Muslims in Ireland: Past and Present 9780748696895

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MUSLIMS IN IRELAND PAST AND PRESENT r

r

r

OLIVER SCHARBRODT, TUULA SAKARANAHO, ADIL HUSSAIN KHAN, YAFA SHANNEIK AND VIVIAN IBRAHIM

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© Oliver Scharbrodt, Tuula Sakaranaho, Adil Hussain Khan, Yafa Shanneik and Vivian Ibrahim, 2015 Edinburgh University Press Ltd The Tun – Holyrood Road 12 (2f) Jackson’s Entry Edinburgh EH8 8PJ www.euppublishing.com Typeset in KoufrUni by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire, and printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 0 7486 9688 8 (hardback) ISBN 978 0 7486 9689 5 (webready PDF) ISBN 978 1 4744 0347 4 (epub) The right of Oliver Scharbrodt, Tuula Sakaranaho, Adil Hussain Khan, Yafa Shanneik and Vivian Ibrahim to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498).

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

v

Introduction Oliver Scharbrodt

1

I History of Muslim Presence and Immigration to Ireland 1. Sailors, Merchants, Migrants: From the Sack of Baltimore to World War II Vivian Ibrahim 2. Muslim Immigration to Ireland after World War II Oliver Scharbrodt

27 49

II Mosques, Organisations and Leadership 3. Early Muslim Organisations and Mosques in Ireland Adil Hussain Khan 4. Political Islam in Ireland and the Role of Muslim Brotherhood Networks Adil Hussain Khan 5. Mosque Communities and Muslim Organisations in Dublin and Other Cities Adil Hussain Khan, Oliver Scharbrodt and Tuula Sakaranaho

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III The Governance of Islam in the Republic of Ireland: Freedom of Religion and Islamic Education 6. Religious Freedom and Muslims in Ireland Tuula Sakaranaho

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7. Education and Muslim National Schools in Ireland Tuula Sakaranaho

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IV Diaspora and Identity 8. Muslim Women in Ireland Yafa Shanneik

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Conclusion: Being Irish, Being Muslim Oliver Scharbrodt Bibliography Index

216 230 255

Figures Figure 1.1 Mir Aulad Ali of Trinity College Dublin 33 Figure 2.1 Principal Economic Status National Average and Muslim Population (above Age 15), 2011 59 Figure 2.2 Social Class National Average and Muslim Population, 2011 60 Figure 2.3 Highest Level of Education Completed National Average and Muslim Population (above Age 15), 2011 60 Figure 2.4 Students from Muslim-majority Countries in Ireland, 1998–2012 63 Figure 3.1 Ballyhaunis Mosque, County Mayo 86 Figure 5.1 Map of Ireland 127 Figure 8.1 Mawlid doll in Sudanese Home, Cork 209 Tables Table 2.1 Census Data of Selected Religions, 1991–2011 Table 2.2 National and Regional Backgrounds of Muslims in Ireland, 2002, 2006 and 2011 Table 2.3 Total of Employment Permit Holders from Muslim-majority Countries, 1993–2013 Table 2.4 Total of Asylum Seekers from Muslim-majority Countries, 1992–2012 (by 31 August)

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III The Governance of Islam in the Republic of Ireland: Freedom of Religion and Islamic Education 6. Religious Freedom and Muslims in Ireland Tuula Sakaranaho

139

7. Education and Muslim National Schools in Ireland Tuula Sakaranaho

163

IV Diaspora and Identity 8. Muslim Women in Ireland Yafa Shanneik

193

Conclusion: Being Irish, Being Muslim Oliver Scharbrodt Bibliography Index

216 230 255

Figures Figure 1.1 Mir Aulad Ali of Trinity College Dublin 33 Figure 2.1 Principal Economic Status National Average and Muslim Population (above Age 15), 2011 59 Figure 2.2 Social Class National Average and Muslim Population, 2011 60 Figure 2.3 Highest Level of Education Completed National Average and Muslim Population (above Age 15), 2011 60 Figure 2.4 Students from Muslim-majority Countries in Ireland, 1998–2012 63 Figure 3.1 Ballyhaunis Mosque, County Mayo 86 Figure 5.1 Map of Ireland 127 Figure 8.1 Mawlid doll in Sudanese Home, Cork 209 Tables Table 2.1 Census Data of Selected Religions, 1991–2011 Table 2.2 National and Regional Backgrounds of Muslims in Ireland, 2002, 2006 and 2011 Table 2.3 Total of Employment Permit Holders from Muslim-majority Countries, 1993–2013 Table 2.4 Total of Asylum Seekers from Muslim-majority Countries, 1992–2012 (by 31 August)

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III The Governance of Islam in the Republic of Ireland: Freedom of Religion and Islamic Education 6. Religious Freedom and Muslims in Ireland Tuula Sakaranaho

139

7. Education and Muslim National Schools in Ireland Tuula Sakaranaho

163

IV Diaspora and Identity 8. Muslim Women in Ireland Yafa Shanneik

193

Conclusion: Being Irish, Being Muslim Oliver Scharbrodt Bibliography Index

216 230 255

Figures Figure 1.1 Mir Aulad Ali of Trinity College Dublin 33 Figure 2.1 Principal Economic Status National Average and Muslim Population (above Age 15), 2011 59 Figure 2.2 Social Class National Average and Muslim Population, 2011 60 Figure 2.3 Highest Level of Education Completed National Average and Muslim Population (above Age 15), 2011 60 Figure 2.4 Students from Muslim-majority Countries in Ireland, 1998–2012 63 Figure 3.1 Ballyhaunis Mosque, County Mayo 86 Figure 5.1 Map of Ireland 127 Figure 8.1 Mawlid doll in Sudanese Home, Cork 209 Tables Table 2.1 Census Data of Selected Religions, 1991–2011 Table 2.2 National and Regional Backgrounds of Muslims in Ireland, 2002, 2006 and 2011 Table 2.3 Total of Employment Permit Holders from Muslim-majority Countries, 1993–2013 Table 2.4 Total of Asylum Seekers from Muslim-majority Countries, 1992–2012 (by 31 August)

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Acknowledgements

This book brings together research produced by two funded projects. A major grant from the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (now the Irish Research Council) and the Department of An Taoiseach funded a three-year research project (2008–11) on the History of Islam in Ireland, led by Oliver Scharbrodt, which was based at the Study of Religions Department at University College Cork and involved Adil Hussain Khan, Yafa Shanneik and Vivian Ibrahim as post-doctoral researchers. The Academy of Finland provided funding for a comparative project on the Governance of Transnational Islam in Finland, Ireland and Canada (no. 1132479), based at the Study of Religions Department of the University of Helsinki, with Tuula Sakaranaho as principal investigator and Tuomas Martikainen and Marja Tiilikainen as post-doctoral researchers. Nina Maskulin worked as a research assistant in this project. A National University of Ireland Publication Grant supported the publication of this book. The authors wish to express their gratitude to these funding agencies without which this book would not have come into existence. Various colleagues provided valuable feedback and suggestions in the course of the research and during the production of this book. First and foremost, we would like to thank Brian Bocking, whose experience, skills and prudence made sure that the Islam in Ireland project based at University College Cork came to a successful conclusion. Mansour Bonakdarian, James Carr, Nina Clara-Tiesler, William Clarence-Smith, Laurence Cox, Tadhg Foley, Brian Gurrin, James Kapalo, David Landy, Ronit Lentin, Denis Linehan, Piaras Mac Éinrí, Malcolm Macourt, Seán McLoughlin, Jørgen S. Nielsen, Caitríona Ní Laoire and Goolam Vahed provided suggestions and feedback in various ways. Other support and information were given by Michael Brabazon, Stephen Bean, Colette Colfer, Mary Fitzgerald and Colm McGlade. Marie McSweeney of the media office at University College Cork provided enormous help in giving the Islam in Ireland project the [v]

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publicity it needed. Noreen Byrne of the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner, Gill Roe of Education in Ireland and Aedín Doyle of the Employment Permits Section at the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation were happy to share internal statistics. This book would not have been possible if Muslims in Ireland had not supported it by opening their mosques, community centres and private homes for us and making us feel welcome to observe, participate, talk and ask questions. We would like to thank all those who so generously supported our research. We would like to mention specifically (in alphabetical order) Dr Sami Ahmed, Sheikh Ihab Ahmed, Imran Ahmed, Dr Mustafa Alawi, Mohammad Alhourani, Sheikh Yahya Al-Hussein, Dr Nooh Al-Kaddo, Omar Al-Khattab, Sheikh Umar Al-Qadri, Sayyid Ali Al-Saleh, Adam Argiag, Dr Saud Bajwa, Mazhar Bari, Mian Ghulam Bari, Faheem Bukhtawa, Dr Ismail Coovadia, Ahmed El-Habbash, Kamal El-Taib, Dr Walid Faisal, Sheikh Salem Fatouri, Arzu Gorbil, Sheikh Hussein Halawa, Mia-Manan Hameed, Abdul Haseeb, Abdollah Karim, Dr Fasih Khan, Dr Mohammed Khan, Dr Saleem Khan, Sheikh Ismail Kotwal, Imam Ibrahim Noonan, Sheikh Khalid Sallabi, Dr Ebrahim Seedat, Dr Ali Selim, Sheikh Shaheed Satardien, Dr Abobakr Shadad, Mahmoud Shaladan, Dr Yusuf Vaizi, Ismail Yilmaz, Siraj Zaidi and Abderrazak Zeroug. The Board of Trinity College Dublin gave us permission to use a photograph of Mir Aulad Ali. The photograph of the Ballyhaunis mosque was kindly provided by Glynn’s Photography, Castlerea in County Roscommon. We would also like to thank the editorial team at Edinburgh University Press: Nicola Ramsey, Ellie Bush and Kate Robertson. The authors June 2014

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Introduction Oliver Scharbrodt

Mapping Islam in Ireland In mapping of the growing Muslim population across Europe, Ireland has until recently been a blank spot. With the exception of a few contributions,1 little research has been undertaken on Muslims in Ireland. While this has changed in the last four years with a number of articles, book chapters and a special journal edition being published by the present authors,2 a comprehensive study of Muslims in Ireland has not yet been produced. This book aims to fill this gap and provides the first complete survey of Muslims in Ireland combining historical, sociological and ethnographic research approaches. Located on the geographical periphery of Europe, Ireland has always experienced a delayed arrival of socio-cultural developments that shaped other Western European societies.3 Traditionally a country of emigration with a large global diaspora, it turned into a country of immigration in the mid-1990s with the beginning of the so-called Celtic Tiger, Ireland’s years of massive economic development from 1995 until 2008. During the Celtic Tiger years, Ireland underwent significant social, cultural and economic transformations, one of which has been the ethnic, cultural and religious diversification of Irish society. While the net migration rate was negative until the mid-1990s, Ireland experienced a major influx of immigrants who made up the shortage of labour or arrived as refugees and asylum seekers.4 The rapid growth of Ireland’s Muslim population is a direct consequence of the reversal of migration patterns. While there were around 4,000 Muslims in Ireland according to the 1991 Census,5 the number rose to almost 50,000 in the last 2011 Census,6 meaning that within twenty years there has been a more than tenfold increase of the Muslim population, which now makes up 1.1 per cent of the entire population of the Republic of Ireland. One of the reasons for the relative scarcity of research on Muslims in Ireland is the very recent growth of the country’s Muslim population. Most [1]

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other Western European countries which received the bulk of labour immigrants, arriving from Muslim-majority countries after World War II, have now quite well-established Muslim presences, with second, third and fourth generations residing in them and with historical ties that date back to the colonial period and even further. At the same time, academic research on Muslims in countries like Britain, France, Germany or the Netherlands is a relatively new endeavour, beginning in the late 1970s and early 1980s with basic ‘mapping exercises’ of new migrant communities in Europe’s changing urban landscapes.7 Watershed events like l’affaire du foulard in France or the Rushdie affair in Britain in 1989 brought the religious background of Muslim immigrants to the fore and initiated research activities on Muslims in different European countries. Such initiatives were further strengthened by contested multicultural policies which either shaped the engagement of some European governments with Muslim communities such as in Britain or the Netherlands or were rejected by some other governments categorically as facilitating ghettoisation and preventing integration, as in France.8 Religion, as a marker of the distinct cultural identities of migrant communities, gained further attention both in public discourse and in academic research. Following the events of 9/11 in 2001, the 2004 Madrid bombings and the London 7/7 bombings in 2005, research on Muslims in Europe has reached an unprecedented level. Apart from general surveys on Muslims in Europe,9 studies have focused on the institutionalisation of Islam in Europe,10 transnational Muslim networks,11 the preservation of diasporic identities and the emergence of new European Muslim identities,12 church–state relations and the governance of Islam,13 questions of integration,14 media and other public discourses around Islam,15 the securitisation of Islam post-9/1116 and Islamophobia,17 among many other themes. Despite the profusion of research on Islam and Muslims in Europe in recent years, research agendas and discourses have been biased towards larger Western European countries, Britain, France and Germany in particular, which have the most established Muslim presences and the largest Muslim populations in Europe. The particular experiences of these countries have become paradigmatic in both academic and public discourses around the formation of Muslim minorities across Europe, while those of smaller countries, located on the margins of Europe, have often been overlooked. Countries like Ireland, Portugal, Finland or Greece were traditionally countries of emigration and have only experienced large-scale immigration with a concomitant growth of their Muslim populations in the last twenty years.18 Apart from sharing a very recent encounter with growing Muslim minorities, these countries also have their own traditions of church–state relations which inform their governments’ and societies’ interactions with Muslims, and have been through specific historical dynamics shaping perceptions and attitudes towards Islam in the present. By providing a comprehensive study of Muslims in Ireland, this book makes an important contribution to understanding the diversity of Muslim

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presences across Europe in different national contexts. It covers the presence of Muslims in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century up to Irish independence in 1922 and the formation of a Muslim communal presence in Dublin in the 1950s. It continues with the massive influx of Muslim immigrants during the Celtic Tiger years, which has changed the face of both the religious landscape and Islam in Ireland. This book is conceived as interdisciplinary in nature. It includes a history of Muslim immigration and settlement from the late eighteenth century up to the present, discussions of the different mosques communities and organisations in Ireland, of church-state relations and of the overall governance of Islam in Ireland and examinations of identity discourses among Muslim women in Ireland. Ireland Ireland has several meanings: it is the name of a geographical place, an island, the name of a country and nation-state and a concept that transcends its mere geography. Choosing Ireland as a context is not as straightforward as choosing other national contexts. Ireland is the name of the island which was partitioned into two separate political entities on the basis of conflicting ethnic identities which were informed by sectarian adherence. After centuries of British rule, the Irish Free State was created in 1922, while six counties in Northern Ireland with a Protestant majority decided to remain part of the UK. With the declaration of the Republic of Ireland in 1948, the newly independent state severed all ties to its former colonial ruler. A state emerged whose national identity was based on a mono-cultural understanding of Irish identity as defined by birth and ethnicity, Gaelic language and culture, Catholicism and the predominantly rural life of Ireland, which needed to be defended against foreign intrusion and cultural penetration.19 In Northern Ireland, the Protestant majority has considered itself to be British and insisted on the union with Great Britain, while its Catholic minority has identified itself as Irish and favoured an end to the island’s partition. In twentieth-century Ireland, religion was, therefore, more connected with ethnicity and national identity than in other Western European countries.20 What Ireland and being Irish are is not solely contested on the island of Ireland, but has global repercussions. Ireland’s demographic development in the last 200 years is rather unusual. While in the early nineteenth century the island of Ireland had a population of over 8 million, the numbers decreased dramatically during the Great Famine (1845–52), in whose course around one million people died and another million emigrated. The population of the Republic of Ireland remained under 3 million until the early 1970s, with a current population of 4.58 million in the Republic and 1.8 million in Northern Ireland, making a total of 6.4 million on the entire island, which is still below the level before the Great Famine. Escape from poverty, lack of economic opportunities and also a repressive conservative social environment and emigration to Britain, the USA, Canada and Australia in search of a better

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life, are important elements of modern Irish history. As a consequence of this long history of emigration, a global Irish diaspora has emerged. Despite being a small country on the periphery of Europe, Ireland has received global attention because of its ties to the worldwide Irish diaspora. The Irish diaspora also facilitated the globalisation of Irish culture with St Patrick’s Day festivals and parades in Boston, Chicago and New York being of a much larger scale than any similar events in Ireland. However, while many segments of the Irish diaspora maintained family, political, cultural and economic ties with Ireland and identified themselves as being Irish in one way or another, Ireland’s own engagement with its diaspora has been more ambivalent. In Ireland, there was a sense that to be properly Irish a person must be Irish by ‘blood and soil’.21 Members of the Irish diaspora in Britain were referred to as ‘plastic Paddies’22 whose Irishness had been diluted by living outside the country. A stronger connection between Ireland and its diaspora only emerged during the presidency of Mary Robinson (1990–7), during which she gave an address to a joint session of the Houses of the Oireachtas (Irish Parliaments) in order to reach out to ‘the 70 million people worldwide who claim Irish descent’.23 Which of all these Irelands does this book cover? The historical part of the book, discussing the presence of Muslims in Ireland during British rule, includes the whole island. For the period post-independence from 1922 onwards, it focuses on the Republic of Ireland solely and does not discuss the Muslim presence in Northern Ireland. A number of factors account for this decision: a number of studies in the form of journal articles and book chapters have been produced on Muslims in Northern Ireland,24 while there has been little research on Muslims in the Republic of Ireland. The Northern Irish context is also different. Muslims are placed in a society with a long history of sectarian conflict and an immense politicisation of religion. Furthermore, Northern Ireland is more influenced by British debates on multiculturalism and the place of Islam in Britain – debates which had only a limited impact on the Republic of Ireland. While this was a pragmatic choice made by the authors, further research is certainly needed investigating the place of Muslims on the island of Ireland on both sides of the border, their interaction with each other and the similarities and differences between both contexts. There exists an important but unexplored connection between the global Irish diaspora and the phenomenon of conversion to Islam. Many Irish converts, whether male or female, encountered Islam in the diaspora first. They worked in Muslim-majority countries for a number of years or encountered Islam while living in Britain or the USA. Research on the Irish diaspora has shown that the Irish in Britain have been part of a wider ‘diaspora space’25 which included other migrant communities experiencing similar degrees of racism, marginalisation and discrimination in British society. A recently completed study compared how both Irish and Muslims have been labelled and stigmatised in Britain as ‘suspect communities’.26 Relationships were formed within this diaspora space leading to conversions as well. Networks

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between Irish converts living in Ireland and in the diaspora in Britain have played an important role in transmitting religious knowledge from one side of the Irish Sea to the other.27 Given the significance of the Irish diaspora and the strength of academic research on it, there is enormous potential for investigating Irish conversion to Islam in the diasporic context. Ireland’s distinctive position as Western Europe’s only postcolonial nation has contributed to a sense of ‘national uniqueness’,28 referred to as Irish exceptionalism. It denotes the idea that Ireland is an anomaly among the nation-states of Western Europe in economic, cultural, political and social terms. Ireland has been characterised by a continuity of economic underdevelopment. Suffering from a lack of employment opportunities, Ireland had the highest emigration rates in the European Economic Community with peak periods in the 1950s and 1980s. The island’s different national identities have had strong confessional underpinnings, leading to a protracted history of ethno-religious conflict in Northern Ireland and the strong social power of the Catholic Church over public morality and its control of education and the health sector.29 Recent scholarship has questioned the notion of Ireland as an exception in Western Europe. Revisionist approaches to Irish history during British rule have problematised or rejected the discourse of colonial victimisation and argued that the notion of exceptionalism has been used to amplify and to internalise cultural, religious and political differences between Ireland and Britain in order to construe a postcolonial national identity.30 The questioning of Irish exceptionalism has gained further momentum following the socio-cultural transformations of the 1990s.31 In the early twenty-first century, Ireland does not appear to be that exceptional any more. The Celtic Tiger countered the historical narrative of Ireland’s economic underdevelopment and turned Ireland from a country of emigration to one of immigration. Continuing and accelerating the trend that began in the 1970s, the increasing globalisation of the Irish economy and society and the revelation of clerical abuse scandals in the 1990s undermined the socio-cultural standing and the ‘moral monopoly’32 of the Catholic Church and resulted in the liberalisation of private morality and legislative changes which permit divorce or same-sex marriages. The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 saw the end of the military conflict in Northern Ireland and the formation of a power-sharing government between Protestants and Catholics.33 While the Celtic Tiger came to an abrupt end in 2008, its reverberations still shape contemporary Ireland, which is more secular, individualistic, consumerist and diverse than before. The new experience of cultural diversity poses particular challenges to traditional mono-cultural definitions of Irish identity. The perception of the Celtic Tiger as a watershed period turning a culturally homogeneous Ireland into one that is multicultural is simplistic.34 Thereby, the historical diversity of Irish society is ignored and the engagement of Irish people with cultures, societies, languages, traditions, religions and world-views outside Europe disregarded.35 While it is true that Ireland

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has never been this diverse before, research on Irish religious history needs to forsake its conventional bi-sectarian lens and to rediscover Ireland’s diverse religions prior to the Celtic Tiger and Irish engagements with nonChristian traditions in the past.36 Ireland has several meanings: it refers to the island of Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, or the global Irish diaspora. In diachronic terms, there are several Irelands: from colonial Ireland under British rule, the establishment of a Catholic Republic and the formation of a conservative society that perceived itself as culturally and religiously homogeneous to the transformations of the Celtic Tiger years and their aftermath, with an Ireland of an unprecedented ethnic, cultural and religious diversity. Muslims have become an integral part of Ireland’s new religious landscape. Muslims This study of Muslims in Ireland is situated in the wider context of current scholarship on Muslims in Europe. By providing the first comprehensive survey of Islam and Muslims in Ireland, it makes a contribution to mapping Europe’s diverse Muslim populations in different national contexts. Unlike other pioneering ‘mapping exercises’ of Muslims in European countries, this study is able to incorporate research findings on Muslim minorities in other parts of Europe to draw comparisons. Given decades of research on Muslims in Europe, this book also benefits from crucial methodological considerations that have emerged to reflect on the premises, biases and shortcomings of research undertaken so far. Muslims in Ireland appears to be a self-evident research topic. With the growth of the Muslim population in Ireland and in Europe overall, the continuous socio-economic marginalisation of Muslim migrants, the fear of an increasing Islamisation of the public sphere, the securitisation of Islam post-9/11 and public debates about the place of Muslims in Europe’s liberal democracies, this research is situated in a political context that deems Muslims in Europe to be a salient and crucial issue of public concern and academic research. With the increasing perception of them as a cultural, religious, legal, political, demographic and security threat to Europe, Muslims have emerged as the continent’s ‘Significant Other’, a term which refers to another nation or ethnic group that is usually territorially close to, or indeed within, the national community. Significant Others are characterized by their peculiar relationship to the in-group: they represent what the in-group is not.37

In contemporary Europe, Muslims immigrants in particular have become the ‘Significant Other’ of European societies, threatening assumptions of ethnic, cultural and national homogeneity. The growing concern with ‘Muslims in Europe’ as an exclusive and distinct social category in academic research can lead to an unreflective and

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superficial use of this label, and thereby essentialises Muslims and confirms their ‘Otherness’. Such an approach runs ‘the risk of reifying “Islam” as the principal identity for Muslims and making Muslims “all about Islam”’.38 At the same time, ‘religion’ has increasingly become a central marker of minority identities in contemporary Europe in the context of the politics of multiculturalism.39 In this sense, Muslims become members of a ‘community’ sharing particular religious needs and cultural values and lobby for their recognition by the state and majority society in order to assert minority rights.40 In addition, current debates around the place of multiculturalism in the liberal democracies of Europe have focused in particular on Islam and Muslim minorities.41 Whereas thirty years ago immigrants to Europe were categorised as Turks, Algerians or Pakistanis, their ‘Muslimness’ has been increasingly emphasised.42 Nadia Jeldtoft applies Richard Jenkins’ notion that ‘social identity is the outcome of the conjunction of the processes of internal and external definition’43 to Muslim minorities in Europe. The label ‘Muslim’ is understood as an externally defined ‘category’44 whose purpose is to gain empirical data on Muslim minorities, for censuses and other statistics, for example. Such ‘mapping exercises’ of religious minorities undertaken by European majority societies are the result of ‘a power-related act of categorisation’.45 As such, a particular label is imposed on a minority population to gain demographic, socio-economic and other statistical data on a minority group. State-conducted censuses are one of the most powerful tools for socially categorising population46 and an important instrument in the governance of minorities. According to Jenkins, social identities are also the result of internal definitional acts. Given the power relation that is inherent in processes of social categorisation by a majority vis-à-vis a minority, an externally construed category can be internalised by a social group. This can be as part of a reactionary act to resist a particular label as it is imposed by a majority society.47 A label can also be used strategically by a minority group to carve out a space in the public sphere in order to achieve recognition by the state and majority society for its particular communal needs, whether cultural, linguistic or religious. Muslim organisations have capitalised on the prevalence of the Muslim category, given the communitarian approach of multicultural governance which has favoured faith communities in particular.48 Hence, the label ‘Muslim’ is not just externally attributed to a particular minority population but also designates a self-chosen identification with a ‘group’49 and differentiates Muslims from other social groups qua their ‘Muslimness’. Yet, it is important to recognise ‘the diversity of Muslims as a complex empirical reality’50 and to acknowledge their heterogeneity, their different levels of self-identification with and various degrees of belonging to this group. ‘Muslims are not simply and only “Muslims”’,51 but are positioned in a complex, contested and relational nexus of various other identity markers such as nationality, culture, language, social status, gender and others. Most research on Muslims in Europe has tended to overlook the diversity

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and heterogeneity of Muslim minorities because of its bias towards institutionalised and organised forms of Islam. Muslim organisations, running mosques, Qur’anic schools and public relations offices, are easier to access for researchers as spatial manifestations of Muslim minority identities. Muslim voices included in public discourses often stem from activists of Muslim organisations and are hence important sources in analysing media coverage on Muslims in Europe. Given the inherited structure of church– state relations, governments as well as wider society search for and collaborate with Muslim organisations that possess church-like structures.52 In addition, considering how Muslim minorities have set up institutional frameworks is important in mapping Europe’s Muslim population. These organisations are central in providing religious and educational services to Muslims and with further institutionalisation on national levels are instruments in the public representations of Muslim minorities and their interaction with state and society.53 Furthermore, these organisations give insights into the transnational connections of contemporary Islamic movements and the re-creation of their particular ideological and sectarian orientations in European diasporic contexts.54 A too-strong focus on organised and institutionalised forms of Islam in Europe, however, contains serious drawbacks. It ignores the fact that most Muslims residing in particular locality have no affiliation with a particular Muslim organisation running a mosque or Qur’anic school. While they might use the facilities available at a particular mosque, this does not signify their complete identification with or support for the particular form of Islam that is espoused by the mosque organisation.55 Transnational Islamist movements like the Muslim Brotherhood or the Jama‘at-i Islami (Islamic Association) have played a central role in organising and institutionalising Islam in various European contexts. In line with their overall ideological orientation, they promote a holistic understanding of Islam that covers all aspects of individual, social, cultural, economic and political life – a complete ‘way-of-life’.56 Furthermore, like most organised Islamic movements and pioneers of institutionalising Islam in Europe, European branches of Islamist movements have also claimed an overall representative status for the entire Muslim population of a particular country. Such a strategic positioning of European Islamic organisations with Islamic cultural centres and ‘central mosques’ in capital cities and many umbrella bodies across Europe has contributed to the reification of Islam and Muslims in European public discourses. Academic research needs to engage critically with organisations that claim to represent both ‘authentic’ Islam and all Muslims in a country: . . . the concern for a researcher is not to identify the true, the most representative Islam but rather to take a critical distance from those who argue that they ‘represent’ such an Islam. It is therefore important to analyse the ideological background and basis of legitimacy of Muslim organizations critically, taking

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into account the context of their positioning as well as their theological and political perception of Islam.57

In order to fully capture the heterogeneity of Islam in Europe, research needs to include the majority of Muslims in Europe outside organisational and institutional frameworks. Ethnographic research in particular has drawn attention to ‘non-organised’ Muslims who articulate their religious identities outside organised forms of Islam. While some individuals with a Muslim background would not consider themselves Muslims at all and fewer would openly speak out against Islam, the majority of European Muslims maintain ‘an “implicit relationship” to Islam’58 by identifying in one way or the other with their religion and by practising some of its aspects. ‘Non-organised’ Muslims develop a selective approach to Islam, with changing definitions of their religious identities. Research on this group of Muslims is necessary to document ‘real-life’ or ‘lived’ Islam across Europe.59 In the latest 2011 Census in the Republic of Ireland, 49,204 persons responded to the question ‘What is your religion?’ by ticking the box ‘Islam’. These persons accepted the category of ‘Muslim’ created for the purposes of the Census and identified themselves as members of a Muslim social group in one way or another. While this figure can be used to document Muslim demographics in the Republic of Ireland and to forward claims to recognise and accommodate the growing Muslim population in Irish society, it does not say anything about what being a Muslim means for these individuals. Muslim organisations and their representatives in Europe would most vividly engage in normative definitions in Islam. Yet, the ‘real-life’ Islam of most European Muslims, who live out, approve, question, challenge, contest and negotiate certain aspects of Islam and develop diverse notions of ‘Muslimness’, merits to be studied as such as well. Two examples from Ireland, one from the past and the other from the present, illustrate the problematic nature of the Muslim label which statistical data cannot encapsulate. One of the first Muslim residents of Ireland was Sake Dean Mahomed (1759–1851), who arrived in Cork in 1784.60 He was recruited into the army of the East India Company and accompanied his mentor Captain Godfrey Evan Baker, a member of the Anglo-Irish Protestant establishment, to Cork. In 1810, he moved to Britain, opening an Indian restaurant in London initially and later a masseur bath in Brighton. In Cork, Sake Dean married a girl from a prominent Protestant family of the city. Given that at this time inter-religious marriages were prohibited for members of the Church of Ireland, he must have converted to Anglican Christianity prior to his wedding.61 While Sake Dean’s Muslim background is obvious and was often highlighted by contemporaneous observers,62 it is difficult to consider him the ‘first Muslim’ of Ireland given the significant turns in his biography. A contemporary example of the complexities between external categorisation and self-definition is Moosajee Bhamjee (b. 1947). Born in South Africa

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to a family of Indian descent, he studied at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin and moved permanently to Ireland to practise psychiatry. He was elected to the Dáil Éireann (lower house of the Irish parliaments) for the Labour Party in 1992 but retired from politics in 1997 after serving one term.63 While described as ‘Ireland’s first Muslim TD’64 (Teachta Dála: Member of Parliament) in Irish media, he himself prefers to be remembered as ‘the first Indian M.P. in Ireland’.65 Bhamjee is another example of an individual who has been labelled a Muslim by others but whose own identification with Islam, or lack thereof, is more complex. Richard Jenkins’ distinction between external and internal definitions of social identities also differentiates between their ‘nominal’ and ‘virtual’ strands.66 While the former denotes the particular name that is given to a social identity, the latter describes what meaning this identity actually has and how it is experienced. In this book, these two strands are combined in the study of Muslim minority identities in Ireland. Using the name or label ‘Muslim’ as an externally defined social category is important in order to trace Muslim immigration patterns to Ireland, to document the changing religious demographics of Irish society, to examine processes of Muslim institutionalisation, to analyse media discourses on Muslims, and to discuss the governance of Islam in the Republic of Ireland. At the same time, the virtual aspect of Muslim social identities in Ireland needs attention in order to illustrate the diversity and heterogeneity of the Muslim population. Ethnographic research on individual Muslims, their identity discourses and practices, their relationships to other identity markers such as nationality, gender and class and their place within Irish society is one important instrument for covering the complexity of selfdefinitional acts within Muslim minorities. By examining historical figures from a Muslim background who were prominent residents of Ireland like Sake Dean Mahomed, the extent of their ‘Muslimness’ vis-à-vis other more central identity markers is explored. Thereby, the creation of simplistic historical genealogies of a continuous Muslim presence in Ireland is avoided. Tracing institutionalisation processes among Muslims is equally crucial, as the various Muslim organisations in Ireland reveal the actual diversity of Muslim identities in their organised forms, on the basis of cultural, ethnic, national, linguistic, sectarian or ideological differences. Insider/Outsider Dynamics The research focus on organised forms of Islam in European minority contexts stems from the easier access points Muslim organisations provide. In the context of the research undertaken for this book, questions of access are directly related to gender, the religious backgrounds of the authors and insider/outsider dynamics as they have been discussed in the study of religions more generally. While the so-called insider/outsider problem has dominated debates in the study of religions over the last thirty years, recent

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contributions have questioned a simplistic dichotomy between two positions and have emphasised their fluidity, the dialogical nature of research and notions of self-reflexivity. The fundamental issue of the insider/outsider debate is ‘the question of whether one must be religious in order to understand religion’.67 While this is not the place to rehearse this debate,68 recent contributions have critiqued the simplistic polarity between insider and outsider and have even characterised the debate as a ‘pseudo-problem’.69 Kim Knott illustrates the porosity of these boundaries by providing the example of ‘participant observation’ as an ethnographic research method adopted by outsiders so that they can be involved in and participate in the activities of a religious community while maintaining their identity as academic researchers who are not members of the religious community under study. ‘Observant participation’ as another strategy describes the approach taken by insiders of a religion who analyse the beliefs and practices with which they are highly familiar using the critical apparatus, terminology and methodology of the social sciences in which they have been trained. While none of these approaches is without drawbacks, they demonstrate the fluidity of the insider/outsider dichotomy, on the one hand, and the salience of ‘the distinction between those doing religion and those observing it’,70 on the other. As a way forward, Knott adopts Gavin Flood’s recommendation of a research approach based on ‘dialogical and reflexive engagement between scholars and the religious people they study’.71 In the context of research undertaken for this book, accessing Muslims, both organised and non-organised, was also shaped by insider/outsider dynamics. This book is based to a large extent on material of a textual and archival nature. Policy papers on integration of immigrants issued by government departments, legal documents on church–state relations in the Republic of Ireland, newspaper articles on Muslims in Ireland, census data, and other statistical sources and historical documents on early Muslim residents in Ireland have been used as sources. In addition, a significant amount of research has been fieldwork-based, in the form both of interviews and of ethnographic research. Much of the communal history of Muslims in Ireland, going back to Muslim students arriving in Dublin in the 1950s, is oral. Current processes of institutionalising Islam in Ireland and issues around authority and leadership within contemporary Muslim communities could only be accessed by interviewing a number of individuals who have been centrally involved in different organisations. Relations between Muslim organisations and the state were discussed by interviewing activists and officials of Muslim organisations who have represented Islam in the public sphere. Identity discourses among Muslim women of different backgrounds and their relationships to Irish society could only be explored through ethnographic research, including participant observation and in-depth life story interviews. In these fieldwork-based approaches, the question of access and the rapport established between interviewer and interviewee became important.

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Gender was a central consideration in this regard. In order to map both male and female Muslim spaces in Ireland it was important to have at least one researcher with the ability to access the latter. In a research project on Muslims, this means that at least one researcher had to be a woman in order to enter the women’s sections of mosques and Islamic centres and – more importantly – to establish a rapport with Muslim women in more informal and private settings that a male researcher would not be able to achieve.72 The question of the religious background of the authors also emerged as a central issue. Assumptions were made about the Muslim background of the authors on the basis of their names. In some cases the Muslim background was more obvious and in others less, but in all cases, identification as a Muslim changed the rapport with the Muslim informants significantly. At once, the Muslim interviewees bestowed a level of trust and confidence on the researchers who identified themselves as Muslims, and many became willing to share information that they would not have shared with an ‘outsider’ immediately. Access to privileged if not confidential information was given, information that would not be shared with the wider public and controversial aspects of the power dynamics among Muslim communities were more openly discussed. It is not argued that the Muslim background of some authors gave easier access to the communities and allowed them to obtain information that a non-Muslim author would never have gained. Other researchers might have been able to acquire the same information and interview the same individuals after winning the trust of their informants. However, the Muslim background of some authors accelerated access to such information and individuals. Despite these apparent advantages, the authors’ self-identification as Muslims – in any case made for the sake of honesty and transparency – made the relationship between interviewer and interviewee more complex. While the status of being an academic researcher was immediately made known, this was perhaps not always in the minds of Muslims when they were interviewed. While controversial and confidential information was often shared with the authors, these were then provided with the proviso that they had to deal with the information responsibly and not cause ‘any problems for our Muslim brothers’. The rapport created between interviewer and interviewee, therefore, created particular ethical issues around the handling of the more problematic and controversial pieces of information received. Such issues were resolved by clarifying which information could be used and which not, and also by sharing drafts of publications with the interviewees to ensure that the information provided was accurate and was not misrepresented. Such a dialogical approach between interviewer and interviewee was deemed most appropriate in order to warrant and maintain the level of trust and confidence given to some of the authors. Maintaining critical distance and not merely becoming mouthpieces for particular Muslim organisations was equally important. In some cases, interviewer and interviewee had to agree to disagree.

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Another aspect of insider/outsider dynamics in this book is less obvious and relates to the authors’ relationship to Ireland. None of this book’s authors is Irish, and most of them were temporarily based in Ireland for the purpose of research undertaken for this book. This position towards Ireland brings both advantages and disadvantages. Possessing expertise on modern Islam and its various dimensions and Muslims in Europe as researched from historical, sociological and ethnographic perspectives, the authors were wellplaced to situate the Muslim presence in Ireland within the global dynamics of modern Islam and wider issues around Muslim minorities in Europe. Nevertheless, they had to acquire expertise on the cultural, social, legal and church–state parameters relevant to understanding Muslims in Ireland in the course of research. Their ‘outsider’ status in relation to Ireland also allowed them to approach the Irish context afresh, without any assumptions about the particularity of the Irish context, but with awareness of debates that have arisen in other European contexts and the ability to probe their relevance to the Irish situation. The novelty of this book is the result of the very recent experience of large-scale Muslim immigration to Ireland. It also stems from a significant disciplinary gap in Irish academia. While a significant amount of social sciences research on migration to and from Ireland73 has been undertaken, most of it has been uninterested in the religious backgrounds of immigrants, with only a few exceptions.74 Muslims in Ireland – A Triangulation Given the wide scope of the book, it is difficult to use a single theoretical approach as a starting point for the analysis of the Muslim presence in Ireland. As regards a methodological framework, this book is instead based on a triangulation whose dynamics unfold within Muslim minorities across Europe, consisting of community, context and individual.75 Community Muslims in Europe are usually part of larger communities, which can be organised around particular mosques or, more loosely, refer to a broader affiliation to a particular ethno-cultural, sectarian or ideological orientation within contemporary Islam. These communities are in most cases transnational, with various social, intellectual, personal and pecuniary connections with their countries of origin and across Europe and the globe. Knowledge of the developments and currents of modern Islam is essential in order to understand the establishment of these communities in the European diasporic context, their sectarian and ideological orientations and their leadership structures and internal organisation. At the same time, such transnational communities do not merely re-create themselves in the European minority context but adapt to the new situation by making ideological, discursive and pragmatic adjustments, by forging links and alliances with

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other Muslim organisations, by creating European Muslim identities and by adapting to the particular constraints and requirements of European church– state models of interaction between governments and faith communities.76 Context Muslims in Europe are situated in a national and more often a larger European context. The prevalence of ‘methodological nationalism’77 in research on Muslims in Europe has been rightly criticised as too limited in perspective, ignoring important global, transnational and pan-European dimensions of Muslim networks and organisations and of discourses around Islam and Muslims in Europe. However, national contexts retain their importance, as they shape the particular experiences of Muslims in a given socio-political setting and inform the dynamics and patterns of cultural, social, political and legal accommodations made towards Muslims, all of which occur within the particular jurisdiction of a nation-state with its own legal and political culture and traditions of church–state relations. Knowledge of the national context and its parameters is necessary in order to understand relations between Muslim minorities and European states and societies. When discussing the interaction of individual Muslims and Muslim communities with the national and European contexts, it is important to recognise ‘the dialectical relationship between group resources and their social environments’.78 Muslim immigrants do not simply adapt to the new minority context but likewise challenge and transform traditional understandings of ‘secularism, nationalism and multiculturalism’79 within European societies. Individual The third component in this triangulation is Muslim individuals, who can be part of larger Muslim communities or refrain from any affiliation to a particular community and organisation. Individual Muslims also interact with state and society in terms of education, the professional world or political participation and civic engagement. In order to avoid a ‘top-down’ approach that focuses solely on the elite discourses of Muslim organisations, any research on Muslims in Europe needs to engage with ‘real-life Islam’. The lived experiences of Muslims in Europe, their identity discourses and religious practices and their participation in the ‘non-religious’ activities of their societies, whether educational, professional, civic, political or recreational, need to be included in order to depict the multi-faceted and diverse Muslim presences across Europe. Structure of the Book On the basis of this triangulation, the book covers the following areas:

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Muslim immigration and settlement in Ireland Communities and organisations State–community interaction and governance of Islam in Ireland Muslim women

Part 1 traces the history of the Muslim presence in and migration to Ireland from the late eighteenth century to the present and consists of two chapters. The first chapter examines the presence of Muslims in Ireland before World War II, placing it in the context of British colonial history of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This presence was constituted among others by merchants, sailors or teachers at Irish universities. The second chapter provides an analysis of Muslim immigration to Ireland after World War II, from the arrival of the first cohort of medical students from South Africa in the late 1940s to the large-scale migration during the Celtic Tiger years. The different patterns of migration are discussed and the various backgrounds of migrants investigated. Part 2, on mosques, organisations and leadership, discusses the various Muslim organisations and mosques in Ireland, including their histories, the purposes for which these organisations were founded, the sectarian orientations they represent and their success in establishing organisational cohesion among Irish Muslims and in representing Muslims within Irish society. International links and funding sources are also explored. Starting with the first Muslim organisation, the Dublin Islamic Society, established by South African students in 1959, the third chapter illustrates how an initially local initiative was increasingly connected to transnational networks of the Muslim Brotherhood in order to secure funding for the expansion of its activities and the purchase of adequate mosque space. The Dublin Islamic Society, renamed the Islamic Foundation of Ireland in 1990 in order to demonstrate its role as representative Muslim umbrella organisation, also acts as patron of the two Muslim primary schools in Dublin. How European networks of the Muslim Brotherhood have played a leading role in organising Muslims in Ireland is further demonstrated in the fourth chapter. The major Sunni mosque organisation, the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland (ICCI), established in 1996 and based in a large south Dublin mosque complex, heads a network of different mosques in Dublin and other cities of the country and convenes the Irish Council of Imams, a body comprising representatives of imams from around the country. It also hosts the secretariat of the European Council for Fatwa and Research, a body founded by the Qatarbased Egyptian cleric Yusuf Al-Qaradawi (b. 1926) to develop Islamic jurisprudence catering for the needs of Muslim minorities in Europe. In addition to the mosques and groups affiliated with and partially funded by the ICCI, there are other independent mosques associations for groups such as the Twelver Shiis, Ismailis, Ahmadis, Barelvis and different national groups, as well as individual initiatives by activists who challenge the claim of the ICCI to represent all Muslims in Ireland. These are discussed in Chapter 5.

