A local Islamic State supporter

Stuff reports:

An influential Maori Muslim leader is openly supporting the Islamic State militant group and believes Kiwi fighters should not be stopped from joining.

Te Amorangi Kireka-Whaanga is the head of the Aotearoa Maori Muslim Association and in 2010 was named one of the world’s 500 most influential Muslims by a group in Jordan, one of only two New Zealanders to make the list.

The Sunday Star-Times began investigating him after discovering his Facebook pages were festooned with Islamic State imagery. He has 905 friends on Facebook, many of them Muslim converts from around New Zealand. His pages have been repeatedly taken down in recent weeks by Facebook administrators. …

At home in Hastings yesterday, Kireka-Whaanga told the Star-Times Muslims were being killed all over the world, the United Nations “doesn’t care” and he understood Islamic State’ actions.

“If you practise your religion then of course you’ll be 100 per cent behind Islamic State,” he said, adding that he was not a violent person.

He is either very stupid or very disingenuous. You can’t claim to be 100% behind Islamic State and also non-violent.

Kireka-Whaanga said John Key was right to be worried because Islamic State was going to “bring down Western civilisation”. He said his family wanted to move to Syria but he expected his passport would be cancelled. He claimed to have one “brother” in Syria at the moment.

“If I want to go to Syria that should be my right and my choice. It’s like the Jews going to fight for Israel to kill the Palestinians. They don’t stop that.”

I think he should be allowed to go to Syria. I hope he is happy there.