WHEN Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki called for New Zealand to be “purged” of Hindu, Sikh and Muslim people, and went on to suggest that their mosques and temples be burned, the “human rights” brigade reacted predictably.
“We are shocked, and we condemn these statements without reservation,” Amnesty International announced. “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.”
Almost the entire political establishment including Christopher Luxon’s National Party, and certainly Labor and the Greens, huffed and puffed with outrage and Tamaki was soon to find himself the victim of a gun seizing operation that most likely had its origin in the offices of the Minister for Police and Ethnic Affairs, Mark Mitchell, if not Luxon’s office.
Tamaki’s followers – known for their public haka (war dance) protests – had months earlier targeted a Sikh religious festival, again attracting the outrage of the entrenched liberal-leftist media and political establishment.
These same followers have a group called True Patriots of NZ, which describes themselves as “Guardians of the Kiwi Way of Life. Defenders of Faith, Flag & Family.”
Their Facebook page urges Kiwis to “Join the movement standing against globalism, mass immigration, and woke ideology. We fight for a free, Christian New Zealand — bold, united, and unapologetic.”
New Zealand’s Muslim population is now about 75,000 – about 1.5% of the population per the 2023 census – and the number of prayer facilities has grown with immigration and community needs, especially in Auckland.
According to Wikipedia there are “approximately 60 to nearly 85 mosques and Islamic centers operating across New Zealand” but other estimates put the number at 96, a figure that is consistent with listings that count every place holding Jumu’ah prayers, not just large purpose-built mosques.
The Auckland number of 52 aligns with at least one current commercial dataset, although exact totals vary by source and criteria.
MagaMike on a post on X says the numbers from commercial business databases (as of mid-2026), show that there are about 85–132 mosque/Islamic centre listings in New Zealand.
“One source specifically shows Auckland with 52, matching the map exactly,” he says. Auckland is consistently the largest concentration of Islamic facilities, often listed as 15 to 20-plus major ones, or higher when including all prayer spaces.
These counts typically include purpose-built mosques plus smaller Islamic centres, musallahs (prayer rooms), and community spaces that hold regular Friday prayers.
These smaller prayer facilities are now found in 32 regional centres such as Gisborne, Napier-Hastings, Tauranga and a modest Islamic facility in Invercargill at the bottom of the South Island is the southernmost Islamic centre in the world.
They are also found in small rural towns like TeKuiti, Taihape, TeAroha, Taupo, Hawera, Blenheim and particularly places like Mataura in Southland, near halal meat processing facilities.
The explosion in the numbers of these facilities across the nation is remarkable for a country where for most of its history, Islam was virtually unknown and consisted of a few facilities in the major cities.
The first local Muslim organisation, the New Zealand Muslim Association, was formed in Auckland in 1950, although history records the presence of 17 “Mahometans” in the first national census in 1874.
The country’s first dedicated Islamic Centre was opened in Ponsonby, Auckland, in 1959.
