The Trust
The Trust is formally a charitable Trust and was originally founded by Abdul Rahim Rasheed Q.S.O: lawyer, community serviceman and advocate for peace who dedicated much of his life to inter-faith dialogue and understanding in New Zealand and the Pacific. The Trust was in memory of his own parents and to continue the charitable works he'd done over the previous twenty or so years.
After the death of Abdul Rahim Rasheed Q.S.O.
Based on the Trust he had founded, the Trust was then re-dedicated to him upon his death in 2006. After his Commemorative Dinner in December 2006, attended by many important members of New Zealand society, including the Governor-General of New Zealand, Government Ministers, Lawyers, Judges, Doctors, and Academics and other friends of Mr Rasheed, it was resolved that the Trust would continue his work based on his philosophy of the need for New Zealanders of diverse cultures and religions to create a harmonious environment of mutual respect for one another in the beautiful country that all of us non-indigenous people have chosen to adopt.
NZ Centre for Interfaith Dialogue & Education
To that end, at that Commemorative Dinner it was also decided that the Trust would spear-head efforts for the founding, in Mr Rasheed’s memory, of the NZ Centre for Interfaith Dialogue and Education (CIDE).. CIDE is an official Human Rights Commission Diversity Project. You will find information more about the project on this website and on the website of the Human Rights Commission – click here.
For more information about the NZ Centre for Interfaith Dialogue and Education (CIDE), please visit its website: www.cide.org.nz.
The Commemorative dinner is in recording and may be obtained from the Rasheed Trust. Alternatively, you can read about the dinner-launch as reported in NZ Lawyer – click here to download in pdf format.
Click here to watch Hon. Phil Goff speak about Mr Rasheed at Mr Rasheed’s Commemorative Dinner, held at Chancery Chambers, Auckland City on 1 December 2006, following his death on 3 October 2006.
Invitation
In essence, the Trust intends to continue Mr Rasheed’s philosophy of love for New Zealand and all its diverse peoples, as well as his pioneering efforts for their harmonious co-existence, and the Trust hopes that philosophy will inspire others to join hands with the Trust in establishing and continuing positive relationship-building activity in New Zealand, at local and national levels.
Visit us again
Both this and the CIDE websites are temporary only, and designed to simply serve the increasing demand for information about the Trust, its general activities and the CIDE project in particular. We hope to gradually develop this site in the near future. So do visit this page again soon. Thank you for your interest.