\u201cWe are actively monitoring the situation and will continue to engage with community leaders to understand and respond to any concerns,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe material has been referred for legal assessment, and any further action will be considered in line with legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a video posted on Facebook on Wednesday, the Destiny Church founder accuses Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of purging Christians in the South Asian nation.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe [Modi] is currently purging India of all Christians and burning church buildings down,\u201d Tamaki said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we should reciprocate in kind. Let\u2019s purge New Zealand of Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims. And, while we\u2019re at it, if they\u2019re burning churches down, why don\u2019t we burn mosques and their temples down? Tit for tat.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Facebook post attracted more than 1100 likes as of 8am on Friday.<\/p>\n
In response, Mitchell vowed to do all he could to protect and strengthen the country\u2019s social cohesion.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is obvious that Brian Tamaki\u2019s rants and deliberate targeting of ethnic communities and cowardly social media attacks against individuals are designed to tear at our social fabric to scare and prompt a response from the groups and individuals being targeted,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my experience, these are the actions of a scared bully. We enjoy freedom of speech in our country, but with that comes responsibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tamaki later told RNZ that Mitchell was \u201cmissing the point\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is really damaging social cohesion in NZ is a Government that continues to ignore the concerns of ordinary New Zealanders while pushing policies and agreements that nobody voted for,\u201d Tamaki said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew Zealanders never got a vote on the India free trade agreement. New Zealanders never got a vote on the unprecedented levels of mass immigration we are experiencing,\u201d he said, on top of repeating other comments about immigration and religious persecution in India he made in the video.<\/p>\n
Asked whether he believed his comments fell within the thresholds outlined in the Human Rights Act, Tamaki said New Zealanders had the right to \u201cspeak openly about human rights abuses, religious persecution, immigration, foreign policy and the future direction of our country\u201d.<\/p>\n
This month, Tamaki called for a protest on July 7 at Auckland\u2019s Aotea Square to coincide with Modi\u2019s proposed visit to New Zealand.<\/p>\n
\u201c20,000 plus Indians will be in Auckland at that time along with Khalistan anti-Modi protesters as well,\u201d he wrote in a Facebook post.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf 20,000 Indians can stand and take Auckland, then 30,000 Kiwis should show [up] to fight for your country and children\u2019s future.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is New Zealand, not India.\u201d<\/p>\n
In January, hundreds of Destiny Church-affiliated Freedom and Rights Coalition protesters gathered for a rally at Victoria Park.<\/p>\n
The protesters marched to the motorway entrance but retreated after being met by dozens of police officers.<\/p>\n
The group was denied a permit to walk across the Auckland Harbour Bridge in December, with police saying no protest group from here on would be allowed to cross the bridge for safety reasons and the pressure placed on the bridge\u2019s infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Last year, two Sikh religious processions in Tauranga and South Auckland were also disrupted by protesters linked to Destiny Church.<\/p>\n
\u2013 RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe are actively monitoring the situation and will continue to engage with community leaders to understand and respond…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5159,12897,12896,54350,71,223147,168861,13489,32573,5430,111,43,139,69,154770,31421,416],"class_list":["post-484764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-brian","tag-church","tag-destiny","tag-dismisses","tag-from","tag-indonz","tag-inflammatory","tag-leader","tag-mark","tag-mitchell","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-reporters","tag-tamaki","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}