Muslim, Hindu and Sikh
New Zealanders belong here

23/06/2026

Last week, Brian Tamaki, leader of Destiny Church, posted a video calling for Aotearoa New Zealand to be “purged” of Hindu, Sikh and Muslim people, and suggesting their mosques and temples be burned. We are shocked, and we condemn these statements without reservation.

This is not policy or debate. It is a call to harm and exclude entire communities because of their faith. Muslim, Hindu and Sikh New Zealanders belong here. They are our neighbours, colleagues, friends and whānau. No one should be made to feel unsafe because of how they pray or who they are.

We know where this kind of rhetoric can lead. Communities in Aotearoa still carry that history, and its consequences are not abstract. We stand alongside Muslim, Hindu and Sikh communities, faith leaders, ethnic community organisations, the Race Relations Commissioner, and the many New Zealanders who have made clear that this has no place here.

Brian Tamaki has also pointed to Amnesty International’s research to justify his claims. Let us be clear: Amnesty documents human rights abuses wherever they occur so that people are protected - never so that harm is incited. Pointing to the suffering of one group is never a licence to target another. Naming a wrong does not give permission to commit one.

At Amnesty, every issue comes back to two simple questions: Is it human? Is it right? A call to purge communities and burn places of worship fails both tests. It is neither humane nor right.

For more than sixty years, we have stood with people targeted for who they are - around the world and here at home. The freedom to live safely, belong, and practise your faith is not conditional. It is a human right. When it is threatened for one community, it is threatened for us all.

We will not let this moment pass with words alone. We are developing a deeper response and will have more to say soon.

At a minimum, we call on the Government and the governing coalition to speak with one clear voice: to stand alongside Muslim, Hindu and Sikh communities, and to make plain that hatred and incitement have no place in Aotearoa.

To our Muslim, Hindu and Sikh whānau: we see you, we stand with you, and you are not alone.

E tū Kotahi ana mātou, me mahi tahi tātou.