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Muslim, Jewish leaders condemn abusive letters

Muslims living in New Zealand's capital have received abusive letters in recent weeks in what Islamic and Jewish leaders denounced yesterday as a campaign to inflame tensions between the two communities.

One letter with a purported list of conflicts between Israel and Islamic nations since 1948 included the message "get out of Israel Islamic pigs."

Another contained a cartoon showing pigs carrying a coffin over the phrase "Muhammad the Pig's Funeral." Next to the word "funeral," the word "amen" was written in Arabic.

Some of the letters have also contained pieces of pork, which according to Islamic custom is considered unclean and highly offensive.

The hate mail, which has mainly targeted Muslim emigres from the east African nation of Somalia, follows recent attacks on Jewish graves and the torching of a Jewish prayer house in Wellington, incidents described as the worst anti-Semitic acts in New Zealand history.

Adam Awad, a spokesman for Wellington's Somali community, said the letters had begun to arrive at the end of last month. He did not believe Jews were responsible for the campaign.

"We know the Jewish community in Wellington. We are friends," Awad said.

He said the Muslim community was worried the letter campaign might be a prelude to violence. It was not immediately clear how many letters had been sent.

David Zwartz, president of the New Zealand Jewish Council, said he also did not think the letters were the work of Jewish groups or individuals. The inclusion of pork in some letters would be equally offensive to Muslims and Jews, because both communities share the same proscription against consuming the meat, he said.

Police spokesman Jeff Attwood said one formal complaint had been lodged by a Muslim woman.

In recent months, vandals have wrecked scores of Jewish gravestones in two cemeteries in Wellington as well as torching a Jewish prayer house.

In both cemetery attacks, three weeks apart, German Nazi swastika symbols were hacked into nearby lawns. The first, on July 16, came just hours after two Israeli men were imprisoned for passport fraud and labeled spies by New Zealand's government.
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