NEW DELHI: A dialogue between New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern a Muslim man has gone viral on the social media in which the Labour Party leader was invited to embrace Islam.


In the video, the prime minister is seen talking to a young Muslim man, who told her: "To be honest with you, what brought me here it's you. I have been crying every day for the last three days. I have been making one dua (prayer) from Allah and I said I wish other leaders can look at your leadership skills."

"And my other one wish is I hope one day you enter into Islam and I wish I will be with you in Jannah (paradise)," he said.

To that, Ardern replies that Islam taught humanity and she felt she had it. ''Islam teaches humanity and I think I have it.


Ardern made highlights and was praised all over the world with her response to the Christchurch mosques shooting, in which 50 people were killed on March 15 by a lone gunman in a "terrorist act".

Soon after the attack, she visited the mosque and met the bereaved families. She also opened a sombre session of parliament with an evocative "as-salaam alaikum" message of peace to Muslims.

"He will face the full force of the law in New Zealand," Ardern pledged to grieving Kiwis after the attacks, while promising that she would deprive the man, an avowed white supremacist who slaughtered 50 people in Christchurch, of the publicity he craved.

"He sought many things from his act of terror, but one was notoriety," she told assembled lawmakers of the 28-year-old Australian accused of the slaughter.

"That is why you will never hear me mention his name. He is a terrorist. He is a criminal. He is an extremist. But he will, when I speak, be nameless."

"I implore you: Speak the names of those who were lost rather than the name of the man who took them." Dressed in black, the 38-year-old leader opened her remarks in parliament with a symbolic gesture, repeating the greeting uttered every day across the Islamic world: "as-salaam alaikum".

(With inputs from agencies)