ahmed Bhikoo, a pioneer in Auckland’s Muslim community – shared mugs of chai tea with the Sunday Star-Times.
At the Grey Lynn home of Bhikoo’s grandson, Abdulhak Bhikoo, 83, they described how Bhikoo’s grandfather arrived in New Zealand from the Indian state of Gujarat around 1908.
Ismail Bhikoo had been on a P&O ship heading to Fiji, but during an Auckland stopover he marvelled at the city’s landscape and asked the immigration officer if he could disembark there instead. Because he spoke some English, his request was granted.
His wife stayed in India and Bhikoo returned regularly to visit her.
On later trips, Bhikoo’s children Yusuf Ebrahim, Sulaiman, Hassam and Abdul Samad moved to New Zealand to live with him.
Today, more than 150 of Ismail Ahmed Bhikoo’s descendants are Kiwis – some of them sixth generation – although, because of the colour of their skin, some people still assumed they were immigrants.
Despite being born and raised
in Auckland and having a New Zealand accent, Ismail Ahmed Bhikoo’s great-great-grandson Yusef Patel, 29, has been asked by a teacher where he came from. When he replied ‘‘Herne Bay’’, he was asked again, ‘‘No, where are you really from?’’
His twin brother Muhammed Patel has had similar experiences: ‘‘When people tell me ‘oh you’re Indian’, I say ‘No, I’m Kiwi. I was born here. I’m a New Zealander’.’’
The young men say their childhood was similar to any other Kiwi: spending time with grandparents and watching sport.
‘‘The only difference is instead of opening the Bible we were opening up the Quran. Instead of going to church on Sunday, we were going to the mosque on Friday,’’ Muhammed said.
‘‘We’re actually quite fortunate because we have two cultures. We get the best of both worlds,’’ Yusef added.
Muhammed said he’d heard people say ‘‘Muslims need to integrate’’ but integration didn’t mean abandoning his heritage.
‘‘Integration means you work and you pay your taxes, you allow people to do as they will. If someone does something that is not in line with your beliefs, but it doesn’t hurt you, then you let them be.’’
Yusef believed Muslims were good at integrating because their community was already culturally and ethnically diverse.
At the family’s local mosque, Al-Masjid Al Jamie, in Ponsonby, which Abdulhak Bhikoo’s father Sulaiman Ismail Bhikoo helped build in 1950, people from all over the world came to worship and find solace.
Muhammed and Yusef’s father, Firoz Patel, is the mosque’s secretary. He said several school groups visited the mosque in recent months to learn about the Muslim faith.
The mosque was not trying to build awareness. ‘‘It’s an education thing, respecting other religions,’’ Firoz said.
Muhammed said Muslims needed to learn about other religions too: ‘‘It’s a full circle. It’s not just a one-way dialogue.’’
Since the Christchurch attack, the mosque had been inundated with flowers and supportive messages and the Catholic Sacred Heart Parish church across the road held a memorial service on March 17, during which leaders from both faiths spoke and prayed together.
‘‘There’s so much love going on,’’ Yusef said.