Sheikh Khalid Hafiz - The Imam

The Imam

As the Imam for the capital Sheikh Khalid Hafiz played an important role in the development of both the local urban Muslim community and the broader New Zealand Islamic minority the 1980s and 1990s. Unlike the fluctuating elected members of the Executive Committee of the Federation of Islamic Associations (FIANZ), Hafiz attended almost all their meetings over nearly two decades. He also attended and helped facilitate the first national Quran recitation competitions; encouraged and participated in interfaith dialogue with local Christians and Jews; and persistently preached tolerance and kindliness.

Sheikh Hafiz went on Hajj nine times and spoke English, Arabic and Urdu. He also provided important spiritual and religious guidance and leadership to the growing Muslim community - especially in areas without full-time ulema - that often required lateral thinking and patience. In June 1996 he gave an important sermon prohibiting the use of the intoxicant Kava amongst New Zealand Muslims, which was later disseminated across the country and posted on mosque notice boards.

During the 1990 Iraq war the Newtown Islamic Centre was dubbed with graffiti and the Mayor of Wellington, Jim Belich, publicly apologised to local Muslims and appealed for calm. When Sheikh Hafiz showed journalists the property damage on 21 August an agitated neighbour, Craig Macfarlane, accosted the humble Imam, abused Saddam Hussein of Iraq and threatened both the Imam and local Muslims with violence. The incident was captured by a New Zealand Herald photographer and a television cameraman, and became an iconic image of the Iraq war in New Zealand, used by other media subsequently. “Peacelink”, the magazine of the New Zealand peace movement, used it for the front cover of their October 1990 issue.