Shamsunnisa Pathan (left) and Zureida Allie at the current building used as a mosque in Rotorua. Photo / Samantha Olley
Shamsunnisa Pathan (left) and Zureida Allie at the current building used as a mosque in Rotorua. Photo / Samantha Olley
Rotorua's makeshift mosque is leaking, too small, needs its heating and insulation systems replaced and doesn't have enough parking.
The state of the facility, along with the lack of Halal meat retailers in Rotorua, is even forcing some Muslims to move away, so the Rotorua Islamic Association is fundraising tosecure a new site and building.
There are about 35 Muslim families in Rotorua.
Child psychiatrist Zureida Allie moved here two years ago from Capetown, South Africa.
She said Rotorua had "lost a lot of professional people in the last couple of years because of the lack of Halal food and the lack of proper facilities for us [Muslims]".
After the Christchurch mosque shootings killed 51 people last March, Muslim women in Rotorua began discussing the need for "a new place" in the city.
The current mosque building on Tarewa Rd. Photo / Samantha Olley
Allie started online fundraisers two months ago and Rotorua's Islamic community has begun planning fundraising events now that the Covid-19 lockdown is over.
Allie said there were "a lot of issues" with the current centre on Tarewa Rd, which was owned by the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand.
The "little section" for women has space for about nine or 10 to comfortably pray together, but there are at least 25 women in the Rotorua Islamic community.
"And then because we are a tourist town there are many Muslims who come through ... And this mosque space becomes insufficient, even for the males."
Mosques normally have space for a caretaker to live onsite but the current property doesn't allow for that.
"So that's why there's not always somebody here," Allie said.
"You would never ever lock mosques back in Capetown ... A mosque, once it's locked, it's not a mosque anymore."
When Shamsunnisa Pathan first arrived in Rotorua 15 years ago, there was just a handful of Muslim people living in the city.
The self-employed property manager said nobody in the Rotorua Islamic community nowadays had a home large enough to host all of the families at once.
A key part of Islam is teaching "from the cradle to the grave" and passing on knowledge to younger generations, so the new mosque needs to have a "proper space" for teaching sessions for children.
"In Islam, the right to education is the same for boys and girls - there's no difference," she said.
Flowers outside the Rotorua Islamic Centre mosque, two days after the Christchurch mosque shootings last year. Photo / File
"We women are not illiterate. We are educated. Just because we are living modestly doesn't mean we don't know anything. We do.
"People do judge us if we wear a hijab, and think we are not educated, only when they get to know us and they realise no that's not the case," she said.
The association is fundraising to move to a "warm, safe and appropriate" building that will be used for teaching, as well as prayers and gatherings.
Allie and Pathan hope a new mosque building will ensure that when Muslims move to Rotorua, they don't leave.
