This article is from page 24 of the 2008-05-06 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 24 JPG
“Irrespective of the influx of the Muslim immigrants over the years, these people still want to hold onto the power. They have the financial backing, they have Government backing and they have the backing of the National Consultative Commit- tee and groups like that.
‘These groups are funded by tax- payers’ money and they have chosen to keep this exclusive group of Arab Muslims in power in Ireland. They represent a very extreme form of Is- lam and that needs to be challenged. I challenge it as a Muslim. But what made my challenge look stupid, so much so that they started to de- monise me, is that those who do not know anything about the dynamics of Islam jumped in – the Government jumped in.
“In other words, the Irish are quick to criticise themselves but they are too quick also to turn a blind eye to others. I don’t think that it is the correct way to go, because you are turning a blind eye at the cost of the citizens.
“In the media, Islam is portrayed as areligion of violence, but Islam is not a religion of violence. However,
there are small extremists within the fold of Islam – like bin Laden, like al-Qaeda and Hamas – that come out of the Muslin Brotherhood.
“T don’t know if people realise it but the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood has his headquarters in Ireland. Yusuf al-Qaradawi has his headquarters in Dublin at the Clon- skeagh Mosque.
‘He promotes suicide bombing and Oppression of women, slapping of women, female genital mutilation – nonsense like that all comes out of the same womb in Dublin.
“T challenge the extremists, but I am demonised for it. That is a prob- lem, if you don’t know anything about the dynamics of Islam and you jump in because those extremist are the friends of the powers that be and
they give great banquets and great gifts. That’s nonsense. You have to face this problem head on, take the bull by the horns, before it gets too late.
“In Ireland, the extremist groups are not small – they are in power within the Muslin community here. The moderates are a mute majority. Established Islam in Ireland, the face of Islam in Ireland is the Clonskeagh Mosque in Dublin. They are taken as the true face of Islam in Ireland which is just not true. Arabs con- stitute less than 14 per cent of the Muslim population of the world – yet these extreme Arab Muslims are the face of all Muslims in Ireland.
Dr Satardien, who is a South Af- rican Muslim, believes that honest and open dialogue is the only way
forward.
“T think that conferences like this one in Ballyvaughan are long over- due and very important. We need to be frank and open about the problem and not treat it like an elephant in the room”.
“Everybody wants to make the problem invisible, to whisper the problem. And that does not make the problem go away. Especially in Ire- land, we are very politically correct here – we don’t want to be called na- tionalist, we really don’t know what we want to be called at the end of the day. We are not taking a stand and that stand has to be taken at some time. This is a great opportunity.
‘The people in the street are gen- erally ignorant about Islam and what Islam is about. The perception of
Islam has been gathered from the media and from programming from American films. But the Muslim community here in Ireland haven’t reached out – they haven’t come out to the Irish people and told them what they are about. Dialogue is long overdue. Frank, honest discussions is the only way forward.”