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Part 3, on the governance of Islam in Ireland, investigates the interaction between Muslims and the Irish state and society. The sixth chapter discusses the particular nature of church–state relations in the Republic of Ireland and the impact of the traditional denominational setting of Irish social and legal culture on Muslims. Governmental responses and legal changes made by the Irish state as a consequence of the religious and cultural diversification of Irish society are discussed with particular reference to Muslims. As a particularly important example, the seventh chapter discusses the provision of Muslim schools in the Republic of Ireland. While the introduction of publicly funded Muslim faith-based schools has been controversial in other European countries, the establishment of the first Muslim school in Dublin in 1990 (the second to follow in 2001) did not arouse much public interest, as both were perceived as being in line with the traditional denominational set-up of the Irish educational system. The modus operandi of both schools is discussed, as well as the challenges both schools have faced since their establishment. Part 4 explores the experiences of Muslim women, both migrants and converts, in Ireland. For migrant Muslim women, an attachment to the particular cultural understanding of Islam in their countries of origin is dominant, limiting religious and social interaction with Muslim migrant women from other backgrounds or Irish converts. Irish converts likewise do not constitute a monolithic entity, but also espouse various understandings of Islam, from Salafism to cultural definitions of Islam deriving from their spouses. This part discusses how Muslim women of different ethnic and national backgrounds and socio-economic and educational status relate to and interact with Irish society. The different types of ‘diaspora spaces’ Muslim women carve out in Irish society are examined. The nature of these spaces depends on their sectarian-cum-ideological orientations and the reasons for their migration and settlement. This chapter also deals with the phenomenon of conversion to Islam in Ireland, with the overwhelming majority of Irish converts being women. Future Research Despite the comprehensive nature of this book, several areas wait to be explored. The very fluidity of the situation in Ireland necessitates ongoing research efforts. Muslim immigrants have become more transient, moving across Europe and the globe, new communities and Muslim spaces have emerged, and significant transformations in Irish society have occurred. Further systematic comparisons between Ireland and Britain or other European countries are one important area of future studies. More research across the border between south and north will paint a full picture of Islam on the island of Ireland as a whole. There is also the need to produce more qualitative ethnographic research on Muslims in Ireland. Through an ethnographic engagement with ‘real-life’ Islam, researchers will be able to

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address the actual diversity of Muslim lives in Ireland. In this respect, more studies are required that pay particular attention to the issue of gender. Further ethnographic research will also map the increasing ethnic and intrareligious diversity of Muslims in Ireland and generational dynamics that are just beginning to unfold. A significant component of the Muslim presence in Ireland are sub-Saharan African Muslims, primarily from Nigeria, whom this book does not cover and whose religious identities and particular Sufi-inspired practices need to be explored. South Asian Muslim communities from both Pakistan and Bangladesh have grown significantly in the last decade. While major Sunni mosque organisation are usually led by Arab Muslims, the numerical rise of South Asian Muslims and the increasing presence of their communities challenge the dominance of Arabs within the leadership of mosque organisations. Focusing on South Asian Muslims also provides the opportunity to explore transnational connections between Ireland and the UK, given the strong and well-established presence of South Asian Muslims in British society. Apart from particular ethnic groups in the Muslim population that need further research, other groups too are not covered in this book. No study has been produced so far on Irish men who have converted to Islam. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the majority of them converted to Islam in the diaspora, having lived and worked for several years in a Muslim-majority country or in Britain or the USA and having returned to Ireland as Muslims. Hence, there is an excellent opportunity to place the phenomenon of conversion to Islam in Ireland – both male and female – in the context of Irish diaspora studies. A more serious lacuna is the complete lack of research on young Muslims in Ireland, in particular the second generation of Muslim immigrants who were born, raised, socialised and educated in Ireland. Hardly anything is known about their identities and the challenges they face in twenty-first century Ireland. This generation of young Muslims is just coming of age, completing university degrees or entering the professional world of an Ireland that is challenged by new hybrid identity formations among the second generation of immigrants. In this regard, equally important are the changing parameters of the Irish context. Despite the collapse of the Celtic Tiger, most of the changes it has brought are irreversible. The increasing secularisation of Irish society as well as its new religious diversity pose challenges to a traditionally denominational educational system in which the Catholic Church has played a hegemonic role. Recent initiatives to secularise the educational system to some extent and to divest the Catholic Church of ownership of an increasing number of schools respond to these changes.80 How Muslim children are integrated into the educational system remains a major challenge in Ireland. Other sectors of society likewise need to cope with Ireland’s new diversity and to address to what extent they can accommodate for and integrate religious practices of new migrant communities.81 A recent case of a Sikh member of the garda reserve (volunteers in the Irish police) who was

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prohibited from wearing the turban while wearing his uniform82 illustrates the various challenges which will multiply in the future. With the growth of the Muslim population and the increasing visibility of Muslims and of mosques, anti-Muslim incidents have increased as well. While some research has been done on Islamophobia in Ireland,83 more work is required in this area. The participation of migrants in Irish politics has been minimal, and all parties across the political spectrum have a weak track record of including candidates from migrant backgrounds or addressing the needs of migrant communities.84 With over one third of the Muslim population now possessing Irish citizenship, they possess the same political and legal rights as other Irish citizens. How and to what extent Irish Muslims participate in and shape the public and political life of Ireland in the future is another development that further research needs to cover. Notes 1. Tuula Sakaranaho, ‘Les rhétoriques de la continuité: les femmes, l’Islam et l’héritage catholique en Irlande’, Social Compass, 50:1, 2003, pp. 71–84; Tuula Sakaranaho, Religious Freedom, Multiculturalism, Islam: Cross-Reading Finland and Ireland (Leiden: Brill, 2006); Kieran Flynn, ‘Understanding Islam in Ireland’, Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, 17:2, 2006, pp. 223–38; Mary Fitzgerald, ‘Ireland’s Muslims forging an identity’, The Irish Times, 13 October 2006, p. 14. 2. Special edition on Islam and Muslims in the Republic of Ireland of Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 31:4, 2011, edited by Oliver Scharbrodt and Tuula Sakaranaho; Oliver Scharbrodt, ‘Islam in Ireland: Organising a Migrant Religion’, in Olivia Cosgrove et al. (eds), Ireland’s New Religious Movements (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011), pp. 318–36; Oliver Scharbrodt, ‘Muslim Immigration to the Republic of Ireland: Trajectories and Dynamics since World War II’, Éire-Ireland: A Journal of Irish Studies, 47:1&2, 2012, pp. 221–43; Oliver Scharbrodt, ‘From Irish Exceptionalism to European Normality?: The New Islamic Presence in the Republic of Ireland’, Etudes Irlandaises, 39, 2014 (forthcoming); Tuula Sakaranaho, ‘“For God and Eternal Values”: Muslim National Schools in Ireland’, in Ednan Aslan (ed.), Islamische Erziehung in Europa. Islamic Education in Europe (Vienna: Böhlau, 2009), pp. 203–18; Adil Hussain Khan, ‘Creating the Image of European Islam: The European Council for Fatwa and Research and Ireland’, in Jørgen S. Nielsen (ed.), Muslim Political Participation in Europe (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2013), pp. 215–38; Yafa Shanneik, ‘Conversion to Islam in Ireland: A Post-Catholic Subjectivity?’, Journal of Muslims in Europe, 1:2, 2012, pp. 166–88; Yafa Shanneik, ‘Religion and Diasporic Dwelling: Algerian Muslim Women in Ireland’, Religion and Gender, 2:1, 2012, pp. 80–100; Yafa Shanneik, ‘Gendering Religious Authority in the Diaspora: Shii Women in Ireland’, in Niamh Reilly and Stacey Scriver (eds), Religion, Gender, and the Public Sphere (London: Routledge, 2014), pp. 58–67; Vivian Ibrahim, ‘The Mir of India in Ireland: Nationalism and Identity of an Early “Muslim” Migrant’, Temenos: The Nordic Journal of Comparative Religion, 46:2, 2010, pp. 153–73.

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3. Nathalie Rougier and Iseult Honohan, ‘Ireland’, in Ricard Zapata-Barrero and Anna Triandafyllidou (eds), Addressing Tolerance and Diversity Discourses in Europe: A Comparative Overview of 16 European Countries (Barcelona: Barcelona Centre for International Affairs, 2012), p. 249. 4. Piaras Mac Éinrí and Allen White, ‘Immigration into the Republic of Ireland: A Bibliography of Recent Research’, Irish Geography, 41:2, 2008, pp. 151–79; Piaras Mac Éinrí, ‘Immigration: Labour Migrants, Asylum Seekers and Refugees’, in Brendan Bartley and Rob Kitchin (eds), Understanding Contemporary Ireland (London: Pluto Press, 2007), pp. 236–9; Bryan Fanning, Racism and Social Change in the Republic of Ireland, 2nd edn (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2012), pp. 91–110. 5. Central Statistics Office, Census 1991: Vol. 5 – Religion (Dublin: Central Statistics Office, 1995), p. 22. 6. Central Statistics Office, Census 2011: Profile 7 – Religion, Ethnicity and Irish Travellers (Dublin: Central Statistics Office, 2012), p. 48. 7. See, for example, Community Religions Project at the University of Leeds which began in 1976. More information available at http://www.leeds.ac.uk/arts/ info/125010/the_centre_for_religion_and_public_life/1999/the_community_re ligions_project_crp (last accessed 28 March 2014). 8. John R. Bowen, Why the French Don’t Like Headscarves: Islam, the State, and Public Space (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007). 9. Jørgen S. Nielsen, Muslims in Western Europe, 3rd edn (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004); Felice Dassetto, La construction de l’Islam européen: approche socio-anthropologique (Paris: L’Harmattan, 1996); Brigitte Maréchal et al., Muslims in the Enlarged Europe (Leiden: Brill, 2003). 10. Jonathan Laurence, The Emancipation of Europe’s Muslims: The State’s Role in Minority Integration (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2012). 11. Brigitte Maréchal, The Muslim Brothers in Europe: Roots and Discourse (Leiden: Brill, 2008); Stefano Allievi and Jørgen S. Nielsen (eds), Muslim Networks and Transnational Communities in and across Europe (Leiden: Brill, 2003); Peter Mandaville, Global Political Islam (London and New York: Routledge, 2007). 12. John L. Esposito and François Burgat (eds), Modernizing Islam: Religion and Politics in the Public Sphere in Europe and the Middle East (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2003); Jørgen S. Nielsen, Towards a European Islam (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 1999); Tariq Ramadan, Western Muslims and the Future of Islam (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). 13. Jytte Klausen, The Islamic Challenge: Politics and Religion in Western Europe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005); Joel S. Fetzer and J. Christopher Soper, Muslims and the State in Britain, France and Germany (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005); Marcel Maussen et al. (eds), Colonial and Post-Colonial Governance of Islam: Continuities and Raptures (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2011). 14. Jørgen S. Nielsen (ed.), Muslim Political Participation in Europe (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2013). 15. Hakan Yilmaz and Cagla E. Aykac (eds), Perceptions of Islam in Europe: Culture, Identity and the Muslim ‘Other’ (London: I. B. Tauris, 2012).

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16. Jocelyne Cesari, ‘The Securitisation of Islam in Europe’, Challenge: Liberty and Security, Research Paper 15, 2009; Erik Bleich (ed.), Muslims and the State Post-9/11 (London: Routledge, 2010). 17. Chris Allen, Islamophobia (Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate, 2010); S. Sayyid and Abdoolkarim Vakil (eds), Thinking Through Islamophobia: Global Perspectives (New York: Columbia University Press, 2011); John L. Esposito and Ibrahim Kalin (eds), Islamophobia: The Challenge of Pluralism in the 21st Century (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011). 18. Tuomas Martikainen et al. (eds), Muslims in the Margins of Europe (Leiden: Brill, forthcoming). 19. Rougier and Honohan, ‘Ireland’, pp. 250–2. 20. Robbie McVeigh, ‘Cherishing the Children of the Nation Unequally: Sectarianism in Ireland’, in Patrick Clancy et al. (eds), Irish Society: Sociological Perspectives (Dublin: Institute of Public Administration, 1995), pp. 620–51. 21. Rougier and Honohan, ‘Ireland’, p. 251. 22. Mary J. Hickman, ‘“Locating” the Irish Diaspora’, Irish Journal of Sociology, 11:2, 2002, p. 16. 23. Available at http://www.oireachtas.ie/viewdoc.asp?fn=/documents/addresses/ 2Feb1995.htm (last accessed 28 March 2014). 24. Gabriele Marranci, ‘“We Speak English”. Language and Identity Processes in Northern Ireland’s Muslim Community’, Ethnologist, 25, 2003, pp. 59–77; Gabriele Marranci, ‘Pakistanis in Northern Ireland: their Islamic Identity, and the Aftermath of 11th of September’, in Tahir Abbas (ed.), Muslim Britain: Communities under Pressure (London: Zed Books, 2005), pp. 222–34; Gabriele Marranci, ‘Migration and the Construction of Muslim Women’s Identity in Northern Ireland’, in Cara Aitchison et al. (eds), Geographies of Muslim Identities: Diaspora, Gender and Belonging (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007), pp. 79–92; Victoria Montgomery, ‘Are you a Protestant or a Catholic Muslim? The Path of Muslim Integration into Northern Ireland’, in Javaid Rehman and Susan C. Breau (eds), Religion, Human Rights & International Law (Leiden: Brill, 2007), pp. 489–519. 25. Avtar Brah, Cartographies of Diaspora: Contesting Identities (London: Routledge, 1996); Mary J. Hickman, ‘Diaspora Space and National (Re)Formations’, ÉireIreland: A Journal of Irish Studies, 47:1&2, 2012, pp. 19–44. 26. Mary J. Hickman et al., ‘Suspect Communities’? Counter-Terrorism Policy, the Press, and the Impact on Irish and Muslim Communities in Britain (London: London Metropolitan University, 2011). 27. Yafa Shanneik, ‘Conversion and Religious Habitus: The Experiences of Irish Women Converts to Islam in the Pre-Celtic Tiger Era’, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 31:4, 2011, p. 510. 28. Ruth Wodak et al., The Discursive Construction of National Identity (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999), p. 27. 29. Michael Cronin, ‘Small Worlds and Weak Ties: Ireland in the New Century’, Journal of Irish Studies, 22, 2007, pp. 63–5. 30. James Livesey and Stuart Murray, ‘Review Article: Postcolonial Theory and Modern Irish Culture’, Irish Historical Studies, 30, May 1997, pp. 452–61.

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31. Linda Connolly, ‘The Limits of “Irish Studies”: Historicism, Culturalism, Paternalism’, Irish Studies Review, 12:2, 2004, pp. 139–62. 32. Tom Inglis, Moral Monopoly: The Rise and Fall of the Catholic Church in Modern Ireland (Dublin: University College Dublin Press, 1998). 33. Cronin, ‘Ireland in the New Century’, pp. 63–5. 34. Gavan Titley, ‘Everything Moves? Beyond Culture and Multiculturalism in Irish Public Discourse’, The Irish Review, 31, 2004, p. 18. 35. Menachem Mansoor, The Story of Irish Orientalism (Dublin: Hodges, Figgis & Co., 1944); Tadhg Foley and Maureen O’Connor (eds), Ireland–India: Colonies, Culture and Empire (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2006); Joseph Lennon, Irish Orientalism: A Literary and Intellectual History (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2008); Laurence Cox, Buddhism and Ireland: From the Celts to the Counter-Culture and Beyond (Sheffield: Equinox, 2013). 36. Olivia Cosgrove et al., ‘Editors’ Introduction: Understanding Ireland’s New Religious Movements’, in Cosgrove et al., Ireland’s New Religious Movements, pp. 1–4. 37. Anna Triandafydillou, ‘Nations, Migrants and Transnational Identifications: An Interactive Approach to Nationalism’, in Gerard Delanty and Krishan Kumar (eds), The Sage Handbook of Nations and Nationalism (London: Sage, 2006), p. 286 (italics in the original). See also Anna Triandafydillou, Immigrants and National Identity in Europe (London: Routledge, 2010). 38. Nadia Jeldtoft, ‘Lived Islam: Religious Identity with “Non-Organized” Muslim Minorities’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 34:7, 2011, p. 1,135. 39. For an overview with reference to Islam see Tariq Modood et al. (eds), Multiculturalism, Muslims and Citizenship: A European Approach (London and New York: Routledge, 2006). See also Seán McLoughlin, ‘The State, New Muslim Leadership and Islam as a Resource for Public Engagement in Britain’, in Jocelyne Cesari and Seán McLoughlin (eds), European Muslims and the Secular State (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005), pp. 55–69. 40. For a discussion of this development in the British context see Tariq Modood, ‘British Muslims and the Politics of Multiculturalism’, in Modood, Multiculturalism, Muslims and Citizenship, pp. 37–56. 41. Bryan Fanning, Immigration and Social Cohesion in the Republic of Ireland (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2011), pp. 2–4. 42. Stefano Allievi, ‘How the Immigrant Has Become Muslim: Public Debates on Islam in Europe’, Revue européenne des migrations internationales, 21:2, 2005, pp. 135–63. 43. Richard Jenkins, ‘Rethinking Ethnicity: Identity, Categorization and Power’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 17:2, 1994, p. 201 (italics in the original). 44. Nadia Jeldtoft, ‘On Defining Muslims’, in Jørgen S. Nielsen et al. (eds), Yearbook of Muslims in Europe, Vol. 1 (Leiden: Brill 2009), p. 10. See also Felice Dassetto, ‘The Muslim Population of Europe’, in Maréchal et al., Muslims in the Enlarged Europe, xxii–xxiii. 45. Jeldtoft, ‘Defining Muslims’, p. 9. 46. Jenkins, ‘Rethinking Ethnicity’, p. 215.

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53.

54.

55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67.

68. 69. 70. 71.

Muslims in Ireland Ibid., p. 203. McLoughlin, ‘Islam as a Resource for Public Engagement’, pp. 55–69. Jeldtoft, ‘Defining Muslims’, p. 10. Ibid. Ibid., p. 11. Nadia Jeldtoft and Jørgen S. Nielsen, ‘Introduction: Methods in the Study of “Non-Organized” Muslim Minorities’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 34:7, 2011, pp. 1,114–16. Sara Silvestri, ‘Public Policies towards Muslims and the Institutionalisation of “Moderate” Islam in Europe: Some Critical Reflections’, in Anna Triandafyllidou (ed.), Muslims in 21st Century Europe: Structural and Cultural Perspectives (London: Routledge, 2010), pp. 45–58; Dilwar Hussain, ‘The Holy Grail of Muslims in Western Europe: Representation and Their Relationship with the State’, in Esposito and Burgat, Modernizing Islam, pp. 215–50. Steven Vertovec, ‘Diaspora, Transnationalism and Islam: Sites of Change and Modes of Research’, in Allievi and Nielsen, Muslim Networks and Transnational Communities, pp. 312–26. Jeldtoft, ‘“Non-Organized” Muslim Minorities’, pp. 1,134–6. Maréchal, Muslim Brothers in Europe, pp. 205–7. Safet Bectovic, ‘Studying Muslims and Constructing Islamic Identity’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 34:7, 2011, pp. 1,126–7. Jeldtoft and Nielsen, ‘Introduction’, p. 1, 115. Nathal M. Dessing et al., Everyday Lived Islam in Europe (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2014). Michael Herbert Fisher, The First Indian Author in English: Dean Mahomed (1759– 1851) in India, Ireland and England (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1996). Michael H. Fisher (ed.), The Travels of Dean Mahomet: An Eighteenth-Century Journey Through India (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), pp. 136–7. Fisher, First Indian Author in English, pp. 297–301. Michael Oregon, ‘Moosajee Bhamjee: doctor and Labour TD’, The Irish Times, 2 August 2010, p. 6. Medb Ruane, ‘The Muslim-Irish prove to be a surprisingly moderate bunch’, Irish Independent, 19 December 2006, p. 17. Dominic Fannon, ‘E-Interview Moosajee Bhamjee’, The Psychiatric Bulletin, 32:7, July 2008, p. 280. Jenkins, ‘Rethinking Ethnicity’, p. 202. Jeppe Sindig Jensen, ‘Revisiting the Insider–Outsider Debate: Dismantling a Pseudo-problem in the Study of Religion’, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, 23:1, 2011, p. 31. For an introduction see Russell T. McCutcheon (ed.), The Insider / Outsider Problem in the Study of Religion: A Reader (London and New York: Cassell, 1999). Jensen, ‘Insider–Outsider Debate’, p. 30. Kim Knott, ‘Insider–Outsider Perspectives’, in John R. Hinnells (ed.), The Routledge Companion to the Study of Religion (London: Routledge, 2005), p. 255. Ibid.

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72. For a discussion of gender dynamics in ethnographic research see Diane Bell, ‘The Context’, in Diane Bell et al. (eds), Gendered Fields: Women, Men and Ethnography (London: Routledge, 1993), pp. 1–18. 73. For an overview see Mac Éinrí and White, ‘Immigration into the Republic of Ireland’, pp. 151–79. 74. Dermot Keogh, Jews in Twentieth-Century Ireland: Refugees, Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust (Cork: Cork University Press, 1998); Abel Ugba, Shades of Belonging: African Pentecostals in Twenty-first Century Ireland (Trenton, NJ, Asamara, Eritrea: Africa World Press, 2009); Abel Ugba, ‘Between God and Ethnicity: Pentecostal African Immigrants in 21st Century Ireland’, Irish Journal of Anthropology, 9, 2006, pp. 56–63; Abel Ugba, ‘African Pentecostals in Twenty-First Century Ireland’, in Bryan Fanning (ed.), Immigration and Social Change in Ireland (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007), pp. 168–84; Alessia Passarelli, ‘Integration, Migration, and Religion: Responses of the Church of Ireland’, Translocations: Migration and Social Change, 6:2, 2010, pp. 1–18. 75. Seán McLoughlin, ‘Religion, Religions and Diaspora’, in Ato Quayson and Girish Dawsani (eds), A Companion to Diaspora and Transnationalism (Malden and Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), pp. 125–38; Seán McLoughlin and John Zavos, ‘Writing Religion in British Asian Diasporas’, Research Network From Diasporas to Multi-Locality: Writing British Asian Cities, Research Paper WBC 009, 2013. Available at https://www.leeds.ac.uk/writingbritishasiancities/assets/ papers/WBAC009.pdf (last accessed 27 April 2014). See also (forthcoming) Seán McLoughlin and John Zavos, ‘Writing Religion in British Asian Diasporas’, in Seán McLoughlin et al. (eds), Writing the City in British Asian Diasporas (London: Routledge, 2014). 76. Silvestri, ‘Public Policies Towards Muslims’, pp. 45–58; Hussain, ‘Holy Grail of Muslims in Western Europe’, pp. 215–50. 77. Andrea Wimmer and Nina Glick Schiller, ‘Methodological Nationalism and Beyond: Nation-State Building, Migration and Beyond’, Global Networks, 2:4, 2002, pp. 301–34. 78. Jocelyne Cesari, ‘Introduction’, in Cesari and McLoughlin, European Muslims and the Secular State, p. 1. 79. Ibid. 80. See report of the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sector, published in 2012 available at http://www.education.ie/en/Publications/PolicyReports/fpp_report_advisory_group.pdf (last accessed 15 January 2014). 81. Rougier and Honohan, ‘Ireland’, p. 268. 82. Tim Healy, ‘Sikh refused permission to wear turban in Garda Reserve’, Irish Independent, 20 May 2013. Available at http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/ courts/sikh-refused-permission-to-wear-turban-in-garda-reserve-29309444.html (last accessed 26 March 2014). 83. Fiona Dillon and Tom Brady, ‘Muslims target in “hate mail” campaign’, Irish Independent, 26 November 2013. Available at http://www.independent.ie/ irish-news/muslims-targeted-in-hate-mail-campaign-29783626.html (last accessed 13 January 2014). See also James Carr and Amanda Haynes, ‘A Clash

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of Racialisations: the Policing of “Race” and Anti-Muslim Racism in Ireland’, Critical Sociology, July 2013, as doi: 10.1177/0896920513492805. 84. Anthony M. Messina, ‘The Politics of Migration to Western Europe: Ireland in Comparative Perspective’, West European Politics, 32:1, 2009, pp. 14–16.

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chapter

1 Sailors, Merchants and Migrants: From the Sack of Baltimore to World War II Vivian Ibrahim

Sail or s, Me rc ha nts, Migran ts

Introduction The majority of current studies that examine Islam in a Western context are largely grounded in contemporary debates and broadly sketch the boundaries of Europe’s most prominent policy concerns. Focusing on questions of identity formation, integration and political Islam, the propensity of this literature is based on three main assumptions. First, that there is a fixed and common understanding of an inherent and unspecified ‘threat’ that is posed by political Islam.1 Second, that identity formation is largely shaped by religious affiliations; this had led to the ‘desire to study Islam as a newly arriving religion, belonging to ethnic groups new to [Western Europe] and thus as forming an important part of the traditions of the immigrants’ country of origin’.2 Third, that the integration of Muslims, and in particular ‘Muslim communities’, must be established if Europe and Islam are to be compatible. The main question that preoccupies these studies is whether it is possible for Muslims to assert their own cultural and religious practice while simultaneously participating in Western societies.3 This chapter will argue, however, that while these are important conversations, they are largely flawed in many of their assumptions and largely inapplicable to the historical study of Muslims in the West, and more specifically in their application to Ireland. Through an examination of the seventeenth to the early twentieth century, questions will be asked, including: what does it mean to define or inflict Islam as a religious affiliation?; and, how does regional identity affect one’s religious identity when clearly both region and locality play a definitive role in moulding one’s particular cultural experience of a religious tradition?4 This chapter seeks to avoid projecting an essentialised conception of religion and its practice. In contrast to much of the existing literature, which focuses on Islam as a belief system and not on the individual religiosities of people, this chapter will examine individuals beyond the boundaries of a system or [ 27 ]

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organisation.5 The impact of this methodological approach is to encompass the complexities and nuances of a ‘Muslim’ crossing societal, cultural, political and regional formations. In doing so, variations in practices and affinities over time can be accounted for. At the centre of this approach is the question of what role historical context plays in identity formations. In the case of Ireland, a smooth historical narrative that blends Islam and the history of the British ‘colony’ does not exist. One cannot draw a clear trajectory of a largely alien religion and its role in the formation of the modern Irish nation-state. As a result, an alternative approach, rather than a causal narrative, will be adopted in this chapter. By examining notable figures and interactions that occurred between Ireland and ‘Islam’ – either through ‘Muslim individuals’, a term to be discussed further, or historical interactions – it will be maintained that leading up to World War II and the migration of sizeable Muslim ‘communities’, there was no ‘Muslim community’ in Ireland to speak of. Instead, what one discovers are individuals, or clusters of individuals, many of whom claim origin from Muslim majority lands with sizeable populations, who interact, dialogue, network, cooperate and sometimes conflict with Ireland. The locations and places of origin of these Muslims varied in proximity to Ireland; from the ‘close’ Barbary Coast – and in particular the city of Algiers – to halfway across the globe in India. The individual practices of Islam we find also varied, as did the individual identities and group cohesiveness of these (almost exclusively) men. Unlike the case in Britain as examined by the historian Humayun Ansari, Ireland’s history as a colony of the Empire made its relationship with ‘Muslims’ or Muslim prominent lands unique. Ansari argues: ‘While not all [Muslims] stayed, they established a Muslim presence in Britain that laid the foundations for larger scale migration later.’6 This, however, was not the case in Ireland. Indeed, the notion of a trajectory of different Muslims who migrated from the 1800s, eventually leading to a ‘community’ in the early to mid-1900s, is not only imagined in an Andersonian sense, but extremely important to note in a book like this one. The ‘Turk’ and the Sack of Baltimore On opposing fringes of Europe, both Ireland and the Ottoman Empire aroused anxiety and apprehension, particularly in the accounts of seventeenth-century travel writers.7 Ireland, which had been invaded numerous times by the English from the twelfth century, was regarded, by the seventeenth century, as rebellious and overly devotional in its practice of Catholicism. At the other periphery was the Ottoman Empire, a continued strength in the Mediterranean, which many writers viewed with both exotic trepidation and admiration. Some of the early interactions between the ‘fringes of Europe’ took place in 1631 when a group of ‘Turks’ – a generic label used to describe subjects of the Ottoman Empire – invaded the west coast of Ireland sacking a small fishing village. Two hundred corsairs from

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the Barbary Coast of Algiers landed off the coastal village of Baltimore in West Cork. 8 The Dutch sailor Murat Reis, who had converted to Islam fifteen years earlier, led the attack in the early hours of the morning.9 The corsairs captured two fishing boats from Dungarvan along the way, serving to help navigate them to the village, where they subsequently abducted 109 women, men and children, taking them to the port of Algiers. Of this number, only two ever subsequently returned to Ireland.10 The question is, what makes the Sack of Baltimore of note in relation to understanding the history of Irish–Muslim relations? On the one hand, one may argue that the abduction of some villagers off the coast of Ireland 400 years ago is nothing but an anecdote in Irish history. Yet, recent renewed interest, not least because of Des Ekin’s best-selling book The Stolen Village: Baltimore and Barbary Pirates, reveals a more complex reading of Baltimore’s legacy. Ekin’s inflammatory comments in the introduction to his book (‘It would go down in history as the most devastating invasion ever carried out by the forces of the Islamist Jihad on Britain or Ireland.’11) reveal two main points. First, Ekin suggests that this early interaction between the ‘Turk’ and the shores of Ireland was not only aggressive, but also part of a systematic Islamist war. While Ekin later somewhat redeems himself, this language is endemic in popular contemporary writing on Islam throughout the West. In this particular case, Ekin serves to anchor Ireland, a country with a unique history and a former colony of the British Empire, to the dominant contemporary paradigm of Europe and the West against Islam and the East rather than to the unique landscape of seventeenthcentury European–Ottoman relations. Second, in Ekin’s opinion, the Sack of Baltimore was a significant enough incursion that ‘it would go down in history’. This is clearly an overstatement; indeed, few outside a small circle were aware of the Barbary invasion. It was not until the mid-nineteenth century that the Irish poet and revolutionary writer Thomas Davis (1814–45) made of the Sack of Baltimore an anecdote to promote his own aims of Irish nationalism: From out their beds and to their doors rush maid and sire and dame, And meet upon the threshold stone the gleaming sabre’s fall, And o’er each black and bearded face the white or crimson shawl. The yell of ‘Allah!’ breaks above the prayer, and shriek, and roar: O blessed God! The Algerine is lord of Baltimore!12

By the time Davis published his poem in The Nation in 1845, invading Algerians yelling ‘Allah’ were no longer the threat. Instead, the commemoration of the Sack of Baltimore served as an allegory of British and Anglican oppression over Irish religious and national identity, a fate shared by many territories under the British Empire. What the poem does reveal, however, is how hegemonic world-views dominated the nineteenth-century Irish socio-political landscape. Religion, Islam in the case of the ‘Algerine yell’

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or Anglicanism in the case of the British, was only of relevance as part of a broader discussion of oppression. The question remains, what happened to the abducted Irish women, men and children, what role did religion play in their abduction, and to what extent did this further the interaction of Muslims, Islam and Ireland? Of the 109 abducted, thirty-nine were either dead or had ‘taken the turban’ or ‘turned Turk’. The remaining seventy, the vast majority of those captured at Baltimore, were ‘available for redemption’.13 Algiers, the port that the corsairs docked at with the abductees, was a city only nominally under Ottoman control and was ruled by pashas who had semi-autonomy from the Empire. It was a multi-ethnic city, which included, as one contemporary observer recorded, ‘Portuguese, Flemish, Scots, English, Danes, Irish, Hungarians, Slavs, Spanish, French, Italians; also Syrians, Egyptians, Japanese, Chinese, South Americans, Ethiopians’.14 Among these various racial groups were people with a variety of religious faiths, including Christians and Jews, all this suggesting a far less monolithic account of the ‘Turk’ invader and the forced conversion of non-Muslims. From the early seventieth century, Catholic missionaries, particularly French, played an important role in the establishment of networks of pastoral care and redemption of the newly enslaved Christians of the Barbary Coast. By 1648, the Congregation of the Mission, a society of secular missionary priests, was granted the office of consul, resulting in an increase in missionary activity in the region. Its main responsibility included ‘to minister to slaves, to prevent their assimilation to North African and Islamic culture, and to repatriate any who were French Catholics’.15 According to records of captives in the city of Tunis, a comparable port to Algiers in the same period, only a small number of slaves converted to Islam. Contemporary historians, including a key missionary witness, estimated that there was a ‘6000 Christian strong slave population in 1600’.16 Alison Forrestal, who has undertaken extensive research on the French Mission, argues that the Barbary regencies (Tunis, Algiers and Tripoli) practised a religious tolerance similar to that observed in the Ottoman Empire.17 This assured the status of Jews and Christians under Muslim law as dhimmi (denoting protected non-Muslim religious communities) and they were able, for the most part, to practise their faiths privately. Interestingly, and similarly to much of the contemporary literature on Muslims in Europe, Jean Le Vacher, the lead missionary and consul in seventeenth-century Tunis and later Algiers, thought it was impossible to be both a European and a Muslim. In particular, he believed that converts could not ‘straddle’ both two cultures.18 It is likely that the captives of Baltimore were Christian like Le Vacher, but to what extent did the island of Ireland, on the periphery of several empires, find a place in Europe?

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Ireland as the Orient and Irish Orientalism Joseph Lennon argues that ‘long before it was treated as Celtic, Irish culture was linked to the “Orient”’.19 Tracing literary and intellectual links between the ‘Oriental and Celt’, Lennon draws on Edward Said’s Orientalism to argue that the British ‘had long compared Ireland with other Oriental cultures, at first in order to . . . barbarise Ireland and later in order to discover intraimperial strategies for governing its colonies’.20 Did the English therefore consider the abductees of Baltimore as ‘barbaric’ as the corsairs and as a result not of consequence? From the eighteenth century onwards, there was considerable academic debate concerning the status of Ireland. The term ‘colony’, though later frequently used, did not refer to all territories dominated by Britain. In fact, it was not until the late nineteenth and early twentieth century that Ireland was even referred to as a ‘colony’. Thus, Ireland held exceptional status since it was ‘seen both as a sovereign kingdom and as a place with colonial status, fit for colonial exploitation’.21 This exploitation was partially grounded in the conceptualisation of the Irish as ‘backwards’, asserted by a British political class and metropolitan public. While all in Britain did not universally adopt such categorisation, it certainly found prominence and was informed by an imperial development mission.22 By the mid-to-late nineteenth century, this categorisation had become rooted in scientific theories of race, which treated cultural habits and political formations as ‘inherent characteristics of communities or nations . . . [serving to] effectively hypostatise these into eternal, static, hereditary characteristics of people and of nations’.23 The origins of these ideas were long founded; ‘the major characteristics attributed to the Irish – insolence, superstition, dishonesty and a propensity to violence – had remained prominent in the British image for over 600 years’, justifying Henry II’s invasion of Ireland.24 However, by the 1850s these views gained legitimacy by ‘science’ and ‘scientific fact’, thus serving as a vehicle for the increased literature on the traits of nations, peoples and histories. For instance, Friedrich Engels commented that ‘filth and drunkenness . . . is the Irishman’s second nature’,25 leading him to the conclusion that they were undeserved of higher wages. ‘Scientific fact’ not only informed historical writings, but also had an effect on enforcing codes of subordination on British colonies, however loose a ‘colony’ Ireland was. Much literature has been produced in the last twenty years that has put forward allegorical, cultural, social and political associations between Ireland and the ‘Orient’. As the ‘jewel in the British Empire’s crown’, India has been at the centre of much of the comparative focus, which is notable for this book owing to the historic (and indeed contemporary) sizeable Muslim population that resides in South Asia. There are three main areas on which recent research has focused: the Irish presence in India, the similarities between Indian and Irish rule, and, finally, the intersection of Irish and

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Indian anti-colonial rule. Much of the rest of the chapter focuses on these three themes, consciously aware that discussions of empire and Muslims are largely framed through the lens of Ireland’s interactions with ‘cases’ of Islam and Muslims. Though this is not a ‘new’ field of study, the nascent nature of the literature reveals not only Ireland as part of the ‘Orient’, as already briefly discussed, but also the role of Ireland in asserting Orientalist tropes and enforcing British structures of governance over the Empire. Joep Leerssen has argued that Ireland was not considered part of the Empire, criticising postcolonial theorists and those seeking comparisons with India. For Leerssen, Ireland’s past was not unchanging in its form; instead he highlights Ireland’s singularity in its relationship with Europe and also its unique position in the Union.26 Ireland, and particularly Dublin, played an important role in both educating and enforcing British imperial interests. For instance, in the nineteenth century, Trinity College Dublin became instrumental in the instruction of a class of civil servants heading for the administration in India. The foundation stone for the university was laid in 1591 after funds were secured from wealthy colonialists and Queen Elizabeth I. The aim had been to create an educational institute serving to complement Leerssen’s argument of the centrality of Ireland to the mainland. In the mid-nineteenth century an Oriental Studies department was created much in the same way as it had been at Cambridge (1540) and Oxford (1546).27 William Wright was appointed as the first professor of Arabic in 1855, resigning in 1861 to take up a position as keeper of Syrian Manuscripts at the British Library. The inauguration of the department was largely a result of the 1855 Act, which opened the civil service to public competition, and those considered ‘loyal’. This in practice meant that the doors of Trinity College – not least the department – were closed to Catholics, a clear indication of the relationship between religious solidarity and the maintenance of an institution for the furtherance of empire. This was in contrast to the Queen’s Colleges of Belfast, Galway and Cork – of less prestige, but nonetheless created to educate Catholics, and developed for the purpose of training the young new civil servant recruits, thus serving to enforce imperial control.28 The Indian Muslim Professor and Institutional Imperialism While Catholics were largely obstructed from entering Trinity College, less stringent rules applied to faculty members of the academic community. First appointed to Trinity College Dublin in 1861, Mir Aulad Ali (1832–98) was more commonly known as ‘The Mir’ in the cloisters of the university. He was a notable intellectual, socialite and occasional athlete in nineteenth-century Dublin society. This colourful figure became a well-established icon in the city and represented how an early migrant from northern India, of Muslim origins, was accepted and welcomed and indeed contributed to the ongoing enhancement of social and political life in Ireland. Mir Aulad Ali provides an example of how an individual’s identity formation in the context of the

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nineteenth century was not necessarily shaped by religious affiliation, in this case Islam. Mir Aulad remains a bit of an enigma, especially as his name and origins are subject to controversy. ‘Meer Owlad Allee’ – his name is sometimes spelt phonetically – was from Oudh (now Awadh in the province of Uttar Pradesh), which had been one of the provinces of the Mughal Empire in India. While this area was effectively a vassal state of the British East India Company from 1801, Mir Aulad’s title, travels and education are indicative of the privileges of the ruling Turko-Persian-Afghan class.29 The name ‘Mir’ often denotes a title, meaning a leader of a group of people, taken from the Arabic for prince, amir. His father, Mir Zamin Ali, was a Superintendent of Public Works in India and unlikely to have been of royal blood.30 Despite this, there is some evidence to suggest that Mir Aulad had been in the employment of the last Navvab of Oudh for some years before moving to London.31 From the eighteenth century, Indians, both Muslims and Hindus, visited and settled in Britain and Ireland. Sake Dean Mahomet (1759–1851), also known as Shaykh Din Muhammad, and Mirza Abu Talib (1752–1806) both

Figure 1.1 Mir Aulad Ali of Trinity College Dublin. © Trinity College Dublin.

