IRELAND’S LARGEST Sunni mosque has tried to counter the perception,
outlined in a US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks, that it is
dominated by groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Islamic
Cultural Centre of Ireland (ICCI), in Clonskeagh, Dublin, features
heavily in a July 2006 memo written by then US ambassador James Kenny to
then secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and copied to other US
embassies in Europe and the Middle East.
The cable details the
embassy’s impressions of the dynamics shaping Islam in Ireland. It pays
particular attention to the Clonskeagh centre, including its role as
headquarters of the European Council for Fatwa and Research, a body
headed by the controversial Muslim Brotherhood-linked cleric Yusuf
al-Qaradawi.
Mr Kenny concludes the council is “little more than a paper tiger”.
The
memo also includes the views of critics within Ireland’s Muslim
population who allege senior figures at the Clonskeagh centre are
members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the world’s most influential
transnational Islamist movement.
“We welcome everybody to come and
perform the acts of worship without allowing them to use the mosque for
promoting certain agendas,” the centre said yesterday.
“This
applies to even our employees, who might have a certain way of thinking
or adopt a certain school of thought, but they are not allowed to use
the ICCI or its facilities to promote their own personal views or
agenda. ICCI management takes full responsibility for the services it
provides and the activities it organises, not for how the worshippers
think or what affiliations they have.”
The centre also argued that it calls for “integration and peaceful coexistence of Muslims and non-Muslims”.
The
US cable had claimed that “only a few voices calling for integration
can be heard” within Ireland’s Muslim population. The loudest, it said,
were “Shaheed Satardien, Allama Zille Umar Qadri and Mian Ghulam Bari
and his son Mazhar Bari”.
Mr Qadri said yesterday the cable
reflected “90 per cent of the reality of the situation” in 2006. He said
much had changed since then, with more co-ordination between
institutions and individuals and a greater emphasis on the need for
integration.
The cable said “one of the most pro-democracy and
pro-USG policy Islamic voices in Ireland” was that of Ali al-Saleh, imam
at the Shia mosque in Milltown, Dublin. It claimed the embassy had been
helping him to gain a higher profile, including in the media.
Reached
by phone in Iran, where he is travelling on pilgrimage, Dr al-Saleh
said he did not take issue with the cable’s portrayal of him.
“It
was the truth at the time. The Shias were supportive of the role the US
played in getting rid of Saddam Hussein. We were pro-US in terms of
their role in promoting democracy in the region. This is a matter of
principle.”
Dr Saleh confirmed he had received assistance from the
US embassy in writing what the cable described as a “positive Op-Ed”
(opinion piece) on the third anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq.
The piece, which Dr Saleh says he initiated, was published in
The Irish Times in March 2006.
Yahya al-Hussein, imam at
Dublins South Circular Road mosque – which the memo alleged was viewed
as an “extremist” mosque – could not be reached for comment yesterday.
The
Bari family, described as the “sponsors” of Blackpitts mosque in Dublin
– which the cable claimed was a “suspected . . . gathering place for
some radical elements” – could not be reached either.