A Muslim women’s network says an enormous donation for Christchurch victims from a Chinese delegation should be returned.

News Hub again.

On March 15, the day of the country’s deadliest mass shooting, Auckland Mayor Phil Goff attended a dinner for delegates of the Teochew International Federation. He arrived late because, as he explained to the delegates, he had been meeting with police and the Muslim community in the hours after the massacre that killed 50 people

On the spot, the delegates pledged to donate almost $500,000 to those affected by the shooting. That sum grew to $2.1m as other delegates chipped in. One of the donors was controversial businessman Zhang Yikun, notorious for his entanglement in last year’s feud between Jami-Lee Ross and the National party.

Mayor Goff passed on the donation to the Christchurch Foundation fund ‘Our People, Our City’, and called the gesture an “extraordinarily generous offer to the people of Christchurch and the Muslim community from a small community in New Zealand”.

But the Khadija Leadership Network is calling for the donation to be returned and the money to go to the Uighur people, a persecuted ethnic minority in China. It said because millions have already been raised to help the shooting victims via crowdfunding websites Launch Good and Givealittle, as well as financial aid from the Government, the Teochew donation should instead be used to help the Uighurs – most of whom are Muslim.

Many in the Muslim community wish instead to address the plight of Uighur Muslims and take a stand against Islamophobia,” the network’s petition reads.

“Though we understand this generous donation isn’t money from the Chinese government, we still firmly believe that the best assistance from any community that Muslims could receive is to call out Islamophobia, and stop the persecution of those practicing the Islamic faith around the world.”

The petition calls the Uighur camps “the Auschwitz of contemporary times”, and accused the New Zealand Government of turning a blind eye to injustice because of our historical links and business ties to China.

“As New Zealanders we have already lost our 50. We are simply calling for us all to lead in being a voice for those incarcerated for practising Islam.”

New Zealanders of Chinese heritage are not impressed. A comment from the Face Book page of Khadija Leadership Network

These money is from local Chinese. Not from the Chinese govt. Some people just can’t and never get it right. What kind of Muslim group you are? Back stabbing to the people who is doing good deed?

If the Muslims of New Zealand really don’t need the money then the Chinese group should donate it to the Hospitals treating the injured for general purposes; then it will benefit all New Zealanders. New Zealand’s Muslims really are emboldened in the aftermath of these murders.