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travelled to, and in the case of Sake Dean lived in, Ireland. Dean, who had been born in Pitar in north-eastern India, began working for Captain Godfrey Evans Baker (1750–86) while the Captain served for the East India Company. In 1784, Dean travelled with Baker to Cork in Ireland, where Baker sponsored the education of the young Indian. Dean, who went on to marry a Protestant Irishwoman, Jane Daly, wrote about his experience in service with the East India Company. Published in Ireland in 1794, his book took the form of letters and was published in English.32 In contrast, Mirza Abu Talib Khan spent only two months in Ireland. He travelled from Cork to Dublin, his main aim being to reach London, where he lobbied the government for financial support in order to establish an Oriental languages academy.33 From the early nineteenth century, prominent Indians, both Muslims and Hindus, visited and settled in Britain, and by the middle of the century notable families in India who had traditionally held positions of privilege became aware of the benefits of a Western education – particularly in the face of prolonged British rule. From the 1840s, Indian students arrived in England and Scotland studying professions including law and medicine. In 1845, there were four Indian pupils at British universities; this number rose to 207 in the 1890s and 700 in 1910.34 Mir Aulad’s appointment falls within the earliest wave of migration of Anglo-Indians and came about before the first Indian scholar of Hindustani, Sayyid Abdullah, was appointed in Britain at University College London in the late 1860s. Mir Aulad had been living in London among a small North Indian elite residing in Paddington before taking up residence in Ireland.35 In accordance with College tradition, Mir Aulad was appointed to a sevenyear renewable position, receiving a fixed salary of £100.36 In 1866 and 1873 he received a series of promotions when he became Professor not only of Arabic but also of Hindustani and Persian.37 Mir Aulad, who occupied his chair for almost forty years, was instrumental in training civil servants in the linguistic skills required for their administrative service to his native India.38 ‘The Mir’ was a popular figure in the university. He contributed to the extra-curricular activities of the College in various forms; for instance, in 1872 he took part in the annual assault of arms, a contest of martial arts and fencing, with over 400 spectators present.39 The professor’s speciality was the Indian clubs, an exercise popular in the nineteenth century throughout the Empire and Europe. Made of wood, the clubs were swung in certain patterns as part of a routine. Mir Aulad, who was a small ‘but a well knit man’ took the 16 lb club and according to reports went through ‘a most difficult and long series of exercises without taking off his ordinary coat’.40 His display, much to the appreciation of the local Dublin audience, received continued and long applause, which greeted him to the end. Apart from his academic and extra-curricular engagements at the University, Mir Aulad also quickly became a Dublin socialite who frequently attended formal events in traditional attire common to northern India,

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including the annual Dublin Castle Ball held by the Lord Lieutenant and the Marchioness of Abercorn. Mir Aulad was also among the main local dignitaries regularly present when foreign parties came to Dublin. For example, he was one of the principal guides to the Trinity College grounds to the Queen of Romania during her official visit in 1890.41 In this respect, what the case study of Mir Aulad reveals is how a non-Irish, non-Anglican subject of the Empire was able to play a professional role at Trinity College. Here, his social identity marker was closely linked to his profession and his exoticism, but not necessarily his religious affiliation: ‘It was our pleasant experience in those days when his turban adorned the streets of Dublin.’42 Despite his ‘exotic’ nature, it is perhaps unusual to discover that Mir Aulad Ali was also noted for his activities in the promotion of the Irish language. The modern history of Ireland during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is largely dominated by its relationship with the British Empire and the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922. In turn, much of the historiography is dedicated to how Ireland mobilised its national movements in opposition to the dominant socio-political hegemony of Anglican Britain.43 The Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language established in 1877 was one of many organisations dedicated to the celebration and promotion of the usage of the Irish language. Gaelic had rapidly declined from the turn of the nineteenth century since English had increasingly been required for the business and administrative maintenance of Ireland.44 Whereas the majority of the population had spoken Irish in the sixteenth century, approximately only half of the population spoke the language by 1841. Ten years later in 1851, a survey revealed that only 23 per cent spoke the language and by 1891 only 14.4 per cent.45 By the late nineteenth century, the systematic favouring of English by the ruling classes had a significant impact on the middle and lower classes. The requirement of English as the language of public discourse – from churches and schools to the civil service and the army – coupled with the increase in social mobility relegated Gaelic. This Anglicanisation had an immense social and cultural impact on the fabric of society in Ireland. Aside from the oral and linguistic transformation, traditional folklore culture, which included songs and poetry passed down the generations, was under threat of loss. Mir Aulad Ali joined the Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language at its inception, and later acted as an ambassador for its cause in numerous public forums. In 1887, during a public meeting convened to discuss the state of the Irish education system and teachers’ rights, he advocated the cause of re-establishing the Irish language as an important element of Irish education. While he did not disparage the use of the English language and its literature – which he believed were necessary for the purposes of business – he argued that Gaelic should be encouraged as a ‘living language’. As a result, it was important for teachers themselves to study Irish, and that in the long term Gaelic would become more financially profitable than the study of French. To promote this, he encouraged the creation of a formal certificate for

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proficiency in order for the language to establish itself in the fabric of Irish society: ‘If the Irish language were allowed to die in its own land no words would be too strong to use against Irishmen.’46 Mir Aulad’s words coincided with the period of Celtic revivalism, already briefly mentioned, which sought modernity through a rediscovery of Irish roots and Gaelic as a key tool against English domination.47 By 1887, John Joseph Clancy, an MP for North County Dublin, and later one of the leaders of the Irish Home Rule movement, was regularly attacking the policies being followed by the British conservative politician Arthur Balfour. The British statesman (later UK Prime Minister from 1902 to 1905) authored the notorious Coercion Act of 1887. This legislation had a tremendous effect in Ireland as it prevented boycotts and the ‘unlawful assembly’ of people. The promotion of the Irish language was therefore significant, as it was perceived as an act of defiance and as a promotion of a legitimate claim to Irish identity and indeed nationality.48 While Mir Aulad and the Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language passionately campaigned, some of the younger members of the society ceded from it. In 1880 they created the Gaelic Union, which later became part of the Gaelic League in 1893.49 The Union, which began publishing its own journal entitled Irisleabhar na Gaedhilge (1882–1909), included some of the most significant names promoting the revival of the Irish language in Ireland, including Eoin MacNeill and Douglas Hyde (1860–1949), the first President of Ireland (1938–45) and in 1893 founder of the Gaelic League. Hyde, who had initially joined the Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language in 1879, was a close acquaintance of Mir Aulad. Mir Aulad is therefore clearly a multi-dimensional character who was connected both intellectually but also culturally and socially to the landscape of nineteenth-century Ireland. This is particularly interesting in the context of this book, since his religion or affiliation did not appear to play a key role at the forefront of his public life. This highlights the complications that are encountered concerning the role of faith and religion when researching Muslims in Ireland. Mir Aulad’s name, along with his place of birth, position and class, are indicative of a Muslim of Shia tradition from Awadh. Yet examples taken from Mir Aulad’s daily life suggest that Islam did not play a prominent role in it. For instance, his son was named Arthur, and was baptised at the age of nine at the Church of Ireland in Rathmines.50 His wife, Rebecca, an Englishwoman, never converted to Islam and instead was active in charitable deeds related to her parish.51 On the rare occasion that Mir Aulad did discuss Islam in a public forum, including its religious practices and history, he was reserved in scope, defending the fundamentals of the religion. The most prominent case available with which to assess Mir Aulad’s public engagement on the topic is a reply to an article penned by an unnamed correspondent to The Weekly Irish Times in June 1878. The original anonymous article, entitled ‘The Decay of Islamism’, though not specific, was clearly a direct reference to the end of the Turko-Russian

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wars of 1877–8. This conflict found its roots in the remnants of the ongoing belligerence between the Ottoman Empire and the Orthodox coalition led by Russia, which stemmed back to the Crimean War (1853–6). The rise of nationalism in the Balkans saw the establishment of Bulgaria as well as the later acquisition of what would become Bosnia-Herzegovina by Austria and Cyprus by the UK under the Treaty of Berlin (1878). These blowing defeats to the Ottoman Empire were correctly regarded as the beginning of its eventual demise. Indeed, from 1828, the once unshakeable empire began to implement a series of half-hearted reforms, known as the Tanzimat, in order to promote modernisation in an attempt to thwart internal revolt and external attack.52 These reforms ended in 1876, however, with the accession to power of Sultan Abdülhamid II. In the article, the Congress of Berlin, which symbolised the defeat of the Ottoman Empire and its first major losses to Europe, was congratulated.53 In addition to the gains made by the Russians, the article highlighted that these territories were ‘the greater part of the Mahometan territory in Central Asia’.54 Thus, the defeat was interpreted not only as a territorial and political loss, but also as a blow to Islam as a faith. The victory against the Ottoman Empire was a victory against the barbarous ‘Mahometans’. The deterministic tone of the article pitted the crumbling eastern Ottoman Empire against the Western European powers, ‘Islamism’ against Christianity: Islamism, as everyone knows, is the creation of a rude son of the desert, who succeeded in reusing from its degrading idolatry, and in leading to considerable social reforms a wild, barbarous, nomadic and blood thirsty race, such as the Arabs were thirteen centuries ago, and still partly are.55

While the author positioned the Muslim East against the Christian West, he was careful not to tar all Eastern lands and religions with the same brush. Instead, ‘the wisdom and purity of the soul of Buddha’ and ‘the modesty, patience and benevolence of Confucius’ were cited.56 In a lengthy response to the article, Mir Aulad sought to remedy the factual inaccuracies related to Islam while carefully avoiding entanglement in the debate surrounding the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire. The professor claimed that the author was ‘so ignorant of Mohammed and Islam that he writes the former word “Mahomet” and adds “ism” to the latter not knowing that Islam is a noun in itself’.57 Highlighting what he termed the numerous false accusations, not against Islam alone, but against the Prophet, Mir Aulad questioned the author’s research and agenda: He shows a remarkable deficiency in the knowledge of the history of the past, and the absence of reasoning power in his present argument. He blames the religion for the fault of its bad professors and condemns Islam in the abstract because certain Mussulmans are not good.58

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Addressing specific inaccuracies in the original article, Mir Aulad placed distance between himself and the subject matter. Talking about the unnamed author of the article, Mir Aulad sarcastically lauded: ‘He, seeing the fall of certain Mohammedan States, not by the Bible but by the sword, concludes that “the inevitable destiny has long since decreed that Mahometan States shall henceforth decay until the wholly cease to exist”‘.59 While Mir Aulad had felt obliged to respond to The Weekly Irish Times, a largely proestablishment paper which was likely to make such claims against the Ottoman Empire, his objections only reveal a desire to correct misinformation and do not highlight Mir Aulad’s own adherence to, or practice of, Islam. The death of Mir Aulad in 1898 of a heart attack also sheds more controversy on the life of the Indian ‘Muslim’ professor. Mir Aulad was eventually buried in a new section of the Mount Jerome Cemetery in Dublin. Joined by his wife in 1904, Mir Aulad, unlike later Muslim migrants to the city, was not buried outside the church walls, as would have been the tradition and requirement for those not adhering to the Church of Ireland.60 Indeed, it should be noted that even Catholics were forbidden from being buried on what was considered to be sacrosanct land of the Church. No special mention in obituaries or in church records are made of arrangements bestowed by the parish to enable this burial. According to reports, his son Arthur failed in his attempts to secure a Muslim Turkish imam from London, which may suggest Mir Aulad’s adherence to Islam. In the absence of an imam, the Revd J. S. Carolin of the Church of Ireland conducted the funeral service at the graveside. This, in conjunction with obituary articles, highlights that the professor believed in the principal dogma of the Christian faith (which is of course compatible with Islam), although this does not shed any light on the question of his own faith.61 In addition to the irregularity of the burial, Mir Aulad’s tombstone adds to the confusion, reading: ‘They shall come from the East and the West and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven’ (Matt 8, 2). Merchants, Sailors and Doctors By the time Mir Aulad died in 1898, interaction between regular Dubliners and the ‘men of the Orient’ was fairly commonplace. In 1894, the ‘Araby’ bazaar arrived in Dublin. Described interchangeably as an Oriental fete, fair and bazaar, the event was advertised as including: Magnificent Representation of an Oriental city. [Acts include] Cairo Donkeys and Donkey Boys, an Arab Encampment . . . Eastern Magic from the Egyptian hall, London . . . ‘The Alhabra’, an orchestra of 50 performers . . .62

While little can be said of the actual religion of these ‘Orientals’, we know that Egyptians, ‘Moors’, Ottomans and Arabians were part of the bazaar.63

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This tradition of travelling troupes was fairly common; in 1915, eight acrobats arrived from various cities and towns in Morocco to perform at the Tivoli Theatre in Dublin. The venue, which had a colourful history, had by 1901 reinvented itself as a variety theatre. The men stayed for six days, and the records indicate their names, dates of birth and, in some cases, places of birth. Two of the eight men were titled ‘Hadj’ in a note written beside their names in brackets. This indicated that they might have performed the pilgrimage in Mecca.64 As with the travelling entertainers, there is significant evidence of men of varying social classes and professions from Muslim majority countries and/ or with Muslim names spending short periods of time in Dublin throughout World War I.65 Between January and March of 1918 three sailors arrived at the North Wall in Dublin originating from the Egyptian cities of Aswan, Alexandria and Suez.66 One of them, Mohamed Ahmed (b. 1879), who arrived in Dublin in March 1918 and departed to Cardiff, appears to have been resident there with his family.67 A register of aliens entering and exiting from the island was kept by the Irish authorities and included detailed biographical and personal status information.68 In addition to short-term-resident working-class men, there is also evidence of longer-term migrants who like Mir Aulad settled in Dublin. The 1911 Census reveals that three Yemeni men, listed as ‘Mahommedan’, resided in Cork and worked as firemen, for example.69 Six Egyptian doctors arrived in Dublin in 1919 to take up training posts or medical positions in various hospitals around the city, including Rotunda, Coombe and Trinity.70 Like the sailors, many of the doctors had names that might indicate ‘Muslim origin’, inasmuch as their names were Arab ones and may have been commonly or historically used by Muslim men. For instance, Osman Fahmy, Kamal Bandaly, Sayed Ghaleb, Mohamed Riad Zada and Hamed Kamil had all arrived from various medical schools in the UK. Bandaly, who was a medical student who had arrived from London, had served in the British army between 1917 and 1918. The sixth doctor, Eskander Girgis, appears – again from the name – to be of Coptic origin.71 These doctors, unlike subsequent waves of medical students that will be discussed in forthcoming chapters, did not appear to set up any formal religious arrangement to attend to their spiritual needs. By the 1930s, there are also reports in The Irish Times of ‘Dublin’s first Muslims’, an interesting distinction to note from discussions of Mir Aulad, who was never labelled a ‘Dublin Muslim’. These men, ‘30 to 40 of them in the Free State’, were all silk merchants, and, according to the article, represented ‘commercial Islam in Ireland’, a vague term drawing association between their profession and their religion.72 There is obvious confusion in The Irish Times article; the merchants who made up the ‘Mohammedan colony’ in south Dublin were, according to the Aliens Office, all British subjects who had originated from the Punjab. It is unclear whether all the men were Muslim, and it is likely that some may have been Hindu. Food

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practices, which can serve as an indicator of faith, cloud the religious affiliation of the men: [Reporter] ‘Do you have meat?’ [Man] ‘We kill da goat.’ Mr Ramantulla intervened and said: ‘We not eat cow meat, not a pig, but da goat and da sheep.’73

While the men did not eat pork, in accordance with Islam, they also refrained from beef; this may reveal more about general social norms and nutritional practices than about faith. The financial accessibility of goat as opposed to cow meat, or the ability to ensure that the slaughter of the animal was carried out in accordance with religious ritual and custom, may account for the discrepancy in the reporting. Interestingly, an Act accommodating slaughter practices for kosher and halal meat was enacted in 1935.74 We know that there was a thriving and substantial Jewish population in south Dublin, and it appears that early Muslim migrants may have settled in the same neighbourhood. Concerning other religious practices, when the reporter asked the silk merchants if there was a priest, a mosque or a place of worship to minister to them, their response was negative. They did, however, hold regular meetings and ‘all men go to bed – before say do prayers to God – always’.75 Religiosities and practices here are shaped by the individual men and not by dogmatic and rigid understandings of Islam. Contextualising Islam and Ireland: Intersections of Colonial Rule With such vague biographical case studies, what can one deduce about the individual religiosities of our cases? Can one identify a Muslim merely by name? What are the challenges if we are to take a rigid understanding of Islam and its practices? What does this tell us about communities and the importance of institutionalised religion? The case studies of the Sack of Baltimore, Mir Aulad, short-term visitors and longer-term migrants, while anecdotal in nature, are significant. They do not reveal a ‘systematic community’ of Muslims, as understood in the body of twentieth-century literature of Muslims in the West. However, upon closer examination, they do reveal interesting aspects of various identity formations, which include in part the role of Islam and also significant insights into the socio-cultural and political milieu of seventeenth- to twentieth-century Irish society. The case studies reveal subjective, and often-contradictory, individual religiosities. To the reporter of The Irish Times the south Dublin silk merchants provided an anecdotal insight into the ‘Muslims of Dublin’. Yet we also discover that these men, presumably from extremely modest backgrounds, were politically conscious of the climate in India and cited their admiration for Gandhi.76 In the case of the six Egyptian doctors, the limited

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records reveal that two, Hamid Kamil and Eskander Girgis, who had arrived from Newcastle and Belfast, were under special surveillance for political activity.77 It is unclear whether this is related to their time in the UK at medical school or to their time in Egypt, which had been under British occupation since 1882 and only gained semi-independence in 1922. In the year of their arrival in Dublin, 1919, Egypt saw the first popular mass protest, which became known as the Egyptian Revolution. This moment has, in historical memory, been venerated through the image of the cross and the crescent flag intertwined, symbolising national and religious unity. It perhaps seems fitting therefore that the two doctors who were under British surveillance in Dublin were ‘Muslim’ and ‘Copt’. In the case of Mir Aulad, his fluency in English made him capable of asserting his own religious identity, yet he chose not to discuss this in a public forum. What many of the case studies reveal, therefore, is the role of national and anti-colonial struggle, not only in the native homes of the migrants, but also in the ways in which some of those examined tied this to the wider ‘Irish Question’. For instance, Kate O’Malley has argued for the importance of examining intra-colonial relations, especially in the period 1919–60, as a window to understanding broader networks.78 These are in large part based not on religious solidarity, but on a shared colonial experience. Mir Aulad, for example, publicly spoke of sympathy felt by foreigners for the Irish language, linking this to his own nationalist cause not only by seeking a shared present, but by stressing the ‘affinity between the Celtic language and the languages of the East’.79 Increased contact between Irish and Indian nationalists took place in the nineteenth century. The Indian rebellion of 1857 was a significant factor in the forging of this relationship, and, as C. A. Bayly has argued, this was complex and often contradictory in nature. It was the intelligentsia of Bengal who had initially recognised and sought to foster a link with Ireland based on commonalities. Ireland reciprocated after 1857, when the ‘assumed racial difference began to be supplanted by a sense of common grievance under the yoke of imperialism; Irish Catholic patriots began to discover a bond with India’.80 Growing calls for economic reforms which would address not only the issue of free trade and protectionism, but also land reforms, were aired on both continents and found momentum. Despite the discrepancies between Irish and Indian proximity to the centre of the Empire, strategies increasingly resembled one another. The challenges faced under British tutelage led radical publicists and bureaucratic critics to compare ‘the “congested” agricultural districts of Ireland with those of Eastern India’.81 As in Ireland, where Catholics were not permitted to hold certain jobs, the Anglicising projects of Lord Cornwallis, commander-in-chief of British India in the late eighteenth century, also had the effect of removing Indians from high office. Reformers in India, such as Raja Ram Mohun Roy (1772–1833), sometimes referred to as the Father of Modern India, also gave strong moral support to Catholic emancipation.82 In this respect, it is not circumstantial

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that Mir Aulad, as an educated man, who had been exposed to these ideas both in his youth in Awadh and later through his settlement and political participation in Ireland, should be such an advocate. Indeed, there was also a link between Egypt and Ireland established following the ‘Urabi revolt of 1882 which led to the British occupation of Egypt. Sir Wilfrid Blunt (1840–1922), who championed both the Irish and the Egyptian cause, was imprisoned for his activities. Moreover, between 1907 and 1909 Fredrick Ryan, the first National Secretary of the Socialist Party in Ireland, became joint editor of the English Egyptian Standard.83 This was an offshoot of the Egyptian nationalist newspaper Al-Liwa (The Standard), which had been founded in 1900 by Mustafa Kamil Pasha (1874–1908). Kamil, an ardent nationalist, was inspired by Egypt’s Islamic past and supported the Ottoman Sultan against the British and Egyptian governments.84 Ryan had attempted to create transnational networks between Ireland and Egypt, but by the time of Kamil’s premature death in 1908 Ryan was disheartened. Writing to Blunt, Ryan commented that the Egyptian Standard was running into difficulty because the nationalist support was concentrated entirely in Cairo, whereas in Ireland ‘every village had its National League Branch’.85 Here networks of solidarity were important but not necessarily effective. Despite this, transnational links are essential to highlight, as they existed not only within the Empire but also beyond.86 The Egyptian Revolution of 1919, and the activities of the doctors Girgis and Kamil, would have all coincided with Irish nationalist activities in the same year, resulting in the Irish Republic’s Declaration of Independence (1919), and later the Anglo-Irish Treaty (1921) and the Free Irish State (1922). These commonalities aside, however, Bayly is correct to highlight the contradictory nature of this new-found affinity. While, on the one hand, there are clear commonalities between Ireland and other countries fighting for their independence from the British Empire (thus serving to undermine traditional literature on empire and support a more revisionist interpretation of global economy and interconnectivity in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries), on the other, the Irish were clear beneficiaries of their status. For the most part, India represented an exotic far-off land which offered fortunes, whether to a sailor or to a civil servant educated at Trinity College. In this sense, Mir Aulad’s position at Trinity College epitomised both these junctures.87 On the one hand, he educated civil servants who served in his native India and consequently assisted in the prolonged occupation of India. And yet, he simultaneously promoted the reclamation of Irish as an act of nationalism in the face of colonialism. This is not as contradictory as it initially appears. Mir Aulad was a product of plural identities, which saw the intersection, and interaction, of ideas and beliefs. Likewise, this uneasy relationship, which saw some Irish men both benefit from the British Empire and maintain a link to the ‘Orient’ and its nationalist movements, can also be seen in cultural circles. For instance, Mir Aulad

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made a dented mark on Irish popular culture. Following his death, the Irish poet, icon and nationalist W. B. Yeats referred to Mir Aulad in his 1916 Reveries over Childhood and Youth. Talking about the importance of belief and conviction, Yeats tapped into prominent Orientalist discourses of the time, recalling an image of how the professor as a child had once ‘seen a vision in a pool of ink, a multitude of spirits singing in Arabic’.88 While Mir Aulad commanded great respect, he was not immune to this ‘othering’ by Irishmen. Similarly, the poet and writer James Joyce (1882–1941) ‘recognised orientalists for their complicity in a British project of domination while, at the same time allowing the fascination and allure of languages of the east to remind him of civilisations beyond the reaches of the British Empire’.89 In ‘Araby’, his short story about the aforementioned 1894 ‘Araby Bazaar’ written in 1905 and published in 1914, Joyce did not maintain a faithful rendition of events, which were exoticised and eroticised instead.90 The average Dubliner knew about the event, and Joyce is likely to have attended; yet the lure of the East and poetic licence took the lead. Moreover, while Joyce was well versed in Oriental culture and counted among his books a French translation of the Qur’an as well as Edith Holland’s biography The Story of Mohammad, he also secularised the Muslim holy book. In Finnegans Wake, he deliberately referred to Allah as ‘Annah’ and consciously translated the concept of salaam, meaning peace, to violence.91 A clear-cut narrative which conveniently relates discrete stories of Ireland as part of the Orient, the Irish presence in the Orient (both physically in terms of institutional presence but indulging in the metaphorical) and the networks of interaction between Irish and other anti-colonial actors does not exist. Instead, what is revealed is a series of complex and often contradictory narratives highlighting the nexus of identities not only of Ireland and the Irish, but also of Muslims and Islam. Ireland was not merely a ‘colony’ of the British, just as the men examined were not merely ‘Muslims’. Instead, their ethnic, national, social and political interests were of greater importance to their identities. As a result, prior to World War II, there was no communal or ‘Muslim’ presence in Ireland. Moreover, and importantly interlinked, should there have been a ‘communal presence’, one must not assume that these individuals who visited and later settled in Ireland had a common agreement and understanding of what it meant to be ‘Muslim’. Regional and social identities have a tremendous impact on one’s religious identity. It is therefore problematic and indeed impossible to use these examples to develop a coherent trajectory of the history of Islam in Ireland. Notes 1. This phenomenon has also been recently been noted by Grahame Davis, The Dragon and the Crescent: Nine Centuries of Welsh Contact with Islam (Bridgend: Seren, 2011), p. 7.

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2. Tina Gudrun Jensen, ‘Context, Focus and New Perspectives in the Study of Muslim Religiosity’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 34:7, 2011, pp. 1,152–67. 3. W. A. R. Shadid and P. van Koningsveld, Intercultural Relations and Religious Authorities: Muslims in the European Union (Leuven: Peeters, 2002). 4. Carl W. Ernst, ‘Reconfiguring South Asian Islam: From the 18th to the 19th Century’, Comparative Islamic Studies, 5:2, 2009, p. 248. 5. Jensen, ‘Context, Focus and New Perspectives’, p. 4. 6. Humayun Ansari, ‘The Infidel Within’: Muslims in Britain since 1800 (London: Hurst, 2004), pp. 22–3. 7. Anna Suranyi, ‘Virile Turks and Maiden Ireland: Gender and National Identity in Early Modern English Travel Literature’, Gender and History, 21:2, 2009, p. 241. 8. Theresa Denise Murray, ‘From Baltimore to Barbary: The 1631 Sack of Baltimore’, History Ireland, 14:4, 2006, p. 15. 9. Murat Reis, formerly known as Jan Janszoon van Haarlem. 10. Des Ekin, The Stolen Village (Dublin: O’Brien Press, 2008), p. 11. 11. Ibid. 12. Edmund Clarence Stedman, A Victorian Anthology 1837–1895 (Cambridge: Cambridge Riverside Press, 1895), p. 97. 13. Murray, ‘From Baltimore to Barbary’, p. 18. 14. Noted in Ekin, The Stolen Village, p. 44. 15. Anna Forrestal, ‘Slavery on the Frontier: The Report of a French Missionary on Mid-Seventeenth Century Tunis’, Reformation and Renaissance Review, 14:2, 2012, p. 172. 16. See Jean Le Vacher, cited in ibid. 17. Ibid. 18. Letter written by Jean Le Vacher printed in ibid., pp. 180–211. 19. Joseph Lennon, Irish Orientalism: A Literary and Intellectual History (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2004), xv. 20. Ibid., xviii. 21. Pauline Collombier-Lakeman, ‘Ireland and the Empire: the Ambivalence of Irish Constitutional Nationalism’, Radical History Review, 104, 2009, p. 58. 22. Peter Gray, ‘Famine and Land in Ireland and India 1845–1880: James Caird and the Political Economy of Hunger’, The Historical Journal, 49:1, 2006, p. 194. 23. Kavita Philip, ‘Race, Class and the Imperial Politics of Ethnography in India, Ireland and London, 1850–1910’, Irish Studies Review, 10:3, 2002, p. 289. 24. Richard Lebow, cited in ibid., p. 295. 25. Friedrich Engels, cited in ibid., p. 289. 26. Joep Leerssen, ‘Irish Studies and Orientalism: Ireland and the Orient’, in C. C. Barfoot and Theo D’haen (eds), Oriental Prospects: Western Literature and the Lure of the East (Amsterdam and Atlanta: Rodopi, 1998), pp. 161–73. 27. W. Macneile Dixon, Trinity College Dublin (London: F. E. Robinson and Co., 1902), pp. 9–10.

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28. Menachem Mansoor, The Story of Irish Orientalism (Dublin: Hodges, Figgis & Co., 1944), pp. 22–3. 29. Mansoor states that Mir Aulad was a native of Persia. See ibid., p. 42. 30. Certified Copy of an Entry to Marriage Given at the General Register Office, 15 July 1858, District of Marylebone, Application No. 5260315/1. 31. ‘Death of Mir Aulad Ali’, The Irish Times, 16 July 1898, p. 7. 32. Michael Herbert Fisher, The First Indian Author in English: Dean Mahomed (1759– 1851) in India, Ireland and England (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1996); Michael Herbert Fisher (ed.), The Travels of Dean Mahomet: An Eighteenth-Century Journey Through India (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997). 33. Daniel O’Quinn, The Travels of Mirza Abu Taleb Khan (Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press, 2008). 34. Ansari, The Infidel Within, p. 31. 35. For instance, the ‘Mohammadan Queen’ of Oudh, from Mir Aulad’s province, made extended trips to the English capital with her 130 followers and lived in Paddington. For details see Ansari, The Infidel Within, p. 33. 36. Mir Aulad’s salary was also supplemented by occasional fees from students attending additional lectures at the discretion of the Provost and Senior Fellows. The Dublin University Calendar for the Year 1862 (Dublin: Hodges, Smith and Co., 1862), p. 217. In addition, new accommodation and furnishings were acquired with the assistance of the Board of Trustees at Trinity. TCM. MUN/V/56/3, 26 October 1861. 37. In 1866 Mir Aulad’s salary was raised to £150 per annum, and later in 1873 to £200. See The Dublin University Calendar for the Year 1874 (Dublin: Hodges, Smith and Co., 1874), p. 314. 38. Mansoor, Story of Irish Orientalism, p. 26. 39. ‘University Intelligence’, The Irish Times, 4 June 1872, p. 3. 40. Ibid. 41. ‘Visit of the Queen of Romania’, The Irish Times, 20 September 1890, p. 5. 42. H.F.N. (?), The Dublin Magazine, 20:4, October–December 1945, p. 60. 43. Eugenio F. Biagini, British Democracy and Irish Nationalism 1876–1906 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007). 44. The Society produced a series of books aiming to ‘enable the learner to think in Gaelic, and express his thoughts in that language’, which continued into the twentieth century. For details see Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language, Third Irish Book (Dublin: Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language, 1902), p. 1. 45. Tomás A. O’Riordan and Fidelma Maguire, ‘Anglicisation and De-Anglicisation’, Multitext Project in Irish History, University College Cork. Available at http:// multitext.ucc.ie/d/Anglicisation_and_De-Anglicisation (last accessed 26 June 2014). 46. ‘The Public Meeting’, The Irish Times, 31 December 1887, p. 6. 47. See Gregory Castle, Modernism and Celtic Revival (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp. 2–3. 48. O’Riordan & Maguire, ‘Anglicisation and De-Anglicisation’.

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49. Francis Fahy, ‘The Irish Language Movement’. Originally published in 1901. See David Pierce (ed.), Irish Writing in the Twentieth Century (Cork: Cork University Press, 2008), p. 63. 50. See http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/details/a91062001 6551 (last accessed 23 June 2014). 51. ‘Bazaar in aid of the Rathmines Parish Church Building Fund’, The Irish Times, 24 November 1884, p. 3. 52. Of particular note is the Hatt-i Humayun decree of 1856, which aimed to create religious equality. 53. ‘The Decay of Islamism’, The Irish Times, 1 June 1878, p. 1. 54. Ibid. 55. Ibid. 56. Ibid. 57. Mir Aulad Ali, ‘The Decay of Islamism’, The Irish Times, 10 June 1878, p. 6. 58. Ibid. 59. Ibid. 60. For instance, there is a subsection of graves at the side of the church in a walled area that is exclusively dedicated to Muslims who died from the 1970s onwards. 61. ‘Funeral of the late professor Mir Aulad Ali’, The Irish Times, 20 July 1898, p. 5. 62. Dublin Official Catalogue: The official catalogue of ‘Araby’, grand oriental fête at Ball’s Bridge, Dublin in aid of Jervis Street Hospital, May 14th–19th 1894 (Dublin: Brown & Nolan, 1894). 63. Heyward Ehrlich, ‘“Araby” in Context: The “Splendid Bazaar”, Irish Orientalism and James Clarence Mangan’, James Joyce Quarterly 35:2/3, 1998, p. 316. 64. Ahmed Ben Mohammed (b. 1879), Ali El-Garbal (b. 1880), Mohamed Ben Bajamaa (b. 1893), Mohamed Ben Brahim (b. 1895), Mohamed Ben Troussean (b. 1871), [Hadj] Hady Hamid (b. 1890), [Hadj] Hady Houssain (b. 1885) and Hamed Ben Hadt (b.1895). For further information see Ministry of Justice, 96/ 11/1: Register of Aliens, National Archives of Ireland. 65. A handful of individuals between 1861 and 1911 self-identified or (in cases where the head of the household or the landlord of a lodging house filled out the response form) were identified in the censuses as Muslims, using designations such as ‘Mussulman’, ‘Mahommetan’ or ‘Moslem’. There were none in 1861, two in 1871, one in 1881, three in 1891, nine in 1901 and eight in 1911. Since the household return forms for the 1901 and 1911 Censuses are also available online it is possible to identify these ‘Muslims’ personally; among them were domestic servants, firemen lodging at Irish port cities and a few students. The available census data are rather scant and confirm that a communal Muslim presence did not exist in the nineteenth century. See http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/ (last accessed 23 June 2014). 66. Hassan Ali Demidy (b.1895) arrived on 12 November 1918 and departed for Liverpool on 15 January 1918; Abdul Silif-Ishafoi (b.1864) arrived on 14 February 1918 and departed for Newport on 16 February 1918; Mohamed Ahmed (b.1897) arrived on 18 March 1918 and departed for Cardiff on 20 March 1918. For further information see Ministry of Justice, 96/11/4: Register of Aliens.

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67. Ministry of Justice, 96/11/4: Register of Aliens. 68. This chapter has largely relied on police registration of aliens in the Dublin district as found in the National Archives of Ireland. 69. Census of Ireland, 1911. Available at http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/ (last accessed 23 June 2014). 70. Ministry of Justice, 96/11/5: Register of Aliens. 71. Religion is not registered in the files. See Ministry of Justice, 96/11/5: Register of Aliens. 72. ‘Islam in Ireland: Dublin’s Muslim Population’, The Irish Times, 13 February 1931, p. 8. 73. Ibid. 74. For details see http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1935/en/act/pub/0045/print. html (last accessed 23 June 2014). 75. ‘Islam in Ireland’, The Irish Times. 76. Ibid. 77. Ministry of Justice, 96/11/5: Register of Aliens. 78. For further information see Kate O’Malley, Ireland, India and Empire: IndoIrish Radical Connections, 1919–1964 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2008). 79. ‘Public Meeting’, The Irish Times. 80. C. A. Bayly, ‘Ireland, India and the Empire: 1780–1914’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 10, 2000, p. 387. 81. Ibid., p. 380. 82. Lynn Zastoupil, ‘Defining Christians, Making Britons: Rammohun Roy and the Unitarians’, Victorian Studies, 44:2, 2002, p. 215. 83. Frederick Ryan, Sinn Fein and Reaction (Dublin: Labour History Workshop, 1984). 84. Vivian Ibrahim, The Copts of Egypt: Challenges of Modernisation and Identity (London: I. B. Tauris, 2011), p. 54. 85. Quoted in Elizabeth Longford, A Pilgrim of Passion: The Life of Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (London: Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 1979), p. 384. 86. Mansour Bonakdarian, ‘Erin and Iran Resurgent: Irish Nationalists and the Iranian Constitutional Revolution’, in Houchang E. Chehabi and Vanessa Martin (eds), Iran’s Constitutional Revolution: Popular Politics, Cultural Transformations and Transnational Connections (London: I. B. Tauris, 2010), pp. 291–318. 87. Other examples of this include: Robert Emmet, who matriculated from Trinity in 1793 and attempted to establish Irish independence, for which he was subsequently executed in 1803 at the age of twenty-five. Other examples include Wolfe Tone, father of the Irish republican movement, and Thomas Davis, the father of the ‘Young Irish’ movement. Douglas Hyde, the first president of independent Ireland, was also a Trinity graduate. Trinity: A Comprehensive Guide to the QuarterCentury Celebrations of Trinity College Dublin (Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, 1991–2), pp. 15–19. 88. William Butler Yeats, Reveries over Childhood and Youth (London: Macmillan, 1916), p. 108.

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89. Carl Loeb Shloss, ‘Joyce in the Context of Irish Orientalism’, James Joyce Quarterly, 35:2/3, 1998, p. 266. 90. Ehrlich, ‘“Araby” in Context’, p. 310. 91. For more detail see Aida Yared, ‘“In the Name of Annah”: Islam and Salam in Joyce’s Finnegans Wake’, James Joyce Quarterly, 35:2/3, 1998, pp. 401–38.

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chapter

2 Muslim Immigration to Ireland after World War II Oliver Scharbrodt

Introduction This chapter provides a systematic overview of Muslim immigration to the Republic of Ireland since World War II, its different stages, patterns and dynamics. The permanent presence of Muslims since the early 1950s illustrates that Ireland has been an immigration country prior to the so-called Celtic Tiger years (1995–2008), the years of rapid economic growth in Ireland, and that only the type and scope of immigration have changed since then.1 The different types of Muslim immigration provide a good example of this change, as one can observe a major transformation of the Muslim population from small groups of middle- and upper-class educated professionals – most of whom immigrated for educational reasons – to migrant communities from diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds, including labour migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. The uses of the label ‘Muslim’ to categorise a particular group of immigrants to Ireland is problematic. Because of the actual diversity of Muslims in Ireland in terms of their ethnic, national, cultural and linguistic backgrounds, their sectarian and ideological orientations, their different degrees of religious commitment and their educational levels and socio-economic status, a ‘Muslim community’ does not exist. However, even referring to the existence of various ‘Muslim communities’2 is not sufficient either. Consideration needs to be given to the reasons for investigating patterns of immigration to Ireland under a religious lens and for discussing the arrival and settlement of immigrants of a Muslim background. The danger of homogenising Muslim minorities in European contexts by an unreflective use of the label ‘Muslim’ has been addressed in the introduction to this book. The label ‘Muslim’ is used as an externally defined ‘category’3 to gain empirical data on Muslim minorities and as a self-chosen identification with a ‘group’,4 while acknowledging its very heterogeneity and various levels of self-identification of Muslims with it. [ 49 ]

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Examining the growing Muslim population in Ireland in the sense both of a statistical category and of a social group is important in the documentation of the increasing cultural and religious diversification of Irish society and in understanding the social realities of Muslim lives in Ireland. Systematically investigating the trajectories and dynamics of Muslim immigration to the Republic of Ireland thereby provides data on the growth of this ‘new’ religious minority, its ethnic composition and socio-economic background. This data can be used in order to undertake comparisons with other European countries, their growing Muslim population and the historical and contemporary migration trajectories. In line with emic self-identifications with Islam as a social group – a ‘Muslim community’ – Muslim residents in Ireland increasingly refer to their ‘Muslimness’ in order to gain recognition of their religious and cultural needs in the legal system, in education, in economic life, in the workplace and in other areas and to reveal instances of religious discrimination against them.5 The first part of this chapter is historical, tracing Muslim immigration from World War II until the early 1990s, and is based on official documents available in the National Archives of Ireland, newspaper articles and the various community histories provided by Muslims themselves, which have been produced in writing only to a very limited extent and are for the most part oral.6 Since, prior to the 1991 Census, official statistics on the number of Muslims living in Ireland do not exist, it is necessary to refer to the ethnic and national backgrounds of migrants on the basis of an assumption that most migrants from Muslim-majority societies are likely to have had a Muslim background. Such an approach entails an obvious danger of the ‘ethnification of Islam’,7 equating nationality with religion. However, this remains the only feasible option for gathering data on Muslim immigrants before the 1990s. In addition, these sources inform the historical context of Muslim immigration and allow for a discussion of the reasons for and socio-political dynamics of immigration to Ireland from Muslim-majority countries. Considering thereby the political, economic and educational links between the Irish state and countries in the Middle East and North Africa is important in order to trace the scope and patterns of immigration of Muslims before the Celtic Tiger years. The second part of the chapter provides an analysis of patterns of Muslim immigration to Ireland from the early 1990s onwards, using official census material as well as other statistical information on asylum seekers, labour migrants and foreign students. The impact of various patterns of immigration on the development of the Muslim population in the last twenty years is assessed, and a discussion on the national background, socio-economic status and educational level of Muslims in Ireland as gained from these sources is provided. Thereby, the statistical data provide insights into the actual diversity of the Muslim population in Ireland, while an understanding of the various degrees of self-identification with Islam can only be gained through ethnographic research.8

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[ 51

From World War II to the 1990s: Students and Doctors Although there is evidence of individual Muslims living in Ireland from the late eighteenth century onwards, these were visitors, students, servants of former colonial officials or firemen lodging temporarily in Irish port cities. Up to the establishment of the Irish Free State and also to a certain extent after 1922, the settlement of Muslims in Ireland followed similar patterns as in Britain, with the notable differences that the scale of settlement was much smaller, residence was usually transitory, and there is no evidence of an organised Muslim communal life emerging out of their settlement in Ireland. The permanent presence of Muslims in Ireland began with the arrival of Muslim students from South Africa embarking on medical studies after World War II.9 Given the restrictions on access to higher education imposed on South Africa’s non-white population, the Indian population in South Africa – descendants of Indians who settled in the nineteenth century – also faced discrimination. Sorabjee Rustomjee (1895–1960), a Parsi and an important political activist among South African Indians,10 raised this issue during a visit of the Aga Khan III (1877–1957), the spiritual head of the Ismaili Shia community, to South Africa in 1945. The Aga Khan had contacts with Éamon de Valera (1882–1975), leader of the Irish independence struggle and then head of the Irish government. As de Valera succeeded the Aga Khan as president of the assembly of the League of Nations in 1938, the two men knew each other. De Valera met Rustomjee at the United Nations in New York in 1946. In his capacity as Chancellor of the National University of Ireland, he secured five to six places in medicine at University College Dublin every year, with groups of South Africans, among them also Rustomjee’s son, arriving in the late 1940s.11 An agreement with the Royal College of Surgeons included the annual admission of a quota of Indian students – among them a significant number of Muslims – from South Africa from 1952 onwards.12 South African students of an Indian ethnic background constituted one of the largest contingents of foreign students at the Royal College of Surgeons until the late 1960s. In 1963, of 280 foreign students taking the entry examination for the College, more than 200 were from South Africa.13 With the increase in tuition fees in 1968 and a relaxation of apartheid restrictions for Indian students in South Africa, the demand began to decrease.14 A number of the South African students stayed in Ireland after graduation, pursued professional careers and, often, married into Irish families.15 Initial efforts to organise Muslim communal activities in Dublin were led by these South African students who arrived in the 1950s. Coming from privileged socio-economic and well-educated backgrounds, they possessed the organisational skills and cultural resources to set up the first Muslim organisation in Ireland. They were familiar with organisational practices within English-speaking societies and were used to a context where Muslims constituted a minority and had to create organisational platforms in order to cater for their needs. The first Muslim organisation in Ireland, the Dublin

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Islamic Society,16 was created in 1959 with South African Muslims playing a leading role up to the late 1970s as its administrative officers and trustees.17 While a significant number of South African Muslim students organised Muslim communal life in Dublin in the 1950s and 1960s, others were members of or sympathisers with the African National Congress, had leftist leanings and were quite secular, non-practising Muslims.18 Demonstrations and public events against South African apartheid policies began in Dublin in 1960, inspired by similar initiatives in London. Important student activists of the anti-apartheid movement in Britain had personal and academic connections to Ireland. Police reports on an anti-apartheid demonstration in Dublin in February 1960 identify Hoosen Coovadia as one of its main organisers.19 Coovadia was a medical student at the Royal College of Surgeons, sharing a flat with another fellow student from South Africa, Ismail Minty, whose brother Abdul Samad Minty20 initiated the boycott call in London together with Kader Asmal. Asmal would move to Dublin in 1963 to lecture in law at Trinity College while also playing a leading role in the Irish antiapartheid movement until 1991.21 South African Muslim students were the most significant group among Muslims in Dublin in the 1950s and 1960s, both in terms of their numbers and their organisational impact. While there were only a handful of Muslim students from Arab countries at the Royal College of Surgeons in the 1950s, their numbers increased with postgraduate students from Libya, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Sudan arriving from the mid-1960s onwards.22 The first Malaysian students arrived in 1950,23 with numbers increasing to 400 in 1968.24 In 1957, Malaya House (later renamed Malaysia House) on Leeson Street in Dublin was opened, which has served as a centre for Malaysian students since then.25 Given the ethnic and religious diversity of Malaysian society, with a significant Chinese and Indian population, the majority of students arriving in the 1950s and 1960s were not from a Muslim background.26 According to a history provided by the Islamic Foundation of Ireland, there were around a hundred Muslim students and various families in Dublin, adding to a number of approximately three hundred overall in 1969.27 In the same year, the Irish–Arab Society, established to promote cultural, educational, economic and political interaction between Ireland and the Arab world, estimated that there were around a hundred and fifty Arabs in Ireland, ‘most of them doctors and students’.28 Students continued to be a central group making up Muslim migrants to Ireland in the 1970s as well. The example of Libyan students arriving in Ireland in the 1970s provides an interesting case study of how such contacts were established and how these were embedded in Irish–Arab relations. There was huge interest on the part of the Libyan embassy in London, its cultural attaché Khalifa Bazelya and educational officials in Libya to strengthen educational and economic links with Ireland. The contacts established between the Libyan embassy in London, representatives from Libyan universities and Irish government officials, companies and universities from

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1972 onwards led to the arrival of a number of Libyan students in Ireland receiving training in various health and medical sciences and in aviation technology.29 Through press coverage of Irish–Libyan relations in the 1970s and documents from the Department of Foreign Affairs available in the National Archives of Ireland,30 it is possible to trace different stages in the development of this relationship and to identify organisations, companies and individuals involved in promoting links. The Irish–Arab Society played a crucial role in facilitating Irish–Libyan contacts, through the mediation of its secretary Atef Matouk, a Syrian-born journalist who had arrived in Ireland in 1966 and was one of the founding members of the society.31 Members of the Irish–Arab Society were first invited to Libya in March 1972,32 leading to the completion of a ‘management assistant contract’33 between Aer Lingus and Libyan Airlines after a similar agreement had already been signed with Air Algérie.34 This agreement resulted in the admission of a number of Libyan postgraduate students studying at the Institute of Industrial Research and Standards.35 In the following years, collaboration between Aer Lingus and Libyan Airlines intensified. The Aer Lingus representative, in charge of the training of Libyan aviation technicians at Shannon Airport, enquires about the Department’s view on continuing the cooperation, stating that although ‘there had been some trouble of a “personal nature” with the Libyan trainees and dealings with Libyan airlines had not always been smooth’,36 Aer Lingus wishes to continue this collaboration, as ‘the financial terms of the agreement were particularly satisfactory’.37 Educational collaborations between Ireland and Libya also comprised medical and health sciences. While an initial group of Libyan students, arriving in 1973, studied hospital administration,38 a visit by Dr Lenghi, vice-president of the medical school of the University of Benghazi, and Atef Matouk of the Irish–Arab Society to the head of the cultural division of the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1974 indicates the strong interest of the Libyans in furthering such collaborations.39 The cultural attaché of the Libyan embassy in London approached University College Galway in 1975 in order to seek the admission of postgraduate students in medicine, industrial engineering and education, with costs being covered by the Libyan government. Given the financial benefits of such an agreement, the respective university departments ‘were extremely anxious to secure the scheme for Galway and were anxious that other Irish universities should not come to know of it’.40 In the same year, the Libyan government requested the establishment of nine posts for postgraduate medical training at various hospitals in Ireland, funded by the Libyan government.41 Collaborations between Ireland and Libya were further strengthened with a visit of a medical delegation from Libya in 1978 inspecting hospitals and medical facilities throughout the country in order to train nurses and paramedics in Ireland. Political support for this initiative was quite strong, as ‘Mr Haughey, T. D., Minister for Health was anxious to facilitate the party as far as possible’.42

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The Irish–Arab Society played an important role in establishing contacts between Irish officials and representatives of the Libyan government and universities, organising, for example, the visit of an Irish parliamentary delegation to Libya in April 1975.43 In addition, Abacus International and its director, Seán Sherwin, a former member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament, for the Fianna Fáil party, acted as mediator and facilitator of contacts. While Abacus initially provided English language training for prospective Libyan students in Ireland,44 it secured the contract between Aer Lingus and Libyan Airlines to train pilots and organised trips by Irish delegations, comprising representatives from Irish universities, trade unions and industrial organisations, to Libya in 1977.45 A request by the cultural attaché of the Libyan embassy to train air pilots with the Irish Aircorps was communicated to the Department of Defence by Sherwin.46 Likewise, Sherwin and Abacus organised the 1978 visit of a Libyan medical delegation to Ireland.47 Despite the mutual benefits of such collaborations, resulting in the admission of a huge number of government-sponsored Libyan students at different Irish universities and institutes of technology and bringing other economic benefits as well,48 the government departments involved were certainly aware of the controversial nature of this relationship. Muammar Gaddafi’s open support for the armed struggle of the Provisional Irish Republican Army and the arms supply by the Libyan government49 rendered a close rapport between the Republic of Ireland and Libya potentially problematic. A note from the Department of Transport and Commerce addressed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs in support of the training of Libyan aviation technicians in Ireland refers to these problems: ‘It is true that there have been difficulties about the Libian [sic] regime support for the Provisionals and that our message to Colonel Gaddafi on this matter did not seem to be getting through . . .’50 As a consequence, the note states that ‘the arrangement is not one for excessive publicity in present circumstances since not only might it cause unwelcome reaction in Ireland but might also arouse unwelcome reaction in Great Britain’.51 Nevertheless, the potential benefits of such arrangements outweighed the reservations, with the Department of Foreign Affairs usually expressing its support for intensifying collaborations between Ireland and Libya.52 These concerns gain further plausibility in light of the pro-Republican stances of many individuals involved in facilitating Irish–Libyan relations. Apart from its strong support for the Palestinian cause, the Irish–Arab Society and its secretary Atef Matouk expressed their sympathies with the Republican struggle in Northern Ireland. The society lobbied different Arab countries ‘to condemn in the strongest possible terms the recent massacre of Irish civilians by the British Army of occupation Northern Ireland’,53 referring to the ‘Bloody Sunday’ incident in Derry in 1972. The support of Seán Sherwin of Abacus International for the Republican struggle is evident in his temporary resignation from Fianna Fáil in the aftermath of the Arms Crisis

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of 1971 and his subsequent membership of Aontacht Éireann, a Republican breakaway party of Fianna Fáil.54 British intelligence reports allege contacts between the cultural attaché of the Libyan embassy in London, Khalifa Bazelya, and the secretary of the Irish–Arab Society, Atef Matouk, and Irish provisionals.55 Apart from with Libya, political, cultural and economic links were also intensified with other Arab countries, in particular Gulf countries such as Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE and Iraq, as expressed, for instance, in the establishment or upgrading of diplomatic relations with these countries in the mid-1970s.56 Several visits of the Irish foreign minister Brian Lenihan to different Arab countries in the late 1970s or the state visit of President Hillery to Bahrain in 1980 illustrate the Irish government’s interest in intensifying economic and political links and educational collaborations.57 The Middle East emerged as one of the major markets for the export of halal meat produced in Ireland.58 These links led to an increasing number of admissions of students from various Arab countries of the Gulf region from the early 1980s onwards.59 The Irish Prime Minister Charles Haughey (1925–2006) was particularly interested in extending collaboration between Ireland and Iraq, envisaged as to be expressed in an official visit to the country in 1980, which had to be cancelled owing to the outbreak of the Iraq–Iran war in the same year.60 Already in 1977, as Fianna Fáil opposition spokesperson for Health, he was invited to make a private visit to Iraq organised by the Irish–Arab Society and expressed support for expanding economic and educational relations between both countries.61 As Minister for Health (1977–9), he undertook an official visit to Iraqi in 1978 exploring and facilitating educational links in health and medical sciences.62 The first group of Iraqi nurses to be trained in Irish hospitals arrived in 1979,63 with other collaborations between Irish and Iraqi universities emerging as a result.64 Up the early 1990s, post-World War II Muslim migration consisted, for the most part, of students with a Muslim background, many of whom stayed in Ireland to work as doctors or in other professional fields.65 International links with the young Irish Republic established during the post-war decades resulted in the increasing admission of foreign students, many of whom had a Muslim background. Apart from traditional educational links with various former British colonies, students from which had already studied in Ireland before World War II, these contacts were maintained and expanded. ‘Ireland’s own anti-colonial credentials’66, its policy of neutrality and involvement in UN peace-keeping missions in the Middle East,67 and its overall proPalestinian stance – articulated in the 1980 Bahrain Declaration in which the Irish government, as the first in the EEC, recognised the right of Palestinians to statehood68 – facilitated the establishment of close relations to different countries in the Arab world. As a result of these various political links, Muslim immigration to Ireland primarily consisted of Arab students pursuing postgraduate education in various technical, medical and scientific fields of study from the 1970s onwards.

