Adviser to Labour MPs quits roles in 'Moonie' organisation

An advisor to Labour MPs has resigned from the executive of the "Moonie" movement's Universal Peace Federation after questions were raised about his two roles.

Husaini Ambawala, an ethnic adviser in Auckland, told the Weekend Herald last week that he joined the movement founded by people he called "Father and Mother Moon" because he believed in their vision for world peace.

But yesterday he said he had resigned from its executive and his role as a "peace ambassador" because he now realised that the movement's founder, Sun Myung Moon, claimed to be the "Messiah of the Second Coming".

"If anybody is trying to say that he or she is a divine figure, I can't digest that," Mr Ambawala said.

"I have never been in a meeting where Dr Moon spoke, and no literature that I have read about them ever told me that he is declaring himself to be a divine figure or a messiah."

Labour list MP Ashraf Choudhary, who employs Mr Ambawala, said he discussed the issue with Ethnic Affairs Minister Chris Carter, but said he had not heard from Prime Minister Helen Clark about it or forced Mr Ambawala to quit his posts.

"He thought this was some genuine peace forum. That is how he got sucked into it," said Dr Choudhary, who approved Mr Ambawala's leave to attend a Universal Peace Federation conference in Japan last year.

"I think he was genuinely shocked at what he has found out."