Mazhar Krasniqi - Overview

Overview

Mazhar Shukri Krasniqi, son of Shukri Krasniqi and Aisha Minushi, was born on 17 October 1931 in Pristina, Kingdom of Yugoslavia - in present day Kosovo. In 1950 he fled Communist Yugoslavia and sailed for New Zealand on board the refugee boat SS Goya. He arrived destitute in Wellington on 1 May 1951 and started to work at a variety of jobs throughout the decade including farming in Southland, and steam drilling around the Waikato and Bay of Plenty regions.

On 1 January 1956 he attended the '1st Moslem Congress' organised by the nascent New Zealand Muslim Association (NZMA) and became an extremely active member of the Executive Committee, of which he remained a member up to his retirement in 1992. He served as president twice, in 1975 and again in 1987.

In 1960 Krasniqi set up a restaurant named the 'Albania' in Panmure where he became a successful and prosperous businessman. In 1970 he opened a kiosk at the new Panmure 'Swimarama', and later set up the 'New Zealand Middle East Export Company' and also a waterbed business.

In 1965 Krasniqi attended an important international conference in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, as the NZMA delegate over 17 to 24 April (15 to 22 Zul Hijjah 1384), performed the Umrah and even brought back with him a 38 page document entitled the “Resolutions by General Islamic Conference; Second Session” as a souvenir. He extended his stay and made contacts with a number of Arabs and expatriate Albanians there who were keen on importing halal meat from New Zealand.

In the 1970s Krasniqi developed extensive contacts with Muslim embassies in Wellington and Canberra, and continued to attend overseas conferences and events on behalf of the New Zealand Muslim community. He was also present at the foundation stone laying ceremony for New Zealand’s first mosque on 30 March 1979. The Mosque Committee members - Mazhar Krasniqi, Hajji Abdul Rahim Rasheed, Said Alvi, Mohammed Yakub Patel and Hajji Mohammed Hussein Sahib - all mortgaged their own houses to raise the necessary cash to complete the financial commitment needed by the builder.

In a media interview in 1979, Krasniqi observed the increasing number of conversions to Islam :

"Most of them are people who have come into contact with Islam while travelling in the Middle East. We seem to be getting new members almost every week. If it goes on like this, we will soon be outnumbered by Kiwi Muslims. Seriously, though, this is one good reason why we urgently need a mosque - so we can have proper facilities for these new converts."

Further construction work for the hall extension on the mosque was started in 1987 when Krasniqi was president of the NZMA.