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Muslims in Ireland The Celtic Tiger and Beyond: Muslim Immigration since the 1990s

In line with large-scale immigration to Ireland,69 the number of Muslims has increased since the mid-1990s. In realisation of the massive demographic changes in Irish society, instruments to document these transformations by the state became more systematic and expansive. From the 1991 Census onwards, an exact breakdown of followers of different religions outside the Christian mainstream denominations is provided in the Central Statistics Office’s publications. The rising numbers of asylum seekers also led to the systematic documentation of requests for asylum in the Republic by the Office of the Refugee Application Commissioner (ORAC) from 1992 onwards. Similarly, the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation has accumulated statistics on employment permits granted to ‘non-nationals’, as non-Irish residents have been referred to in Irish official and public discourse, since 1993.70 As a result of the increasing interest in marketing Irish institutions of higher education globally, both the Higher Education Authority and Education in Ireland have produced statistical data on foreign students in Ireland and have identified strategies to recruit students from particular national backgrounds for specific fields of study. Data from the last four censuses (1991, 2001, 2006, 2011), in which a question on religions has been included, illustrate a massive increase in the Muslim population in Ireland, similar to the increase of other faith communities made up of immigrants such as Hindus, Buddhists, Pentecostalists or Orthodox Christians. In addition, the census data from 2002, 2006 and 2011 provide information on the national backgrounds, occupational and socioeconomic status and educational levels of the Muslim population, making it possible to draw comparisons with other faith communities and the national average.71 Whereas in the 1991 Census 3,875 residents of the Republic of Ireland identified themselves as Muslims,72 the number increased to 19,147 in 2002, to 32,529 in 2006, and to 49,204 in 2011, rising from 0.1 per cent of the entire population in 1991 to 1.1 per cent in 2011.73 Muslim immigration to Ireland has been extremely diverse, without any particular ethnic or cultural group being predominant. According to the 2011 Census, a significant number of Muslims come from various African (8,777) and Asian (15,376) countries. While most Muslims from Africa have Nigerian citizenship (2,088), the other major national groups are Sudanese (1,470), Somalis (1,178), Egyptians (1,055) and Algerians (1,047).74 Asian Muslims come primarily from Pakistan (6,662), Bangladesh (2,319), Malaysia (1,373), Iraq (1,081) and Saudi Arabia (1,029).75 Most European Muslims (2,049) come from outside the EU, primarily from Turkey (1,029), Bosnia and Kosovo (about 800 together). These numbers indicate the strong ethnic diversity of Muslims in Ireland. Irish nationals constitute the largest national group within the Muslim population, having risen by 86.7 per cent, from 9,761 in 2006 to 18,223 in 2011.76 Most of these Muslims acquired Irish citizenship either through birth (a total of 13,618 Muslims were born in Ireland)77 or

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Table 2.1 Census Data of Selected Religions, 1991–2011 Religion

1991

2002

2006

2011

Percentage change 2006–11

Roman Catholic Church of Ireland Muslim Orthodox Apostolic/ Pentecostal Buddhist Hindu

3,228,327 89,187 3,875 358 285

3,462,606 115,611 19,147 10,437 3,152

3,881,446 125,585 32,539 20,798 8,116

3,861,335 129,039 49,204 45,223 14,043

4.9 8.6 51.2 117.4 73.0

986 953

3,894 3,099

6,516 6,082

8,703 10,688

33.6 75.5

Source: CSO1 Central Statistics Office, Census 1991: Vol. 5 – Religion (Dublin: Central Statistics Office, 1995), p. 22. Central Statistics Office (CSO), Census 2006: Volume 13 – Religion (Dublin: Central Statistics Office, 2007), p. 23. CSO, Census 2011: Profile 7, p. 48.

1

Table 2.2 National and Regional Backgrounds of Muslims in Ireland, 2002, 2006 and 2011 2002 Irish UK Rest of EU Rest of Europe Africa Asia America Others Not stated

5,123 473 240 6,797 4,310 5,472 96 403 264

2006

2011

9,761 620 777 1,924 6,909 10,649 128 606 405

18,223 823 1,445 2,049 8,777 15,376 170 541 650

Percentage change 2006–11 86.7 32.7 86 6.5 27 44.4 32.8 210.2 60.5

Source: CSO1 Central Statistics Office, Census 2002: Vol. 12 – Religion (Dublin: Central Statistics Office, 2004), p. 107. CSO, Census 2006, p. 109; CSO, Census 2011: Profile 7, p. 52.

1

through naturalisation. Around 3,543 Muslims (7.2%) describe themselves as of Irish ethnicity, and these would be converts or perhaps children of mixed marriages. That a ratio of 37.1 per cent of the entire Muslim population in Ireland possesses Irish citizenship indicates a demographic trend which increasingly disconnects the Muslim population from the phenomenon of immigration and suggests the long-term establishment of a permanent Muslim presence in Ireland. The vast majority (97.9%) of Muslims in Ireland live in urban areas, with a significant concentration of more than half of the Muslim population (25,471) in the Dublin metropolitan area.78 This reflects a similar trend in other smaller

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European countries whose Muslim population is usually concentrated in the capital city.79 The Muslim population in Ireland has a slightly younger age profile than the national average, with almost a third of Muslims below the age of fifteen as against 21 per cent nationwide.80 The gender gap has narrowed over the last twenty years, suggesting a more permanent settlement of Muslim families in Ireland in contrast to the more transient situation of first-generation male migrants: ‘In 1991, there were 164 Muslim males for every 100 females. This gap narrowed to 133 males per 100 females in 2011.’81 Muslim are more likely to be married (60%) than the national average (43.7%) and less likely to be divorced (2.5% among Muslims, as against a 4.5% national average).82 What information do the census data provide about the socio-economic status and educational level of the Muslim population compared to the national average? In 2011, a smaller percentage of Muslims (38.4%) worked than the national average (50.1%), which is a reflection of the overall younger age profile of the Muslim population. While the unemployed rate for Muslims (18.7%) was higher than that for the overall population of the Republic (11.7%), it increased less than the rate for the entire population from 2006 (national average 5.3%; Muslim population 14.4%). The employment rate among Muslim women is lower than the national average. In 2011 22 per cent of all Muslim women worked, as against 46.4 per cent of all women in Ireland.83 While 29 per cent of all Muslim women aged fifteen or above looked after their families, 17.5 per cent of all women in Ireland were housekeepers.84 With regard to the social class of Muslims in Ireland, they are under-represented in manual-skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled professions as well as among employers and managers and significantly over-represented among higher-qualified professional workers (15%) in comparison to the national average (7.3%). This over-representation within higher-qualified professions is also reflected in educational levels among the Muslim population. Whereas only 3.3 and 15.4 per cent respectively of people within the Muslim population have completed primary and secondary education as the highest level, the percentages within the Irish population are much higher, with 11.5 per cent finishing education after primary school and 30.1 per cent finishing after secondary school. While the ratio of Muslims holding a tertiary degree (21.2%) is close to the national average (20.5%), a significantly high proportion of Muslims above the age of fifteen (45.8%) are still in education, with the national ratio (16.8%) being much lower. The data suggest a certain socio-economic gap within the overall Muslim population. On the one hand, a significant proportion of Muslims are highly qualified, possess tertiary educational degrees and work as educated professionals on higher salary scales. On the other hand, the proportion of unemployed Muslims is higher than the national average, reflecting a rising number of Muslim immigrants coming to the country from less privileged backgrounds as asylum seekers and refugees, but also in search of better economic prospects.

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employer, own account employee assisting relative looking for 1st job unemployed

Muslim population

student

National average

home family retired unable other 0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

Figure 2.1 Principal Economic Status National Average and Muslim Population (above Age 15), 2011 Source: CSO85

Labour Migrants Ireland’s transition from country of emigration to country of immigration resulted from the economic boom that began in the mid-1990s and lasted until 2008. The settling of labour migrants in Ireland for economic reasons has been the major factor in the rapid increase of the immigrant population. The number of immigrants who settled in Ireland in order to work and who received employment permits from the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation exceeds by far the number of individuals who arrived in Ireland for other reasons such as being granted refugee status or applying for asylum.88 Statistics on employment permits granted by the state exist since 1993, have been published since 2002 and provide data based on various variables such as employment sector, county or national background of applicants. By using these statistics, it is possible to determine the number of labour migrants from countries with a Muslim majority or a significant Muslim population. According to these statistics, around 20,105 persons from Muslim-majority countries have been granted employment permits since 1993. The largest group is also the most transient; 5,639 Malaysians have received employment permits which entail – given the strong links between Irish and Malaysian medical institutions – provisions to work in hospitals and health centres across the country. This trend is also reflected in the very high number of Malaysian students in various medical and health-related fields of study at [ 59 ]

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professional workers

managerial and technical

non-manual Muslim population skilled manual

National average

semi-skilled

unskilled

other 0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

Figure 2.2 Social Class National Average and Muslim Population, 2011 Source: CSO86

no formal education primary lower secondary upper secondary Muslim population

3rd non-degree

National average 3rd degree undergratuate 3rd degree postgraduate in education not stated 0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Figure 2.3 Highest Level of Education Completed National Average and Muslim Population (above Age 15), 2011 Source: CSO87

Irish universities, as indicated further below. As those students and trainees would only work for a set period of time before returning to their country of origin, it is difficult to use this number as an indicator of permanent settlement in Ireland. Pakistanis (4,822), Bangladeshis (2,441), Turks (2,260) and

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Egyptians (953) constitute the next-largest national groups among the top five Muslim-majority countries of origin for employment permit holders since 1993. Asylum Seekers From the early 1990s onwards, the Republic of Ireland became a destination for asylum seekers and refugees.89 As a consequence, ORAC has provided information on the number of asylum seekers, their gender and their national backgrounds. Via this information, it is also possible to identify the number of asylum seekers from countries with Muslim-majority societies. About 19,160 persons from these countries90 applied for asylum between 1992 and 2012, with applicants from Nigeria (c. 3,000),91 Somalia (2,260) and Algeria (1,979) being the most numerous. The high number of asylum seekers with a Muslim background from Nigeria corresponds to the overall high number of Nigerians seeking refuge in Ireland, these constituting the largest national group. Most asylum seekers have come from politically and socially unstable countries, with numbers of applications rising at times of major crisis or conflict. Most applications from Kosovo Albanians were submitted between 1998 and 2001, at a time when the conflict over the status of Kosovo in Serbia began leading to a NATO-led military campaign against Serbia. In the same period, the highest numbers of Algerians sought asylum in Ireland as the result of the civil war between the government and militant groups supportive of the electoral victories of the Front Islamique du Salut (FIS) in the 1990s. Likewise, Somalis applied for asylum in large numbers from 1996 owing to the civil war. Owing to the overall political instability of a country that has existed without an effective central government for two decades, the numbers of applications by Somalis are still quite high. While the influx of Iraqi asylum seekers has always been high since 1999, the numbers increased significantly from 2006 onwards as a consequence of the increasing sectarian violence after the US-led invasion of the country and experienced a major decline from 2009 onwards following a period of political stabilisation and a decline in sectarian violence. The fluctuation in the numbers of asylum seekers from other countries cannot easily be connected to particular conflicts or intensifying political or military crises. The numbers of asylum seekers from Sudan reached a peak in 2005 and 2006 with a decline after 2008, while requests for asylum by Pakistanis have remained high, making this the largest group among Muslim countries since 2008. Despite the uncertainty about the number of asylum seekers who have actually remained in Ireland, ‘the vast majority . . . occupy a “grey” area between those who have been granted asylum and those who have been deported after their application were turned down’.92 Therefore, most asylum seekers would still reside in Ireland, making it possible to draw certain conclusions about the impact of the increase in asylum seekers on

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Table 2.3 Total of Employment Permit Holders from Muslim-majority Countries, 1993–2013 Malaysia Pakistan Bangladesh Turkey Egypt Morocco Algeria Sudan Other Middle East Other Africa Other Asia Europe

5,639 4,822 2,441 2,260 953 503 402 378 1,559 573 492 468

Source: Employment Permits Section, Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation1 1 Employment Permit Section of the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. Available at (last accessed 3 June 2014). Statistics on employment permits prior to 2002 were sent to the author. Aedín Doyle (Employment Permit Section, DJEI), email message to the author, 27 September 2012.

Table 2.4 Total of Asylum Seekers from Muslim-majority Countries, 1992–2012 (by 31 August) Nigeria Somalia Algeria Pakistan Iraq Sudan Kosovo Other Middle East Other Asia Other Europe Other Africa

3,000* 2,260 1,979 1,871 1,604 1,318 1,222 1,883 1,681 1,275 982

Source: ORAC1 *estimate 1 Noreen Byrne (ORAC), email to author, 30 November 2011.

the overall Muslim population and its relationship to those individuals of a Muslim background who have received employment permits. While the total number of successful employment permit applications to August 2012 (20,105) is slightly higher than the total of asylum applications (19,160), there is a certain parity, further confirming the above suggestion of a socioeconomic and politico-legal disparity within the Muslim population, which is made up of those who are entitled to work in Ireland and those who

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excluded from such legal entitlements and suffer as a result of various uncertainties around their legal and social status. Students Students from a Muslim background have played a historical role in establishing the permanent communal presence of Islam in Ireland and in creating the first Muslim organisation. Up to the present, students from countries with a Muslim-majority population have constituted an important group among the Muslim population. Statistics of Education in Ireland and the Higher Education Authority from 1998 onwards provide an idea of the nationalities of students from a Muslim background in Ireland.93 The numbers provided by the HEA and Education in Ireland suggest that within the overall Muslim population of Ireland about 3,000 persons are students. Students from Malaysia in medicine and other health sciences constitute one of the largest groups of non-European and non-American students and the strongest representation of students with a Muslim background, providing, for instance, one third of all international medical students in 2006.95 The opening in 2000 of the Penang Medical School in Malaysia, a joint venture by the Royal College of Surgeons and University College Dublin, providing training for medical students in Ireland with further training in Malaysia, intensified the collaboration between Ireland and Malaysia in higher education, resulting in a higher number of Malaysians studying at Irish universities.96 1400

1200

1000 Malaysia Pakistan

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Figure 2.4 Students from Muslim-majority Countries in Ireland, 1998–2012. Sources: HEA, Education in Ireland94

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Students from different countries in the Gulf region of the Middle East constitute the second important group. Kuwait and the UAE are particularly strongly represented, with a particular concentration in the medical field as a result of agreements dating back to the 1970s and 1980s. Educational collaborations with the Gulf region have intensified with the Royal College of Surgeons opening international campuses in Dubai and Bahrain97 and new agreements reached with other countries in the region such as Saudi Arabia, which has begun to send an increasing number of students, making Saudis the second largest national group of Muslim students after Malaysians in the academic year 2011–12.98 Comparing the countries of origin of students and asylum seekers with a Muslim background, a reverse ratio can be observed. Countries like Nigeria, Iraq, Sudan or Somalia, from which most asylum seekers have come in the last twenty years, are under-represented in the overall foreign student population in Ireland, while only very few asylum seekers have arrived from Malaysia or the Gulf region, from where most Muslim students in Ireland originate. This confirms the observation of a social gap among the Muslim population, with students arriving from the wealthier countries of Asia and asylum seekers coming from the poorer, underdeveloped and conflictridden areas of Africa and the Middle East. An exception would be Pakistan, from which students, primarily enrolled in private language and business colleges,99 and asylum seekers have increasingly moved to Ireland in the last five years. Despite the small proportion of foreign students with a Muslim background within the overall Muslim population in Ireland, their continuous involvement in running student societies means that often, through the activities of Islamic societies, other Irish students experience their first encounter with Islam in Ireland. While the majority of Islamic societies are run by visiting students, increasingly, Irish-born Muslim students begin to play a leading role in the organisation of these societies in Ireland. Although the vast majority of students will only stay in Ireland temporarily, a number will remain in Ireland following similar trends observed in relation to the first Muslim students who arrived between the 1950s and the 1980s. Conclusion The experience of Muslim immigration to Ireland is both exceptional and similar to experiences in other Western European countries. It is exceptional in relation to larger Western European countries such as Britain, France or Germany, which have witnessed large-scale Muslim immigration from the 1950s and 1960s onwards, with immigrants primarily recruited to fill the shortage in the labour force. While Muslim immigration to Ireland began in the same period, it was constituted by a very different socio-economic group – students from well-educated and privileged family backgrounds. A similarity with the Irish experience exists in relation to other smaller European countries

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such as Portugal and Finland which only began to experience major waves of Muslim immigration from the 1990s onwards in line with economic progress in these countries, turning them from traditional countries of emigration to destinations for labour migrants, asylum seekers and refugees.100 Particularly noteworthy is the heterogeneity of Ireland’s Muslim population – not only in terms of national and ethnic backgrounds or particular cultural, sectarian and ideological interpretations of Islam but also in terms of socio-economic status. The census data, as well as interviews with representatives of different Muslim communities, suggest the existence of a socio-economic gap between students and educated professionals from a Muslim background and asylum seekers and refugees. While the former have achieved a certain degree of socio-economic integration into Irish society because of their level of education and professional achievements, the latter are in a more precarious situation, with very different reasons for staying in Ireland and an overall uncertain socio-legal position.101 This gap is also visible in various mosque communities, where class distinctions based on social background and educational level are often maintained with the communal mosque space providing the only forum for limited social interaction. One can also observe a certain nostalgia on the part of Muslims in Ireland who arrived before the 1990s, when the Muslim population primarily consisted of members of the middle and upper classes. There is a sense that negative stereotypes and fears about the rise of radical Islam in Ireland are the result of the growing numbers of Muslim asylum seekers tarnishing the earlier positive image of Muslims in Ireland as a well-respected and integrated community.102 Such a discourse among the more settled Muslims is not that dissimilar from nostalgia for the allegedly homogeneous Irish society before mass migration began in the 1990s. It also mirrors anti-asylum and welfare-fraud rhetoric that was quite prevalent at the height of the economic boom in the early 2000s.103 Despite the challenges posed by recent Muslim migrants whose social status and legal position is insecure, on a more positive note, and in contradistinction to many other European countries, the overall educational level and socio-economic status of Ireland’s Muslim population in Ireland is still high, suggesting that despite the need to accommodate religious and cultural diversity, the danger of socio-economic marginalisation and ghettoisation, as experienced by Muslim immigrants in other European countries, is less. Despite the new economic uncertainties arising after 2008 and the decline in the overall growth rate of the Muslim population since then, the census data of 2011 illustrate that immigration of people from a Muslim background remains a reality, with Islam continuing to be one of the fastest-growing religions in Ireland. The increasing numbers of foreign students with a Muslim background and of other Muslim migrants receiving further professional and academic training in medical and scientific fields in Ireland indicate the continuous presence of a well-educated and socio-economically advanced group within the Irish Muslim population.

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The most striking observation of the 2011 Census is the rapid increase in the numbers of Muslims living in Ireland with Irish citizenship. While Muslims in Ireland have – like other migrants – been under-represented in the political and wider public arena,104 the growing number of Muslims with full citizenship rights and of Muslims born, educated and socialised in Ireland suggests the emergence of a trend similar to that seen in Western European countries with a more established Muslim presence: the appearance of a generation of Muslims not acquiescing to a position of marginality of migrants but claiming its place in Irish society. Notes 1. Piaras Mac Éinrí and Allen White, ‘Immigration into the Republic of Ireland: A Bibliography of Recent Research’, Irish Geography, 41:2, 2008, p. 152. 2. See Gerry O’Hanlon SJ, ‘Asking the Right Questions: Christians, Muslims, Citizens in Ireland’, Working Notes Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice 54, 2007. Available at http://www.workingnotes.ie/index.php/item/asking-the-rightquestions-christians-muslims-citizens-in-ireland?category_id=65 (last accessed 4 November 2011). 3. Nadia Jeldtoft, ‘On Defining Muslims’, in Jørgen S. Nielsen et al. (eds), Yearbook of Muslims in Europe, Vol. 1 (Leiden: Brill 2009), p. 10. 4. Ibid. 5. See for example Patsy McGarry, ‘Muslims say they cannot get into schools’, The Irish Times, 28 September 2011. Available at http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0928/1224304858170.html (last accessed 4 November 2011). 6. The Islamic Foundation of Ireland produced an overview until the 1990s: ‘History of Muslims in Ireland’. Available at http://www.islaminireland.com/ documents/HISTORY%20OF%20MUSLIMS%20IN%20IRELAND.pdf (last accessed 29 April 2010). Another historical overview is provided on the website of the Federation of Student Islamic Societies in Ireland (FOSIS). Available at http://ireland.fosis.org.uk/ (last accessed 29 April 2010). Dr Yusuf Vaizie, resident of Dublin, arrived as a student in 1956. The author conducted an interview with him on 15 January 2010. Dr Ebrahim Seedat belonged to one of the very first groups of South African students arriving in Ireland to study at University College Dublin in 1946. He is currently living in South Africa and the author had several email communications with him. 7. Jeldtoft, ‘On Defining Muslims’, p. 12. 8. Nadia Jeldtoft and Jørgen S. Nielsen, ‘Introduction: Methods in the Study of “Non-Organized” Muslim Minorities’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 34:7, 2011, pp. 1,113–19. 9. Islamic Foundation of Ireland, ‘History of Muslims in Ireland’. Islamic Foundation of Ireland. Yusuf Vaizie, interview with author, 15 January 2011. Ebrahim Seedat, e-mail to author, 31 January 2011. See also policy reports from December 1949 describing political activities of Nigerian and other African

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10.

11.

12.

13. 14. 15. 16.

17. 18. 19. 20.

21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26.

[ 67

students in Ireland, available in the National Archives, Department of Justice, ‘Activities of associations of African students (1949–1967)’, JUS8/980, National Archives of Ireland (NAI). Gail M. Gerhart and Thomas G. Karis (eds), From Protest to Challenge: A Documentary History of African Politics in South Africa, 1882–1964, Vol. 4: Political Profiles (Stanford: Hoover Institutions Press, 1977), p. 135. Rustomjee also became a member of the Indian League in Dublin. See ‘League alters name’, The Irish Times, 20 December 1949, p. 5. Among the first group of Indian South African students was also S. E. Rajmohamed, who later became president of the Indian League in Dublin. See The Irish Times, 14 January 1952, p. 3. See also Seedat, e-mail, 31 January 2011. Goolam Vahed and Thembisa Waetjen, Gender, Modernity and Indian Delights: The Women’s Cultural Group of Durban, 1954–2010 (Cape Town: HSRC Press 2010), p. 75. Goolam Vahed, ‘An “Imagined Community” in Diaspora: Gujaratis in South Africa’, South Asian History and Culture, 1:4, 2010, p. 621. See also I. C. Meer, I Remember: Reminiscences of the Struggle for Liberation and the Role of Indian South Africans, 1924–1958, p. 210. Available at http://www.sahistory.org.za/ pages/pdf/I_remember_IC_Meer.pdf (last accessed 3 February 2010). Vaizie, interview, 2011. See also ‘S. Africans biggest foreign R.C.S.I. group’, The Irish Times, 7 May 1970, p. 12. Vaizie, interview, 2011. Adil Hussain Khan, ‘Muslim Students in 1950s Dublin’, History Ireland, 18:4, 2010, pp. 44–5. The Dublin Islamic Society was renamed the Islamic Foundation of Ireland in 1990; it is located on the premises of the Dublin Mosque. See Oliver Scharbrodt, ‘Islam in Ireland: Organising a Migrant Religion’, in Olivia Cosgrove et al. (eds), Ireland’s New Religious (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011), pp. 327–9. See also Adil Hussain Khan, ‘Transnational Influences on Irish Muslim Networks: From Local to Global Perspectives’, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 31:4, 2011, pp. 486–502. ‘History Muslims in Ireland’. Federation of Student Islamic Societies in Ireland. Vaizie, interview, 2011. Report of Aliens’ Office, 10 February 1960, JUS8/980, NAI. See his CV on the website of the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation. Available at http://www.dfa.gov.za/department/ minty/cvminty.pdf (last accessed 4 February 2011). Vaizie, interview, 2011. See also ‘Kader Asmal: ANC veteran who fought for human rights’, The Irish Times, 25 June 2011, p. 12. Vaizie, interview, 2011. See The Irish Times, 14 December 1965, p. 14 and ‘Irishwoman receives Malaysian decoration’, Irish Independent, 14 December 1965, p. 10. The Irish Times, 12 September 1968, p. 1. ‘Centre for Malayan students opened’, The Irish Times, 5 January 1957, p. 9. Angela Kennedy, warden of Malaysia House, provided the Department of Foreign Affairs with a complete list of Malaysian graduates from Irish

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27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45.

46. 47. 48. 49. 50.

51. 52.

53. 54. 55.

Muslims in Ireland universities in a letter of 23 May 1963. Of the circa fifty names she lists, only three suggest a Malay-Muslim background, while all other are either Chinese or Indian. See Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), ‘St Patrick’s Societies in Singapore and Malaysia’, DFA/401/11/1, NAI. ‘History of Muslims in Ireland’. Islamic Foundation of Ireland. ‘An Irishwoman’s Diary’, The Irish Times, 31 March 1969, p. 11. ‘History of Muslims in Ireland’. Islamic Foundation of Ireland. DFA, ‘Cultural Relations Ireland and Libya’, 2006/131/252, NAI. Vaizie, interview, 2011. ‘Invited to Tripoli’, The Irish Times, 27 May 1972, p. 8. DFA, memo 4 April 1973, 2006/131/252, NAI. Ibid. DFA, note from Department of Industry and Commerce, 3 May 1973, 2006/131/ 252, NAI. DFA, note, 28 November 1975, 2006/131/252, NAI. Ibid. Vaizie, interview, 2011. DFA, note, 17 January 1974, 2006/131/252, NAI DFA, note, 28 August 1975, 2006/131/252, NAI. Letter of Department of Health to Secretary of DFA, 8 October 1975, 2006/131/ 252, NAI. DFA, note, 9 July 1979, 2006/131/252, NAI. Henry Kelly, ‘Irish delegates to meet Libyan government’, The Irish Times, 17 April 1975, p. 1. Vaizie, interview, 2011. Correspondence between Abacus International/Consultancy in Education Ltd. and the National Science Council and the Confederation of Irish Industry, February to October 1977, 2006/131/252, NAI. DFA, note, 9 October 1978, 2006/131/252, NAI. DFA, note, 9 July 1979, 2006/131/252, NAI. See ‘Libyan loan had a P.O. box no.’, Irish Independent, 25 February 1975, p. 1. ‘Government meeting today on arms report’, The Irish Times, 13 June 1972, p. 8. Note from Department of Industry and Commerce to Minister for Foreign Affairs, 3 May 1973, 2006/131/252, NAI. See also ‘Libyans get Oireachtas view on struggle in Northern Ireland’, The Irish Times, 18 April 1975, p. 9. Department of Industry and Commerce, note, 3 May 1973, 2006/131/252, NAI. Rory Miller, ‘The Politics of Trade and Diplomacy: Ireland’s Evolving Relationship with the Muslim Middle East’, Irish Studies in International Affairs, 15, 2004, pp. 136–7. ‘Arabs protest over Derry’, The Irish Times, 7 February 1972, p. 7. Carol Coulter, ‘Breakaway parties have poor record’, The Irish Times, 22 April 1985, p. 6. Tony Geraghty, The Irish War: The Hidden Conflict between the IRA and British Intelligence (London: HarperCollins, 1998), pp. 180–1. See also ‘Libyan intelli-

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56. 57. 58.

59. 60.

61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68. 69.

70.

71.

72.

73. 74. 75. 76.

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gence service activity in the UK’. Available at http://cryptome.org/mi5-lis-uk. htm (last accessed 4 February 2010). Miller, ‘Politics of Trade and Diplomacy’, p. 130. Ibid., 131–2. Bill Murdoch, ‘Irish food groups begin to carve international niche’, The Irish Times, 30 December 1988, p. 11; Michael Finlan, ‘Ballyhaunis – capital of a meat empire’, The Irish Times, 14 April 1989, p. 13. ‘History of Islam in Ireland’. Islamic Foundation of Ireland. Dennis Kennedy, ‘Taoiseach to pay official visit to Iraq’, The Irish Times, 3 September 1980, p. 1; Dennis Kennedy, ‘Dinner for Iraqi envoy’, The Irish Times, 14 January 1981, p. 7. ‘Haughey favours links with Iraq’, The Irish Times, 22 March 1977, p. 7. DFA, ‘Possible co-operation agreement with Iraq’, report from Department of Health on Haughey’s Iraq visit, 11 May 1978, 2010/19/1108, NAI. DFA, note from Department of Health, 11 May 1979, 2010/19/1108, NAI. See for example DFA, memorandum of TCD visit to University of Mosul, 8 May 1980, 2010/19/1108, NAI. Vaizie, interview, 2011. Miller, ‘Politics of Trade and Diplomacy’, p. 125. Ibid., p. 126. Ibid., pp. 134–5. Piaras Mac Éinrí, ‘Immigration: Labour Migrants, Asylum Seekers and Refugees’, in Brendan Bartley et al. (eds), Understanding Contemporary Ireland (London: Pluto Press, 2007), pp. 236–9; Bryan Fanning, Racism and Social Change in the Republic of Ireland, 2nd edn (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2012), 91–9. Paul Cullen, Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Ireland (Cork: Cork University Press, 2000), pp. 16–18. See Employment Permit Section of the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. Available at http://www.djei.ie/labour/workpermits/statistics. htm (last accessed 3 June 2014). For a general discussion see Malcolm Macourt, ‘Mapping the “New Religious Landscape” and the “New Irish”: Uses and Limitations of the Census’, in Olivia Cosgrove et al. (eds), Ireland’s New Religious Movements (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011), pp. 28–49. Unofficial estimates suggest a number of around 6,000 at this time. See Kieran Flynn, ‘Understanding Islam in Ireland’, Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, 17:2, 2006, p. 223. Central Statistics Office, Census 2011: Profile 7 – Religion, Ethnicity and Irish Travellers (Dublin: Central Statistics Office, 2012), p. 16. Central Statistics Office, Census 2011: Profile 6 – Migration and Diversity (Dublin: Central Statistics Office, 2012), p. 37. CSO, Census 2011: Profile 7, p. 52; CSO, Census 2011: Profile 7, p. 37. Central Statistics Office, Census 2006: Volume 13 – Religion (Dublin: Central Statistics Office, 2007), p. 109; CSO, Census 2011: Profile 7, p. 52.

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77. Central Statistics Office, ‘Population usually resident in the state by religion and birthplace [CD759]’. Available at http://www.cso.ie/en/census/census 2011reports/census2011profile7religionethnicityandirishtravellers-ethnicandc ulturalbackgroundinireland/ (last accessed 30 October 2012). 78. Central Statistics Office, ‘Actual change and percentage change in population in each regional authority area classified by religion 2006 and 2011 [CD755]’. Available at http://www.cso.ie/en/census/census2011reports/ census2011profile7religionethnicityandirishtravellers-ethnicandculturalback groundinireland/ (last accessed 30 October 2012). 79. Tuula Sakaranaho, Religious Freedom, Multiculturalism, Islam: Cross-Reading Finland and Ireland (Leiden: Brill, 2006), p. 207. Mac Éinri and White, ‘Immigration into Ireland’, pp. 155–6. 80. Census 2011: Profile 7, p. 50. 81. Ibid., p. 16. 82. Ibid., p. 16. 83. Ibid., p. 17. 84. Ibid., p. 17, p. 53. 85. Ibid., p. 53. 86. Ibid., p. 54. 87. Central Statistics Office, ‘Population aged 15 years and over classified by religion and educational level [CD767]’. Available at http://www.cso.ie/en/ census/census2011reports/census2011profile7religionethnicityandirishtravel lers-ethnicandculturalbackgroundinireland/ (last accessed 30 October 2012). 88. Steve Garner, ‘Ireland and Immigration: Explaining the Absence of a Far Right’, Patterns of Prejudice, 41:2, 2007, p. 118. 89. Mac Éinrí, ‘Labour Migrants, Asylum Seekers and Refugees’, pp. 238–9. 90. This approach only provides an approximation of the actual number of asylum seekers with a Muslim background. Not all asylum seekers from countries with Muslim-majority societies are necessarily Muslims, and Muslim asylum seekers may also come from other countries. 91. This estimate is derived from the data provided in the 2011 Census, in which 11.8% of all Nigerian nationals resident in Ireland identified themselves as Muslims. This percentage was then applied to overall number of Nigerian asylum seekers (25,356), resulting in a figure of around 3,000. 92. Cullen, Refugees and Asylum Seekers, p. 19. See also Mac Éinrí, ‘Labour Migrants, Asylum Seekers and Refugees’, pp. 238–9. 93. The statistics provided by the HEA and Education Ireland cover various periods and also differ. While the HEA data pertain only to universities and institutes of technology under its jurisdiction, Education in Ireland statistics are more comprehensive as they include foreign students in private colleges. 94. Gill Roe (Enterprise Ireland), e-mail to author, 25 November 2010. Fergal Noone (HEA), e-mail to author, 21 December 2010. Reports are also available at http:/ /www.hea.ie/en/statistics/overview (last accessed 3 June 2014) and at http:// www.educationinireland.com/en/Publications/ (last accessed 3 June 2014). 95. Education Ireland, International Students in Higher Education in Ireland 2006:

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Current Status, Future Trends (Dublin: Education Ireland, 2006), p. 38. 96. Yvonne Healy, ‘A cut above the rest’, The Irish Times, 24 October 2000, A10; Sandra O’Connell, ‘Inspiring universal influence’, The Irish Times, 6 February 2001, A3. 97. See Royal College of Surgeons Ireland. Available at http://www.rcsi.ie/index. jsp?p=100&n=357 (last accessed 3 February 2010). 98. ‘Deal agreed on Saudi students’, The Irish Times, 3 November 2010. See Education Ireland, International Students in Higher Education in Ireland 2006/2007 (Dublin: Education Ireland, 2008), pp. 27–8. 99. See Education Ireland, International Students in Higher Education in Ireland 2005: Current Status, Future Trends (Dublin: Education Ireland, 2005), pp. 48–9; Education Ireland, International Students 2006, p. 59; Education Ireland, International Students 2006/2007, p. 24. The 2010 report also mentions visa issues in relation to Pakistani and Bangladeshi students. See Education Ireland, International Students in Higher Education 2009/2010 (Dublin: Education Ireland, 2010), p. 22. 100. Tuula, Religious Freedom, pp. 225–69. Nina Clara Tiesler, ‘No Bad News from the European Margin: The New Islamic Presence in Portugal’, Islam and Christian– Muslim Relations, 12:1, 2001, pp. 71–91. 101. Fanning, Racism and Social Change, 99–110. 102. See for example Juno McEnroe, ‘Community faces a fundamental challenge within’, Irish Examiner, 10 April 2010; see also Oliver Scharbrodt, ‘Shaping the Public Image of Islam: The Shiis of Ireland as “Moderate” Muslims’, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 31:4, 2011, pp. 524–5. 103. John A. Harrington, ‘Citizenship and the Biopolitics of Post-Nationalist Ireland’, Journal of Law and Society, 32:3, 2005, pp. 434–49. 104. Anthony M. Messina, ‘The Politics of Migration to Western Europe: Ireland in Comparative Perspective’, West European Politics, 32:1, 2009, pp. 16–18.

