Muslim women tell counter-terrorism hui they don’t trust authorities to keep them safe

June 16, 2021

Representatives from Facebook and Twitter were questioned over how their platforms are handling the problem.

Muslim women say they don’t trust authorities to keep them safe, the Government’s counter-terrorism hui in Christchurch has heard.

They also report online hate directed at the community has only intensified following the Christchurch terrorist attacks.

“Since the attacks, I have had six threats that authorities have not been able to identify who did them or what risk I am at,” Aliya Danzeisen, president of The Islamic Women's Council told some of the country’s top public servants.

Other women said they’d been called a “terrorist” or were yelled at to get out of the country.

Representatives from Facebook and Twitter were questioned over how their platforms are handling the problem of online hate. Twitter, in particular, was criticised for not banning a New Zealand neo-Nazi group from their site.

Twitter’s public policy head Nick Pickles said content moderation alone wouldn’t solve the problem.

“If we remove hate from one platform, often that hate moves to another smaller platform,” Pickles said.

His responses were met with boos. Some questions from the audience also went unanswered.

Police Commissioner Andrew Coster acknowledged police had “a lot of work to do” to respond to hate crime.

“We’re partway through that response,” Coster said.

The He Whenua Taurikura hui, which translates to the "A Country At Peace", is being staged annually as a recommendation of the post-Christchurch terror Royal Commission.

Experts, intelligence and police chiefs gathered for the two-day conference, which ended today.

The hui has been marred with controversy. Yesterday, more than a dozen members of Christchurch’s Muslim community walked out briefly over a speech by the Jewish Council’s Juliet Moses which referenced the military wings of Hezbollah and Hamas .

Both sides put that debate behind them today.

Abdur Razzaq from the Federation of Islamic Associations said unity was needed to make the country safer.

Moses said she was “very sorry that [she’d] caused hurt”.

“But, I’d say that I think there’s been some confusion around the purpose,” she added.

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