Summarised by Centrist
Police have seized Brian Tamaki’s firearms and revoked his firearms licence after comments in which the Destiny Church leader called for a “purge” of Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims and floated burning mosques and temples “tit for tat.”
Tamaki livestreamed police at his Auckland home going through his gun safe, saying his licence had been cancelled and his hunting rifles were being taken.
The police action followed comments Tamaki made while criticising Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Indian government, and alleged violence against Christians in India.
Tamaki said: “Let’s purge New Zealand of Hindus, Sikhkhs, and Muslims.”
He then added: “And while we’re at it, if they’re burning churches down, why don’t we burn mosques and their temples down, tit for tat.”
Discussing child brides in India, Tamaki also said: “I’d go and get my pig hunting gun and go around and visit them. That’s what I do, my shotgun. I think it’s despicable.”
Police had already said on 19 June they were assessing the comments and considering whether any offence had been committed.
On 24 June, ACT Ethnic Communities spokesperson Dr Parmjeet Parmar wrote to Police Commissioner Richard Chambers asking Police to investigate Tamaki’s reported comments.
Days later, Police reportedly revoked Tamaki’s firearms licence after deciding he was no longer a “fit and proper person” to hold one.
“I think they’ve taken my guns, thinking I’m a dangerous man because I simply want our country to be protected,” Tamaki said.
Tamaki has since recast the mosque and temple remarks as a hypothetical moral question rather than a retaliatory suggestion.
Posting his NZ Herald interview to X, he wrote: “Here’s the interview I gave them in the moment. Watch for yourself and make up your own mind.”
In that interview, Tamaki described his comments this way: “How would you feel, tit for tat, I said, if we took your mosques and burnt them here. And your temples. And that… we burned down all of those things. And we did the same thing here, what you’re doing there, those abuses… how would you feel?”
In a separate statement, he said: “They have twisted my words. I said imagine if this was happening in New Zealand, if we were burning down mosques and temples. I was making a point. I never implied I was going to do it.”
Notably, Tamaki’s Herald retelling did not appear to address the separate “pig hunting gun” and “shotgun” comment, despite that remark also being relevant to why police may have questioned whether he remained fit to hold a firearms licence.
On Newstalk ZB, Tamaki dodged questions about whether police were concerned by his mosque-burning and shotgun remarks, then argued Indian and Muslim communities were pushing politicians and “foreigners” were “now running the country.”
Editor’s note: Tamaki is right that he did not explicitly say he personally intended to burn down mosques or temples.
But that is not the main issue. Tamaki said, “why don’t we burn mosques and their temples down, tit for tat.” After police became involved, he described the same remarks as if he had only asked, “how would you feel?” or “imagine if”, while omitting the “pig hunting gun” and “shotgun” comment altogether.
That changes the tone.
“Why don’t we” sounds like a suggestion and could reasonably be read as a call for retaliation. “Imagine if” sounds like a hypothetical.
Tamaki is now presenting the softer version as if it explains the original. But the original words were stronger, more direct and more inflammatory than his later retelling.
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