London terrorists 'a bunch of lunatics' - NZ Islamic Association

The attackers who killed seven people near London Bridge on Saturday are being condemned by Muslims in New Zealand.

People who commit such acts of terror are "not Muslims", Hazim Arafeh, President  of the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand, told The AM Show.

"The whole Muslim world has declared a long time ago that those people are not Muslims and they don't have a state," Mr Arafeh said.

"They are a bunch of lunatics who have completely taken verses out of the Quran out of context, built up their own destructive ideology and found a place where there is no rule of law to launch all of their ideologies."

The scene of the attack in London on Sunday (Reuters)
The scene of the attack in London on Sunday (Reuters)

The Muslim community is "nothing but law-abiding Kiwi citizens," but there is always a risk of ideology spreading via the internet, he said.

"This ideology has been created elsewhere and it gets exported to us over the internet. So far I would say the risk in New Zealand is very, very minimal, but still one person carrying this ideology in New Zealand is one person too much."

Mr Arafeh said members of the community have been victim to anti-Muslim sentiment from other New Zealanders. But he said terrorists are attacking other Muslims too - those attacks just don't get the same degree of media attention.

"We want the New Zealand public to know terrorism has got no religion. They are also doing terrorism atrocities in other countries as well but it doesn't get reported."

Last week, a massive car bomb in Kabul killed 90 people and left 460 injured.

A car bomb has killed at least 80 people in Kabul on Wednesday (Reuters)
A car bomb has killed at least 80 people in Kabul on Wednesday (Reuters)

Although Muslims in New Zealand sometimes get labelled as terrorists by the wider community, Islamic Associations will continue to spread the message of calm, he said.

"It's completely unnerving [and] uncomfortable, simply because fellow New Zealanders get completely mixed up. They are terrorists, but we as Muslims get labelled with the same brush."

Newshub.