Bishop Brian Tamaki and which house of worship would Jesus burn?
Hindu leaders are calling on police to take action against Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki after he made inflammatory remarks calling to “purge” communities of Muslim, Sikh and Hindu faiths from New Zealand and burn down their places of worship.
In a video shared last week, the controversial Christian leader accused Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of targeting Indian Christians with threats and violence.
“I think we should reciprocate in kind. Let’s purge New Zealand of Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims,” Tamaki said.
“And, while we’re at it, if they’re burning churches down, why don’t we burn mosques and their temples down? Tit for tat.”
Police told RNZ they were aware of the video, and have been making inquiries into its contents.
The Hindu Board of New Zealand this morning condemned Tamaki’s “inflammatory, defamatory and hate-fuelled video”, saying the comments incited violence, arson and hatred against the diverse Indian diaspora.
“Normally Hindus would ignore such kerfuffle, but such calls to violence can trigger lone wolf attacks and endangers the life of law-abiding citizens.
“We call on the Government and the authorities to immediately take appropriate legal measures to prevent a tragedy.”
Tamaki responded by saying it is “absurd and dishonest” for the board to claim there was no evidence to support his views.
“Thousands of reports from credible international organisations document exactly what I spoke about,” he told the Herald.
“To try and dismiss this reality is an insult to the truth and to the victims.”
The board said Tamaki’s claims that Christians in India faced “persecution” from Modi, his administration and wider society were unsubstantiated.
The board also denounced Tamaki’s remarks around child marriage, saying the “fading” tribal custom was now illegal and declining in prevalence while comparing it to the biblical act of betrothal.
The church leader had taken aim at the Indian subcontinent’s dominant faiths, and alleged that child marriage was a custom still deeply ingrained in the country’s Hindu and Muslim communities.
His opposition to the India-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was also mentioned and subsequently criticised by the board, who said there was no doubt the deal was strategically and economically beneficial for Kiwis.
“This is not reciprocity or ‘tit for tat’,” the board said.
“It is unprovoked, one-sided incitement to arson and violence against a law-abiding minority that has never threatened or harmed Christian places of worship in Aotearoa.”
Tamaki told the Herald his remarks came from a place of “patriotic and parental concern”, arguing serious human rights abuses were unfolding in India under Modi’s leadership.
He spoke of a recent US Commission on International Religious Freedom hearing, which concluded religious freedom in India was on “a downward trajectory, with the government tolerating particularly severe violations against Christians and other religions”.
Christian persecution in India was well-documented by international organisations and religious freedom groups, Tamaki said, while child marriage reports had been produced by the likes of Unicef, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and various UN groups.
“The Hindu Board statement calls my content ‘false claims’ while offering no valid evidence of their own.
NZME
Here’s the funny thing.
The Bish is right.
There is well established and well documented cases of Hindi extremists attacking Christian churches in India, that is true and it is also true that these attacks have risen since Modi’s authoritarian brand of Hindu Nationalism.
The Bish is right to protest that and he is right to criticise child bride culture which is still very entrenched inside the Indian culture B-U-T
And it’s a pretty big B-U-T
While the Bish absolutely can criticise attacks on Christian churches by Hindu extremists in India and criticise the cultural practice of child brides (that is being stamped out) WHAT HE CAN NOT DO AND HAS NO JUSTIFICATION WHATSOEVER IN DOING is calling upon his feral Destiny Church Cult Members to start violence by burning down their places of worship in some weird Holy Purge that he’s calling upon.
There is a world of difference between having genuine concerns about fellow Christians being persecuted and cultural practices we find reprehensible, but that in no way shape or form justifies calling on your follower to burn down Indian places of worship here in NZ!
Once you call for political violence, you have removed yourself from the debate because entrance to democracy is an immediate acceptance of not using violence or intimidation as tools.
He can’t call on his religious nutter crew to go burn shit down because they are fucking dumb enough to do it, remember the Library they all stormed because there was drag queen in there?
These people are not the brightest sparks in the country.
The Police have no choice but to arrest him.
A = hopefully the one BT is in! You see, Tamaki has run out of ideas/plans/schemes to bring more “doners” into his so-called church so is now going down the same route as the ghastly CoC – RACISM! Destiny is NOT a religious movement; it is a money tree to ‘take from the needy’ to keep him and his greedy wife in an affluent lifestyle to which they have become accustomed. And our Police “are looking into it” – really??? And how about Destiny pay their millions of $ debts and disappear off the face of the earth. It would be a good move all round! They have nothing to give!
Tamaki is so fing stupid. How does he explain his love of the professional victims club in Israel. What do they do with Christians?