DUPLIN – Leaders of the Irish Muslim community have urged the government to become more engaged in their fight against radicalization, rising concerns over recent deportation pledges by the Irish Minister for Justice and Equality.

“We do support the idea of deporting those who have been proven to be jihadists by the courts,” Shaykh Muhammad Umar Al-Qadri, chief executive of the Irish Muslim Peace and Integration Council, told The Irish Independent on Monday, July 25.

“However, we don’t think it is a good idea to deport someone just on the basis of suspicion. Suspicion is not proof.”

Al-Qadri comments followed Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald’s pledge to deport suspected jihadists based on intelligence

Fitzgerald’s threatened that deportations will be made even in cases where sufficient evidence does not exist to bring a criminal prosecution.

The Muslim leader urged the government to cooperate with the organization to help combat extremism and radicalization.

He added that there needed to be a much broader engagement by the Government with the wider Muslim community than there has been to date.

“It is positive. It gives the message that the Government is serious about the threat of radicalization,” he said.

“I think we need awareness. We need de-radicalization programs and training programs.

“We need the Government to sit with the Muslim community and discuss the threat of radicalization.

“Until now, the Government has only been dealing with the largest mosque, the Clonskeagh mosque. But there are many more stakeholders. The community is not just represented by one particular mosque. They need to involve other members of the Muslim community also.

“Without liaising with the Muslim community, which is very diverse, you can’t remove the threat of radicalization.”

Urged Talks

On the other hand, the country’s largest mosque, the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland in Clonskeagh, Dublin, requested a meeting with Ms Fitzgerald to get clarity on her remarks.

“We have some concerns regarding recent comments by the minister,” the centre’s spokesman, Dr Ali Selim, said.

Dr Selim said Fitzgerald had “a very good record of positive and constructive engagement with the Islamic community in Ireland” and was “regarded as a friend”.

“As a community we fully support the rule of the law, as we know the minister does, and we look forward to a positive engagement with the minister,” he said.

Sinn Féin, the Irish republican political party, has also criticized the proposal as being “open to abuse”.

Fitzgerald defended her proposals at the weekend, saying that authorities will always seek to prosecute people involved in criminality where possible.

“I will not entertain the idea that we should ignore our right to legally deport any person, illegally present on our territory, whom we know to be involved in terrorist activities.”

But she added she would “not ignore any of the legal paths open to me to confront terrorism”.