Mazhar Shukri Krasniqi was born in 1931 in Prishtina, Kosova. In 1950 he fled Yugoslavia and he arrived penniless in Wellington on 1 May 1951 on board the SS Goya with little more than the shirt on his back. Krasniqi worked at a variety of jobs throughout the decade including farming in Southland, and steam drilling around the Waikato and Bay of Plenty regions. On 1 January 1956 he attended the “1st Moslem Congress” organised by the nascent New Zealand Muslim Association and became an active member of the Executive Committee up to his retirement in 1992. He served as president twice, in 1975 and again over 1987 and 1988. In 1960 Krasniqi set up a restaurant named the “Albania” in Panmure where he became a businessman. In 1965 Krasniqi attended an international conference in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, as the NZMA delegate over 17 to 24 April, performed the Umrah and even brought back with him a 38 page document entitled the “Resolutions by General Islamic Conference; Second Session” as a souvenir. He extended his stay and made contact with a number of Arabs and expatriate Albanians there who were keen on importing Halal meat from New Zealand. In the 1970s Krasniqi made contact with Muslim embassies in Wellington and Canberra, and continued to attend overseas conferences and events on behalf of the New Zealand Muslim community. He was also present at the foundation stone laying ceremony for New Zealand’s first mosque on 30th March 1979. The Mosque Committee members - Mazhar Krasniqi, Abdul Rahim Rasheed, Said Alvi, Mohammed Yakub Patel and Mohammed Hussein Sahib - all mortgaged their own houses to raise the necessary cash to complete the financial commitment needed by the builder. Further construction work for the hall extension was started in 1987 when Krasniqi was president of the NZMA. In a media interview in 1979, Krasniqi observed the increasing number of conversions to Islam : "Most of them are people who have come into contact with Islam while travelling in the Middle East. We seem to be getting new members almost every week. If it goes on like this, we will soon be outnumbered by Kiwi Muslims. Seriously, though, this is one good reason why we urgently need a mosque – so we can have proper facilities for these new converts." During the 1992 AGM of the New Zealand Muslim Association, Krasniqi was appointed Patron. The following year he retired from communal politics, both the NZMA and FIANZ. However during the 1999 Kosova crisis, Krasniqi was able to personally persuade the New Zealand government to accept 650 into this country immediately and on 1 April 1999 the Albanian Civic League, of which Krasniqi was president, organised a march and demonstration in central Auckland to express their support for the US led NATO bombing of Serbia. On 31 December 2002 the Governor-General of New Zealand bestowed the Queens Service Medal for public service on Krasniqi for his community service to both the Albanian and wider Muslim communities. The investiture ceremony occurred on 4 April 2003 at Government House in Wellington. References:
