Former All Blacks star, Sonny Bill Williams on the front line for a new mosque in Auckland

The former All Blacks star, Sonny Bill Williams, engages in an ambitious project to build a new mosque in the Hillsborough residential area, south of Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand. This initiative occurs in a delicate context, a few months after a criminal fire having targeted a Muslim place of worship in New Zealand.

“The New Zealand Muslim community reflects all the colors of the world,” said Williams during a fundraising evening that met with great success. The project, which provides for the establishment of a community center overlooking the port of Manukau, responds to growing demand: according to the organizers, eight of an average of New Zealand converted to Islam daily.

This is not the first initiative of its kind for the former rugby player. In 2023, he had already contributed to $ 200,000, alongside the Boxer Anthony Mundine, to the construction of a mosque in Sydney, despite local oppositions. Appointed vice-president of the International University Albuhary in Malaysia, Williams continues his community commitment beyond sport. Its involvement also extends to charity works, in particular through its support for the Australian Mental Health Association Gotcha4life.

This new mosque is intended to be a symbol of resilience for a community still marked by the attack on Christchurch in 2019, which had claimed life to 51 people. The project, although Ambitieux, is not without controversy. In Sydney, local residents had expressed their concerns about the impact on traffic and noise, leading to tensions in the neighborhood. Williams had then qualified these oppositions as “racist”, emphasizing the need for a constructive dialogue between communities to promote integration and mutual understanding.

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