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3 Early Muslim Organisations and Mosques in Ireland 1 Adil Hussain Khan

Constructing a Narrative about Muslim Organisations in Ireland The task of researching the historical development of Muslim institutions in Ireland is a challenging endeavour, owing to a lack of scholarship regarding the earliest Muslims in the country. The mere fact that all Irish Muslim institutions and mosque organisations were formed within living memory provides a great opportunity to look beyond conventional literary sources of scholarship and deal directly with first-hand accounts of the people involved in establishing the organisations in question before their recollections are lost. These oral traditions circulating among Muslim communities in Ireland have been the primary basis for nearly all subsequent research on the topic, including the construction of a narrative of Muslim organisations in Ireland below. The timeliness of this undertaking has presented itself at a point when many ageing members of Muslim communities in the country are still available for comment. This research inherently coincides therefore with a living tradition of real people whose lives have shaped the outcome of this work profoundly. Prevailing accounts about the formation of Muslim institutions in the public discourse are primarily based on the institutions’ personal websites, which are not always accurate, for various reasons, including unintentional errors. The lack of scholarship about the development of this history makes it difficult to challenge these narratives without additional evidence or support, insofar as that would be necessary in any given case. This also means that verifying the narrative presented here with external sources is problematic and in itself subject to the same criticisms, since it too is largely based on what amounts to alternative accounts of the same living tradition or oral history, which at times may be anecdotal. The advantage of making use of these sources at present is that they have resulted, below, in what is intended to be a synthesis of conflicting memoirs set out in a coherent [ 75 ]

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fashion, which may contribute towards the development of narratives of Muslims in Ireland. In my own research on Islam in Ireland, I have attempted to evaluate these narratives in a way capable of providing a framework for looking at the broader historical context for the formation of Muslim institutions in Ireland, even though this remains a product of available source material, including personal accounts of living members of Irish Muslim communities. I have also made use of the Logbook of the Dublin Islamic Society, which contains the handwritten minutes of the meetings of Ireland’s first Muslim institution as recorded by its members in conjunction with other unpublished documents made available to me by personal contacts involved in the development of this history. This combination of oral accounts and unpublished documents has formed the foundation for the analysis presented below, which at times coincides with other sources presented as additional reference material through citations. Thus, with this in mind, we shall begin the narrative with the postcolonial world following the end of World War II. The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and the Anti-apartheid Movement The steady development of Ireland’s Muslim population since the 1950s is closely connected to the political circumstances brought about by the aftermath of World War II. In South Africa, for example, the rise of apartheid in 1948 prolonged the colonial experience by imposing an institutionalised form of racial segregation throughout the country. The apartheid legislation categorised South Africans into groups on the basis of ethnicity, which left so-called non-white groups at a disadvantage. Although most ethnic groups affected by apartheid in South Africa were indigenous to the region, there were also large groups of ethnic minorities who had settled in the country from other parts of the world, including South Asia. South Asians from the Indian subcontinent had been settling in South Africa since at least the eighteenth century, due in part to their shared colonial history with South Africa under the British. By the late 1940s, South Africans with South Asian backgrounds had become reasonably well-established members of society and were capable of seeking out alternatives to social obstructions imposed by whites in the period leading up to and during apartheid.2 As successful solutions were established, trends developed within minority communities providing a provisional escape from the demoralising effects of social inequalities. For Indians in South Africa, perhaps the experience of being a minority within a minority helped strengthen communal ties among South Asians.3 Prominent Indian families who had settled in South Africa collectively began seeking educational opportunities abroad in countries such as Ireland, since it was clear that comparable prospects were not available at home. The vanguard of this movement was a Gujarati family, the Rustomjees,

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who established themselves in Durban as prosperous merchants. Jivanji Ghorkhodu ‘Parsee’ Rustomjee (1861–1924) was a businessman whose ideology and philanthropic outreach had brought him into close contact with Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) during the struggle for civil rights in South Africa. The two initiated a number of social initiatives and collaborated on various projects around the turn of the nineteenth century before apartheid legislation had been enacted, including the Phoenix Settlement and the Natal Indian Congress.4 Parsee Rustomjee’s son, Sorabjee Rustomjee (1895–1960), furthered his father’s efforts as an advocate of social justice and equality, which earned him a notable reputation as a community leader among South Africa’s Indian population. This, however, did not prevent Sorabjee Rustomjee from attempting to circumvent the drawbacks of South African education by ensuring that his children completed their studies in Dublin, where he owned property.5 In 1946, Sorabjee Rustomjee travelled to New York to address the Indian Government delegation to the United Nations concerning grievances of disenfranchised South Africans just prior to the implementation of apartheid in the country.6 He also met with Ireland’s Taoiseach (prime minister), Éamon de Valera (1882–1975), in New York, who at the time concurrently served as Chancellor of the National University of Ireland.7 Indeed, de Valera held the position of Chancellor from 1921 until his death in 1975.8 Rustomjee and de Valera agreed to terms regarding admission guarantees for eligible students, which later sparked a trend that enabled South Africa’s Indian students to attend Irish universities. This was due in part to the commitment of the registrar of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), Professor William Norman Rae (1886–1964), who served in the post from 1938 to 1962.9 In 1952, Professor Rae agreed to admit a fixed number of students from South Africa to the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in direct response to the implementation of apartheid. Admissions policies of private institutions such as the RCSI were easier to adapt to changing circumstances, as opposed to those of public universities in Ireland, which catered more for local students within the country. These types of policies, and a globalised perspective, enabled the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland to attract competitive international students for decades, including those facing political barriers in South Africa. A Profile of the First South African Medical Students in Ireland The first cohort of South Africans admitted to the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 1952 consisted of only six students with mixed religious backgrounds. It appears in retrospect that the shared Gujarati background of these students enabled ethnicity to serve as a greater unifier than religion. Even Rustomjee was himself a Parsi who supported South African compatriots equally, irrespective of religion. The admissions quota of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and initially those of other Irish universities such as University College Dublin, drew to the Republic of Ireland

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significant numbers of Muslim students in pursuit of higher education who met the admissions requirements. This was a lucrative agreement from the RCSI’s perspective, since the University did not commit itself to providing monetary assistance or financial welfare to admitted students. The ability to generate additional tuition revenue for the College was an attractive consequence that coincided with the moral component of opposing the apartheid state. It also limited prospective students from South Africa to those who could afford the international tuition rates, boarding fees and daily expenses abroad. In addition, there were discrepancies between the academic standards of the Royal College of Surgeons and South African universities, which led several students to travel to Ireland in advance of the academic year. This enabled prospective student to spend the summer break preparing for the entrance examination before proceeding with their studies and officially enrolling at the University as medical students by the autumn term. These obstacles provide an indication of the social standing of the earliest Muslim students from South Africa, who must have been from affluent families with privileged backgrounds in order to afford full-time studies abroad. It may also explain why many of the early students were often related to each other, whether directly as siblings or as members of extended family. Prospective students arriving in Dublin from South Africa in the 1950s in the hope of gaining admission to the Royal College of Surgeons followed a similar protocol. Many stayed at Koinonia House, a hostel for international students at 33 Harcourt Street, which was in close proximity to the RCSI’s main campus at St Stephen’s Green. The Protestant sponsorship of the hostel did not hinder its ability to accommodate international students of different faiths who relied on the expertise of staff members to settle into foreign surroundings. The hostel maintained a policy explicitly forbidding religious favouritism, which initially prevented official support for the religious activities of incoming students. As the number of Muslims residing at Koinonia House increased, students began meeting each other privately to offer ritual prayers in congregation. This, of course, amounted to praying together in one’s dorm room, since any two Muslims could establish a congregation simply by offering the ritual prayer together, given the nature of the five daily prayers in Islam. With three Muslims attending, the students were able to establish the weekly Friday prayer at Koinonia House unofficially without the hostel’s consent and without drawing on special facilities. The earliest gatherings may have been irregular, but they established a sense of community and facilitated the spiritual well-being of international students living abroad. As the Muslim population at Koinonia House grew, the students managed to obtain special permission to meet collectively in a slightly larger room better suited to offering the Friday prayer in congregation. The Muslim students devised ways of facilitating the introduction of aspects of religion into their lives. In the absence of Muslim butchers selling halal meat, some students began buying kosher meat from Jewish butchers near Clanbrassil Street, where the Jewish community of Dublin was centred

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at the time. This area has become one of the centres for halal shops in Dublin in recent years. One student, Ismail Coovadia, who came to Dublin from Johannesburg in 1957 to study at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, recalled accompanying his aunt to a local butcher’s shop and fishmonger’s called Sawers on Chatham Street off of Grafton Street, where he arranged to slaughter chickens in the basement according to Islamic rites.10 In this family’s case, the Coovadias were able to provide mutual support while both Ismail and his cousin Musa, who arrived in Dublin in 1954, were studying at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland concurrently. These kinds of creative solutions made it easier for later students to adapt to life in Ireland and find collective support in the establishment of religious practices. It also changed the dynamic of the religious environment from a private or more individualised setting to a more communal or family-oriented one. Establishment of practical religious routines would probably have taken longer to develop if the students had not shared a common thread other than religion. Organising Islam in Ireland: The Founding of the Dublin Islamic Society By the autumn term of 1958, the outgoing class of graduating students at the Royal College of Surgeons took initiative in formalising their activities through the formation of a religious organisation. On Friday, 23 January 1959, shortly after the beginning of the spring term, the students met at Koinonia House to discuss whether they should form a ‘Muslim Committee, which would organise Friday Namaaz (Prayers), Eid Namaaz and some lectures’.11 The thirty-three Muslim students in attendance voted unanimously that an organisation should be formed and that subsequent decisions regarding the direction of the organisation should be deferred to the students themselves. A committee of eight leading members was elected with three executive positions: Hoosen Lockhart as chairman, Yousuf Jhavary as secretary, Ismail Docrat as treasurer and then Zakiudeen Zaveri, Ahmad El-Atrash, Ebrahim Manneh, Harith Lamki and Abdullah Al-Kathiri. Following another meeting in February just ahead of Ramadan in March, the students regrouped on Friday, 17 April, one week after the Eid celebrations. The primary purpose of the meeting was to establish a name for the organisation. Although a variety of names were suggested, including the Islamic Study Circle, the students voted in favour of calling themselves the Dublin Islamic Society.12 The primary function of the Dublin Islamic Society remained centred on facilitating prayer services for fellow Muslims in future years. The Friday prayer services had grown from an initial turn-out of five to eight worshippers at a private residence off campus to an average of thirty-five to forty students per week at the Koinonia House canteen by the end of 1959.13 These turn-outs remained relatively steady through the early 1960s as the Dublin Islamic Society continued arranging weekly prayer services, occasional Ramadan gatherings and biannual Eid celebrations as needed. Although the Dublin Islamic Society did not levy membership dues or other related fees,

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it collected donations for local events and charitable causes. This enabled the organisation to continue functioning as a student society with relatively little overhead costs. In 1963, the students were prompted to write a constitution for the Dublin Islamic Society by the Bank of Ireland, where the Society’s accounts were being held in accordance with bank regulations. The constitution provided the Dublin Islamic Society with a documented framework as an organisation and gave shape to Ireland’s first official Muslim institution. This process initiated the development of an organisational infrastructure and helped accommodate Muslims who were not affiliated with local universities. By the mid-1960s, the earliest classes of Muslim students had graduated, which helped boost the local Muslim population in Irish residence alongside other Muslim immigrants, even though most graduates still preferred returning to their countries of origin. Some Muslim graduates had taken professional jobs in Ireland’s medical industry and chose to remain within the country, while others had married Irish wives and were unable to return to South Africa owing to apartheid restrictions on mixed marriages. This led to a slow but steady increase in the non-student Muslim population of Dublin, which gradually shifted the focus of the Dublin Islamic Society away from student life. While many students remained content with informal prayer gatherings in or around campus, including at the hostel, some young professionals, especially those with children, were eager to establish a permanent venue capable of catering for the long-term needs of their families. The minutes recorded in the Logbook of the Dublin Islamic Society indicate that the question of building a mosque in Dublin was debated at length over the years by Muslims who felt strongly about the issue. Some students envisaged a permanent mosque facility as a necessary step in the establishment of regular religious services for future generations of Muslims in Ireland. There were also those who were genuinely concerned about the need for such a major project, since the community consisted primarily of students who might experience difficulty sustaining it over the years. It was clear that financing the project was a high hurdle for Muslim students living abroad without the backing of working Muslims in permanent residence capable of supporting the mosque project, as the student population continued to change. Fundraising Efforts for an Islamic Centre in Dublin With regard to financial stability, the treasurer’s reports of the Dublin Islamic Society through the mid-1960s indicate that the students retained a balance of around £70 from internal collections. The majority of these funds were usually donated to charitable causes around the world after expenditures were deducted, including to fellow Muslims in need, such as Palestinians and Algerians. The Dublin Islamic Society also donated funds to Muslims in Europe and to local Irish charities in Dublin, irrespective of the organi-

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sation’s religious orientations. Saving money explicitly for the purpose of building a mosque, however, did not begin until much later. In 1966, the Society entertained a proposal to build or rent a venue which could be used to develop a permanent Islamic Centre in Dublin, but the proposal was rejected by the majority of members, who did not see the urgency in pursuing the project at the time.14 In 1967, when the Dublin mosque issue arose again, some members felt that the money would be better spent as a donation to the ongoing mosque project in Munich. The ground-breaking for the construction of the Islamic Centre of Munich had taken place the same year after numerous delays.15 There were also genuine concerns among students that the number of Muslims in Dublin was too small to support a permanent Islamic centre. It was suggested in response to these fears that the Dublin Islamic Society establish a type of trust where other organisations, such as the Woking Mosque in Britain, the Islamic Centre of Geneva or the Bank of Ireland, could act as trustees on behalf of the proposed Dublin Islamic Centre, in the event that most Muslims in Ireland returned to their countries of origin.16 In a tentative gesture, Dublin Islamic Society members decided to proceed with the mosque project with caution, while various avenues were explored more thoroughly. Interested students wrote letters to their families in South Africa requesting donations for an Islamic centre in a preliminary attempt to raise funds, even though the Dublin Islamic Society had yet to adopt a formal resolution in pursuit of the project. The student contingent did not reach a consensus regarding the mosque project since most intended to leave Ireland following the completion of their studies. The mosque project was abandoned once again for this reason following internal disputes.17 By 1969, the Dublin Islamic Society decided to adopt a policy of accepting donations which could be used towards establishing an Islamic centre in Dublin.18 Students returned home to South Africa in the summer break of 1970 and attempted to raise funds for an Islamic centre through personal contacts.19 They only managed to raise limited funds for the mosque project, however, which hardly initiated a broader fundraising campaign and encouraged others to persevere through the lengthy collections process.20 The Dublin Islamic Society was officially registered as a ‘Friendly Society’ in 1971 under Ireland’s Friendly Societies Act of 1896, which enabled it to purchase land in the name of its trustees.21 This represented a significant step in the expansion of the Dublin Islamic Society’s role beyond a student organisation. As a Friendly Society, the Dublin Islamic Society could acquire nonprofit status under Irish law, open bank accounts with special privileges and qualify for newly instituted government support services as an organisation. In 1972, the members of the Dublin Islamic Society decided to solicit donations for the mosque project from foreign embassies in Britain. The Society’s secretary, Tajmmul Hussain Hayat, visited seven embassies of Muslim majority countries in London in an attempt to raise awareness about the Islamic centre project and discuss its aims.22 The same year, a prominent

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early member of the Dublin Islamic Society, Yusuf Vaizie, invited the first Libyan cultural attaché from its embassy in London to visit Dublin regarding student recruitment for the Royal College of Surgeons. Vaizie accompanied four Royal College of Surgeons professors to London between 1972 and 1973 for additional meetings with diplomatic dignitaries from the Egyptian, Kuwaiti and Saudi Arabian embassies concerning these objectives.23 By the 1970s, international student recruitment had become increasingly important as a money-making venture for College officials, who hoped to strengthen ties with Middle Eastern countries through the RCSI’s extensive Muslim alumni. The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland began focusing recruitment efforts on growing numbers of prospective students from Muslim majority countries.24 Cultivating these relationships through diplomatic channels afforded Irish Muslims in the 1970s an opportunity to discuss proposals for a potential mosque project, which was marketed as a means of addressing the lack of adequate religious facilities for Muslim students in Ireland. This enabled countries interested in fostering long-term relationships with Ireland to view the notion of an Islamic centre that would cater for the needs of Muslim expatriates in Dublin as rather appealing.25 This background set the stage for a fundraising breakthrough in 1973 involving pledges from Middle Eastern embassies for the Islamic centre project in conjunction with more substantial guarantees from private investors in South Africa. The Dublin Islamic Society received a donation of £1,518 in March 1973 from the ruling family of Abu Dhabi. The following year, in March 1974, it received £17,914.28 from King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, who donated the money personally rather than through the Saudi Ministry of Awqaf (religious endowments) in accordance with typical protocol.26 It is possible that similar circumstances motivated generous donations to European Muslims from the embassies, since both also funded the completion of the lingering Islamic Cultural Centre project at Regent’s Park in London around the same time. The acquisition of funds made it much easier for the Dublin Islamic Society to take the next step in planning the mosque project. On 19 May 1974, the Dublin Islamic Society purchased a property for £18,000 at 7 Harrington Street in Dublin city centre for use as Ireland’s first mosque.27 The purchase also included the mews at the rear of the building at 7A Synge Place, which were rented to tenants for years thereafter. Members of the Dublin Islamic Society spent the next three years obtaining the appropriate planning permission while renovating the building in intervals before opening the Centre for public use.28 Following minor setbacks, the official opening of the Islamic Centre took place on 17 December 1977, even though it had been used by local Muslims since 1976.29 The inaugural ceremony of the Dublin Islamic Centre incorporated distinguished guests, including Irish President Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh and a Saudi Arabian diplomat from London who had helped secure the funds.30 President Ó Dálaigh had left office in 1976 but attended the ceremony on

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the basis of previous ties with local Muslims through the Irish Council for Overseas Students, which facilitated a meeting with representatives of the Dublin Islamic Society at his official residence in May 1975. The inauguration marked the opening of Ireland’s first mosque and another step in the transformation of the Dublin Islamic Society from an ad hoc student society to an Irish Muslim institution. The presence of a permanent Islamic Centre in Dublin was an accomplishment for Muslims in Dublin, whose demographics were increasingly being shaped by incoming Muslim immigrants who had been settling in Ireland at the time. The Dublin Islamic Society was now obliged to strengthen its relationship with the general public and form bonds between Muslims both within and beyond Irish universities. Changing Priorities and the Search for a Full-time Imam Throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Dublin Islamic Society was growing more rapidly than before, considering that even a small increase in the Muslim population each year had a fairly large impact on the total number of Muslims in Ireland. In this respect, Ireland was primarily still a temporary destination for Muslim students who were being joined by Muslim workers arriving for technical training in the Irish aviation industry from Libya and Algeria. There was even a dedicated prayer room for Muslim interns at the training facility at Dublin Airport throughout the late 1970s, where Friday prayers were offered. The newly opened Islamic Centre in Dublin, however, remained under the control of international students, or of university graduates working in the Irish medical industry. Since the Dublin Islamic Society could not afford a full-time imam, a bedroom and living area were prepared in a residential flat above the Islamic Centre, where a student could live at subsidised cost in exchange for the regular upkeep of the mosque. This arrangement worked temporarily, but was not a satisfactory long-term substitute for a full-time imam. Members of the Dublin Islamic Society began approaching embassies once again in the hope of securing funds for a full-time imam. The Jordanian government seems to have shown an interest, but an agreement was never reached.31 In 1981, a pledge was made by the Kuwaiti Ministry of Awqaf (religious endowments) regarding the sponsorship of a full-time imam, which provided support for the position and allowed the search to take a new direction that gradually led to more lasting candidates.32 A Sudanese student named Idris Ibrahim initially took up the post of full-time imam for the Dublin Islamic Society in December 1981, but did not remain in Ireland long after graduation. This role was not very different from that of the student imams who had previously worked at the mosque on a part-time or voluntary basis prior to funding. International students nonetheless continued to occupy the position while they undertook their studies in Ireland, while the Dublin Islamic Society continued its search for a professional imam. The limited candidate pool at the local and regional levels during the early 1980s hampered

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the search and made it easy for departing graduates to nominate friends with less than ideal qualifications, creating a chain of student imams who were linked through mutual contacts. As a result, Sudanese students studying in Ireland soon began to influence the direction of the Dublin Islamic Centre’s religious leadership. In fact, the current imam of the Dublin Mosque, Yahya Al-Hussein, has held the post since 1983, when he was originally recruited by a friend in just this fashion. His invitation to take up the position was made by a fellow acquaintance from Sudan, Ahmad Al-‘As, who became involved with the Islamic Centre while occupying a postdoctoral fellowship at University College Dublin after completing degrees at Khartoum University.33 Upon his departure from Ireland, Ahmad Al-‘As enlisted Yahya Al-Hussein from Sudan to fill the vacancy temporarily as a means of taking advantage of the opportunity to study in Ireland. This suggests that the establishment of religious institutions and personnel in Ireland was a secondary outcome of Muslims migrating to the country for alternative reasons, revolving mainly around the pursuit of higher education. Becoming the Islamic Foundation of Ireland Shortly before Sheikh Yahya’s arrival in 1983, the Dublin Islamic Society had taken steps to procure a larger venue for its Islamic Centre. While the building at 7 Harrington Street had not survived its first decade, the Dublin Islamic Society had begun to outgrow its current location. The steady growth in the numbers of Muslims throughout the early 1980s was enough to ensure that the Islamic Centre would regularly reach capacity during the weekly Friday prayer services, which made it clear that the Society needed a more spacious venue for supporting religious activities. A larger building was identified at 163 South Circular Road, on the site of the former Donroe Presbyterian Church, which was purchased in 1983 with support from a private donor before being transformed into the present-day Dublin Mosque. The church-like appearance of the mosque has provided for Irish Muslims a unique religious venue, which blends nicely with the Dublin cityscape. The Dublin Mosque has also managed to avoid debates about the suitability of visible features of Islamic architecture in Europe such as domes and minarets, by retaining its original church-like exterior with traditional Irish appeal.34 The larger facilities at the Dublin Mosque were more adequate for housing the growing Muslim population from Arabic-speaking countries that had been arriving since the mid-to-late 1980s. It also provided the desired capacity of establishing an Islamic school for children.35 Although Muslims had voluntarily been conducting religious classes for children at the Islamic Centre since its opening, the inauguration of a nationally recognised primary school in 1990 was considered a major achievement. This also provides an indication of the number of Muslim children permanently residing in Ireland. In its first year, there were forty-one children enrolled at the school, who attended

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classes taught by two full-time teachers and two part-time teachers focusing on religious education.36 The launch of the first Muslim National School in Ireland also prompted a name change, from the Dublin Islamic Society to the Islamic Foundation of Ireland. The new name broadened the scope of the organisation from Dublin to Ireland and provided a more national appeal to emergent Muslim communities in Ireland. Currently, the Islamic Foundation of Ireland remains one of the leading institutions for Muslims in Ireland. Although the Muslim National School is no longer based at the site of the Dublin Mosque, the prayer hall remains open to the public for daily worship and other services offered regularly. From its humble origins as a student society dominated primarily by South African medical students, the Islamic Foundation of Ireland accommodates the multiple faces of Islam in Ireland today and maintains its status as the oldest Muslim organisation in Ireland. The mosque facilities also include administrative offices with a modest library of religious texts adjacent to the original prayer halls, an expanded wing for women, a halal butcher and grocery store and a restaurant. These facilities nonetheless constitute only one of many Islamic centres in Dublin today. The Ballyhaunis Mosque The oldest purpose-built mosque in Ireland is located in Ballyhaunis, County Mayo. In 1974, Sher Mohammed Rafique, a Pakistani entrepreneur, opened a meat-processing plant in the west of Ireland which was intended to serve as a base for his international meat export operation. He expanded the company, known initially as Halal Meats, by incorporating five slaughtering plants spread throughout the country: (i) Ballaghadereen, County Roscommon; (ii) Ballyhaunis, County Mayo; (iii) Camolin, County Wexford; (iv) Charleville, County Cork; and (v) Sligo, County Sligo. These facilities were mainly geared towards the slaughter of cattle, except for the plant in Camolin, which focused on sheep, and the plant in Ballyhaunis, which had the capacity to handle both beef and lamb. The operations were consolidated under the name United Meat Packers Limited, which developed into a major exporter of halal meat to countries in Europe and the Middle East. The high quality of Irish meat products offered at competitive prices facilitated a rapid expansion of Irish halal meat exports through the 1980s. In fact, over 75 per cent of all Irish cattle supplies were apparently set for export in 1989.37 To sustain the operations, Sher Rafique recruited a number of Muslim butchers from abroad who specialised in the halal slaughter of animals and were able to ensure a sound product in accordance with religious standards. Muslim families began settling near the main meat processing plant in Ballyhaunis, where Sher Rafique sponsored the construction of Ireland’s first purposebuilt mosque in 1986. At the peak of operations, United Meat Packers in Ballyhaunis is said to have been home to 250–300 Muslims who settled in Ireland in conjunction with jobs directly related to the halal meat industry.38

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Figure 3.1 Ballyhaunis Mosque, County Mayo. © Glynn’s Photography, Castlerea, Co. Roscommon. By the late 1980s, United Meat Packers had established a successful business model supporting international meat-processing operations and export, mainly to Britain, continental Europe and countries in the Middle East, where meat production was often expensive owing to climate or geography. During the Iran–Iraq War (1980–8), Ireland emerged as a major supplier of halal meat to both nations as well as to emerging markets in neighbouring countries. In 1988, Halal Meats processed 190,000 heads of cattle for export in the Irish meat industry.39 By 1991, United Meat Packers ‘accounted for 14.5 per cent of cattle and 24.5 per cent of sheep slaughtered at Irish meat export plants’.40 The company’s Irish revenues were estimated at £250 million, whereas its international assets were valued by Irish ministers in Dáil Éireann at £450 million worldwide.41 At the beginning of the first Gulf War, the company’s expansion was stunted by political sanctions on trade with Iraq and subsequent logistical problems related to export. In addition, a catastrophic fire at the company’s main plant in Ballyhaunis, which employed the most workers, brought it to the brink of bankruptcy. In a final effort to salvage operations, Irish ministers debated the possibility of providing United Meat Packers with a financial bailout package intended to prevent the company’s collapse and its nearly 1,000 workers from facing unemployment. It was clear that the closure of the meat processing plants around the country would create a ripple effect in the Irish economy that would negatively impact on related industries both in urban business centres and in the Irish countryside, including a number of small sheep and cattle farmers at the

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base of the supply chain. The company was forced to shut down operations in the end and was sold to another meat processing company that continued producing halal meat on a smaller scale. Sher Rafique relocated to the UK, where his son, Arfan Rafique, bought an abandoned abattoir in Caernarfon, Wales, in 2009 after its closure in relation to financial troubles stemming from the economic decline that followed the market crash of 2008.42 Two companies known as United Halal Foods and Sher Halal Foods were established to commence operations. After less than two years, however, operations at the slaughterhouse in Wales were shut down after the announcement of debts of £650,000.43 Financial troubles, coupled with the departure of the Rafique family from Ireland, have enabled the Ballyhaunis mosque to fall into a state of disrepair, even though it remains open for religious services. The Ballyhaunis mosque has acquired an iconic status among Muslims in Ireland owing to its historical significance and its quaint location in a small town amid the Irish countryside. The mosque remains a privately owned building, as is often the case in Irish Islam. This has led to awkward moments between local Muslims and the Rafique family, who at times have expressed conflicting interests regarding the future of the building, the extent of required maintenance and the urgency of repairs. It is clear that the two sides will eventually need to negotiate the status of the mosque and assign responsibility for its upkeep explicitly, which is indicative of the problems encountered during the process of religious community development across the country and the institutionalisation of Islam in Ireland. Notes 1. Parts of Chs 3 and 4 contain revised material that was previously published by Adil Hussain Khan, ‘Transnational Influences on Irish Muslim Networks: From Local to Global Perspectives’, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 31:4, 2011, pp. 486–502. Taylor & Francis have kindly granted permission to reproduce the material. 2. Keith Hart and Vishnu Padayachee, ‘Indian Business in South Africa after Apartheid: New and Old Trajectories’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 42:4, 2000, pp. 687–91. 3. Goolam Vahed, ‘Race or Class? Community and Conflict amongst Indian Municipal Employees in Durban, 1914–1949’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 27:1, 2001, pp. 124–5. 4. Thillayvel Naidoo, The Parsee Community of South Africa (Durban: Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Durban-Westville, 1987), pp. 45–6. 5. Goolam Vahed and Thembisa Waetjen, Gender, Modernity & Indian Delights: The Woman’s Cultural Group of Durban, 1954–2010 (Cape Town: Human Sciences Research Council, 2010), p. 73; see also John Davies, ‘The State and the South African University System under Apartheid’, Comparative Education, 32:3, November 1996, pp. 319–32.

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10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20.

21. 22. 23. 24.

Muslims in Ireland Naidoo, Parsee Community of South Africa, p. 48. Vahed and Thembisa, Gender, Modernity & Indian Delights, p. 75. See http://www.nui.ie/about/chancellor.asp, (last accessed 17 May 2014). See the memorial article in Journal of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, 1:4, 1964, p. 209; see also ‘Profile of a Prof.’, Mistura, 2, Winter Term 1954, pp. 10–11, which is a student publication. Personal communication with Ismail Coovadia. Dublin Islamic Society, Logbook: General Meetings Minute Book, unpublished, minutes of the General Meeting on 23 January 1959. Dublin Islamic Society, Logbook, General Meeting on 17 April 1959. Dublin Islamic Society, Logbook, Secretary’s Report on 16 October 1959. Dublin Islamic Society, Logbook, Annual General Meeting (henceforth AGM), April 1966. See www.islamisches-zentrum-muenchen.de/html/wir_uber_uns_-_geschich te.html (last accessed 17 May 2014). Dublin Islamic Society, Logbook, AGM, 25 January 1967. See Dublin Islamic Society, Logbook, Special General Meeting (henceforth SGM), 16 January 1967, and AGM, 25 January 1967. See Dublin Islamic Society, Logbook, SGM, 10 January 1969. See Dublin Islamic Society, Logbook, Centre Project Report in AGM, 24 April 1970, especially under Abdullah Lamki’s suggestions (e) and (f). Dublin Islamic Society, Logbook, AGM, 24 April 1970; see also point (6) in the Treasurer’s Report in AGM, 23 April 1971, which states that the Centre’s balance was £2,669. See the registration record of Friendly Societies, Register No. 1719, 28 October 1971. See Dublin Islamic Society, Logbook, AGM, 14 April 1972. He visited the embassies of Saudi Arabia, Libya, Kuwait, Iran, Abu Dhabi, Algeria and Malaysia. Personal communication with Dr Yusuf Vaizie. At present, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland has commonwealth campuses across the Middle East and Southeast Asia. These include the Penang Medical College, which was co-founded in Malaysia in 1996 with University College Dublin, and a collaborative effort with Perdana University (south of Kuala Lumpur) in 2011 known as PU-RCSI, offering medical degrees awarded to the same standard as the main campus in Dublin, www.pmc.edu.my (last accessed 17 May 2014); see also perdanauniversity.edu.my (last accessed 17 May 2014). The RCSI Dubai was founded in 2005 in the UAE as an initiative of its Institute of Leadership programme and since 2007 has been relocated to Dubai Healthcare City with updated facilities; see www.rcsi.ie/dubai (last accessed 17 May 2014). The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland – Medical University of Bahrain (RCSI Bahrain) opened in 2004 at the invitation of the Government of the Kingdom of Bahrain by Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern. Since 2008, the campus was relocated to purpose-built facilities adjacent to King Hamad University Hospital; see www.rcsi-mub.com (last accessed 17 May 2014). In 2003, the RCSI’s Institute of Leadership entered into an agreement that enabled

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25.

26. 27. 28. 29. 30.

31. 32. 33. 34.

35.

36. 37. 38. 39. 40.

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the RCSI faculty to teach courses in health services management to students in Amman, Jordan, which are thereby accredited by Yarmouk University based in Irbid; see www.rcsileadership.org/Academic_Prog_Jordan (last accessed 17 May 2014). This move has paved the way for future discussions about the construction of a potential campus at RCSI Jordan. In addition, the RCSI also offers professional examinations in Egypt, Kuwait, and Sudan; see www.rcsi.ie/professional_exams (last accessed 17 May 2014). It is evident that the RCSI’s current strategies for expansion are due in part to its long-standing relationship with the Muslim world and the College’s inclusive admission policies, which have historically been seen as accommodating towards international students with connections to the region. For a broader perspective on Ireland’s relationship with Middle Eastern countries, see Rory Miller, ‘The Politics of Trade and Diplomacy: Ireland’s Evolving Relationship with the Muslim Middle East’, Irish Studies in International Affairs, 15, 2004, pp. 123–45. See Dublin Islamic Society, Logbook, Extra-Ordinary General Meeting, 22 March 1974. See Dublin Islamic Society, Logbook, Secretary’s Report in AGM, 11 April 1975. See ‘Islamic Society turned down by Corporation’, Irish Independent, 2 May 1975, p. 26. See Dublin Islamic Society, Logbook, AGM, 18 December 1977. See Dublin Islamic Society, Logbook, AGM, 18 December 1977, under the heading ‘Official Opening of Islamic Centre’ in the Secretary’s Report; see also AGM, 14 November 1975. See Dublin Islamic Society, Logbook, AGM, 1978, under General Discussion. See Dublin Islamic Society, Logbook, AGM 29 May 1982, under the Secretary’s Report 1980/81. Personal communication with Yahya Al-Hussein. See Nilüfer Göle, ‘The Public Visibility of Islam and European Politics of Resentment: The Minarets–Mosques Debate’, Philosophy and Social Criticism, 37:4, 2011, pp. 383–92; see also Alana Lentin and Gavan Titley, ‘The Crisis of “Multiculturalism” in Europe: Mediated Minarets, Intolerable Subjects’, European Journal of Cultural Studies, 15:2, 2012, pp. 123–38. For more on Islamic education in Ireland, see Tuula Sakaranaho, Religious Freedom, Multiculturalism, Islam: Cross-reading Finland and Ireland (Leiden: Brill, 2006), pp. 383–408. See http://islaminireland.com/education/the-muslim-national-school (last accessed 17 May 2014). Aidan O’Driscoll and John Murray, Agra Trading (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan for the Dublin Institute of Technology, 1993), p. 47. Dáil Éireann, Parliamentary Debates, Meat Processing Company’s Financial Crisis: Statements, Volume 417, 12 March 1992. O’Driscoll and Murray, Agra Trading, p. 57. Seanad Éireann, Parliamentary Debates, Meat Processing Company’s Financial Crisis: Statements (Resumed), Vol. 131, 19 March 1992.

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41. Dáil Éireann, Parliamentary Debates. 42. ‘Sher Rafique is back killing halal sheep’, Meat Trade News Daily, 2 December 2009. Available at http://www.meattradenewsdaily.co.uk/news/021209/ wales___sher_rafique_is_back_killing_halal_sheep.aspx (last accessed 17 May 2014). 43. ‘Meat firms Sher Halal Foods and United Halal Foods in Caernarfon cease trading’, BBC News, 10 May 2012. Available at http://www.bbc.com/news/ukwales-north-west-wales-18019976 (last accessed 17 May 2014).

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chapter

4 Political Islam in Ireland and the Role of Muslim Brotherhood Networks Adil Hussain Khan

The Muslim Brotherhood in Ireland Islam in Ireland has developed independently from Islam in other countries in Western Europe while remaining under the influence of the same movements and ideologies as currently shape its interpretations in the Muslim world. This means that the Irish context has allowed expressions of Islam to develop uniquely, even though these expressions reflect the dominant trends that are driven by supporters of popular movements in contemporary Islam. The Muslim Brotherhood (al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun) in particular has had the most influence in the institutionalisation of Islam in Ireland. Its involvement in the creation of Muslim networks in Ireland is complex and varies from case to case. There might only be historical links to the Muslim Brotherhood in certain Irish Muslim institutions, whereas others have come to share similar ideological orientations over time. There are also Muslim organisations in Ireland that openly involve direct participation of members of the Muslim Brotherhood at varying levels, while others share links that are only circumstantial. It is difficult to assess the Brotherhood’s involvement in Irish Islam, owing to its nebulous nature as a political ideology that has spawned several offshoot organisations with similar objectives but no connection whatsoever to the institutional hierarchy in Egypt. The Brotherhood’s influence in Ireland could be described as an ideological overlap with symbolic figures in the Brotherhood’s historical development, alongside a commitment to the larger objectives of global political Islam as expressed by similar organisations. For this reason, the influence of the Brotherhood may look like a broad conglomeration of religious values loosely connected to political objectives that underlie its ideology, even though it may be difficult to pinpoint explicit references to the Muslim Brotherhood in Irish institutions at first glance.1 [ 91 ]

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It is worth mentioning that the self-identification of individual Irish Muslims with the Muslim Brotherhood has shaped the overall analysis of Muslim institutions in Ireland in this light. This self-identification has played an important role in connecting institutions within the Irish Muslim landscape to the ideological influences of the Muslim Brotherhood, especially since some institutions may deny any such affiliation in public. It is difficult, however, to ignore the testimonies of Irish Muslims who proudly proclaim their affiliation to the Brotherhood in private and insist that these very institutions represent the Brotherhood’s world-view in Ireland. The stigma attached to the Brotherhood in Europe and the Muslim world has made these contradictions understandable, since the threat of consequences facing members who proclaim their allegiance to the Brotherhood is real. This makes it problematic to identify individuals or organisations as falling within the scope of the Brotherhood’s influence, since affiliations to the Brotherhood in Ireland might only be implicit and broadly inclusive of both actual members and mere sympathisers. The labelling of these influences as representative of the Brotherhood is nonetheless intended to facilitate discussions that would otherwise be difficult. Historical Background of the Muslim Brotherhood in Ireland The influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Ireland dates back to the earliest years of the first Irish Muslim institutions. As the first Muslim medical students were coming together to form the Dublin Islamic Society in 1959, unrelated events were unfolding abroad, which have come to shape the direction of Irish Islam. The formation of the Dublin Islamic Society within the historical context of corresponding events in the Middle East has facilitated the Brotherhood’s prolonged influence on Irish Islam. In Egypt, for example, the attempt in 1954 to assassinate the revolutionary leader Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918–70) at the alleged behest of Muslim Brotherhood leaders led to a major government crackdown on political activists and opposition movements throughout the country. As a result, thousands of members of the Muslim Brotherhood were imprisoned indefinitely without formal charge while the movement was officially dissolved by the Nasser regime.2 Towards the end of the 1950s, many Brotherhood supporters fled Egypt in search of political asylum abroad. Although most seem to have stayed within the confines of the Middle East, a few influential members moved West to escape the Egyptian government’s sanctions on political opposition movements.3 This was an important step in the subsequent development of Islam in Europe and North America. This dynamic may also have been influenced, to some extent, by the early Brotherhood’s appeal to younger middle-class Egyptians with progressive ideas, especially while the movement’s governance remained under the auspices of its founder, Hasan Al-Banna (1906–49).4 By the beginning of the 1960s, several promising activists in exile were unexpectedly pursuing paths of higher education in foreign countries, prior

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to stabilising their personal situations and eventually settling in permanent European or North American locations, including Ireland. One such member of the Dublin Islamic Society in the early 1960s was the Egyptian medical student Ahmed Elkadi (d. 2009). Although Elkadi’s sojourn in Ireland is, typically, overshadowed by his much lengthier stay in the USA, his Irish contributions were nonetheless meaningful, according to his South African companions of the time.5 Upon completing his studies, Elkadi established himself as a heart surgeon and eventually settled in the USA, where after the 1960s he played a leading role in helping to solidify a number of Muslim organisations, including the Islamic Circle of North America, the Islamic Medical Association of North America and the Muslim American Society, as well as the Muslim Youth of North America, which effectively functions as the student branch of the Islamic Society of North America. From Dublin, however, as a medical student studying abroad, Elkadi organised study circles to discuss passages of the Qur’an with fellow Muslims who were less versed in the Arabic language. Elkadi took advantage of these opportunities to introduce members to ideas of prominent Ikhwani thinkers like Said Ramadan (1926–95), Sayyid Qutb (1906–66) and Hasan Al-Banna.6 Said Ramadan was himself in a similar situation to Elkadi at this stage of his career. As a leading figure in the early Brotherhood, Ramadan was expelled from his native Egypt like many of his companions following the Government’s clampdown on the organisation. Ramadan spent a number of years moving from country to country until he finally settled with his family in Switzerland, where he helped found the Islamic Centre of Geneva in 1961.7 Ramadan’s commitment to global Muslim unity through a process of bureaucratisation was consistent with his Islamist ideals, much like Ahmed Elkadi in Dublin, who in his own way encouraged Muslims in Ireland to establish themselves accordingly. At the European level, Muslim Brotherhood exiles, like Said Ramadan, played an important role in orchestrating Muslim initiatives on a transnational scale. Although Ramadan did not necessarily devise these projects of his own accord, he helped local Muslims scattered throughout Europe collaborate with one another, whether by aiding in the establishment of local infrastructure or by helping burgeoning Muslim communities in Europe access Middle Eastern resources in an unprecedented way. This was also true of the developing Muslim communities in Ireland. Hence, Muslim medical students, like Mohammed Khan of the Dublin Islamic Society, were eager to develop and maintain contact with European Muslim networks of support, irrespective of their ethnic or sectarian orientations. For these reasons, Mohammed Khan attempted to arrange a meeting with Said Ramadan at his Swiss residence in Geneva that same year. Although Khan journeyed from Dublin to Geneva, he was unable to meet Said Ramadan owing to Ramadan’s unexpected departure from the country.8 Multiple factors contributed towards the development of Muslim organisational structures in Europe throughout the 1960s. Although motivated

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Muslim activists disseminating the ideologies of political Islam had succeeded in capturing the attention of local Muslim students studying at European universities, they alone were not responsible for the subsequent formation in later decades of transnational Islamist networks at the European level.9 Many local Muslims themselves were looking for outside assistance or external support in establishing venues for basic religious undertakings in alien surroundings across Europe. Taking foundational measures towards the institutionalisation of Islam was in this sense a necessary step in the crystallisation of viable Muslim communities in cities like Dublin, where none had previously existed. Muslim students in Ireland were for this reason equally willing to welcome support for religious endeavours from their Church of Ireland hosts at Koinonia House, the hostel where many Muslim medical students studying at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland resided, as well as from their more politically minded brethren in exile, despite their lack of Islamist sympathies. As local needs grew in conjunction with local communities, the priorities of Muslims in Ireland changed and new issues began to take precedence in the Dublin Islamic Society’s annual agendas. This was reflected in growing concerns surrounding the lack of permanent mosque facilities in Dublin. When fundraising initiatives for a mosque began, members of the Dublin Islamic Society began attending conferences and gatherings in an attempt to lobby external support by establishing contacts through various Muslim networks in Europe. The largest contributions for the mosque project were attained through diplomatic contacts which were established in 1972 when Dublin Islamic Society members began focusing their efforts on foreign embassies in London. The embassy of Saudi Arabia proved to be the most beneficial in terms of providing support for the mosque project. This was largely the result of influence of the Saudi diplomat in London at the time, Salem Azzam (1924–2008). Azzam was from an influential Egyptian family, despite his posting at the Saudi embassy in London and was swiftly emerging as a leading figure in European political Islam. He was highly respected within the community for his long-standing commitment to Arab nationalism. Salem Azzam was, most notably, the nephew of Abd Al-Rahman Azzam (or Azzam Pasha, 1893–1976), a prominent Egyptian politician whose celebrated career culminated in the years between 1945 and 1952, when he served as the first secretary-general of the Arab League.10 Within the colonial context prior to World War II, however, the Azzam family had strong political ties to the early Muslim Brotherhood, namely through Abd Al-Rahman Azzam and his fellow activist companion Hasan Al-Banna.11 The relationship between Muslims in Ireland and Azzam was furthered the following year, when in May 1973 a delegation from the Dublin Islamic Society attended the International Conference for Islamic Cultural Centres and Bodies in Europe held in London. The London conference was sponsored by the Saudi embassy under the direction of its diplomat, Salem Azzam. The conference enabled members of the Dublin Islamic Society to

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establish contact with other leading Islamist networks in Europe, mainly from the Muslim Brotherhood and the Jama‘at-i Islami. Salem Azzam used the London conference to establish a platform for the Islamic Council of Europe (ICE), an early Muslim umbrella organisation at the European level. Although the ICE appears to have since been superseded by other umbrella organisations, it had been reasonably active in London since its inception in 1973 and was so throughout the early 1980s.12 Salem Azzam and the ICE were fully committed to consolidating a transnational network of Muslim organisational structures in Europe and beyond. Azzam’s stature within the ranks of the Saudi embassy was cemented by the marriage of his cousin, Muna bint Abd Al-Rahman Azzam, to King Faisal’s son, Muhammad Al-Faisal. Given the various channels at Salem Azzam’s disposal, procuring funds for peripheral projects, such as the desired Islamic centre in Dublin, was simply not a problem. Funding Ireland’s first mosque equally served a number of religious, socio-political and diplomatic interests at the same time, both personal and professional. By establishing a European Muslim umbrella organisation and funding member mosques to join, proponents of political Islam considerably expanded their scope of influence throughout Europe, including Ireland. In March 1974, the Dublin Islamic Society received nearly £18,000 from the Saudi embassy on behalf of King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, who donated the money personally rather than through the Ministry of Awqaf (religious endowments).13 This made it possible for the Dublin Islamic Society to purchase the property at 7 Harrington Street in Dublin city centre, which over the next few years was transformed into Ireland’s first mosque. Salem Azzam travelled to Dublin to attend the inaugural ceremony of the mosque in 1977 as ‘chief guest’ alongside former Irish President Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh, as mentioned in the previous chapter.14 The Dublin Islamic Society also named Azzam a lifetime trustee of the mosque just prior to its inauguration, in accordance with the procedures of Irish Friendly Societies.15 This strengthened ties between Muslims in Ireland and those in Britain through mutual connections and shared links to common donors. Aside from financial contributions, the Dublin Islamic Society received additional support from the ICE to assist with the regular operation of the new mosque. In 1977, the ICE committed itself to sending a religious speaker to Dublin on a monthly basis, which was a welcome addition considering the lack of a full-time imam at the new mosque.16 The creation of transnational links further shaped the trajectory of Irish Islam in favour of Islamist movements in Europe which were intent on establishing an organised framework for Muslim institutions that was consistent with the objectives of political Islam. This was not a matter of Islamist supporters consciously setting out to influence Islam in Ireland, but a convenient relationship that developed when influential Islamists had the ability to offer what Irish Muslims desired at precisely the right time. The influence of the Muslim Brotherhood became more apparent when the time came for the Dublin Islamic Society to recruit a full-time imam, and even more so later,

