New Zealand politicians attend iftar dinner of Turkish foundation despite embassy’s warning


Date posted: June 29, 2016

A number of politicians from New Zealand attended an iftar dinner organized by a foundation of Gülen movement sympathizers in the country, despite Turkish embassy’s written warnings against the event.

Around 100 politicians, including Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse, Ethnic Communities Minister Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Paul Goldsmith, attended an iftar dinner organized by the Pearl of the Islands Foundation (PIF), a non-profit organization founded by sympathizers of the Gülen movement that aims to promote dialogue and education.

The Gülen movement is a grassroots social initiative inspired by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen and carries out charitable activities all around the world, including education, distributing humanitarian aid and providing drinking water especially in African countries.

Politicians attended the iftar event held at the Parliament despite a written warning sent by the Turkish embassy days before.

“It is publicly known that PIF foundation, organizer of this dinner at the Parliament on 14 June 2016, is one of the world-wide groups of “Gülen Organization” whose leader, Fethullah Gülen, is a fugitive and on Turkey’s most-wanted terrorist list. Fethullah Gülen Organization is outlawed in Turkey. Therefore, Turkish Embassy does not have any dealings with PIF or support its activities,” the warning sent on May 16, 2016 said.

Minister Woodhouse spoke during the event and said he was glad to attend an iftar event such as this for the first time. He also thanked the PIF foundation and its managers due to a recent aid campaign about the refugees.

After a corruption investigation implicating then-Prime Minister Erdoğan, members of his family and senior Justice and Development Party (AK Party) figures erupted on Dec. 17, 2013 Erdoğan accused the Gülen movement of plotting to overthrow his government. He said that sympathizers of the movement within the police department had fabricated the graft scandal. Since then, hundreds of police officers have been detained and some arrested for alleged illegal activity in the course of the corruption investigation. Erdoğan said he would carry out a “witch hunt” against anyone with links to the movement. The Gülen movement strongly rejects the allegations brought against it.

Source: Turkish Minute , June 27, 2016

Tags: | | |


Related News

Interfaith Forum Ignores Islamic Immigration Questions

February 25 panel before about 50 listeners. Like him, “Welcoming the Stranger: Refugees and Immigrants in Our Midst,” a presentation of the controversial Islamic Gülen movement’s Rumi Forum, was uniformly uncritical towards current Middle Eastern refugee issues.

The Hizmet movement and external forces

Fethullah Gülen Hocaefendi and the Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV) make statements on behalf of the Hizmet movement. Even the GYV’s statements can hardly be considered as binding for every individual who is inspired by the Hizmet movement and who participates in different projects in a different manner as the Hizmet movement does not have a central organization or membership mechanism.

‘Hizmet is the attempt to celebrate all of humanity’

Hizmet Movement is unique because it doesn’t try to carry out what we call cultural and religious particularism. That would be the idea that your group is the best, that you have the only form of truth, that all other groups are impure, incorrect and that they are not worthy of time, or that they’re not worthy of learning something from them. Hizmet, in fact, says the opposite. Members reach out to learn from other peoples, they actively invite people from different cultural backgrounds, people from different religious backgrounds to come and teach them, to teach them things.

A Symphony of Compassion

God calls us to make music in our world; to perform in a global symphony of compassion. If each human being lived by the law of compassion, what a wonderful world this would be! I can’t help but think that this is God’s plan for us.It is Fethullah Gulen who coined the phrase, “A Symphony of Compassion.” Those who walk the path of compassion bring the music of divine energy into our everyday lives.

Is the March 30 referendum in danger?

It has become very evident that some businessmen who benefitted illegally in major state tenders acquired independent media, a person very close to Erdoğan was appointed as the editor-in-chief and that this media organ became a mouthpiece of Erdoğan. Independent civil society groups such as the Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association (TÜSİAD) and the Hizmet movement are constantly depicted as traitors and the puppets of international dark forces by Erdoğan.

Turks in US Ditto: Dialogue

The interfaith dialogue symposium organized by the Niagara Foundation, a Turkish community foundation in the United States, began on Thursday. The Chicago Interfaith Gathering sponsored by several American academic institutions and non-governmental organizations met at the Chicago Cultural Center.

Latest News

Turkish inmate jailed over alleged Gülen links dies of heart attack in prison

Message of Condemnation and Condolences for Mass Shooting at Bondi Beach, Sydney

Media executive Hidayet Karaca marks 11th year in prison over alleged links to Gülen movement

ECtHR faults Turkey for convictions of 2,420 applicants over Gülen links in follow-up to 2023 judgment

New Book Exposes Erdoğan’s “Civil Death Project” Targeting the Hizmet Movement

European Human Rights Treaty Faces Legal And Political Tests

ECtHR rejects Turkey’s appeal, clearing path for retrials in Gülen-linked cases

Erdoğan’s Civil Death Project’ : The ‘politicide’ spanning more than a decade

Fethullah Gülen’s Vision and the Purpose of Hizmet

In Case You Missed It

‘Erdoğan fights to eliminate Hizmet movement’

Former US diplomat: War on Turkish schools in Africa ruining Turkey’s credibility

Nizamiye Will Perform 15,000 Cardiac Procedures In Nigeria

Deviation, crisis and opportunities…

Filipino military awards Turkish high school for peace initiatives

The Pigeon, The Finger, and Hizmet’s ‘Inevitable Ambiguity’

Turkish minister: Gülen movement is worse than Nazis

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News