Islam in Ireland, post 9/11

By Pól Ó Conghaile
Irish American Post Dublin Bureau/Phat Traffic Productions

Deep inside the Islamic Cultural Centre in Dublin, a class of schoolboys is washing. Piled into a purpose-built facility, bereft of shoes and socks, you could try and catch their eyes, make them laugh, but I don't think the teachers would appreciate it. This is wudu, symbolic washing undertaken by Muslims before prayer.

Cleaning their feet, face, hands and hair, the children progress towards the mosque to perform one of five cardinal duties. A public profession of faith; almsgiving; fasting during the holy month of Ramadan and a once-off pilgrimage to Mecca will follow later in life. For now, they pray, five times a day. Standing, genuflecting, prostrating themselves, all in a meticulous row, they recite the Koran in a unified hum. We follow, removing our shoes, silent.

One might feel odd wandering in here to brush up on Islam, but Dr. Nooh Al-Kaddo, executive director, would be delighted to see you. Based on the belief that all spheres of life form an indivisible unity imbued with Islamic values, the ICC not only offers facilities for prayer on its Clonskeagh campus, but also a Muslim National School, library, shop and restaurant. Hence the kids. Hence the message: everybody is welcome. "These days, you hear about jihad," Al-Kaddo said.

 "So the first question I expect from people is: 'What is holy war?' Then they ask about women: "Why are they dressed in this way? Why are they covered? They simply want to know." he said, indicating that questions are simple, basic, taken at face value. "I don't take insult, because when I see something I don't understand, I ask too."

Conducting courses
Conducting awareness courses and meet-and-greets "gives us the opportunity to explain Islam to people,"as Al-Kaddo put it, and you'd be forgiven for thinking the attitude is more necessary now than ever.

Having first arrived here in the 1950s, Muslims today estimate their number in Ireland at over 12,500. About 60% of those live in Dublin, making Islam the third-largest religion in the capital. Indicative of the fact that Islam has flourished in very diverse cultural regions, the community comprises an estimated 36 nationalities, including Irish.   Al-Kaddo, for instance, is originally from Iraq, and has been living here for more than four years.

One of an estimated one billion Muslims in the world, his educational mission has never been harder. An inherently peaceful religion, since the activities of a few self-styled extremists propelled the world to war on Sep. 11, Muslims have been compelled to explain themselves.

"Did you know," Dr. Ali Abdulla, spiritual leader of Ireland's Shiah Muslim community, pointed out recently in Magill,  "that there was a mosque in one of the World Trade Centres where 1,500 Muslims came to pray every Friday?"  More than 200 Muslims died amongst the innocents. Two days later, in the assembly hall at the Muslim National School in Clonskeagh, Khalil Qazi, head of religious studies,  condemned the atrocities unreservedly.

 Qazi made sure there was no doubt at all that from an Islamic point of view that this was wrong, this was murder, and he let the children know that under no circumstances whatsoever could this be looked upon as acceptable.

Clear on points
Muslims are quite clear on this point. Islam, said Imam Sheikh Hussein Halawa, spiritual leader at the Islamic Cultural Centre. He absolutely condemned "the killing of innocent people anywhere in the world, whatever their race, religion or color. We condemned what happened, asked that the American authorities and their media not to rush to conclusions. But now who is suffering?

"The innocent people of Afghanistan, who are being forced from their villages and cities. What we are doing now is creating more terror in the world, and therefore more terrorists. By doing this, there are people who are made to feel this is unjust, and they might adopt the terrorist mindset."

It is easy to see Sheikh Hussein's point. Aggressive and self-serving Western colonialism was clearly instrumental in the formation of the oppressive Taliban regime in the first place, and innocent Muslims continue to suffer in Chechnya, Palestine, Kashmir and Iraq. However, with images of collapsing towers and dark-skinned suicide bombers fresh in Western minds, nobody is in the mood for cultural relativism.

In fact, even before the name and image of Islam came under scrutiny and attack, Ireland's dark side had been at work. Last year, Mosc Átha Cliath on the South Circular Road was firebombed, causing some damage. Despite the fact that they are our fastest growing ethnic minority, last May only 18% of respondents to a survey published by Amnesty International said they could see themselves being friends with Muslims.

Post-Sept.11, in a speech delivered to the Muslim community at Clonskeagh, Bertie Ahern condemned "intemperate and ignorant reactions indiscriminately addressed to your community." In Limerick, the Imam at the local Islamic Centre, which caters for a local Muslim population of around 200, said, "Generally Irish people are peaceful, friendly and helpful. But in every basket of eggs, every society and religion, you're going to find some that are rotten." And so there have been slurs, stone-throwing. "The day before yesterday there were three young guys and they said, 'Look where Osama bin Laden is going.' They pointed their fingers at me."

There are, however,  comforting stories too. Before Sept. 11, we read that Muslim children attending the mosque in Ballyhaunis, Co. Mayo had become so integrated in the town that they played Gaelic football. Despite the fact that no representatives of the Islamic community were invited to attend the ecumenical service of remembrance and healing at the Pro-Cathedral, Islamic centers at Milltown and Clonskeagh have received flowers, cards and letters of support.

Praying the same
"At the present time, your community and ours are praying in the same way," one letter addressed to the mosque on Roebuck Road read. "I believe you use a phrase similar to one traditionally used here when speaking and praying about the future: 'Please God', or 'Insha'Allah'."