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when it became necessary to interact with other mosques in the Dublin area. The aspirations of the Muslim Brotherhood to organise European Islam into a singular political entity have played an important role in this regard.17 The Islamic Foundation of Ireland and Political Islam As the Dublin Islamic Society expanded its mission and established itself at a new location at 163 South Circular Road, Dublin, nearby its original location on Harrington Street, it became clear that the growth of Muslim families in the city prioritised the need to address religious education for children. In other countries where religious education is not subsidised by government, local Muslims have developed alternative methods of supporting religious instruction for children, often in more informal settings. The Irish government’s support for religious education, however, has made it easier for Muslims in Ireland to pursue the notion of a Muslim National School, modelled on the numerous Catholic schools in the country. In 1988, representatives of the Dublin Islamic Society met with members of the Department of Education to discuss the prospects for opening a government-funded primary school for Muslims in Dublin. The following year, speakers primarily from Ireland and the UK addressed the issue of Islamic education for children at a local conference.18 Although Qur’anic schools had been established in Ireland since the mid-1970s, they ran largely on a voluntary basis without national support and without any connection to the national curriculum. In anticipation of the opening of the first national primary school in Ireland which incorporated Islamic classes as part of its curriculum in place of denominational Christian religious education, the Dublin Islamic Society changed its name to the Islamic Foundation of Ireland. The new name broadened the scope of the organisation beyond Dublin and provided the Muslim communities of Ireland with a fresh administrative platform that was better suited for such an endeavour. In July 1990, the Islamic Foundation of Ireland was provided with provisional approval from the Minister of Education to establish the first Muslim National School in the Republic of Ireland at the site of the existing Dublin Mosque following stipulated renovations on South Circular Road. In September of the same year, the school opened its doors to students who attended ordinary classes in addition to receiving religious education with a focus on Islam. Government-funded denominational schools in Ireland follow the standard Irish curriculum, but substitute an officially recognised religion of choice, in this case Islam, for the typically Christian-oriented classes of other primary schools. This system enables Muslim children to participate in the daily ritual prayers, the weekly Friday prayer services and Muslim religious holidays while attending school without conflicts in scheduling. These schools follow the standard national curriculum in all other subjects.19 The Muslim National School operated from its original location through the early 1990s, until the steady growth of the Muslim population in Ireland

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increased the demand from Muslim parents for larger and better-equipped facilities that were tailored to meet the needs of primary school children in the country. Many Muslim parents in Ireland were especially interested in expanding the school, for a number of reasons, including the idea that Muslim children were particularly vulnerable to outside influences imposed by public religious education in the country, which has historically been dominated by the Roman Catholic Church. This was becoming an issue for Muslim families as growing numbers of middle-class Muslims in Ireland discovered the limitations of the educational system when they enrolled their Muslim children in Catholic schools as a means of gaining access to the best educational institutions available. The prospects for an Islamic school funded by the Irish government became a driving force behind further expansion of Irish Muslim institutions as members of Muslim communities in Dublin, under the banner of the Islamic Foundation of Ireland, entered the 1990s. The Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland and the Consolidation of Mosque Networks From the late 1980s to the early 1990s, growing numbers of Libyan, Algerian and Malaysian migrants arrived in Ireland.20 The Libyan connection was strengthened by Gaddafi’s relations with Ireland since the 1970s, which developed in spite of his continued support for the IRA.21 The changing circumstances made it easier for Muslims in permanent Irish residence to reconsider their roles in a globalised context, since the growing Irish Muslim population remained modest in size yet fluid, with continual changes in its student membership. By then, the Dublin Islamic Society consisted of a diverse conglomeration of Muslim medical students and migrant workers with mixed ethnic backgrounds from Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, as well as from Malaysia. Muslims in Ireland were also affected by the arrival of refugees from the wars in Bosnia and Iraq.22 The steady rise of Arabicspeaking Muslims altered the internal dynamics of Muslim communities in Ireland, since the overall population was relatively small. The most visible change in Irish Muslim communities was not necessarily the clear dominance of any one particular ethnic group, but rather the shift away from the earlier South African influence, among both the community’s student and non-student members. As the Irish economy grew throughout the 1990s, Ireland had increasingly become an attractive destination for Muslim students from the Gulf region. This appears to have been encouraged by amicable relations between the UAE and Ireland following a few high-profile shared business ventures, many of which continue to this day. In one such case, Aer Rianta, one of the world’s ‘leading international airport retail management compan[ies]’, which currently functions as a subsidiary of the Dublin Airport Authority, underwent a series of consultations in 1983, resulting in the creation of Dubai

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Duty Free.23 Consequently, the ruling family of Dubai heavily recruited Aer Rianta executives when first establishing Dubai Duty Free. The company’s executive board is still made up of Irish nationals of the original 1983 team.24 The close relations between the Emirates and Ireland made the ruling family of Dubai the target of increased attention from Irish Muslims, who were in dire need of external support. Local Muslims had also been aware of the Maktoum family’s investments of hundreds of millions of dollars in the international horse racing industry, including in Ireland.25 Maktoum family members have consistently been among the top buyers of bloodstock at major British and Irish auctions for a number of years. Although the Maktoum family has constructed impressive facilities in Britain and Dubai, it retains several family-owned stables in Ireland, mainly situated around County Kildare.26 This continued involvement in Ireland may have made the Maktoum family of Dubai more willing to support Irish Muslim initiatives when they were approached in 1992 by an Emirati medical student, who had been studying at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland at the time. The student’s influential family background apparently was a contributing factor in the decision. It is clear from conversations with local Irish Muslims involved in the process that personal sympathies shaped the subsequent outcomes in a way that seemed favourable to proponents of global political Islam. A decision was made to build new mosque facilities in a suburban Dublin location in advance of Ireland’s growing Muslim population. This resulted in the construction of the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland (ICCI) in Clonskeagh, Dublin. The Centre was inaugurated by the Irish President, Mary Robinson, and the Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, on 16 November 1996.27 In addition to a restaurant, mortuary, and adjoining residential quarters, the new mosque grounds incorporated an expanded site equipped to serve as the new location for Ireland’s first Muslim National School, which was to be moved from the old site on South Circular Road. In the early stages of the project’s completion, the existing school and mosque complex were vacated and relocated to Clonskeagh in order to facilitate the sale of the old property. Internal disputes between rival groups halted the sale of the Dublin Mosque property at South Circular Road, however, and led to a prolonged legal battle whose outcomes delineated aspects of religious authority among leading Muslim institutions and figureheads in Ireland. The Dublin Mosque was subsequently reopened under the auspices of the Islamic Foundation of Ireland at the former site at South Circular Road, while the new mosque grounds in Clonskeagh remained under the direct control of the Maktoum Foundation as the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland. This meant that the Maktoum Foundation would not transfer the management of the new mosque to the old administration under the custody of the Islamic Foundation of Ireland, as was originally planned. Instead, there emerged two distinct organisations operating from two separate mosques.

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The full cost of operations associated with the ICCI, including its extensive administrative staff, continue to be provided by the Maktoum Foundation at this time. The Islamic Foundation of Ireland, however, has retained the right to manage the operations and daily affairs of the Muslim National School, which remains at its intended location at the Islamic Cultural Centre grounds in Clonskeagh. This arrangement is the result of the problematic nature of transferring authority from one mosque organisation to another in terms of the right to operate a nationally funded school without re-establishing the minimal criteria mandated by government regulations. Hence, any Muslim organisation that desires to run a state-sponsored school in Ireland would need to apply for a government permit authorising it to do so. The peculiar relationship between the two organisations is due in part to the complex nature of the fallout from the power struggle following the new mosque’s construction, which led to the creation of a new organisation. This provides insights into the nature of the influence exerted by the European Brotherhood on Irish Muslim institutions. The Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe and Ireland Within the broader context of European Islam, 1989 marked the beginning of the Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe (FIOE), a reasonably successful umbrella organisation established by supporters of the European Brotherhood along the lines of Salem Azzam’s Islamic Council of Europe.28 The FIOE claims to be the largest and perhaps most comprehensive representative of Islam in Europe, consisting of ‘hundreds of member organisations spread across 28 European States’.29 The FIOE presents itself as the crowning achievement of numerous failed attempts to mobilise European Muslims, which consequently have enabled it to ‘unif[y] the political discourse’ with respect to European Islam.30 Since its inception, the FIOE has been much more efficient than previous European Muslim umbrella organisations at compartmentalising aspects of authority into an institutional framework. This has been achieved through the creation of ‘specialised institutions’, which have enabled it to streamline its efforts by representing particular strands of the public discourse on Islam at the European level.31 For example, the FIOE has since established the Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organisations, the European Media Association, and the European Forum of Muslim Women.32 To demonstrate the backing of European Muslims and bolster its political platform, the FIOE needed to incorporate an authoritative body exclusively within the religious sphere of European Islam. As a result, it assembled the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR), which can be seen as an attempt to establish a religious authority capable of complementing its ambitious attempt at becoming the major political representation of Muslims in Europe.

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The first meeting of the ECFR took place in London over the last weekend in March 1997.33 Over fifteen scholars, primarily from the Middle East, formed the council as an authoritative assembly of Muslim scholars (‘ulama’) for European Muslims. A constitution was drafted, which specified five conditions for membership. Although the fourth condition stipulated European residency for each member, a concession was made for additional scholars approved by the majority of the existing members. Moreover, the council’s by-laws state that the total of ECFR members who are not in European residence may not exceed 25 per cent.34 This was an important step in creating a sense of legitimacy for the council’s rulings, since a mufti’s familiarity with local customs and practices is imperative in the establishment of an authoritative fatwa within the classical framework of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence (usul al-fiqh).35 As such, the ECFR’s constitution deliberately attempts to distinguish itself from other authoritative fatwa councils in the Muslim world by adopting a distinctly European flavour. The extent of the European orientations of the ECFR’s members may be called into question, however, given the dominance of members from the Middle East. The most notable figure on the ECFR’s executive since its inception has been its president, Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi (b. 1926), an Egyptian national who was educated at Al-Azhar and lives in Qatar.36 Despite distancing himself from certain aspects of the movement, Qaradawi is widely regarded as the spiritual figurehead for the Muslim Brotherhood’s religious ideology.37 Qaradawi enlisted the services of several colleagues with mutual concerns and similar ideals from various parts of the Muslim world in order to establish the core of the ECFR’s roster. Other prominent members who shared this ideological outlook included the ECFR’s Lebanese vice-president, Faisal Mawlawi, who died in 2011. Although Mawlawi had French ties, he was best known for his central role in another Islamist organisation, the Jama‘a Islamiyya, in his native Lebanon.38 There was also Rachid Ghannouchi, a Tunisian national who until the revolution of January 2011 was living in exile in Britain.39 Ghannouchi returned to Tunis to assist the next generation of supporters of his Al-Nahda party (now usually called the Ennahda Movement).40 Another important figure was Isam Bashir, who held a prominent position in the Sudanese government under Hasan Al-Turabi, prior to Turabi’s falling out with the Brotherhood.41 Other ECFR members include Ahmed Al-Rawi, an Iraqi immigrant to the UK who headed the FIOE throughout 2006,42 as well as Ahmad Jaballah, who took over the FIOE leadership after Al-Rawi.43 On a national level, Jaballah has also played an active role in the Union des Organisations Islamiques de France, which is often associated with the Brotherhood’s world-view.44 The council’s clear preference for scholars with similar world-views and shared political affiliations necessitated a diversification of the membership roster in order to establish a greater sense of legitimacy. To accomplish its

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goals, the ECFR needed to devise a way to obtain the backing of European Muslims who did not affiliate with the major organs of the FIOE and, hence, were less likely to share its ideological persuasions. A number of eminent figures in the Muslim world were recruited to give the ECFR a more balanced look and ultimately a greater sense of religious authority. These alternative voices in the ECFR have been represented by various figures since the council’s inception. Three prominent non-Islamist scholars stand out at present. They are: Sheikh Abdullah bin Bayyah, a Mauritanian scholar who currently resides in Saudi Arabia, Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani, who served as Pakistan’s former Supreme Court Justice, and Mustafa Ceric´, the former Grand Mufti of Bosnia. This move was seemingly appreciated by Europe’s less political Muslims, who could now look to scholars recognised independently for their contributions to Islamic scholarship. Despite fluctuations in membership, the Council’s members in European residence have always been under-represented, with the exception of those in Britain, France, and Germany.45 The geographic asymmetry in the ECFR’s European representation was reinforced by a decision made in the Council’s second session, which determined that two subcommittees for fatwa would be established in Britain and France to provide relief from the excessive workload accumulated during the ECFR’s ordinary sessions.46 Together, these moves undermined the input of significant numbers of European Muslims living beyond the confines of Western Europe’s most populous countries. It is clear from its earliest endeavours that the ECFR needed to provide a more equitable representation of Europe in order to achieve ascendancy among Europeans. Resolving the issue initially appeared to be a simple matter. With simple manoeuvring, the ECFR expanded its scope of influence by involving Muslims from other European countries. The ECFR subsequently relocated its headquarters to the Republic of Ireland in accordance with its European objectives.47 Although this certainly broadened the scope of the ECFR’s European image, the move left some Irish Muslims confounded, which is an understandable reaction, in view of the preceding historical development of Islam in Ireland. To place the move in context, the census figures of 1991 indicate that only 3,875 Muslims were living in Ireland at the time.48 The introduction of a major transnational Muslim institution such as the ECFR into a country which had largely been dominated by South African medical students since the 1950s represented an unprecedented shift in the development of Irish Islam. In October 1998, the move was finalised nonetheless, and the centre of operations for the ECFR was transferred to Clonskeagh, where the newly opened facilities of the ICCI were in an optimal position to house the Council’s executive.49 From there, the ECFR enlisted as its general secretary Hussein Halawa, who was the recently arrived Egyptian imam of Dublin’s newly opened mosque. Additional administrative support was co-opted from the ICCI, whose fulltime staff already worked as employees of the Maktoum Foundation. This entailed that the costs incurred from subsequent meetings of the ECFR, as

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well as the costs arising from the daily operations of the ICCI, should be provided by the Maktoum Foundation. The Transformation of Dublin into the Centre of Islamic Jurisprudence for Muslim Minorities (fiqh al-aqalliyyat) In revisiting the timeline, we see that the proposal for the new mosque in Dublin was accepted in 1992. Then, only months after the opening of the ICCI in 1996, the inaugural meeting of the ECFR took place in London. Within the next five months, the first official session of the ECFR had taken place in Sarajevo, in August 1997, hosted by the then Grand Mufti of Bosnia, Mustafa Ceric´. By the time of the second ECFR meeting in October 1998, the Council had relocated its headquarters to the newly built ICCI facilities in Clonskeagh, Dublin.50 It is possible that financial considerations influenced the move as the regular meetings of the ECFR, since at least 1998, have been fully funded by the Maktoum Foundation, which also funds the ICCI. This enables the same staff members to run two seemingly independent organisations, which creates a strong sense of authority, particularly among outsiders looking in. For example, Sheikh Hussein Halawa not only serves as imam of the ICCI and as general secretary of the ECFR, but also represents Irish Muslims at the national level as chair of the Irish Council of Imams, as discussed below. In a posting on the FIOE’s website, Imam Halawa elaborated the objectives of the ECFR with regard to the dissemination of fiqh al-aqalliyyat, jurisprudence for Muslims living in a minority status in the West.51 The basic premise of fiqh al-aqalliyyat suggests that the minority status of Muslims in Western countries necessitates certain legal provisions, which otherwise, in a majority situation, would be forbidden. It has been suggested that Taha Jabir Al-Alwani, a former ECFR member and the founder of the Fiqh Council of North America, was the first to use the term in relation to Muslim political participation in America, where the dominant parties do not necessarily represent interests that are traditionally seen as representative of Muslims.52 Halawa has suggested in personal conversation, however, that the development of fiqh al-aqalliyyat, as it is currently understood, was a joint effort by ECFR members under the direction of Qaradawi’s intellectual guidance, despite Alwani’s use of the term prior to the formation of the ECFR.53 The notion of fiqh al-aqalliyyat has since been both praised and heavily criticised by Muslim scholars worldwide. Notable critics include the Swiss academic Tariq Ramadan,54 who himself claims to have been offered ECFR membership on four separate occasions, which he has consistently declined.55 Another outspoken critic has been the prominent Syrian scholar Sheikh Muhammad Sa‘id Ramadan Al-Bouti (1929–2013), who maintained that the ECFR was set up to fulfil the political aspirations of its members by appeasing Western authorities.56 Such statements are antithetical to the Council’s purported agenda and have damaged the Council’s reputation beyond its Islamist base.

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The Council’s European identity has been called into question by local Muslims in Ireland, who remain sceptical about its commitment to Muslims in the West. For example, many of the leading figures in the ECFR, including Sheikh Hussein Halawa, lack conversational fluency in the English language. Halawa nevertheless has remained imam of the ICCI and an influential figure in the ECFR’s secretariat since his arrival in Ireland. This is certainly not to say that he or any other members of the ECFR are incompetent, lacking in scholarly ability or somehow unversed in traditional Islamic scholarship. However, cultural differences and communication issues in particular have drawn considerable attention to the European orientation of the ECFR’s membership at the local level. These issues have also given rise to internal debates within Irish Muslim communities regarding the suitability of such imams, who were privately selected from abroad and brought in to countries, such as Ireland, with small Muslim populations and limited mosque space. Networking: Dublin, Cork and Galway The ICCI is not the only Islamic centre in Ireland responsible for coordinating events and religious activities consistent with the FIOE’s broader interests. In fact, despite the ICCI’s abundant financial resources, the FIOE’s official representative organisation in Ireland is the Muslim Association of Ireland (MAI), whose administrative offices are based at a different mosque complex in Tallaght, Dublin. Its Executive Director, Adam Argiag, is a native of Libya who in 1994 fled the country for Europe in political exile because of his opposition to the Gaddafi regime. Argiag had been actively involved in the FIOE even prior to his arrival in Ireland in 2000 and helped establish local Muslim organisations, including the MAI, some years later. Since the MAI is officially listed as the FIOE’s representative in Ireland whereas the ICCI is officially listed as the international headquarters for the ECFR and organises educational courses through the European Institute of Human Sciences (the educational institute affiliated with the FIOE that was established to train European imams), networks of the FIOE are quite well-represented in Ireland. Both mosques share the sponsorship of the Maktoum Foundation, even though the Tallaght mosque has since attempted to establish alternative sources of financial support. The manner of influence of the ICCI, as the sole intermediary responsible for the appropriation of Maktoum Foundation funds to respective Muslim organisations in Ireland, has proved to be questionable. This is due to the presence of an inherent internal hierarchy based on financial resources, which has compromised the autonomy of individual mosque organisations whose primary or secondary sources of income are acquired through annual subsidies allocated by the ICCI. The Maktoum Foundation offers financial support to four major mosque organisations in Ireland in addition to its sponsorship of the ICCI in Clonskeagh, Dublin, and its supplementary support of the MAI in Tallaght, Dublin. These mosque

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organisations include the Islamic Foundation of Ireland, which runs the Dublin Mosque in Dublin city centre; the Cork Muslim Society, which runs Cork’s main mosque in Togher; the Galway Islamic Cultural Centre, which runs both major mosques in Galway; and the Islamic Cultural Centre of Cavan, which runs the local mosque in Cavan.57 Furthermore, in addition to the Maktoum Foundation, many of the same mosques share the same cosponsor in the Kuwaiti Ministry of Awqaf, which has become a major financier of imams in Ireland rather than mosques. The emerging pattern of a national mosque network is further strengthened through the commissioning of sympathetic imams, who outwardly support the ICCI’s local initiatives. Many of these imams arrived in Ireland under similar circumstances related to political persecution. For example, the long-time imam of the mosque run by the Cork Muslim Society, Sheikh Salem Faituri Muftah, had joined the Muslim Brotherhood while studying the Qur’an with local scholars in his hometown of Benghazi. He consequently was forced to reconsider the viability of having a stable future in his native Libya following to the brutal crackdown on opposition movements by Muammar Gaddafi in the 1990s. In 1993, Sheikh Salem’s brother was abducted covertly by intelligence forces and later executed. The family only learned about the details of the ordeal following the release of confidential documents in 2011, when rebel forces toppled the Gaddafi regime. After living in hiding for some time in Egypt and then Tripoli, Sheikh Salem left Libya in exile for Europe in 1998 as a political refugee. After two more years of uncertainty, he travelled to Dublin in 2000 on the advice of friends in similar situations, where he began teaching Qur’anic classes to children through the ICCI. That year, he was sent to Cork to lead the voluntary tarawih prayers, which is a customary practice for Muslims during the nights of Ramadan. Following the month of Ramadan, Sheikh Salem was invited to continue leading the congregation as the full-time imam of the Cork mosque.58 Since then, he has been a major figure in Irish Muslim communities and has played a critical role in the expansion of the local mosque facilities in Cork. When Sheikh Salem arrived, Muslims in Cork were only praying in a rented house. They later moved into a larger warehouse for a number of years before developing plans for the newly constructed mosque complex and community centre in use today. Similarly, Sheikh Khalid Sallabi, imam of the Galway Islamic Cultural Centre, was also forced to leave his native Libya in the mid-1990s owing to political unrest. Since the crackdown on opposition movements, Sheikh Khalid’s elder brother, Sheikh Ali Sallabi, has become an outspoken critic of Middle Eastern politics, a prolific author of religious works and a leading advocate of political Islam in the Middle East and North Africa. Sheikh Ali attained some celebrity among the Libyan mainstream following his extended imprisonment by Gaddafi forces. In order to avoid the fate of his brother, Sheikh Khalid moved from country to country before finally settling in Ireland in 1999, where he continued his previous studies in IT. From

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Dublin, Khalid Sallabi was asked to lead the tarawih prayers in Galway, owing to his background in Qur’anic studies. The following year, he was invited to return to Galway as the full-time imam, following the previous imam’s departure in 2001.59 Since then, he has become a pivotal figure in helping local Muslims expand mosque facilities beyond the Riverside location and in developing the newly constructed Galway Islamic Cultural Centre in the west of the city. Within the network of mosques funded by the Maktoum Foundation, there are subtle differences in vision which at times have led to squabbling and local controversies. This is to some extent the direct result of differences between the development patterns of political Islam in various Muslim majority countries, its understanding in different situations and its subsequent interpretation in an Irish context, which has nuanced distinctions among the various Muslim institutions of Ireland. There are clear cultural differences, in particular, between the key Libyan administrators at the mosques in Cork, Galway and Tallaght and those at the ICCI, which is run by an Iraqi chief executive and an Egyptian imam. Similarly, the influence of the Sudanese imam of the Islamic Foundation of Ireland further complicates this dynamic, especially when considering the course of the Sudanese Brotherhood since the end of the twentieth century under Hasan Turabi. In addition, the impact of the Arab Spring on perceptions of political Islam may have changed attitudes towards the Muslim Brotherhood in Ireland since 2011, by associating it more appropriately with movements opposing enduring dictatorships in the Middle East that advocate political Islam, as opposed to extremist organisations. This has led to a greater willingness to address issues surrounding the role of political Islam in Muslim societies and has lessened the likelihood of drawing inappropriate or simplistic conclusions. For example, Irish media reports of the arrest of Sheikh Hussein Halawa’s children in Cairo for participating in demonstrations following the military coup of July 2013 were sympathetic towards protesters who marched in solidarity with supporters of the ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Al-Morsi, whose party was endorsed by the Muslim Brotherhood.60 This was also apparent in the willingness to cover criticism of the Irish government following the indefinite detention of Sheikh Hussein Halawa’s son, Ebraheem Halawa, who is an Irish citizen.61 This type of media coverage may serve to give supporters of political Islam a sense of legitimacy by adding another dimension to migration stories and their role in organising Islam in Ireland. The similarities in the interpretations of political Islam in various Irish Muslim organisations usually allow the Maktoum mosque network to come together for the greater good in the public eye, when the reputation of Irish Islam is at stake. This is made easier to some extent by the general public’s lack of knowledge about Islam in Ireland and the unassuming attitudes of outsiders, who are largely unaware of the internal complexities of Muslim communities in Ireland. Most Muslim leaders within the mosque network

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seem to tacitly agree that it would not be worthwhile to publicise internal differences to outsiders at this time, as a means of not disrupting the delicate balance of power that has been achieved with great difficulty. In addition, there are enough commonalities for the time being for mosque organisations to cooperate with each other in order to achieve the broader goals of political Islam in Europe. In this regard, there appears to be an expansive network of independent mosque organisations who voluntarily subscribe to the FIOE’s broader European mission when necessary. These mosques employ imams or establish representatives who appear consistent on pertinent religious and political issues in the public sphere. The best example of this on the national level is the Irish Council of Imams. Irish Council of Imams The effort to unify the voice of the Maktoum mosque network headed by the ICCI in Clonskeagh stemmed incidentally from a similar idea of forming a consultative council of religious leaders. This suggestion of forming an ecumenical body that would facilitate dialogue among Muslims in Ireland was initially made by Mazhar Bari, the son of Mian Ghulam Bari, who presented his case to various mosque organisations, including both the ICCI and the Shia Ahlul-Bayt Centre in Milltown, Dublin. His proposal was unique in that it involved both Sunni and Shia representatives on the same platform, as well as other Muslim organisations beyond the major mosque network. The proposal was apparently viewed with a sense of scepticism by the ICCI hierarchy, but gained momentum once the proposed council was reformulated as an umbrella organisation with potential to consolidate power. The Irish Council of Imams (ICI), as it has come to be known, was launched in Dublin in September 2006 as a body with ‘the authority to speak on relevant issues on behalf of the [then] estimated 40,000 Muslims in the State’.62 These types of media depiction presented the Irish public with familiar images analogous to the Islamic equivalent of a church-sanctioned body capable of representing the views of Muslims in Ireland.63 This, of course, is problematic for a religion such as Islam, which evolved without a centralised religious hierarchy. The ICI has always been chaired by Sheikh Hussein Halawa of the ICCI and co-chaired by Sheikh Yahya Al-Hussein of the Islamic Foundation of Ireland. The bulk of the Council consists of imams who already fall within the mosque network sponsored by the ICCI. This means that the Council tends to represent the views of its executive, as opposed to the views of ordinary Muslims who are led by the constituent imams in prayer. The ICI also includes representatives from mosque organisations beyond the ICCI’s network, whose voices are rarely presented in the public sphere as representative of the Council. This includes Sheikh Ali Al-Saleh of the Ahlul-Bayt Islamic Centre and Sheikh Umar Al-Qadri of the Al-Mustafa Islamic Centre, who both participate in the ICI in good faith but acknowledge the inherent problem of being misrepresented beyond Muslim communities.64 The deci-

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sion-making ability of the ICI has largely been relegated to coordinating the Eid prayers following the month of Ramadan, although this has not always been successful.65 Other activities of the Council have been posted on the ICCI’s website on the basis of notes from the December 2011 meeting. These include resolutions to sponsor charity events, organise family camps and even develop a website for the ICI within three months.66 By making these types of statements publicly, the ICI is able to endorse events already taking place at the ICCI, which gives outsiders a false impression about its inflated sense of authority. This seems to have led to the decline of the Council’s inclusive reputation and to the degradation of its authority among Muslims in Ireland. It is also difficult to ignore the role of the ICI in Muslim rivalries in Ireland. This is most evident when considering the Muslim organisations excluded from its umbrella, most notably a mosque in Blanchardstown run by Sheikh Shaheed Satardien. The establishment of the ICI in 2006 appears to have been prompted to some extent by the establishment of Satardien’s Supreme Muslim Council of Ireland around the same time.67 Both organisations have a similar focus and were set up roughly in tandem at a time when Irish Muslim institutions were only beginning to formalise public relations efforts systematically through coordinated mass communication efforts. This allowed Ireland to witness the formation of both the ICI and the Supreme Muslim Council of Ireland almost concurrently. The very existence of both councils provides an indication of the diversity of opinion still present within the Irish Muslim population, despite the seemingly uniform representation of Muslims among the Irish public. Notes 1. Brigitte Maréchal, The Muslim Brothers in Europe: Roots and Discourse (Leiden: Brill, 2008), pp. 4–5. See also Peter Mandaville, Global Political Islam (London and New York: Routledge, 2007), pp. 282–4. 2. Richard P. Mitchell, The Society of the Muslim Brothers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), pp. 151–62. 3. Maréchal, Muslim Brothers in Europe, pp. 27–31. 4. Mitchell, Society of the Muslim Brothers, pp. 328–31. 5. Personal communication with Dr Mohammed Khan and Dr Yusuf Vaizie. Ahmed Elkadi resided in Dublin from 1962 to 1964. 6. Personal communication with Dr Mohammed Khan and Dr Yusuf Vaizie. 7. See the official website of the Islamic Centre of Geneva at www.cige.org (last accessed 17 May 2014). 8. Personal communication with Dr Mohammed Khan. 9. See Silvio Ferrari, ‘The Secularity of the State and the Shaping of Muslim Representative Organisations in Western Europe’, in Jocelyne Cesari and Seán McLoughlin (eds), European Muslims and the Secular State (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006), pp. 14–24; see also Dilwar Hussain, ‘The Holy Grail of Muslims in Western

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10.

11.

12.

13. 14.

15. 16. 17.

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Europe: Representation and their Relationship with the State’, in John L. Esposito and Francois Burgat (eds), Modernizing Islam: Religion in the Public Sphere in Europe and the Middle East (London: Hurst, 2003), pp. 215–50; see also Marcel Maussen, ‘The Governance of Islam in Western Europe’, IMISCOE Working Paper No. 16, 2006, pp. 63–5. Ralph Coury has highlighted at length the pivotal role played by Azzam Pasha, and others, in the formulation of Arab nationalism. See Ralph M. Coury, ‘Who “Invented” Egyptian Arab Nationalism? Part 1’, International Journal of Middle East Studies, 14:3, Aug 1982, pp. 249–81; see also Ralph M. Coury, ‘Who “Invented” Egyptian Arab Nationalism? Part 2’, International Journal of Middle East Studies, 14:4, November 1982, pp. 459–79. See Mitchell, Society of the Muslim Brothers, p. 56; see also Israel Gershoni, ‘The Muslim Brothers and the Arab Revolt in Palestine, 1936–39’, Middle Eastern Studies, 22:3, 1986, p. 387; see also the biography by Ralph M. Coury, The Making of an Egyptian Arab Nationalist: The Early Years of Azzam Pasha, 1893–1936 (Reading: Ithaca Press, 1999). Correspondingly, the family connections make Salem Azzam an uncle of Ayman Al-Zawahiri (b. 1951), since Zawahiri’s grandmother married Abd Al-Rahman’s Azzam’s brother, Abd al-Wahab Azzam, a former president of Cairo University. Ayman Al-Zawahiri was himself actively involved with the Egyptian Brotherhood from an early age prior to his split with the movement, leading to the formation of his own Islamic Jihad; see Salahuddin Hassan, ‘An Interview with Ayman Al-Zawahiri’s Uncle’, Al-Dastur, 15 September 2006. Today, the ICE is perhaps best known for its publications, such as the Universal Islamic Declaration of Human Rights with its foreword by Salem Azzam. See Salem Azzam, Universal Islamic Declaration of Human Rights (Paris: Islamic Council of Europe, 1981); also available in Salem Azzam, ‘Universal Islamic Declaration of Human Rights’, The International Journal of Human Rights, 2:3, 1998, pp. 102–12. This work was widely distributed as a belated response to the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, which was regarded, especially by Islamists, as dogmatically partial towards Western cultural and religious values. For example, see Sayyid Abul-A‘la Maududi, Human Rights in Islam (Lahore: Islamic Publications, 1977). The ICE also drafted a model constitution in 1983 for would-be Islamic states, perhaps in the hope that the recent revolution in Iran would spread to other parts of the Muslim world; see Salem Azzam, A Model of an Islamic Constitution (London: Islamic Council of Europe, 1983). See Dublin Islamic Society, Logbook, Extra-Ordinary General Meeting, 22 March 1974. See Dublin Islamic Society, Logbook, AGM, 18 December 1977, under the heading ‘Official Opening of Islamic Centre’ in the Secretary’s Report; see also AGM, 14 November 1975. See Dublin Islamic Society, Logbook, AGM, 7 November 1976. See Dublin Islamic Society, Logbook, AGM, 18 December 1977 in the Ladies Islamic Committee’s report. Maréchal, Muslim Brothers in Europe, p. 34.

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18. See http://islaminireland.com/education/the-muslim-national-school (last accessed 17 May 2014); see also muslimns.scoilnet.ie/blog/about (last accessed 17 May 2014). 19. See Tuula Sakaranaho’s chapter in this book. 20. Significant numbers of South Asian immigrants have arrived in Ireland since the mid-to-late 1990s. It appears that these newcomers now constitute the majority of Muslims in Ireland. However, their recent arrival has enabled the narrative of an Arab dominance of Islam in Ireland to run its course unopposed until relatively recently. For this reason, it seems that the opposition to the Brotherhood networks posed by the developing South Asian Muslim communities in Ireland and their own internal rivalries would best be discussed in another forum with a South Asian focus. 21. Rory Miller, ‘The Politics of Trade and Diplomacy: Ireland’s Evolving Relationship with the Muslim Middle East’, Irish Studies in International Affairs, 15, 2004, pp. 136–7. Gaddafi’s readiness to supply the IRA with arms and financial support was denounced by key figures in the international community, even though it continued for years and may even have increased following the Britishbacked US bombing of Tripoli in 1986. For media coverage, see ‘The IRA’s Store of Weaponry’, 14 August 2001. Available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_ news/northern_ireland/1513300.stm (last accessed 17 May 2014); see also Steve Doughty, ‘IRA victims killed with Libyan semtex to get £2bn in compensation from Colonel Gaddafi’, Daily Mail, 13 June 2010. Available at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1286302/Colonel-Gaddafi-pay-2bn-compensation-IRA -victims-killed-semtex.html (last accessed 17 May 2014). 22. Although little ethnographic research has been conducted in this area, it may be useful to see the report of Siobhan Bradley and Niamh Humphries, From Bosnia to Ireland’s Private Rented Sector: A Study of Bosnian Housing Needs in Ireland (Dublin: Clann Housing Association, 1999). 23. See www.dublinairportauthority.com (last accessed 17 May 2014); see also www.ari.ie (last accessed 17 May 2014). 24. According to the Dubai Duty Free chairman H. H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, the company reached gross sales of $1.27 billion in 2013 and has announced $479.5 million in the first quarter of 2014, which is 10 per cent higher than the previous year’s figure. See www.dubaidutyfree.com (last accessed 17 May 2014). 25. For a narrative of the family’s involvement in horseracing, see www.godolphin. com (last accessed 17 May 2014); see also www.sheikhmohammed.com (last accessed 17 May 2014), which includes a brief biography of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum. 26. The Maktoum family has since expanded its operations significantly and owns at least eight premier stables with outstanding facilities throughout the Republic of Ireland. These include Kildangan Stud, Ragusa Stud, Old Connell Stud, Ballymany Stud and Derrinstown Stud in County Kildare, Blackhall Stud in County Wexford, Ballysheehan Stud in County Tipperary and Woodpark Stud in County Meath. For more information see the website of Sheikh Mohammed

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27. 28.

29. 30. 31. 32. 33.

34. 35. 36.

37. 38.

39.

40.

41.

42.

43. 44.

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bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s global breeding operations at www.darley.co.uk (last accessed 17 May 2014); see also Katherine Butler, ‘People of the Crescent in Dublin’, Dublin Historical Record, 50:2, Autumn, 1997, p. 101. Andy Pollock, ‘President opens centre for Islam in Clonskeagh’, The Irish Times, 15 November 1996, p. 2. See Sara Silvestri, ‘Moderate Islamist Groups in Europe: The Muslim Brothers’, in Khaled Hroub (ed.), Political Islam: Context versus Ideology (London: Saqi, 2010), pp. 268–70; see also the discussion in Maréchal, Muslim Brothers in Europe, p. 174. See the ‘About Us’ link on the official website www.fioe.org (last accessed 17 May 2014). Ibid. See the official website of the FIOE www.fioe.org (last accessed 17 May 2014). Ibid. European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR), Fatwas of the European Council for Fatwa and Research (Cairo: Al-Falah Foundation, 2003), p. 1. Much of this information is also available on the ECFR’s official website www.e-cfr.org (last accessed 17 May 2014). ECFR, Fatwas, pp. 4–5. Mohammad Hashim Kamali, Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 2003), pp. 369–83. See Jakob Skovgaard and Bettina Gräf (eds), Global Mufti: The Phenomenon of Yusuf al-Qaradawi (London: Hurst, 2009); see also Maréchal, Muslim Brothers in Europe, pp. 147–50. See Maréchal, Muslim Brothers in Europe, pp. 147–50. For his own views, see Faisal Mawlawi, Al-Muslim Muwatinan fi Uruba [The Muslim as a Citizen in Europe] (Dublin?: Al-Ittahad al-‘Alami li-‘Ulama’ alMuslimin, 2008); see also Maréchal, Muslim Brothers in Europe, pp. 150–1. See Azzam S. Tammimi, Rachid Ghannouchi: A Democrat within Islamism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001); see also John L Esposito and John Voll, Makers of Contemporary Islam (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 91–117. For media coverage of Ghannouchi’s return, see www.bbc.co.uk/news/worldafrica-12318824 (last accessed 17 May 2014); see also www.bbc.co.uk/news/ world-africa-12320950 (last accessed 17 May 2014); for more on the party’s rule from 2011 to 2014 and the subsequent government transition, see also http:// www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/01/tunisia-arab-spring-three-year s-20141146353728616.html (last accessed 17 May 2014). Mohammed Zahid and Michael Medley, ‘Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Sudan’, Review of African Political Economy, 33:110, 2006, pp. 693–708; see also Abdelwahab El-Affendi, Turabi’s Revolution: Islam and Power in Sudan (London: Grey Seal, 1991); Esposito and Voll, Makers of Contemporary Islam, pp. 118–49. Maréchal, Muslim Brothers in Europe, p. 251; see also Lorenzo Vidino, The New Muslim Brotherhood in the West (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010), pp. 51–2. Maréchal Muslim Brothers in Europe, p. 155. Ibid., pp. 69, 158; see also Vidino, New Muslim Brotherhood in the West, p. 48.

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45. See Alexandre Caeiro, ‘Transnational ulama, European fatwas, and Islamic Authority: A Case Study of the European Council for Fatwa and Research’, in Martin van Bruinessen and Stefano Allievi (eds), Producing Islamic Knowledge (London: Routledge, 2011), p. 125. 46. ECFR, Fatwas, p. 7. 47. A similar step was taken by the FIOE itself in 2007 when it relocated its headquarters to Brussels. 48. Central Statistics Office, Census 1991: Volume 5 – Religion (Dublin: Central Statistics Office, 1995), p. 22. 49. ECFR, Fatwas, p. 6. 50. Ibid. 51. See Hussein Halawa, ‘The European Council for Fatwa and Research are more capable of understanding the status of Muslims in the West’, Wasatiyya Online, Interview with Hussein Halawa. Available at www.euro-muslim.com (last accessed 14 February 2012). 52. Muhammad Khalid Masud, ‘Islamic Law and Muslim Minorities’, ISIM Newsletter 11, December 2002, p. 17. 53. Personal communication with Sheikh Hussein Halawa at his ICCI office (October 2010). 54. Tariq Ramadan, Western Muslims and the Future of Islam (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), pp. 190–1. 55. Tariq Ramadan in his response to Ahmed Al-Rawi, which is listed as ‘Responses to the Muslim Scholars and the Leaders’, 29 April 2005. Available at http:// tariqramadan.com/english/2005/04/29/responses-to-the-muslim-scholars-and -the-leaders/ (last accessed 17 May 2014). 56. See European Council for Fatwa and Research, Scientific Review of the European Council for Fatwa and Research, nos 12–13, 2008, p. 3. 57. Personal communication with Dr Nooh Al-Kaddo at his ICCI office (February 2011). 58. Personal communication with Sheikh Salem Faituri Muftah at his office in Cork. 59. Personal communication with Sheikh Khalid Sallabi at his office in Galway. 60. Mary Fitzgerald, ‘Concern grows for Irish in Cairo after reports of criminal charges; Egyptian media reports nine foreigners in custody following siege of al-Fath mosque’, The Irish Times, 21 August 2013. 61. Joanna Kiernan, ‘Family criticise [Foreign Affairs Minister] Eamon Gilmore’s failure to aid jailed Irish teen Ibrahim Halawa’, Irish Independent, 4 May 2014. Available at http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/family-criticise-eamongilmores-failure-to-aid-jailed-irish-teen-ibrahim-halawa-30242077.html (last accessed 20 May 2014); see also Ralph Riegel, ‘“Forgotten” Irish teen still in jail’, Irish Independent, 29 April 2014. Available at http://www.independent.ie/irishnews/forgotten-irish-teen-still-in-jail-30226119.html (last accessed 20 May 2014). 62. Patsy McGarry, ‘New body launched to represent Muslims in Ireland’, The Irish Times, 19 September 2006, p. 8. 63. John Downes, ‘Council of Imams to help integrate Muslim faithful into society’, The Irish Times, 16 September 2006, p. 6.

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64. Personal communication with Ali Al-Saleh and Umar Al-Qadri. 65. Adil Hussain Khan, ‘Creating the Image of European Islam: European Council for Fatwa and Research and Ireland’, in Jørgen S. Nielsen (ed.), Muslim Political Participation in Europe (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2013), pp. 227–9. 66. See http://islamireland.ie/news/the-irish-council-of-imams-meeting-at-the-icc/ (last accessed 17 May 2014). 67. Mary Fitzgerald, ‘Ireland’s Muslims forging an identity’, The Irish Times, 13 October 2006, p. 14.

