KEY POINTS:
New Zealanders are almost evenly split on whether Muslims living here are part of mainstream society and whether it is appropriate for Islamic women to wear a burqa, a Herald summer poll shows.
The survey of 1003 people, conducted in November and December, found that 47 per cent of respondents felt Muslims were not everyday people living within the community.
But this only just outweighed those who took the opposite view, with 41 per cent of people regarding Muslims as "mainstream New Zealanders".
Twelve per cent of people said they either did not know how to respond to the question or refused to answer it.
Rosslyn Noonan, chief commissioner for the Human Rights Commission, said the term mainstream was "largely useless". "We've got no way of knowing how people interpret that. It's time mainstream was retired."
However, she acknowledged a significant chunk of society "made life miserable" for Muslim people living in New Zealand.
"People do experience day-to-day harassment. Sometimes name calling or nasty comments. It's insidious, low-level harassment."
However, Ms Noonan preferred to focus on the survey's positive aspects showing wide acceptance of the minority religious group.
"What this shows is New Zealanders are capable of separating out extreme alarmist [groups] from the realities of the lives of ordinary people who live here. There is a significant level of acceptance of diversity and, in particular, religious diversity, and that's something we need to treasure."
The survey also showed half of all people felt it appropriate that Muslim women be free to wear a full burqa in public, (45 per cent felt it was not).
A burqa is an item of clothing that covers a woman's body from head to foot.
Tauranga's outspoken National MP, Bob Clarkson, fanned debate about Muslim values when he criticised burqa wearing in New Zealand.
The clothing raised suspicion among others. "How do we know there's not a crook with a gun hiding under a burqa? Who's under that gown?" Mr Clarkson said in September. " Mr Clarkson would not comment on the survey's results because he felt the topic had already been thoroughly debated.
Adherence to Islam's customs has been controversial internationally, with some European schools wanting to ban the burqa - as does the Netherlands Government.
The debate in New Zealand has centred on whether Muslim women have the right to cover their faces while giving evidence in a court of law.
Lawyers have argued facial expressions and body language can affect a witness's credibility and, in the interests of transparency of justice, no witness should be able to hide their face.
Muslim Women's Association spokeswoman Anjum Rahman said she placed little weight on the survey results.
"What kind of question is that to start with?" she said. "How do you define mainstream New Zealanders?
"Having said that, I think the outcome is fairly positive, although it's always hard to tell without an idea of trends and without comparisons being made with other religious or ethnic groupings.
"How would the same people regard Buddhists or Hindus? It's all pretty meaningless without any context."
She believed a degree of negativity among some people could be expected. The only exposure some people had of Muslims was through news items, almost all of which tended to be negative, she said.
Ms Rahman also poured cold water on the burqa issue. "It's a contentious one within Muslim countries as well, forget about the people outside the community."
It was, therefore, hardly surprising Kiwis would also find the issue worthy of debate.
While New Zealand's overall level of acceptance of the Muslim faith was likely to be better than that of other Western nations, such as the United States and Australia, that was understandable - because it had not been a target for terrorism from extremist Muslim groups.
"Nobody here liked the French much after the Rainbow Warrior incident. That is a standard response, it's not Muslim specific."
