We started out to write a statement about Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki’s hate speech video from 17 June 2026 in which he called for certain communities of colour and for Hindus, Muslims and Christians to be ‘purged’ from Aotearoa New Zealand, and calling for mosques to be burnt but considering the reactions from assorted community organisations, politicians and media the issue requires a brief analysis. That takes time.
First though we strongly condemn Brian Tamaki’s racist, hateful words. While it is true that Narendra Modi’s government has not only oppressed but been extremely violent against Indian Muslims, Christians, various minorities and indigenous communities, it is indeed ironic that Brian Tamaki weaponises that oppression to carry on his violent rhetoric against various communities of colour and non-Christian faiths in Aotearoa. Because Brian is just like Narendra! Deliberately inciting animosity and bloodshed for his own agenda knowing fully well that the threshold for any law to apply is high. Or non-existent.
Brian also knows there no political desire for any discourse on hate speech towards tauiwi of colour and different faiths. It is a difficult space to navigate that requires patience and critical thinking, that we must all accept, is beyond the current lot in Parliament. Only very few of them have the ability to develop a comprehensive approach and of course many of them use violent words against the people of Aotearoa themselves.
That is why Christopher Luxon’s callous response, that he was not interested in anything that Brian Tamaki says. That is also why Chris Hipkins agrees. Although he said Brian Tamaki was a thug he still did not want to counter him. Not a word even from his number 13 list candidate Rakesh Naidoo, a supposed sterling police officer and hero in the inter-faith world. Wannabe members of Parliament, candidates, can speak up especially in their area of expertise and especially at number 13 but Naidoo has been silent. He could have persuaded Hipkins that Labour must assuage our communities yet there is an empty void.
Neither Luxon nor Hipkins have understood that hate speech leads to disastrous actions. What lead to the murder of 51 Muslims in Christchurch on 15 March 2019? Did that happen in a vacuum? So what could possibly happen when a known rabble rouser calls for mosques and temples to be burnt? We have witnessed in India the consequences of Narendra Modi’s language so much so that Islamophobia is embedded in everyday life, casually, at micro-level with aggression against Muslims normalised.
Therefore, it was critical for both Luxon and Hipkins to respond to Brian Tamaki, not brush it off. That is what good leaders do.
As we said before, the current lot in Parliament lacks critical thinking and the ability to talk to our communities. Except as voters and economic contributors.
Finally, we discuss the response from our communities.
There was much outrage, rightly so.
But as we have always said, momentary affront goes nowhere.
One person loudly called for people to lay 105 complaints as if that going to deter Brian Tamaki from his racist, anti-rainbow, anti-non-Christian kōrero in the future.
Then there were our community ‘leaders’. Repeating themselves like a broken record.
Faith organisations called for government action and a whole bunch of them wrote a childish letter to members of Parliament threatening they will only tick party vote in the upcoming election because of their lack of action against Brian Tamaki. Strange bedfellows, two of the signatories the Federation of Islamic Associations of NZ and the Hindu Council of NZ. As if a Hindutva organisation that actively advocates for mosques to be burnt and bulldozed in India, that pushes Indian Bengali Muslims across the border into Bangladesh, an organisation whose mothership RSS mobilised mobs to demolish Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on 6 December 1992 is best friends the conservative Muslims of FIANZ.
Is that how it works? Common ‘enemy’ Brian Tamaki gives them cognitive dissonance that they together write a laughable letter saying they shall not participate in a democratic process while seeking solutions within a democratic setup!
How do we resolve this then?
Again, we have said this previously.
The solution is through sustained grassroots work where we build trusting relationships in intercultural spaces (as opposed to multicultural spaces), where we bypass staid, conservative, fearful community and religious ‘leaders’ and nuance-less politicians to have difficult conversations about co-existence and social cohesion (for want of better terms). No place for Zionists, Hindu fascists or other conservative religious types.
This includes us as tauiwi bringing in tangata whenua and working within the framework of the Treaty of Waitangi. No performative nonsense.
Then there is the progressive left of Aotearoa. We all know that when the progressives do not act, when they do not show allyship and stand alongside minority communities, the extreme right-wing enters that space.
The solution is in collective solidarity. For all of us to stand together for our workers, for our trans people, for our poor, the marginalised.
Of what purpose interfaith or religious spaces when they will not support the ‘other’ while expecting government to safeguard them?
After all, how does one stop a person like Brian Tamaki when current laws do not cover his hate speech? Not from reactive outrage or asking for 105 complaints to be made
People power is how one pushes politicians to make change. That means making them see people not as mere voters but active participants in our democracy. And for us, the communities to discard those conservatives while including the margins of the margins as we move towards harmony.