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5 Mosque Communities and Muslim Organisations in Dublin and Other Cities Adil Hussain Khan, Oliver Scharbrodt and Tuula Sakaranaho1

Introduction There are a variety of other mosque associations and Muslim organisations reflecting the ethnic and sectarian diversity of Muslims. While in the past one or two mosques in a locality catered for the religious, spiritual and educational needs of Muslims from a diverse range of backgrounds, one can observe a trend towards an increasing diversification of mosque associations as a consequence of the growing number of Muslims. This trend is particularly strong in the Dublin metropolitan area, not surprisingly a result of the concentration of the Muslim population there. While in most cities and towns outside Dublin, such as Tralee, Ennis, Cavan, Carlow, Dundalk, Kilkenny, Kerry, Clare, Bandon, Waterford, Portlaoise and Mullingar, one mosque caters for needs of the entire Muslim population, in the larger cities of Cork, Galway and Limerick communal activities have begun to diversify as well. While Shiis and Ahmadis have a long-standing presence in Ireland and have established their own communal infrastructures to maintain their distinct identities, South Asian Muslim communities, from Pakistan in particular, have grown significantly in the last ten years, leading to the formation of numerous new South Asian mosques and prayer rooms. Other organisations represent transnational Islamic movements, such as the Turkish Gülen movement, or efforts by community activists to challenge the dominance and political orientation of the two main Sunni organisations in Ireland. Located in warehouses, residential areas or shops, many of these new mosques lack financial resources and are less visible, yet more characteristic of Muslim communal life in Ireland. As they are often situated in planning areas not designated for places of worship, they have faced legal challenges.2

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South Asian Mosque Communities and Organisations in Dublin The Blackpitts Mosque3 An important mosque for Pakistani Muslims within walking distance of the Dublin Mosque on South Circular Road is commonly referred to as the Blackpitts mosque owing to its location on Blackpitts Road. The building was originally a warehouse, which was purchased by the Irish–Pakistani entrepreneur Mian Ghulam Bari, who operated the facility in accordance with its intended use for a number of years. Ghulam Bari established himself in the textile industry as a vendor of imported clothing, garments and fabrics in Ireland during the 1970s when he initially loaded his car with various items and drove from town to town selling products to newly developing retail shops around the country. In the early years, Bari imported merchandise from warehouses in Britain while Irish supplies were limited. As the supply chain in Ireland developed, so did Bari’s business. Ghulam Bari began opening retail shops around the country and eventually became a wholesaler of clothing in Ireland. He purchased a warehouse in Dublin as his businesses grew, which allowed him to store and categorise merchandise before it was prepared for shipment to retail outlets across Ireland. By the 1990s Ghulam Bari was employing a number of Muslims, who were praying on the upper level of the warehouse as a convenient means of fulfilling religious obligations during working hours. There was no urgency to convert the warehouse into an actual mosque until relatively late, when the Muslim population of the city had grown substantially. While the Muslim population remained smaller, most Muslims in the area would simply walk to the Dublin Mosque a short distance away. The transformation of the warehouse into a mosque was linked to the growth of Dublin’s Muslim population from South Asia in particular, which occurred mainly after the turn of the twentieth century, when South Asian immigrants began settling in Ireland in conjunction with economic opportunities during the so-called Celtic Tiger years. This generated the desire to establish a mosque with religious services that would uniquely cater for the Urdu-speaking Muslims of Dublin, who could not understand Arabic and did not identify with Middle Eastern cultures. Ghulam Bari and his family had established credibility with local Muslims by maintaining strong ties with diverse segments of Irish society beyond the Muslim population, which was due in part to their extensive list of accomplishments and contributions to the country. For example, Bari was involved in the process of lobbying the government of Pakistan to open a diplomatic mission in Ireland, since Irish affairs were originally consigned to embassies in Paris and then London prior to the opening of the Pakistani embassy in Dublin. This made it especially inconvenient for Pakistanis such as Ghulam Bari residing in Ireland to follow ordinary protocols regarding business and travel. This type of community involvement and history of leadership may

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have compelled Bari to help address the community’s needs regarding a mosque through a broader sense of responsibility. Bari was highly regarded by Pakistani immigrants in Ireland, who respected his stature and valued his achievements. This coincided with his support for community efforts and philanthropic outreach projects both in Ireland and Pakistan. As Ghulam Bari’s stature within the South Asian Muslim community developed, it became customary for him to invite Urdu-speaking imams to Dublin during the month of Ramadan to lead the voluntary tarawih prayers at his personal residence, where local Muslims would gather to break their fasts and pray. One year, Bari invited an imam to stay in Ireland as a teacher of Qur’anic recitation and as a coordinator of the Friday prayer service at the Blackpitts warehouse. This eventually turned into a full-time appointment for an Urdu-speaking imam assigned the task of leading daily prayers, which paved the way for the warehouse’s conversion into a mosque. In 2011, the warehouse was rezoned with proper planning permission and officially converted into a mosque facility, with upgraded bathrooms for ablution and new heating and insulation upgrades for the Irish winters. This has formalised the mosque’s makeover into a public space from a privately owned warehouse and has given it a greater sense of autonomy, which can be sustained indefinitely without reliance solely on the personal resources of one individual. Its origins, however, remain tied to the individual effort of the Bari family as Muslim entrepreneurs in Ireland. The current imam of the Blackpitts mosque, Ismail Kotwal, endorses the Deobandi interpretation of Islam,4 even though this does not necessarily represent the views of the Bari family. Anwar-e Madina Mosque5 Another facility dominated by Ireland’s South Asian Muslim population is the Anwar-e Madina mosque located in the heart of Dublin city centre on Talbot Street, which is within close proximity of the Spire of Dublin. The mosque is almost indistinguishable from its surroundings like many other Irish mosques, since it is housed in a traditional Irish building with shops and shoppers below. The Anwar-e Madina mosque opened in 2008 under the sponsorship of Abdul Hameed, an entrepreneur and restaurateur originally from Pakistan. The mosque is maintained primarily by Abdul Hameed’s son, Abdul Mannan, who runs a Pakistani grocery store in the city. Abdul Hameed and Ghulam Bari are related through the marriage of their children. The Anwar-e Madina mosque seems to take on a distinctly Sufi character through the employment of imams who tend to orient themselves to the Barelwi tradition, which represents an influential strand of South Asian Islam whose sympathies align closely with popular forms of Sufism.6 The mosque regularly hosts dhikr sessions influenced by the South Asian tradition, where Qur’anic verses and religious poetry in praise of God and the Prophet Muhammad are chanted in melodic tune. The majority of

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worshippers who fill the mosque’s three levels during the Friday prayer, however, are not limited to any particular brand of Islam. The weekly congregation is instead representative of the diverse demographics of Ireland’s Muslim population, including a large proportion of South Asians. The linguistic repertoire of recent imams might arguably be more important in this respect than the incorporation of Sufi elements, such as the dhikr sessions or annual celebrations of the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday in a South Asian cultural style. This mosque provides another religious outlet for Irish Sufis and an additional venue for Muslims who seek prayer facilities in this part of the city. Al-Mustafa Islamic Centre7 Another leading mosque organisation catering for South Asian Sufis in Ireland is the Al-Mustafa Islamic Centre run by Umar Al-Qadri. Although he was born in Pakistan, Umar Al-Qadri was raised from a young age in the Netherlands, where his father worked as an imam and as an important Sufi teacher. Umar Al-Qadri is one of few Irish imams with a strong sense of European identity and an ability to converse fluently in European languages, including English. Al-Qadri returned to Europe after completing his Masters degree in Arabic and Islamic Studies in Lahore at the Minhaj University (previously Minhaj-ul-Quran Islamic University) under the direction of the well-known scholar and politician Muhammad Tahir Al-Qadri.8 He then relocated to Ireland from The Hague in December 2003 prior to setting up a small mosque in his home at the time, in Clonee, County Meath, in February 2004. The practice of worshippers congregating in private residences and rented warehouses is a religious phenomenon in Ireland, making it difficult to assess accurately the growing number of mosques, or at least the number of facilities being used as places of worship by local Muslims. There were a small number of Muslims in the vicinity with South Asian backgrounds who attended the prayer services, which enabled Umar Al-Qadri to initiate a campaign to expand the prayer facilities with community support. Thus in 2007, Al-Qadri opened the Al-Mustafa Islamic Centre in Blanchardstown, Dublin. Owing to internal differences, however, the Clonee mosque retained its role as a small local mosque in its original location, even though the founding imam who had previously lived on-site had moved his operations to the Coolmine Industrial Estate near the Blanchardstown Shopping Centre which provided a much larger warehouse better suited for religious services. Umar Al-Qadri continues to serve as the Irish representative for the international Minhaj-ul-Quran movement, even though the Al-Mustafa Islamic Centre has adopted a more generic Sufi orientation that is not necessarily limited to the South Asian tradition. Al-Qadri has made an effort to accommodate the diversity of religious perspectives in Irish Muslim communities, which in itself could arguably be seen as representative of the broader

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ideology of the Minhaj-ul-Quran movement.9 The congregation during the weekly Friday prayer reflects the diversity of Irish Muslims and the significant presence of South Asian Muslims with mixed ideological backgrounds. There is a growing number of Nigerian Muslims in the Blanchardstown area, who share the facilities and participate in its functions, including the first ever milad march in Ireland on Sunday, 27 February 2011, which was coordinated by Umar Al-Qadri through the Al-Mustafa Islamic Centre. During the march, a mixed congregation of Muslims with different ethnic backgrounds walked through the streets of Blanchardstown as a way of publicly commemorating the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad. These types of functions appeal to Sufis across the Muslim world and serve as a means of uniting Muslims at the Al-Mustafa Islamic Centre in spite of linguistic, cultural and even minor doctrinal differences. This approach may serve as an example of how Umar Al-Qadri has utilised his role among Irish Muslim communities in a way that reflects his efforts to facilitate unity in Irish Islam. Beyond Ireland, Umar Al-Qadri has hosted talk shows and web broadcasts in which he answers questions posed to him by callers from abroad while live on air. In other episodes, Umar Al-Qadri has elaborated upon religious themes about pertinent issues in South Asian Islam.10 These programmes are typically broadcast in Urdu, which has broadened Umar Al-Qadri’s profile among Urdu-speaking Muslims in Europe. Some episodes have been uploaded to the Internet and now appear on YouTube channels, which serve as another means of retaining international connections through the Internet.11 This format might be the most appropriate way of reaching the international audience sought by the Irish imam, who actively retains strong links to the UK, the Netherlands and Pakistan, in addition to his local Irish congregation. The Clondalkin Mosque and the Naas Islamic Centre Among the various South Asian Muslim traditions, there have been an increasing number of Bangladeshi immigrants to Ireland who have managed to establish small mosques in outlying areas surrounding the city of Dublin. The Clondalkin mosque, for example, has opened in a warehouse-style industrial estate above a South Asian grocery store, which largely caters for Bengali, as opposed to Pakistani or Indian, cuisine. The Clondalkin mosque appears to be almost exclusively dominated by Bengali immigrants to Ireland, which does not preclude the fact that Bangladeshi Muslims also attend services at the larger mosque complexes throughout Ireland, including the Al-Mustafa Islamic Centre. There is a similar situation emerging at the Kildare Islamic Cultural Centre, whose mosque and Islamic school has opened in a rented business complex near the town centre of Naas. The Naas mosque consists more of a mixed congregation, however, which includes a growing number of sub-Saharan African Muslims and Pakistani immigrants amid the larger Bangladeshi congregation. It is important to note that these

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communities represent a significant departure from the typical immigration patterns of neighbouring Britain, where large concentrations of Bangladeshi communities centred around East London largely comprise arrivals from Sylhet, a region in the north-east of the country with a unique history, dialect and cultural experience. The Bengalis settling in Ireland in this respect represent a more urbanised aspect of Bangladeshi society in terms of language and educational background. Many Bangladeshi Muslims beyond Dublin work in low-paying jobs and stay together in meagre living conditions, as opposed to fellow Muslims of different backgrounds. Some are employed by Pakistani entrepreneurs in restaurants, shops or other businesses in the area. It seems that some might lack the legal documentation necessary to take advantage of the social welfare system, which may have facilitated their relocation to Ireland by allowing access to opportunities that eventually lead to greater prosperity. These Bangladeshis, for whatever reason, have not excelled on the entrepreneurial front in the same way as their Pakistani counterparts in these communities, which might be a result of the latter group’s lengthier stays in the country or greater access to resources and support back home. The majority of Bangladeshi Muslims in Ireland are nonetheless managing to create a legitimate space for themselves alongside other Muslims. Recent organisational endeavours include the formation of the All Bangladeshi Association of Ireland (formerly known as the Bangladeshi Association of Ireland) in 2007, which seeks to advance the position of Bangladeshis living in Ireland through the promotion of social and cultural activities that lead to greater mutual understanding.12 The Association organises events that combine religious and cultural aspects of Bengali heritage in collective initiatives for large communal gatherings that attract a number of Bangladeshis in the country, including for example festive Eid celebrations with a distinct Bangladeshi character. Twelver Shia Communities Estimates suggest that around 5,000–6,000 Twelver Shiis live in Ireland, about half of them in Dublin.13 Most Shiis have come from Pakistan, from Iraq and other Gulf Arab countries like Kuwait, Bahrain or the UAE, or from Iran. While the majority of Iranian Shiis tend to be more secular and only organise religious activities in private (if at all), those Shiis from Pakistani, Iraqi and Gulf backgrounds tend to be more active in the communal life around various Shia centres in Ireland. The socio-economic status of the Twelver Shia community reflects the overall development of Muslim migration to Ireland in the last decades. Up to the early 1990s, the community was primarily made up of educated professionals, medical doctors in particular, who came to Ireland for educational purposes. They arrived as students from Iraq and other countries of the Gulf region with significant Shia communities, such as Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. The clerical leader of the Irish Shia

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community, Iraqi-born Dr Ali Al-Saleh, represents this background in his own biography: he came from Saudi Arabia to Ireland in 1985 to complete his medical studies and then continued his training as a Shia cleric in Iran until 1997.14 With the start of the so-called Celtic Tiger years, Muslim immigration increased significantly, also affecting the Shia communities with a new influx of Muslim migrants from Pakistan, among them many Shiis. At the same time, the numbers of refugees admitted to Ireland and of asylum seekers increased rapidly in the 1990s and early 2000s, changing the demographic composition of Muslims. Iraq has been one of the top countries of origin of asylum seekers in Ireland,15 many of whom are Shiis fleeing from the continuing chaos and disorder of their country. Therefore, as with other Muslim communities in Ireland, Shiis can be divided into a group of more settled migrants who arrived in Ireland before the early 1990s and who are usually well-educated and part of the middle or upper classes and a group consisting of recent arrivals of labour migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.16 This demographic shift is also reflected in the centres Shiis use for their religious and social activities. The major centre is the Ahlul-Bayt Islamic Centre in the Milltown area in South Dublin, which was opened in 1996. This purpose-built centre, placed right in the heart of a middle-class neighbourhood, includes several meeting rooms, a library, a prayer room, kitchen facilities, guest rooms and the apartment for the imam and his family. The centre is independently financed through donations made by local Shiis in Ireland and by wealthy Shiis in the Persian Gulf region. Initial funding to buy the land and build the centre was also provided by the Maktoum Foundation, the sponsor of the Islamic Cultural Centre in Ireland. The rather unusual partial sponsoring of the Shii centre by a Sunni-oriented foundation results from the openness of Maktoum to funding Islamic philanthropic projects in general and from the religious background of the head of the Maktoum Foundation’s European office in London, Mirza Saig, who is a Shii.17 The facilities of the centre have been shared by Shiis of different nationalities. However, apart from the ritual salat prayers, each national group organises its own events, catering for their particular linguistic and cultural needs. Several factors account for this. First, the particular natures of Shia devotional practices, which revolve primarily around the celebration of the birthdays and the commemoration of the martyrdoms of the Shia imams, differ culturally between different ethnic groups and also use local languages.18 Second, given that most Shiis are first generation migrants, the language of their country of origin is still their first language and consequently preferred for social interaction and community activities. Third, the religious and devotional meetings of the various Shii national groups also exhibit a strong socio-cultural dimension, as they allow, apart from their actual religious purpose, the possibility of socialising with one’s own community, Iraqi or Pakistani, in a familiar linguistic and cultural setting. In June 2010, a group of Pakistani Shiis opened a Shia centre, the

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Azakhana-e Zahra, in the Stadium Business Park in Blanchardstown, north Dublin. This new Shia centre represents a new type of meeting place, reflective of the social realities of newly arrived Muslim migrants. This new Pakistani centre is based in a business unit rented in a remote industrial estate with a new African Pentecostal church as its immediate neighbour. The opening of a new Shia centre in the north of Dublin is a result of the increasing number Shiis in Ireland and part of the subsequent trend of diversifying Muslim religious activities in general. Although Pakistani Shiis have used the facilities of the Ahlul-Bayt Centre, there was a certain ambition to create their own centre, and the Babul-Ilm Society was created for that purpose.19 The location in north Dublin also reflects the social background of new arrivals. The social north–south divide of Dublin, with a middle-class south and a working-class north, has turned the north into a more attractive location for Muslim labour migrants, while the south of the city is the primary residential area of the more settled, middle-class Muslim families. In addition to the Shia centres in Milltown and Blanchardstown in Dublin, Shiis from Kuwait use a flat as their own meeting centre. Outside Dublin, a new centre opened in Cork in spring 2010 and Shiis in Galway meet at a private residence. While the Ahlul-Bayt Centre served as the major Shia centre of Ireland in the past, attracting large numbers of Shiis from the Dublin area and the rest of the country, the numbers have decreased in recent years as a consequence of different nationalities such as Pakistanis and Kuwaitis opening their own centres in Dublin and elsewhere, turning the Ahlul-Bayt Centre increasingly into a community centre for Iraqi and Gulf Arab Shiis. These developments illustrate, on the one hand, the diversification of Shia communal activities owing to the growth in numbers which makes the opening of community centres more feasible. On the other hand, they also reflect the national and ethnic fragmentation of Shia communities in the diaspora in Europe and North America, where most Shiis prefer to socialise with fellow Shiis from their countries of origin who share the same cultural and linguistic backgrounds.20 The relationship between Shiis and Sunnis in Ireland is ambivalent. In certain areas, cooperation between Shiis and Sunnis exists and various religious services provided by Sunni mosques and organisations are also participated in by Shiis. Before the opening of the Ahlul-Bayt Centre, Shiis would attend Sunni mosques in Dublin, as Shiis still do in other Irish cities where a proper Shia centre does not exist. In Dublin, Shiis use the educational services offered by the Islamic Cultural Centre, such as the Qur’anic school for children. Furthermore, Shii pupils attend the Muslim National School in Clonskeagh, based in the facilities of the Islamic Cultural Centre.21 Despite these collaborations, sectarian tensions between Sunnis and Shiis also become visible in the Irish context. The appeal of more Salafi-oriented expressions of Islam among Irish Muslims, with their explicit anti-Shia stance, plays a certain role.22 In addition, the political empowerment of Shiis in Iraq has also had repercussions for Muslims in Ireland, with a rising number of

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refugees from Iraq, both Shii and Sunni, bringing the sectarian conflict of Iraq to Ireland. The support of Iraqi Shiis for the removal of Saddam Husayn and hence for the American occupation of Iraq has separated them politically from most Sunni Muslims with their rejection of the Iraq war.23 The increasingly sectarian dimension of the civil war and conflict in Syria and Iraq has further complicated relationships between Sunnis and Shiis in Ireland. Clerical Leadership and Transnational Links The particular arrangement of religious authority within Shia Islam – unlike the more informal structures in Sunni Islam – requires any Shii believer to attach him- or herself to the leading member of the Shia clergy, who is regarded by his peers to be the most pious and knowledgeable Shia scholar of the time and the supreme source for emulation (marja‘ al-taqlid). A lay Shii needs to follow and emulate the teachings, interpretations and fatwas of a marja‘ al-taqlid, who is usually referred to as a ‘grand ayatollah’, signifying the highest possible scholarly rank within the Shia clergy. Although Shia religious authority is in this sense more formalised, usually several leading Shia scholars in the world are considered to be a marja‘ al-taqlid, leaving individual Shiis with the option of choosing one of several possible sources for guidance and emulation.24 This particular arrangement of religious authority, peculiar to Twelver Shiis, is also replicated in a diasporic setting in the West.25 Among the many high-ranking Shia scholars in the world today, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Husayni Al-Sistani (b. 1930), based in the traditional Shia seminaries of Najaf in Iraq, is considered to be most senior of the grand ayatollahs and hence among the different sources for emulation the most supreme. Sistani assumed political importance in post-Saddam Iraq when he – as spiritual leader of Iraqi Shiis – voiced strong support for the democratic transition of Iraq.26 Given his pre-eminence as a leading source for emulation in the Shia world, he enjoys a wide following not only among Iraqi and Arab Shiis of the Gulf area but also among Pakistani and Iranian Shiis. The imam of the Ahlul-Bayt Centre Al-Saleh, whose father was Sistani’s representative in Qatar, follows Sistani as his marja‘ and is in permanent contact with him, meeting him whenever he travels to Iraq. He acts as Sistani’s representative in Ireland, communicating religious decrees to the Irish Shiis and submitting requests for legal opinions to Sistani and most importantly collects the khums, a religious tax payable by Shiis to their clerical authorities. Other Iraqi and Pakistani Shiis in Ireland follow Sistani as well, creating a certain sense of common allegiance to the same supreme authority despite the cultural and ethnic differences between Arab and South Asian Shiis in Ireland.27 Despite this shared adherence to Sistani among most Shiis in Ireland, Al-Saleh’s deputyship is not necessarily universally recognised, for several reasons. Within the Ahlul-Bayt Centre, and among Iraq and Gulf Shiis attending the centre, his leadership is the least contested in principle.

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However, among the younger generation of Shiis – in particular those who were born or grew up in Ireland – there is a growing sense that the religious interpretations of Sistani are too conservative and inadequate to address the needs of young Shiis living in the West. Young Shii women in particular give preference to the more liberal views of the late Grand Ayatollah Muhammad H. Fadlallah (1935–2010) from Lebanon.28 Apart from these generational preferences, which cut across families, regional, cultural and political factors also explain the contested nature of Al-Saleh’s leadership. Most Iranian Shiis in Ireland – apart from being quite secular – remain unaffiliated with the Ahlul-Bayt Centre, a phenomenon resulting from a certain cultural gap between Iranian and Arab Shiis and from Al-Saleh’s aim of maintaining distance from the political regime in Iran. Pakistani Shiis likewise often resort to transnational links with South Asian Shii communities, inviting South Asian Shii clerics from Britain – in particular from mosques affiliated with the London-based Shia Islamic Education Trust – to speak and teach at their centre and using these links to pay the khums tax and to request religious guidance. It is perhaps for these reasons that Al-Saleh sought to present himself as spokesperson of the Shia community in the public arena – a role in which he has been quite successful, buttressing the self-definition and -presentation of Shiis in Ireland as followers of a moderate and tolerant form of Islam.29 In various public statements and interviews with major media outlets in Ireland, Al-Saleh argues for the compatibility of Islam with Western democracy and emphasises the need for Muslims to integrate into and engage with Irish society and to avoid the ghettoisation of Muslims, as has happened in other European countries and is also propagated by Salafi-oriented Muslims in Ireland.30 He regularly condemns violent extremism, often being one of the few Muslim leaders responding to alleged terrorist activities of Muslims in Ireland.31 Ismailis There is a small Ismaili community in Ireland, with probably just a few hundred members. As Ismaili Muslims do not attend mosques in order to perform ritual prayers, they use their own community centres, called Jamatkhanas, for communal worship. Unlike mosques, the Jamatkhanas are usually not open to the public, in particular not when the congregation comes together. Ismailis in Ireland have used a Jamatkhana located in a private residence in south Dublin as their community centre. Being among the students who came to Ireland from South Africa and different parts of the Middle East in the 1950s, Ismailis established their own communal structures at that time.32 Well-to-do and with an overall low public profile, they do not entertain official or institutional links with other Muslim organisations in Ireland. Unlike the case with the Irish Ismaili community, which has not been

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visible in Ireland at all, there are significant well-documented links between Ireland and the spiritual leader of the global Ismaili community, the Aga Khan. The predecessor of the current leader, Aga Khan III (1877–1957), played a significant role in bringing South African students to Ireland after World War II by introducing the leader of the Indian community in South Africa, Sorabjee Rustomjee (1895–1960), to the then head of the Irish government and chancellor of the National University of Ireland, Éamon de Valera (1882–1975). Aga Khan III knew de Valera because of their prominent roles in the League of Nations in the 1930s, whose assembly they led consecutively. The Aga Khan’s involvement in Ireland pre-dates his activities in the League of Nations. Passionate about horse breeding and racing, he was introduced to English racing by the Liverpool businessman Colonel Hall-Walker (later known as Lord Wavertree) at the beginning of the twentieth century and visited the stud owned by Wavertree in Tully, County Kildare, in Ireland, in 1904.33 Aga Khan III then began a successful career in European horse racing, establishing the Aga Khan Trophy in 1926, which is held at the annual Dublin Horse Show.34 The stud in Gilltown in County Kildare which he purchased is now owned by his grandson and successor as leader of the Ismaili community, Aga Khan IV. In 2008, the current Aga Khan received an honorary doctorate from the National University of Ireland Maynooth, based in County Kildare, where the Aga Khans have made significant investments in the horse breeding and racing industry since the early twentieth century.35 Ahmadis The Ahmadiyya Muslim community (or Jama‘at-i Ahmadiyya) is a messianic reform movement that emerged in nineteenth-century rural South Asia when the Indian subcontinent was under British colonial rule.36 Ahmadi beliefs have been considered controversial by mainstream Muslims owing to claims of prophecy made by the movement’s founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835–1908). Tension between Ahmadis and non-Ahmadi Muslims over the years has led to increased missionary activity beyond South Asia, especially in Western Europe, North America and parts of Africa. This process was accelerated in 1984 when new blasphemy ordinances in Pakistan declared many parts of Ahmadi Islam illegal, making ordinary religious beliefs and practices punishable by fines or imprisonment. The threat of legal action compelled Jama‘at-i Ahmadiyya’s fourth leader, Mirza Tahir Ahmad (1928–2003), to leave Pakistan in exile for Britain. Since then, the Ahmadi community has been headquartered in London, which has indirectly influenced its activities in Ireland. Many Ahmadis in Ireland retain close ties to Britain, which at times has served as a stopping-off post for South Asians who have eventually settled in Ireland. The close proximity to the UK with easy access to London has been an added incentive for Ahmadi visitors and immigrants, especially since

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1984.37 Mirza Tahir Ahmad himself visited Dublin in the 1950s while studying at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He returned to Ireland in the wake of the Rushdie affair in 1989, when he visited the local Ahmadi chapter in Galway.38 The Ahmadi community of Ireland has been centred in Galway since at least the 1970s when Ahmadis began taking jobs in connection with the medical industry, similar to other Muslim migrants to Galway. There has been a mosque in Galway since the 1980s, when a Muslim entrepreneur named Muhammad Hanif began holding prayer services in his home. This house at 67 Wellpark Grove was donated to Jama‘at-i Ahmadiyya and continued to serve as its mosque until a purposebuilt facility was constructed in Ballybrit in 2013. The foundation stones for the mosque were laid in 2010 by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s fifth successor, Mirza Masroor Ahmad (b. 1950), who travelled to Galway from London for the event.39 The construction of the new mosque has faced opposition from local residents, who are concerned about unwelcome noise and traffic congestion in the residential area.40 The Ahmadi community has been sensitive to its Catholic location, and even named the mosque Masjid Maryam (the Mary mosque) as a tribute to its Irish surroundings. The name-choice is intended to resonate with both Catholics and Ahmadis, even though it is somewhat atypical for a mosque. The imam of the Ahmadi community in Ireland is Ibrahim Noonan, a native of Waterford who embraced the movement while living in London after having read Murder in the Name of Allah, an important book for Ahmadis, by Mirza Tahir Ahmad.41 Noonan studied Ahmadi Islam personally under Mirza Tahir Ahmad before returning to Galway to lead the Ahmadi mission. He claims to have always expressed an interest in religion and to have studied Catholicism extensively prior to his conversion. This has aided his ability to facilitate dialogue between Ahmadis and Christians as well as with English-speaking Irish of other faiths. Imam Noonan currently resides in Galway, where he leads the Friday prayer services and participates in local outreach projects, such as the Galway Interfaith Alliance. Imam Ibrahim Noonan estimates that there are probably close to 300 Ahmadis living in Ireland at present, primarily with South Asian backgrounds. This figure is enough to have contributed to ongoing rivalries between Ahmadi and non-Ahmadi Muslims within the country since the formation of the Ahmadi community in Ireland. There were even objections published by the Galway Islamic Society to the way in which Mirza Tahir Ahmad was portrayed as an ‘Islamic’ leader by the local newspaper during his 1989 visit, since he only represented Jama‘at-i Ahmadiyya.42 Most of these disputes eschew Irish media coverage these days, but reflect an extension of current rivalries in South Asian Islam. At times, Ahmadi and non-Ahmadi Muslims have held public debates about religious interpretations or theological issues at local Irish venues beyond the mosque scene. These types of events seem to draw interest mainly among Ireland’s South Asian immigrants, as opposed to other Muslims or members of the broader public in Ireland.

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Shaheed Satardien and the Muslim Council of Ireland One of the most vocal critics of the Muslim Brotherhood’s influence on mosque networks in Ireland is Shaheed Satardien, who runs a warehouse mosque in Blanchardstown, Dublin. Satardien was born in Cape Town, South Africa and migrated to Ireland in 2002 where he established himself as Professor and then Director of Ideal Business College in 2009. Sheikh Shaheed Satardien initially offered his services to the Dublin Mosque run by the Islamic Foundation of Ireland on South Circular Road before creating his own mosque organisation administered by what is now called the Muslim Council of Ireland. He has been strongly involved in interfaith dialogue by founding and participating in organisations which embody his commitment to community outreach projects, including the European Muslim Council for Justice, Peace and Equality, the Interfaith Roundtable, and the Dialogue, Peace and Relief Centre. He has also written extensively for the Metro Éireann newspaper and has contributed to public discourse on Islam in many ways. These activities, in conjunction with his outspoken criticism of the perceived monopoly on the main mosque network, have frustrated officials at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland, who have attempted to consolidate representations of mainstream Islam in the public sphere under their own umbrella. This might seem especially confusing to those who falsely presume that the imams of the largest mosques represent most Muslims in the country, or those who fail to appreciate that Islam is not a monolithic religious tradition, even in Ireland. For this reason, outsiders who have difficulty placing Muslim rivalries within the broader context of the Islamic tradition often portray Satardien as controversial, even though his views are only controversial in the sense that they challenge the primary representatives of Islam in the country by questioning political Islam and taking a different perspective on issues including westernisation and integration. Satardien’s opposition to the mainstream mosque network should, importantly, not be conflated with his opposition to mainstream Islam.43 Similarly, the lack of external support for his platform in comparison to the Maktoum Foundation network should not be mistaken for an indication of grassroots approval.44 The problem of challenging the Brotherhood’s influence within the main mosque network is linked to the problem of challenging its external source of funding provided by the Maktoum Foundation, which is difficult at the moment. It is possible, however, that other funders may one day choose to support imams like Shaheed Satardien by funding large mosque projects comparable to the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland, which would instantly change the dynamics of Muslim rivalries in Ireland and perhaps legitimise opposition voices unduly. The authority with which Muslims in Ireland speak is complex, and based on more than funding opportunities and facilities.45

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Another of those organisations attempting to provide an alternative locus of authority among Muslims in Ireland is the Dublin Welfare Society.46 Established in 2010, it has run several projects. It published The Irish Muslim, a print publication which appeared intermittently and was available in halal shops and selected newsagents. It contained articles and opinion pieces about domestic and international issues affecting Muslims and seems to have ceased publication with the last issue published in 2012. Discover Islam Ireland is another initiative, which engages in missionary activities by organising exhibitions, lectures and seminars on Islam.47 Muslim Sisters of Eire is also part of the Dublin Welfare Society and caters for the needs of Irish women converts to Islam by organising educational and social activities.48 In 2013, planning permission was also granted for a major mosque project in Clongriffin, north Dublin, under the auspices of the Dublin Welfare Society. This €40 million development will be able to accommodate up to 3,000 worshippers and will be the largest mosque in Ireland upon completion. However, funding for this mosque project has not yet been secured.49 The transnational Turkish Gülen movement is also present in Ireland. Founded by the lay preacher Fethullah Gülen (b. 1941) who resides in the USA, it is estimated to have around 6 million followers worldwide. The Gülen movement runs a vast network of educational institutions in Turkey and across the globe and is regarded as the most influential movement in contemporary Turkey with oversight of various Turkish media outlets.50 The Turkish-Irish Educational and Cultural Society is part of the worldwide Gülen network and operates a centre in Dublin city centre. In line with the overall educational orientation of the Gülen movement, it provides a number of educational services such as Turkish language classes and weekend schools primarily designed for children of Turkish origin living in Ireland. As with other organisations that are part of the global Gülen network, the Society facilitates educational and cultural trips to Turkey. The Society also organises an annual interfaith conference with Christian and Jewish speakers and prominent followers of the Gülen movement representing Islam.51 Of the circa fifteen mosques in Dublin, some cater for the needs of other ethnic groups, such as the mosques in Tallaght, in Dublin’s East Wall business park and in the Coolmine industrial estate in Blanchardstown, which are frequented by Nigerian Muslims.52 The various universities in Ireland have active Islamic societies, with the Irish branch of the Federation of Student Islamic Societies acting as an umbrella organisation.53 In addition, prayer rooms exist in various universities and hospitals in Dublin (as well as outside Dublin), and in some of the Dublin embassies of Arab countries.

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Figure 5.1 Map of Ireland Mosques and Communities outside Dublin Cork In 1984, Muslims in Cork formed the Cork Muslim Society, which functioned independently from the Dublin Islamic Society for many years. The organisation was formed under similar circumstances to the Dublin Islamic Society, when Muslim students, mainly from Malaysia, who were studying at University College Cork began congregating for prayers on their own. The students formed a Cork Malaysian Islamic Student Society, which was later absorbed by the larger Cork Muslim Society and the broader Muslim student association, now called the Islamic Society at University College Cork. Beyond the university, many Muslims lived and worked as professionals in the medical industry or at hospitals unaffiliated with University College Cork. Immigration to Cork has increased since the 1990s, which to some extent is a reflection of Cork’s status as the second-largest city in the Republic of Ireland. Many Muslims in Cork still retain some link to the University or to medicine.

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When the Cork Muslim Society was first established, local Muslims prayed together in a rented house that was sold in 1994 when a larger house was purchased.54 The location of this house on Clashduv Road posed a problem for neighbours, who did not appreciate the inconvenient consequences of running a mosque in a residential area. Concerns regarding noise complaints and parking problems made it difficult for the Cork Muslim Society to seek the appropriate planning permission for the property that would have enabled a change of status from a private residence to a permanent mosque. Once it became clear that the house would not acquire the appropriate legal status for the property, the Cork Muslim Society was forced to sell the house and relocate the operation to a larger warehouse situated in an industrial estate in Togher. This pattern of developing a mosque in a singlefamily home which can later be moved to a warehouse prior to constructing purpose-built facilities has developed into a trend in Ireland. The opening of the mosque at the industrial estate in Togher coincided with the arrival of a full-time imam, Sheikh Salem Faituri Muftah, who was initially sent to Cork to lead the voluntary tarawih prayers during the month of Ramadan in the winter of 2000. Sheikh Salem himself arrived in Dublin earlier the same year from Libya in order to escape political persecution as a member of the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood. Upon completion of the month of Ramadan, Salem Faituri was invited to stay in Cork as a full-time imam. His presence, and the subsequent move to a larger facility, gave the Cork Muslim Society a greater sense of stability and legitimacy during the process of institutionalisation. The tenure of Salem Faituri came to a close in 2013, owing to internal conflicts beyond his control. A new full-time imam, who is an Irish-American convert to Islam, was appointed in May 2014.55 In June 2010, the Cork Muslim Society purchased another industrial site, which is being expanded and remodelled as a new Islamic Centre at 60 Tramore Road. The purchase of the property was made possible through the support of a private Qatari donor, Ahmed Al-Hammadi, who gave the initial payment to secure the site, costing €1.3 million. The building required extensive renovations to the industrial complex, including an updated heating and insulation system as expected, new plumbing for maintaining adequate bathrooms with ablution facilities and parking refurbishments, as well as internal remodelling that gave rise to redesigned spaces for prayer, administrative offices and a library. The complex will also serve as the site of a new Islamic school for Muslim children. When finished, the Islamic Centre aspires to have an updated external facade with a symbolic minaret resembling traditional Islamic architecture. These renovations have been supported by local Muslims and also in part by European Muslim organisations, such as the Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe, through the Europe Trust, which provided additional funding for the project in its initial stages.56 The expansion of Muslim institutions in Irish cities draws the attention of non-Muslims for various reasons. There was a dispute in 2013 surrounding

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the opening of an Islamic information centre at 72–3 Shandon Street in Cork city centre, which led to complaints from local residents and city councillors about zoning restrictions on places of worship. The city’s legal restrictions that guide the designation of places of worship do not account for different understandings of ritual worship, since practising Muslims will probably pray at any given location once the time for prayer arrives. This presents a challenge to Muslims in Ireland, who are in need of appropriate places of worship while facing legal restrictions and public opposition to the establishment of adequate places of worship.57 The diversification of mosque communities and associations has gained momentum in Cork as well. A group of Iraqi Shiis have rented facilities in the city centre since 2010 to be used as a religious centre. Regular meetings at weekends and on Shia holidays take place in this centre, which, however, does not have a full-time imam. A private residence in the south of the city has been used as a mosque for Pakistani Muslims, with an imam giving sermons in Urdu and Islamic education provided as well. In the north of the city a mosque, led by the Sudanese imam Sheikh Ihab Ahmed, has operated since 2008. Initially used by Muslims from Nigeria to engage in Sufi dhikr rituals, it now caters for a diverse range of Muslims residing in the economically more deprived northern part of Cork.58 Galway The Galway Islamic Society was formed in 1978 when local Muslims began renting a house that could be used for Friday prayer. As with Cork and Dublin, there were a number of Muslim students associated with the medical industry in Galway who attended the National University of Ireland in Galway. The medical industry has remained an important factor (perhaps even more than the University) in attracting Muslim professionals to the city, since Galway hospitals provide unique employment opportunities in fields related to both medical treatment and clinical research. Many Muslim students initially completed degrees in medicine in Dublin or Cork before ultimately pursuing better job prospects in Galway. This has led to the growing presence of a number of young Muslim professionals at the early stages of their careers who have lived in multiple Irish cities prior to settling down in a single location or returning to their countries of origin. These temporary city-to-city stays have strengthened ties between Muslim communities across Ireland and have often prevented local community development from taking place in isolation, especially in Galway and Cork. This is further facilitated by the relatively small geographical size of Ireland, which has enabled Muslims to take day-trips to Dublin for special occasions from almost anywhere in Ireland, including developing Muslim centres like Galway and Cork. As the Muslim presence continued to grow, the Galway Islamic Society purchased a house in 1981 that was later converted into a permanent mosque

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facility. The Riverside mosque, as it is commonly known, is located just north of the city at 13 Sandyview Drive, Riverside. The mosque has since incorporated the adjacent house, which provided more space but no longer suffices for the community’s needs. The most heavily frequented religious services, such as the Friday prayer and the biannual Eid functions, have long since taken place at larger venues around the city in order to accommodate the worshipers in attendance. For this reason, the Friday prayer service has been held at the Westside Community Centre for a number of years, which is rented on weekly basis despite the availability of an established Galway mosque. This results in rugs and sheets being laid out temporarily for prayer services on spacious basketball courts, which provide a familiar setting for Irish Muslims who are accustomed to praying in warehouse mosques. By the late 1990s, Muslims in Galway were forced to address their growing numbers in the city. The Galway Islamic Society had been planning to expand its facilities for some time and began developing plans to build a purpose-built mosque and Islamic Centre in Galway by 2004. It was understood from the beginning that the new mosque would not serve all Muslims in Galway since the population was too large, but rather would provide another religious venue for Muslims living in the western part of the city. The leadership of the Galway Islamic Society faced mounting opposition from local politicians, who made it difficult to purchase an acceptable site in a convenient location that was capable of meeting the standards of planning permission restrictions.59 Councillor Terry O’Flaherty, a former mayor of Galway from 2003 to 2004 and then from 2012 to 2013, became involved in the project and helped representatives of the Galway Islamic Society find a suitable piece of land for construction in Tonabrockey, an area in the western part of Galway towards Mincloon. The property was purchased with the help of local contributions and spearheaded by Dr Saud Bajwa, who had been actively involved in the project for many years. In 2007, the Galway Islamic Society was reorganised as the Galway Islamic Cultural Centre with charity status.60 At present, the mosque site is situated along a secluded road in proximity to Knocknacarra, where many Muslims in Galway live. A large house with temporary prayer facilities has been constructed, but is only registered as the imam’s residence officially until additional requirements regarding planning permission can be met. This step will lead to the next phase of the project, when the remainder of the site can be developed into the intended Galway Islamic Cultural Centre. Muslims in Galway still need to devise a more lasting solution to the lack of religious space for services at present, since the two mosque facilities do not satisfy the needs of a Muslim population of this size. Friday prayers continue to be offered in rented warehouses or alternative locations, since there are not enough permanent religious venues to support local worshippers. This is not to imply that Muslims in Galway must inevitably build larger purpose-built facilities in the heart of the city. It may however be an

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indication of the imminent expansion of smaller provisional mosque facilities in rudimentary structures or private homes, which will probably appear in greater magnitude around suburban areas where larger segments of the Muslim population reside. This one day may also allow for more specialised services to appear in Galway that focus narrowly on specific religious, ethnic or linguistic sections of Muslim communities, as seen in Dublin with sufficient Muslim residents. Limerick and Waterford Along with the growing numbers of Muslims, the process of diversification is also apparent in the cities of Limerick and Waterford. In Limerick, a small number of Muslims started to come together at the beginning of the 1990s. Because of the hospital in Limerick, early Muslim migrants were doctors by profession. At first, they rented a house in order to facilitate the daily prayers and a Qur’anic school for children. In the middle of the 1990s, they bought a place in a residential area, which did not prove to be an adequate solution. Objections to the Islamic Centre in the area were raised by locals, who complained to the County Council about the traffic, which inconvenienced those living adjacent to the centre. In consequence, the Council asked Muslims to search for an alternative location. The Muslim representatives objected to the complaints at first and took their case to the media, where they were met with some sympathy. In the end, however, they felt that they had no choice but to cooperate with the local authorities, and so they bought their present house in the Raheen area, which was afterwards converted to an Islamic Cultural Centre.61 The Centre houses a mosque, runs Qur’anic schools for around sixty boys and girls and contains the private quarters of the imam. It is governed by two trustees and a committee, which is constantly undergoing change, because the doctors are regularly transferred from one place to another. There is a strong wish to have a purpose-built mosque constructed in Limerick and funding is sought for this purpose from different sources both in Ireland and abroad. The reason for this initiative is the lack of space in the present mosque in Raheen, which is too small for the biannual Eid festivities. The centre has suffered from occasional vandalism when the door has been broken, the interior badly damaged and rubbish thrown into the mosque.62 Diversification and a growth in the number of Muslims in Limerick have made it necessary to open other centres for prayer as well. In addition to Muslim doctors and businessmen, Limerick is attractive to students as well, which adds to the number of Muslims. In similar fashion to other cities in Ireland, Limerick has also received refugees and asylum seekers. It is estimated that in Limerick half of the Muslims come from Pakistan and India and the other half are mixed. Thus, in addition to the Islamic Cultural Centre in Raheen, there are at least two rather large prayer rooms in the city centre of Limerick, one of them near to St John’s Hospital. Friday prayers are also

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organised at the University and in the University Hospital. The prayer rooms in the city centre gather refugees and asylum seekers, with Arab or African backgrounds to a large extent living in proximity. Besides Raheen, Qur’anic schools are also held at St John’s, and there are also a couple of women who teach girls at home.63 In Waterford, a small group of Muslims started to gather for prayer in the mid-1990s in Waterford General Hospital, but they also met in a private house to celebrate Ramadan. When their numbers grew they rented a house in Earlscourt for some years. Around 2000, they decided to rent a house in the suburb of Ardkeen Village near the above-mentioned hospital and converted it into an Islamic centre. The Centre gathers around a hundred to a hundred and fifty people for Friday prayers with an imam who comes from Syria. In similar fashion to Raheen centre in Limerick, neighbours of the centre in Waterford have complained about parking on Fridays. On Sundays, around fifteen boys and girls meet in the centre to learn Arabic and to be instructed in Islam.64 Notes 1. Oliver Scharbrodt provides the introduction and the section on Shiis in Ireland and has added some material on other Muslim groups in Dublin and mosques in Cork. Tuula Sakaranaho provides the overview of mosques in Limerick and Waterford. 2. Colette Colfer, ‘Religious groups face planning warning notices over worship in warehouses’, The Irish Times, 24 August 2013, p. 7 3. Information based on personal communications with Mian Ghulam Bari and Mazhar Bari. 4. See Barbara Daly Metcalf, Islamic Revival in British India: Deoband, 1860–1900 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982). 5. Information based on personal communication with Abdul-Manan Hameed. 6. See Usha Sanyal, Devotional Islam and Politics in British India: Ahmad Riza Khan Barelwi and His Movement, 1870–1920 (New Delhi: Yoda Press, 1996); see also idem, Ahmad Riza Khan Barelwi (Oxford: Oneworld, 2005). 7. Information based on personal communication with Sheikh Umar Al-Qadri. 8. See www.minhaj.org/english/index.html (last accessed 17 May 2014). 9. See Alex Philippon, ‘When Sufi Tradition Reinvents Islamic Modernity: The Minhāj-ul Qur’ān, a Neo-Sufi Order in Pakistan’, in Clinton Bennett and Charles M. Ramsey (eds), South Asian Sufis: Devotion, Deviation, and Destiny (London: Continuum, 2012), pp. 111–22. 10. See www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5orpRMp2_4, (last accessed 17 May 2014); see also www.youtube.com/watch?v=krADg-hYgTw (last accessed 17 May 2014). 11. For example, see www.youtube.com/user/nooralhidayah/featured (last accessed 17 May 2014). 12. See www.bdireland.org (last accessed 17 May 2014).

