Six anti-Islamic posters depicting offensive images and other hate and sexist material were found on the Queenstown Islamic Centre in Gorge Rd Retail Centre.
More posters were found in the area.
Southern District Commander Superintendent Paul Basham said an 18-year-old man has appeared in the Queenstown District Court today charged with possession of a knife.
Police expected to lay further charges in due course.
"We know incidents like this are upsetting for our community and we'd like to thank Queenstown residents for the information they have provided to assist our enquiries."
Anyone with further information in relation to these incidents or the arrest was asked to contact Queenstown Police on 105.
Worshipper Philippe Saint-Pere, who also teaches at the Islamic centre, said the posters were shocking.
"It shows how badly people need to understand what Islam is really all about."
He said when the masjid opened two weeks ago, an event was held for non-Muslims to ask questions about the faith, and around 60 people attended.
Saint-Pere said while he understood the importance of freedom of expression, that did not mean freedom to slander.
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Comments
Great policing.
We do not need his type at large here in this country
Lock it up and throw away the key, these things need to be shown that this behaviour is not acceptable. This is terrorism, and we should not wait for them to kill people before we treat it as such.