Refreshingly, leaders of our Muslim community seem to be focusing on the support rather than the antipathy. Certainly, Al-Kaddo believes that fostering an understanding of Islamic values can only be mutually beneficial.

"Isolation will not serve, and never has served, any community. So a mission of our centre is to educate Muslims in how to deal with non-Muslims. Because if you don't love the society you are living in, how can you be happy there?" he said.

Recently, for instance,  Al-Kaddo explained to his children the implications of the IRA gesture on disarmament. "They said, 'Dad, you are very happy,' and I said so you should be! This is our society!"

Convinced of the absolute truth of Islam, Muslims traditionally have not sought dialog with representatives of other religions. Focusing on integration is, as such, a positive move. The Islamic Foundation of Ireland already has "a relationship" with the Catholic Church, though it would like to see it deepen.

It's not, after all, as if the two are that far removed: One of the three great Semitic religions, Islam shares with Christianity and Judaism a belief in one all-powerful God to whom humanity is responsible for its actions, and in the certainty of the Final Judgment.

Similarities with pre-Vatican II Irish Catholicism are also striking. Both are uncompromising, based on absolute certainties. In terms of custom, how long ago was it that the country dropped its activities at noon and 6 p.m. to say the Angelus? Are not Ramadan and Lent alike? "It all came from the one, main source," Al-Kaddo agreed. "We're just talking about some differences in perspective."

Status of women
One of the perspectives of Islam that Westerners seem to take exception to, of course, is the apparent relegation of women to second class. Nothing in the spirit of the Koran subjugates women to men, however, though certain social practices may have evolved over time as a result of indigenous cultural factors. Rabia Golden, who has responsibility for women's affairs at the Islamic Centre on Dublin's South Circular Road, agreed. A Muslim for 23 years, she wears the traditional dress, including the hajab head covering, as all Muslim women are enjoined to do once they reach puberty.

 "We cover ourselves as a matter of honor and dignity, looking on it as a matter of equality, if you like," she explained. Because a person covers one's head may not necessarily mean one's work or activities are compromised. "There is no compulsion in religion," the Koran states, and Rabia opts not to cover her face. "My daughters cover their faces even though I don't like it - but that's up to them," she added.

Ireland, it transpires, can be arduous for women who cover themselves. In hospitals, for instance, Golden sometimes acts as an interpreter for pregnant or ill Muslim women: "Islamic law is very clear on this issue. Where a Muslim woman can get treatment from a female doctor, then it would be preferable and indeed necessary for her to do that. Where there's no other alternative, then of course she's permitted to be treated by a male."

Religious protocol and language difficulties have combined to give Golden some very livid moments, to put it mildly. Sometimes, the women are treated extremely inappropriately, with great bitterness and anger. In some cases, they have even been refused examination, she indicated.

Act makes difference
The Equality Act has made some difference, particularly with regard to Muslim schoolgirls. "Whereas schools didn't care what parents thought before, and forbid girls from wearing the hajab, they realize that the law expects differently now. They mightn't like it, but they have to adhere to it and it has made a difference," she went on.

Intransigence is not unique to Catholics, however. "I know that ethos is very important for Catholic schools too, so Muslim students should be willing to accept rules and regulations once they aren't directly contrary to their religious beliefs," Golden said.

With a little dialog and work on both parts, she suggested, "We should be able to come to a plateau that's reasonably agreeable."

An ideal solution, many suggest, would be a Muslim secondary school. There are already two Muslim National Schools in the state, both in Dublin, imbuing the national curriculum with an Islamic edge. "Wherever possible, Islam is threaded through the curriculum in a manner befitting the ethos," explained Colm McGlade, principal at Clonskeagh.

Catering for 240 children, his school has a permanent staff of 14 and five part-time Muslim teachers who are paid by the Islamic community. They teach the children Arabic, Koran and Islamic Religion for roughly an hour a day, also supervising wudu  and prayers in the mosque.

By and large, McGlade said, tailoring the curriculum is unproblematic. "Occasionally, something would be omitted -- lessons on St. Patrick or St. Bridget, for instance. Just like Catholic or Church of Ireland schools won't do something contradictory to their ethos, neither will we."

Integrating pupils
That said, creative programing on both the Department and the school's behalf has meant Muslim pupils are integrating into Irish society even before they know what the word integration means. "We have children from 20 different countries in this school," McGlade pointed out.

"The majority would learn Irish. But I remember in one of my years teaching here, one child came into fourth class from Malaysia, without a word of Irish, and by the end of the year she was one of the best. She just took to it," he recalled.

The point, I guess, is that the onus lies with both sides to educate themselves about each another. On the one hand, just as Irish Muslims are making efforts to integrate with our own culture, so it is imperative on Islam as a whole to inform itself about the West. On the other, as Colm McGlade said, "Before I came to the school, I just had a few very basic ideas about Islam. Obviously the more I work here, the more I learn, but I do think a lot of people outside get the wrong idea. I wouldn't say it's an unwillingness to understand, it's just that they never had a reason to study it or look into it."

Isn't that reason here, and now?

(Explanatory leaflets on Islam, including English language versions of the Koran, are available from Dublin’s Islamic Cultural Centre at (01) 208-0000, and Dublin’s Islamic Centre at (01) 453-3242.)