"It's time to show the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland tough love"

A terrific opinion piece by Ruth Dudley Edwards in the Indo a fortnight ago. Dunno how I missed it:

Muslim issue will turn and bite us if we fail to act

It's time to show the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland tough love, writes Ruth Dudley Edwards

Sunday November 11 2007

(...)

Let's look at the Clonskeagh mosque. And don't listen to me. Listen to Muslims.

A couple of weeks ago, Dr Ali Al Saleh, imam of the Shia mosque in Milltown, expressed his worry that the Sunni Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland (ICCI) -- which incorporates the Clonskeagh mosque -- had invited Sheikh Salman Al Awda to address a conference called Our Children, Hopes and Realities. The Saudi Arabian Al Awda, a fundamentalist, had recently described Shias as "non-Muslims". Not surprisingly, Dr Al Saleh felt such sentiments endangered "the harmonious relationships in Ireland of Sunni and Shia Muslims".

The ICCI was unrepentant, but what do you expect from an organisation that was also proud to announce that the conference would feature the Egyptian Sheikh Wajdi Ghunaim, who has been banned from Canada as a Hamas-fundraiser and member of the Muslim Brotherhood, and who has a musical party piece with the refrain "No to the Jews, Descendants of Apes" .

But then, as Dr Shaheed Satardien, another excellent imam, frequently points out, the ICCI is sympathetic to the Sunni Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, which teaches its acolytes to speak softly while infiltrating the institutions of the countries in which they live.

The ICCI produces rhetoric about peace and love, but houses the European Council for Fatwa and Research, a fundamentalist body that opposes any modernisation of Sharia law. It is presided over and visited by Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a nasty piece of work who defends the murder of homosexuals and the suicide bombing of Israelis, and who has been seen on television defending his role in stirring up the controversy over the Danish cartoons that led to many deaths.

I hope that Ministers Brian and Conor Lenihan are paying attention to Dr Satardien's call for the Irish Government to stymie the radicals by establishing strict controls over Islamic education. The Government might also encourage urgent research of the kind that has shown that many public libraries and mosque bookshops in Britain carry hate-filled Islamist propaganda largely financed by Saudi Arabia.

It is necessary to be tough. Some time ago, the University College Dublin Islamic Society website was a hotbed of anti-Semitic propaganda, but after some public criticism, it got its act together. It's time we showed tough love to the ICCI, which surely is letting down former president Mary Robinson and Hamdan Al Maktoum of Dubai, politician and racehorse owner, who opened it in 1996.

Let's start by asking where it gets its money from. And why it honours a man who wants to conquer Europe for Islam.

Or will we continue -- until the first bomb goes off -- to pretend all is well in our Muslim garden? [link]