Is racism (particularly towards Muslim Asians) widespread in New Zealand?

Well being a Muslim in any part of the western world you will experience racism sorry but that's a fact. NZ is a very multi cultural country and there is a large asian muslim community. Isolated incidents you say.. there are 4.5 million people in the entire county... when 86 year old Granny Smiths cat gets Isolated in a tree........it's on the six a clock news as a major headline.....again 4.5 million people...how many people in you own country or city......you do the math? Are you sure you haven't mistaken these Isolated incidents to what has being going on in Australia......it's ok if you have alot of people make this mistake but Il give you the heads up now just so you know Australia is not part of New Zealand know matter how much it wants to be. Discrimination when it comes to getting a job yeah sure everybody experiences that regardless of ethnicity it's just passed off as something else......welcome to the real world. Good luck and if you get here Welcome. .

No Racism is not wide spread. New Zealand has many nationalities and the majority of people are friendly to all . Anywhere in the world you come across a few ignorant idiots. I hope you wont find that in Nz but if you did walk away. It should not affect you at all for jobs.

Haha no racism is not widespread in NZ. And if it does happen they are pretty much isolated incidents. You may come across one or two people that hate your guts just because of your race/religion, but don't take it to heart because there are always going to be a few idiots like them in every country. As for getting a job, you might find that hard to get due to the recession, otherwise you're sweet az. :D Please ignore Slugger Onions. I don't know what happened to make him so bitter against NZ, but you can be sure you aren't going to get a sensible/sane/reasonable answer from him. He haunts the NZ questions section and in all answers he submits, he has nothing good to say about NZ.

There is racism(just like any country) But since New Zealand is very multi cultural racism is not widespread

I haven't lived in Wellington in recent years so can't speak for how it is there now, but I found it very non-racist when I did live there. Here in Auckland I can honestly say that I have never heard a word said against the Muslims except an occasion radio talk-back host trying to stir the public to respond. I work for a large company in which there are many races employed, many of them Fijian Indians, some Chinese Asians, Samoans, Tongans and a number of Muslims. There has never been any hint of racism evident in the environment whatsoever. That isn't to say that there isn't racism in some areas and groups and amongst some ignorant individuals. Are you sure it isn't Australia that you are thinking of regarding anti Muslim incidents? I don't know of any having occurred here.

NZ is very isolated and insular. Very few Kiwis travel overseas and return to NZ (and those that do almost always go to another English speaking country) or learn another language/culture. As much as Kiwis like to imagine otherwise it is does not have much cultural diversity as it's not a wealthy country or with a large profile and thus doesn't attract too many visitors/immigrants. And the main cultural influences come from TV/pop music which these days is almost exclusively from the USA and Australia both of which are also quite isolated, insular, ignorant and backward themselves. NZ's view of the world is also forged by the increasing prominence of spectator sports in peoples interests and so people's view of the world is limited to those which are competitive in Rugby and Cricket. And furthermore the social environments in NZ condition people to have low self esteem and a chip on their shoulder. So it's not at all surprising that racism is widespread in NZ. And many people don't even realise they're racist, and act in a patronising way to people from abroad. The outlook of a typical Kiwi is by world standards very naive and backward and misunderstanding/simplifying of issues and situations. It's not so noticible on the whole in the major population centres but it is definitely under the surface, and xenophobia is pretty rampant in the more provincial centres and the countryside. In Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin or Hamilton people are very unlikely to give you too many hassles to your face although you might encounter the odd bit of name calling or racist joke. Christchurch however is another story with many very pathetic individuals taking out there flaws and insecurities on foreigners. There's a well documented skinhead element in the more working class areas, but in truth many of the middle class people also hold racist and backward ideas. And while you'd be safe from any racial discrimination in the ivory tower of acadeamia, it would be a different story if you tried to get a job in the workforce. There are many Hindustanis underemployed throughout NZ working as office clerks and even as taxi drivers because kiwi employers thought it would be better to hire a graduate from NZ's Universities over them with their top-class degree form IIT. And as for Islam it is very much distrusted thanks to the influx of the gutter of American culture and some the influence of dubious Christian groups. Many people genuinely think it is a religion of devil worshipers and war-mongerers, and both Muslims and mosques have been subjected to attacks. However, to end it more positively than the above in my answer. You would probably be isolated from most of it if you stay within the Academic circles of those mentioned Universities, and you'd probably enjoy the environment and company of most of the people in those circles. So don't let what I told you put you off NZ entirely, just use it as a caution to know what to expect.