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13. Estimates were provided by Dr Ali Al-Saleh and other representatives of the Shia community. 14. Interview Dr Ali Al-Saleh, 29 October 2010. 15. See Oliver Scharbrodt, ‘Muslim Immigration to the Republic of Ireland: Trajectories and Dynamics since World War II’, Éire-Ireland: A Journal of Irish Studies, 47:1&2, 2012, pp. 221–43. 16. Tuula Sakaranaho, Religious Freedom, Multiculturalism, Islam: Cross-Reading Finland and Ireland (Leiden: Brill, 2006), pp. 276–9. While in 2003 Al-Saleh estimated that around half of the Shia families were ‘settled’ and the other half ‘newcomers’ (asylum seekers, refugees and labour migrants) (ibid., p. 287), given the recent influx of Shia migrants from Iraq and Pakistan the newcomers now outnumber the more settled Shiis. 17. Interview Dr Ali Al-Saleh, 29 October 2010. 18. See Liakat Nathani Takim, Shi‘ism in America (New York: New York University Press, 2009), pp. 54–80. 19. See http://www.babulilm.ie/ (last accessed 19 April 2011). 20. Takim, Shi‘ism in America, pp. 57–9. 21. Sakaranaho, Religious Freedom, pp. 383–408. See also Tuula Sakaranaho, ‘“For God and Eternal Values”: Muslim National Schools in Ireland’, in Ednan Aslan (ed.), Islamische Erziehung in Europa. Islamic Education in Europe (Vienna: Böhlau, 2009), pp. 203–18. 22. Interview with Dr Ali Al-Saleh, 12 June 2010. On similar views, already expressed in 2003, see also Sakaranaho, Religious Freedom, p. 289. 23. See Betwa Sharma and Zachary Goelman, ‘Ireland’s Sunni-Shi’ite Divide’, Time, 9 April 2008. Available at http://www.time.com/time/world/article/ 0,8599,1729341,00.html (last accessed 26May 2011). See also Patsy McGarry, ‘Imams deny rift between Shias and Sunnis in Ireland”, The Irish Times, 12 April 2008, p. 7. 24. Linda S. Walbridge, ‘Introduction: Shi‘ism and Authority’, in idem (ed.), The Most Learned of the Shi‘a: The Institution of the Marja‘ Taqlid (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 3–7. 25. Liakat Takim, ‘Reinterpretation or Reformation? Shi‘a Law in the West’, Journal of Shi‘a Islamic Studies, 3:2, 2010, pp. 143–4. 26. See Babak Rahimi, ‘Ayatollah Sistani and the Democratization of Post-Ba‘athist Iraq’, United States Institute of Peace, Special Report, No. 187, 2007. 27. See Takim, Shi‘ism in America, pp. 145–51. 28. See Yafa Shanneik, ‘Gendering Religious Authority in the Diaspora: Shii Women in Ireland’, in Niamh Reilly and Stacey Scriver (ed.), Religion, Gender, and the Public Sphere (New York and London: Routledge, 2014), pp. 58–67. 29. See Oliver Scharbrodt, ‘Shaping the Public Image of Islam in Europe: The Shiis of Ireland as “Moderate” Muslims’, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 31:4, 2011, pp. 523–38. 30. Interview Dr Ali Al-Saleh, 12 June 2010. See also Mary Fitzgerald, ‘Islam is compatible with Western society, says imam”, The Irish Times, 26 October 2007, p. 14. 31. See Irish Examiner, 10 March 2010, p. 1. See also Mark Tighe, ‘An Enemy within

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32.

33. 34. 35. 36.

37. 38. 39. 40.

41. 42.

43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49.

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Irish Society?’, The Sunday Times, 14 March 2010. Available at http://www. timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article7061014.ece (last accessed 26 May 2011). A community history of the London Jamatkhana in Kensington mentions the visit of the local leader of the Ismailis in Dublin in the mid-1950s. See http:// simerg.com/the-jamatkhana/1953-1957-ismailia-social-and-residential-club-an d-jamatkhana-at-51-kensington-court-london-w8/ (last accessed 22 May 2014). See website of Aga Khan Studs. Available at www.agakhanstuds.com/history/ ch1.asp (last accessed 22 May 2014). ‘History of the Aga Khan Trophy’. Available at http://www.dublinhorseshow. com/index.jsp?p=348&n=435 (last accessed 22 May 2014). Alison Healy, ‘Jubilee for an imam among equals’, The Irish Times, 5 July 2008, p. 4. See Adil Hussain Khan, From Sufism to Ahmadiyya: a Muslim Minority Movement in South Asia (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2015); Simon Ross Valentine, Islam and the Ahmadiyya Jama’at: History, Belief, Practice (London: Hurst, 2008). Joyce McGreevy Stafford, ‘Galway Diary’, Galway Advertiser, 22 August 1985, p. 2. See ‘Ahmadiyyat and the Spirit of Islam’, Galway Advertiser, 27 April 1989, p. 11. Lorna Siggins, ‘First stones laid for Galway mosque’, The Irish Times, 18 September 2010, p. 2. Bernie NiFhlatharta, ‘Objection to plan to build mosque in Ballybane area’, The Connacht Tribune, 20 August 2013. Available at http://connachttribune. ie/objection-to-plan-to-build-mosque-in-ballybane-area/ (last accessed 21 May 2014); see also Enda Cunningham, ‘Planners say Muslim group misled them over numbers at Galway mosque’, The Connacht Tribune, 19 August 2013. Available at http://connachttribune.ie/planners-say-muslim-group-misled-them-overnumbers-at-galway-mosque/ (last accessed 21 May 2014). See Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad, Murder in the Name of Allah (Cambridge: Lutterworth Press, 1989). See ‘Islamic Leader’, Galway Advertiser, 6 April 1989, p. 6; see also the response ‘Ahmadiyya Muslim Association’, Galway Advertiser, 13 April 1989, p. 6. Both stories appear under the caption ‘Letter Box’. See Victoria Montgomery, ‘Ireland’, in Jørgen S. Nielsen et al. (eds), Yearbook of Muslims in Europe, Vol. 4 (Leiden: Brill, 2011), p. 290. Patsy McGarry, ‘New body launched to represent Muslims in Ireland’, The Irish Times, 19 September 2006, p. 8. See Adil Hussain Khan, ‘Concepts of Authority in Irish Islam’, in Tuomas Martikainen et al. (eds), At the Margins of Europe (Leiden: Brill, forthcoming). See http://www.dublinwelfaresociety.ie/ (last accessed 21 May 2014). See http://www.discoverislam.ie/index.php (last accessed 21 May 2014). See http://www.msoe.ie/ (last accessed 21 May 2014). Christina Finn, ‘Ireland’s largest mosque gets planning permission’, TheJournal.

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50. 51.

52.

53. 54. 55.

56.

57.

58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64.

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ie, 29 August 2013. Available at http://www.thejournal.ie/irelands-largestmosque-clongriffin-1060199-Aug2013/ (last accessed 14 January 2014). M. Hakan Yavuz and John L. Esposito (eds), Turkish Islam and the Secular State: The Gülen Movement (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2003). Interviews at Turkish–Irish Educational and Cultural Society in Dublin, 2 December 2012. See also Jonathan Lacey, ‘Turkish Islam in Ireland: Exploring the Modus Operandi of Fethullah Gülen’s Neo-Brotherhood’, in Olivia Cosgrove et al. (eds), Ireland’s New Religious Movements (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011), pp. 337–57; Jonathan Lacey, ‘The Gülen Movement in Ireland: Civil Society Engagements of a Turkish Religio-Cultural Movement’, Turkish Studies, 10:2, 2009, pp. 295–315. May Fitzgerald, “Ireland’s Muslims Forging an Identity”, The Irish Times, October 13, 2006. Available at http://www.irishtimes.com/focus/gageby/underthe crescent/identity.htm (last accessed 2 June 2011); Colette Colfer, ‘“When we first arrived it was an empty room”’, The Irish Times, 24 August 2013, p. 7. See http://ireland.fosis.org.uk/ (last accessed 21 May 2014). Barry Roche, ‘Muslim community in Cork seeks new mosque’, The Irish Times, 8 August 2010, p. 2. Eoin English, ‘Cork Muslim community seeks replacement imam’, Irish Examiner, 23 April 2014. Available at http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/cork-mus lim-community-seeks-replacement-imam-266242.html (last accessed 21 May 2014). ‘The Islamic Cultural Centre in Cork – Ireland’, p. 18. Available at http://www. corkmosque.org/images/stories/Projects/Fundraising/CMS_project6_5_201EN. pdf (last accessed 26 May 2014). Eoin English, ‘Planners in row over Cork city Islamic centre’, Irish Examiner, 18 September 2013. Available at http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/plan ners-in-row-over-cork-city-islamic-centre-243372.html (last accessed 21 May 2014). Interview with Sheikh Ihab Ahmed and Kamal El-Taib, 8 September 2012. Personal Communication with Dr Saud Bajwa. See the ‘about us’ link at http://gicc.ie/ (last accessed 17 May 2014). Interview with Dr Saleem Khan, 27 May 2001. Interview with Dr Saleem Khan, 27 May 2001; Interview with Dr Fasih Khan, 10 August 2009. Interview with Dr Fasih Khan, 10 August 2009. Interview with Mr Mohammad Alhourani, 11 August 2009.

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6 Religious Freedom and Muslims in Ireland 1 Tuula Sakaranaho

Introduction: Muslims and Respect for Religion in Ireland Until recently, religion constituted a pervasive force in Irish society.2 Owing to the strong influence of Catholicism on people’s everyday lives, Ireland has been perceived as ‘a particularly religious country’, and the Irish people somehow as being ‘naturally religious’.3 During recent decades, however, the religious adherence of Irish people has been in constant decline, Irish society has experienced drastic social and economic changes, and the impact of the Catholic Church on Irish society and jurisprudence has weakened. All these changes notwithstanding, it has been argued that religious discourse still has a role to play in the public sphere in Ireland and most probably will continue to do so, even if heavily contested.4 The Catholic legacy of public religion in Ireland is very much in accordance with the needs of Muslims who aim at establishing Islam in the country. The ‘religious sensitivity’ and ‘respect paid to religion’ in Ireland have been greeted with enthusiasm by leaders of Muslim communities, who compare Ireland to countries such as Britain with a more ‘secular atmosphere’.5 One can often hear some Muslim leaders in Ireland say that Ireland is friendlier, more religious and more respectful of others than Britain. It is also emphasised that the Irish in general and the representatives of the Catholic Church in particular are willing to listen to the members of other religions.6 That Muslims are treated well in Ireland is naturally good news, and there is no need to doubt the sincerity of such views. However, for a student of Islam in Europe these views help to raise a number of questions. How does the respect for religion in Ireland materialise in a practical manner in different walks of society? In what ways is this respect for religion apparent in the Irish legislation and especially in the Constitution of Ireland and its implementation? What are the limits of this respect for religion in general and in relation to minorities, such as Muslims, in particular? The aim of this chapter [ 139 ]

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is to outline some answers to the above questions. In so doing, it aims to contribute to the rapidly expanding field of research investigating the ways in which Muslim needs are accommodated and regulated in Western European countries and, hence, the measures for creating or hindering opportunities for establishing Islam in multicultural European societies.7 Recent decades have witnessed a change in European governments’ policies, from benign neglect to active management of religious minorities such as Muslims. European states perceive Islam very much as a social problem and have developed different tools of management in order to deal with it.8 It has recently been argued that Ireland is no exception to the rest of Europe. Along with the growing numbers and visibility of the Muslim population, Islamophobia and anti-Muslim discourses have become more prominent also in Ireland.9 This observation is, of course, in contrast to the views about Ireland’s respect for religion and minority rights expressed by the abovementioned leaders of Muslim communities. Perhaps this contradiction can be seen as an example of the way in which religion is contested in the public sphere in Ireland.10 In order to give some clarity to this argument, this chapter will look at state policies and public discourses on Islam and Muslims in Ireland. This chapter will employ the perspective of governance, which to date has gained but little attention in studies on Muslims in Ireland. The state constitutes a legal framework of governance under which a multicultural and rapidly secularising Ireland is run.11 This chapter will, therefore, pay attention to the formal modes of governance by the Irish state, exemplified in its multicultural programmes and constitutional legislation on religious freedom and education. The next chapter will look at the ways in which the current system in Ireland engages different actors in Irish society in the governance of Islam, exemplified in the different processes of regulation, steering and accommodation of Muslim schools in Ireland.12 Hence, it will go beyond formal legal arrangements and also pay attention to different practices of application, implementation and interpretation.13 Towards a More Inclusive and Intercultural Ireland In Ireland in 1999, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform published a strategy proposal entitled Integration: A Two Way Process. This strategy for the integration of refugees states that the responsibility of the government, but also that of each Irish citizen, is to welcome refugees and to embrace diversity and thereby contribute to the development of a tolerant society. According to this policy paper, ‘integration’ involves a two way process which places certain duties and obligations on refugees and on the host society at both the national and community level in order to create an environment in the host society which welcomes refugees as people who have something to contribute to society.14

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Consequently, the ‘emphasis of integration policy should be on supporting initiatives which enable the preservation of the ethnic, cultural and religious identity of the individual’. From this starting point, the following definition of integration was adopted: ‘Integration means the ability to participate to the extent that a person needs and wishes in all of the major components of society, without having to relinquish his or her own cultural identity.’15 The first national action plan on racism in Ireland was published in 2005.16 The aim of the strategy proposal, entitled Planning for Diversity: The National Action Plan Against Racism was to develop ‘reasonable and common sense measures to accommodate cultural diversity in Ireland’ and ‘to combat racism and to develop a more inclusive, intercultural society in Ireland’.17 In his foreword, Michael McDowell, Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, referred to the reputation of the Irish ‘for warmth and generosity as a people’, and to the international image of Ireland as ‘one of the most desirable places in which to live and work’.18 As one strong rationale for the work against racism, this action plan therefore lists ‘the reputation case’, that is, the international reputation of Ireland as a promoter of human rights and as a warm and welcoming place to visit and in which to live.19 This welcome was also reflected throughout the above-mentioned action plan for diversity. In similar fashion to the former strategy related to the integration of refugees; ‘integration’ in this action plan was understood as ‘a two way process that places duties and obligations on both cultural and ethnic minorities and the State to create a more inclusive society’. More specifically, in the context of this plan, ‘“integration” simply means a range of targeted strategies for the inclusion of groups such as Travellers, refugees and migrants as part of the overall aim of developing a more inclusive and intercultural society’, which ‘is essentially about the conditions for interaction, understanding, equality of opportunity and respect’.20 With respect to religion, the plan notes: There has always been religious diversity in Ireland, most notably in respect of the two largest Christian religious traditions in Ireland. Religious diversity has significantly expanded in recent years, mainly as a consequence of inward migration, and [religion] is an important dimension to many people’s ethnic and cultural identity. There has been a long established Jewish community in Ireland dating back to the nineteenth century and the more recently established Muslim community in Ireland dates back to the 1950s. This increasing religious diversity is to be welcomed and raises important issues that require sensitive and considered policy responses.21

The Irish strategy for dealing with diversity acknowledges the importance religion can have for cultural identity and explicitly welcomes religious diversity, including the fast-growing Muslim population. Thereby, on the level of policy papers, Ireland certainly shows sensitivity to religion as a multicultural issue. Moreover, this action plan is also more explicit about

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racism with respect to religion, in the sense that it lists as forms of racism anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.22 However, the paper does not elaborate on these observations.23 The above-mentioned action plan also aims, in accordance with the recommendations of the Department of Education and Science Report Promoting Anti Racism and Interculturalism in Education (2002), at the ‘reasonable’ accommodation of cultural diversity by implementing a national intercultural education strategy at all levels of the Irish education system.24 Hence, it follows the ethos of the Education Act 1998 which aims to ensure that the education system ‘respects the diversity of values, beliefs, languages and traditions in Irish society’.25 The aim to ‘normalise difference’ was expressed in the guidelines for primary schools, which were published by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment in May 2005, entitled Intercultural Education in the Primary School.26 In this report, ‘intercultural education’ is understood as ‘education that respects, celebrates, and recognises the normality of diversity in all aspects of human life’.27 With respect to terminology, it is also stated in the introduction to this report that ‘multiculturalism’ is sometimes used to describe a society in which different cultures live side by side without much interaction, [whereas] the term ‘interculturalism’ expresses a belief that we all become personally enriched by coming in contact with and experiencing other cultures, and that people of different cultures can and should be able to engage with each other and learn from each other.28

This definition of terms encapsulates the distinction made between multiculturalism in the descriptive and the normative sense.29 Intercultural Education in the Primary School further notes that its approach to cultural diversity is one of interculturalism rather than that of multiculturalism.30 The problem, it says, is that a traditional view of Irishness, not recognising the cultural and ethnic diversity within Ireland, makes many Irish people from minority groups feel excluded.31 The above-mentioned guidelines for primary schools do not elaborate further on the question of Irishness, but one can surmise that they implicitly aim at moving the definition of Irishness in a more inclusive direction. According to these guidelines, intercultural education is meant for all children,32 irrespective of whether they attend ‘ethnically-diverse schools or one that is wholly white, Irish and Catholic’.33 In 2010, the Department of Education and Skills, together with the Office of the Minister for Integration, published Intercultural Education Strategy, 2010–2015. While acknowledging its debt to the previous National Action Plan Against Racism (2005), the Strategy reiterates the Education Act 1998 concerning respect for diversity of values and beliefs and aims at ensuring that ‘inclusion and integration within intercultural learning environment become the norm’. It understands integration as a ‘dynamic, two-way process’ and

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hopes to encompass all participants in education from both immigrant and the host communities.34 All in all, the Strategy has very little new to say concerning migration, diversity and education. Moreover, it does not address the potential conflict that may arise within the denominational school system between the emphasis of the Education Act 1998 on respecting diversity and the maintenance of the religious ethos of a particular school.35 As will be discussed in Chapter 7, aiming at protecting the religious ethos of a school can lead to discrimination against religious minorities, such as Muslims. The most recent governmental policy paper on integration in Ireland in general was published in 2008 by the Office of the Minister for Integration and was entitled Migration Nation: Statement on Integration Strategy and Diversity Management.36 The title Migration Nation refers to the understanding that Ireland is a country of both emigration and immigration. In its Integration Statement, Conor Lenihan recalls the long history of Irish emigration to different parts of the world and concludes that, from the historical point of view, ‘the Irish identity is as much a product of those who left our shores as [of] those who stayed at home’.37 Against this background, this ‘Ministerial Statement of policy is predicated on the idea that Ireland has a unique moral, intellectual and practical capability to adapt to the experience of inward migration’.38 At the time, the percentage of non-Irish was estimated to be as high as 12 per cent of the population. The challenge facing both the Government and Irish society, the paper says, is to integrate people with different culture, ethnicity, language and religion so that they can become ‘the new Irish citizens of the 21st century’.39 However, it also employs the vocabulary of a neoliberal state in emphasising a need to secure ‘social stability’, which is linked with ‘productivity gains’. What helps Ireland in achieving this aim is the fact that, unlike in many other European countries, the largest numbers of immigrants come to Ireland from the other EU countries and constitute a fairly well-educated and skilled workforce.40 Moreover, the delivery of health services has been very much facilitated by a migrant labour force.41 Migrants working in the health sector, however, do not come only from Europe, but also from countries in Africa and Asia, as is well-shown in the case of numerous Muslim doctors working in Ireland. The statement also makes reference to international surveys which show that Irish people have high levels of day-to-day contacts with newcomers and low levels of racially motivated attacks. It is concluded that the identity and reputation of the Irish as a friendly and welcoming people demands the sensitive management of immigrant issues.42 Unlike some other European countries, Ireland has not experienced the emergence of an extreme right-wing, anti-immigrant party in the political scene or any significant campaign against immigrants.43 One of the key principles and strategies in implementing the current integration policy in Ireland, according to this document, is to develop appropriate structures of governance that would involve different sectors of the state and society as a whole. In the public sector, it aims at adopting

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a ‘whole-of-government’ approach. The Government acknowledges that it cannot manage integration issues on its own, and therefore ‘a partnership approach between the Government and non-governmental organisations, as well as civil society bodies’, linked with ‘effective local delivery mechanisms’,44 is needed. For example, the Government wants to support the work of faith-based groups with respect to integration.45 The arrival of immigrants has increased the numbers of participants in many congregations and invigorated their activities. Interestingly enough, Migration Nation notes that ‘migrant groups appear to have a much greater attachment to practicing their faith than is now the case with the native population’.46 So it would seem that, as a result of the process of secularisation and the diminishing role of the Catholic Church in people’s lives, Ireland is moving in the same direction as the other European countries where religion is kept on the agenda mainly in relation to the needs of new religious minorities. At the same time, the Catholic Church, as one of the most prominent faith-based actors, has shown a new vigour in the modern public sphere by actively taking part in the governance of migrant integration in Ireland.47 In addition to managing integration nationally and locally, Migration Nation also recognises that globalisation binds Ireland with other European states and bodies, such as the EU.48 The management of immigration and diversity in Europe in recent decades has somewhat changed, from welcoming multiculturalism to a more restricted and controlled approach where the main aim is to secure state economy and social security.49 Migration Nation reiterates the narrative of Ireland as a friendly and welcoming country where people have experienced emigration and therefore can be understanding of immigration. In particular, it seeks to make Ireland ‘attractive’ for incomers with education and working skills who would not be a threat to social stability but instead would become new Irish citizens. To date, Ireland has been rather liberal in its naturalisation policies.50 However, the policy paper reflects on new requirements for citizenship and is proposing that applicants for citizenship would need to show their knowledge of and loyalty to the country. Integration is seen as a ‘two-way street’ which involves both rights and responsibilities on the part of those who want to come to Ireland to live and work there, and particularly those who are hoping to gain Irish citizenship. 51 In comparison to the above-mentioned previous policy papers, Migration Nation seems to take a somewhat different approach in its definition of integration. Instead of seeing integration as a two-way process which places duties and obligations on both newcomers and the host society, this paper seems to emphasise the duties of immigrants. The Government’s language of integration has shifted from tropes of rights and social inclusion to those of duties and economic productivity. Similar language, reflecting the demands of the neoliberal age, is also used in other European countries, and Ireland would seem to follow suit.52 What is interesting about the Irish policy paper is that it targets its services

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of integration on ‘communities’ rather than individuals. It sets demands for ‘new communities’ to make effort ‘to understand and learn core aspects of Irish society and way of life’, to maximise its ‘contribution to overall prosperity through work and social engagement with the host community’, and to learn ‘basic integration skills’, such as language. The ‘host community’ is required to inform itself about the new communities instead of accepting ‘stereotyped and mythical views’ and to encourage integration in local communities. Both communities should respect cultural differences.53 Another issue that comes up in Migration Ireland in relation to Europe concerns security in general and the threat of Islam in particular. The paper notes that the question of Muslim radicalisation seems to dominate the European agenda, but is not an issue in Ireland. In any case, the paper has very little say about security issues and simply aims at avoiding any such problems in Ireland by encouraging good communication between the government and civil society.54 At the same time, European concern for security might be reflected in Migration Nation, which, in addition to both equality and social inclusion and sensitivity to cultural differences, also emphasises social cohesion.55 Moreover, the paper notes that many migrants do not fully participate in Irish life, which could lead to alienation from mainstream society, and therefore this issue needs to be addressed.56 In sum, Migration Ireland would seem to give somewhat contradictory messages about its approach to integration. On the one hand, it employs the language of interculturalism, equality, rights and social inclusion. On the other, its language is very much in line with neoliberal rhetoric on economic gain, social stability and security issues.57 At the time when Migration Nation was drafted, Ireland was still living its economic boom. This is obvious in its somewhat ambitious plan to set up several governmental and non-governmental bodies for the governance of integration, with allocations of government funds. As later developments show, severe economic difficulties, which began in Ireland around 2008, drastically changed government priorities, and, owing to lack of funds to initiate the governmental integration policies, to a large extent put an end to these plans. The National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism was abolished in 2008 and the Equality Authority suffered from substantial funding cuts.58 The Minister of Integration was replaced by the Office for the Promotion of Migrant Integration in 2011, and a consultative ministerial council, where immigrants had appointed representatives, was suspended. According to Honohan and Rougier, the institutional changes, coupled with shifts in official discourses on integration, might ‘constitute a wider trend to interpreting integration in a more assimilationist way’.59 They also note that, irrespective of the official discourse, the evidence with respect to the ability of the Irish, as a nation that has experienced mass emigration, to better understand immigrants’ difficulties is rather ‘mixed’.60 All in all, it has been concluded that Ireland is in need of a systematic and coherent integration policy instead of making piecemeal policy statements and implementing ad hoc policies.61

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The contradictory tendencies between policies and discourses focusing on interculturalism, on the one hand, and on assimilation, on the other, are wellexemplified in relation to Muslims and the accommodation of their religious needs in Ireland. Even if Muslims have settled down in Ireland with relative ease, they nevertheless seem to test the limits of Irish people’s tolerance of religious differences. A test case of this tolerance is the question of to what extent Muslims are viewed as being ‘in Ireland’ but not ‘of Ireland’.62 The Constitution and Religious Freedom as a Fundamental Right The Constitution of Ireland spells out most profoundly the understanding of religious and cultural rights in this country. In contemporary international communities such as the EU, there is no disagreement about the importance of religious freedom as a fundamental human right. In practice, however, religious freedom seems to be one of those rights which effectively evade a common agreement concerning their scope and content. To date, no human rights treaty has defined religion or belief.63 Admittedly, this is understandable, since ‘no universal definition can readily embrace today’s religious heterogeneous world’, and therefore ‘Charlatanism is a necessary price of religious freedom’.64 Religious freedom is and remains a highly contested issue on the international scene and is becoming more and more so at the national level when European countries are, to a growing degree, facing the challenge of multiculturalism and religious plurality. There are increasing differences of opinion about the practical implementations of religious freedom in European countries. In national legislation, freedom of religion is usually treated as one of the fundamental rights and articulated in the country’s constitution, which ‘is capable of changing with the times’ because it is ‘a dynamic document that must be interpreted in the light of prevailing ideas of what is in the common good’.65 With respect to Ireland, it has been noted ‘few things have shaped and controlled Irish political and legal culture as decisively as the Constitution on Ireland’.66 Moreover, in Ireland the ‘implicit contract between the Catholic Church and the State both shaped and constrained the development of fundamental rights jurisprudence for many years’.67 Religious Ethos of the Irish Constitution The current Constitution of Ireland, Bunreacht na hÉireann, came into effect in 1937.68 It is written both in English and Irish, and the constitutional text in both of these official languages is considered to be ‘authentic’.69 In cases of conflict between these two texts, however, the Irish-language text prevails. In 1999, the Irish Government published a comprehensive study of the official text of the Constitution in the Irish language.70 However, English is usually used in preparing ordinary legislation and the English language is also given precedence in the courts.71

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The emphasis on religion in Ireland is apparent in the Preamble to the Irish Constitution: In the name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority and to Whom, as our final end, all actions both of men and States must be referred, We, the people of Éire, Humbly acknowledging all our obligations to our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ, Who sustained our fathers through centuries of trial . . .72

These words reflect the religious conservatism of Ireland over seventy years ago and also mirror the hopes and aspirations of one of the Constitution’s main designers, President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State (Prime Minister) Éamon de Valera, who himself was a devout Catholic.73 The Constitution of Ireland has been called ‘a fairly successful union of democracy and Catholic teaching’74 and pleased the Vatican. Like many other European countries’ constitutions, the Constitution of Ireland granted a privileged position to the religion of the majority while acknowledging the rights of others.75 With respect to civil and political rights, it was inspired by the US Constitution, and its inclusion of communitarian values in turn inspired other postcolonial constitutions, such as that of India.76 The fundamental rights in the Irish Constitution include personal rights, the family, education, private property and religion. Here, however, the main interest lies in the rights concerning religion and education. Since 1937, the Constitution has been amended several times. Article 41 on education has gone unaltered, whereas Article 44 on freedom of religion has been partially amended. Freedom of Religion in the Irish Constitution: Respect for Religion Article 44 on freedom of religion is the provision which most explicitly articulates church–state relations in Ireland. This provision begins, in somewhat similar terms to the Preamble, with a reference to ‘Almighty God’ and the obligation of the State to respect and honour religion in Ireland (Article 44.1). This distinctively religious provision is understandable against the historical and sociological background of the drafting process of the Constitution.77 It underlines the conviction that the Irish are a religious people (Quinn’s Supermarket Ltd v. Attorney General (1972)), holding to a deep religious conviction and faith (Norris v. Attorney General (1984)).78 According to Casey, this ‘inclination to religion’ might explain why in Ireland issues concerning church and state so rarely reach the courts.79 Provision 44 was originally qualified by two sections recognising the Catholic Church and the other religious communities functioning in Ireland in the 1930s, as follows: 2. The State recognises the special position of The Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church as the guardian of the Faith professed by the great majority of the citizens.

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3. The State also recognises the Church of Ireland, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the Methodist Church in Ireland, the Religious Society of Friends in Ireland, as well as the Jewish Congregations and the other religious denominations existing in Ireland at the date of the coming into operation of this Constitution.80

These sections are exceptional in the sense that they introduce particular religious groups to the Constitution, although, as Whyte notes, it is hard to see what practical effects this sort of explication might have.81 Moreover, Whyte maintains that these sections indicate that the State was by no means neutral with respect to religion or irreligion, and neither was it neutral visà-vis different religious denominations. Even though the section recognises all denominations existing in Ireland at the time, in Whyte’s view, it clearly favours the Catholic Church. At the same time, however, Whyte acknowledges that for ‘the main architect of the 1937 Constitution’, de Valera, this order of privilege merely reflected the sociological fact of Irish society, where over 90 per cent of the people were Catholics. In other words, de Valera justified these provisions by linking the ideal of a democratic state to the representation of people whose life-philosophy was based on Catholicism, while simultaneously showing justice to minorities.82 The above-mentioned section of Article 44 on different religious groups was deleted from the Constitution by the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution Act 1972. Ireland’s joining the EU in 1973 necessitated some amendments to the Constitution.83 Moreover, the ‘Troubles’, that is, the communal violence which erupted in Northern Ireland at the end of the 1960s, had a direct effect on the decision to amend Article 44. For instance, the Taoiseach Jack Lynch maintained that the general provisions in the article on religious freedom were in themselves enough. He saw no point in listing any religious groups in such a manner. In addition, he referred to Northern Ireland, hoping that this change would also contribute towards Irish unity. With regard to a united Ireland, some deputies defended a pluralist Ireland, where a secular constitution would be a common denominator for all. The amendment was effected in January 1973.84 Article 44.2 of the Irish Constitution consists of six sections addressing religious freedom. The Irish Constitution guarantees freedom of conscience as well as free profession and practice of religion, requires the neutrality of the State with respect to different religions and rejects any sort of religious discrimination imposed by the State. Moreover, the State is also requested to be religiously neutral in providing financial aid to schools, and pupils attending state-supported schools are not obliged to take part in their religious instruction. Finally, the Constitution emphasises the autonomy of religious denominations and safeguards their rights to their own property.85 In other words, the State ‘can neither establish nor endow religion’.86 According to Ryan, however, the Constitution of Ireland reflects, from the Preamble through to the closing invocation ‘Dochum Glóire Dé agus Onóra na hÉireann’

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(‘For the Glory of God and the Honour of Ireland’), a clear preference for the practice of religion.87 In Ireland, it is the profession and practice of religion rather than freedom of conscience that have received judicial attention.88 For instance, in McGee v. Attorney General (1974), both the High Court and the Supreme Court, took a narrow view on ‘freedom of conscience’, disregarding matters pertaining to social conscience in general and hence restricting the meaning of this provision to that of religious conscience. Therefore, the meaning of this provision was limited to freedom to choose a religion and to act in accordance with its precepts, and, correlatively, to the freedom not to have a religious belief and to abstain from the practice or profession of any religion.89 Moreover, as regards Article 44.2.2, while not explicitly prohibiting the State from establishing a religion, the Supreme Court insisted, in Campaign to Separate Church and State v. Minister for Education (1998), that this provision indicates rejection of the establishment or recognition of a national church.90 In similar vein, this provision is also used for prohibiting the system of concurrent endowment, whereby financial benefits are conferred on all religions.91 Therefore, the Irish state cannot adopt the Belgian system in which salaries of priests and ministers are paid out of public funds, and neither can it adopt a system where a component of church members’ income tax is handed over to the relevant church, as is the case in Germany and Finland.92 However, these restrictions concern only religious functions, and therefore, for instance, hospitals run by Catholic religious orders are financially supported by the State. This kind of financial support has been justified by the fact that these hospitals serve all Irish people, irrespective of their religion.93 This justification notwithstanding, it is fair to say that it blurs the distinction between institutions set up primarily for religious purposes and institutions run by religious organisations. This lack of distinction, in turn, facilitates a contradiction where the State, on the one hand, ‘guarantees not to endow any religion’ (Article 44.2.2), and, on the other, overtly supports Catholic institutions such as schools and hospitals. The reinforcement of the Catholic ethos in Irish schools and hospitals has come under heavy criticism from bodies working for equality in Ireland.94 This criticism has been rejected by the Supreme Court, which has acknowledged that tension may arise between competing claims to equality and religious freedom, but which all the same has opted for supporting distinctions on religious grounds in order to fulfil the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom.95 Freedom of Religion and Religious Diversity Twentieth-century Ireland seems to have witnessed a spontaneous consensus concerning religious values. Even the Protestants were very moderate in their criticism of state policies based on Catholic social teaching, which, as Whyte noted, was perhaps understandable given that they formed a very small minority in comparison to the Catholic majority.96 Another reason for

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this acquiescence on the part of Protestants might have been the fact that the Catholics and Protestants of the time shared a ‘common puritanism’ in moral issues.97 An important boost to the recognition of different traditions in Ireland was undoubtedly given by the Good Friday Agreement, concluded in Belfast in 1998.98 According to Siobhán Mullally, the recent concern for difference stood ‘in marked contrast to the search for homogeneity and national unity that has characterised much of Ireland’s postcolonial history’. Mullally adds that ‘the effective hegemony of the Roman Catholic Church’, coupled with ‘the overriding concern to define Ireland as “not England”’, meant that ‘diversity and difference within Ireland was either ignored, denied or silenced’.99 The weakening of the Catholic ethos and recognition of diversity in Irish jurisprudence has not, however, resulted in change to the Preamble to the Constitution. Such change, nonetheless, was suggested in 1995 by the Constitutional Review Group, which saw no relevance, in a plural Irish society, for theocratic references in the Constitution or for religious allusion in the Preamble. Hence, it recommended that the formula should be simplified or combined with the recognition that people have diverse ethnic, historical, political and spiritual origins and traditions.100 Perhaps this suggestion encapsulates the change that has taken place in Ireland over the past seventy years or so, from a country where religion was the main marker of identity to a country which is gradually coming to grips with the plurality of identities prevailing among the Irish, whether new to the country or not. Recognition of the increasing diversity of Irish society has gradually diminished the prominence of the Roman Catholic ethos in contemporary Irish jurisprudence.101 As Mullally noted, relying on theistic versions of natural law does not sit well with the emerging vision of Irish society as pluralist, democratic and diverse, and in consequence, ‘the judiciary has become increasingly reluctant to invoke natural law in arriving at decisions on fundamental rights’.102 The respect for diversity is also reflected in a recent amendment to Article 3 necessitated by the Good Friday Agreement (1998). The new Article reads: ‘It is the firm will of the Irish Nation, in harmony and friendship, to unite all the people who share the territory of the island of Ireland, in all the diversity of their identities and traditions.’ Consequently, ‘the religious reference in the Irish Constitutional text can no longer claim to reflect a shared sense of national identity’.103 In a multicultural, more secular Ireland, people do not share a single religio-cultural identity. Another matter is how this change towards plural identities of its citizens is recognised by the Irish state as a legal framework of governance under which a multicultural and rapidly secularising Ireland is run.104 Current Legal Issues As mentioned above, the Constitution of Ireland has been amended several times in response to social changes. The revisions in the Irish Constitution

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reflect demands to recognise in Irish society the process of growing diversity, but also the process of secularisation, resulting in the diminishing role of the Catholic Church, particularly in matters of sexual morality. Abortion does not, strictly speaking, fall under religious freedom, but is an important ethical topic about which most religions have a strong opinion. Abortion has been a thorny issue in Ireland for decades and a topic of several referendums.105 In 1992, the Irish Supreme Court made a decision in relation to what is known as the ‘X-case’ that an Irish woman has a right to an abortion if her life is at risk through the pregnancy.106 The debate on abortion gained new vigour in November 2012 after an Indian woman, Savita Halappanavar, died in Galway University Hospital as a result of complications stemming from her pregnancy. She had repeatedly asked for the termination of her pregnancy, which probably would have saved her life, but was told that Ireland is a Catholic country and so the hospital was not willing to terminate it.107 Nonetheless, the main reason for not terminating this pregnancy was the legal barrier to performing an abortion in Ireland. The Constitution of Ireland guarantees the right to life of both the unborn child and the child’s mother. In 1983, the Constitution was amended with a new Article (40.3.3) which places the unborn child on the same footing as its mother. In other words, abortion in Ireland is illegal except when the life of the mother is in real, substantial danger.108 The problem is that there are no clear guidelines as to what constitutes such risk, and therefore doctors are working in a ‘legal vacuum’.109 Ms Halappanavar’s death speeded up a process of renewing the legislation on abortion in Ireland. The Government published a bill entitled Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013 in June of the same year. 110 According to Taoiseach Enda Kenny, the aim of this paper was to clarify the existing law on abortion while keeping it strictly in line with the Constitution. Moreover, he was not in favour of organising another referendum on abortion rights in Ireland.111 While there seems to be wide political support from the main parties for the Bill, the Catholic Church has expressed its clear opposition to abortion as being ‘morally unacceptable’.112 In addition, Cardinal Seán Brady, Catholic Primate of Ireland, evoked the issue of religious freedom when he argued: ‘The failure by the Government to allow institutions to opt out of carrying out terminations on conscientious objection grounds amounted to a denial of fundamental religious freedoms and thought.’113 In other words, doctors and nurses who for religious reasons are against abortion should have a right to decline to carry out terminations. In addition to the Catholic Church, other religious communities, including Muslims, have also expressed their views in the abortion debate. Generally speaking, the different Christian churches, as well as Jews, are against abortion, but would permit it in cases where the mother’s life is at risk. In similar vein, Dr Ali Selim of the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland noted that

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in the unlikely event when a group of competent trustworthy physicians confirm that the continuity of pregnancy jeopardises the mother’s life, abortion could be conducted as the last and only alternative to protect the mother’s life.114

With these words, he reiterated the position of Arif Fitzsimons, who outlined a Muslim view on abortion to the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution, published in 2000 in the Government’s Fifth Progress Report: Abortion: The basic view that Islam has to abortion is that it is forbidden and is a crime except it is proven by medical experts that the mother’s life is at threat . . . Muslims believe that life begins at conception . . . Thus, as the embryo-foetus is a human being, it has, according to Islam, the right to protection by law . . . Islam is against abortion with the exception of if the mother’s life is threatened by the continuation of the pregnancy, which is proven by a specialist doctor.115

Both the above-mentioned Muslim spokespersons emphasise the role of medical opinion when deciding whether the mother’s life is at risk and, hence, whether to go ahead with the termination of the pregnancy or not. It goes without saying that if abortion is allowed in Ireland, for many Catholic doctors and nurses this will pose a grave professional and moral concern. As the above-mentioned Oireachtas report notes, religious bodies are not alone in their views, but have influence on the moral perspective of people in general.116 In similar fashion, a question arises as to how abortion is perceived and how it would be dealt with by Muslim doctors. The Oireachtas committee also asked about the views of religious bodies on abortion in cases of suicide, foetal deformity, rape and incest. Sheikh Hussein Halawa, from the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland, who in the report is referred to as ‘the chief representative of the Islamic faith in Ireland’, responded by saying that Islam strictly forbids suicide and does not accept abortion even if the baby or embryo is abnormal. He said that regardless of the manner in which the baby was conceived, he or she is innocent and should have a right to life equal to that of any other baby.117 However, abortion is not only a legal or moral issue. It is also a matter that touches upon the understanding of Ireland as a multicultural society at large. Therefore, one may ask how the Irish will reconcile ‘being a practising Catholic with legislating for a pluralist democracy’.118 Reading about the views of different religious bodies in the abortion debate makes it obvious that, in a multi-religious Ireland, the views of the Catholic Church do not constitute a solitary voice but find support from other religious bodies that are against abortion. Owing to its strong historical position in Ireland, the Catholic Church in a sense simply acts as a spokesperson for people and religious bodies holding similar views. Hence, it seems that the dividing line in Irish society is drawn not so much between churches and faiths, but rather between the religious and the secular. According to Mullally and

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O’Donovan, ‘Ireland is moving towards a post-secular state, where religious citizens encounter secularists in debates on the meaning and scope of fundamental rights, on recognition of diverse family forms, the right to education and religious freedom’.119 One more issue that is related to the position of religion in Irish legislation is blasphemy, which ‘entails the utterances of comments that are offensive to religious sensibilities’.120 In Ireland, blasphemy is made an offence in relation to freedom of expression by the Constitution (Article 40.6.1.i), which prohibits the publication of blasphemous material.121 The First Joint Committee on the Constitution, however, was of the opinion that ‘the specific reference to blasphemy should be deleted from the Constitution’ on the grounds that such reference is a ‘dead letter’ and that there is no place for it in a modern Constitution.122 Instead of a blasphemy and defamation act, it is considered that legal provisions should be drafted against incitement to religious hatred.123 From the Muslims’ point of view, this provision was very timely indeed. In November 2013, Muslim communities in Ireland were the target of a ‘hate campaign’.124 Muslim schools and mosques received anonymous letters which included threats of extreme violence against Muslims living in Ireland if construction of a new mosque in north Dublin were to go ahead. The Justice and Defence Minister Alan Shatter condemned the sending of the hate mail to Muslims and said that there was no place for religious intolerance in Irish society and that the offence would be dealt with by the police.125 The letters were described as ‘sinister and alarming’.126 However, Ali Selim, of the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland in Clonskeagh, commented on the hate mail, saying that his community was not worried about these letters. In his view, they had been sent by ‘immature’ and ‘ignorant’ persons who did not understand that most Muslims living in Ireland were Irish and that Ireland was their home.127 Whatever the case may be, these kinds of incidents might be all the more alarming for Irish politicians and other actors in civil society, since to date there have been in Ireland rather few direct racist attacks and little unrest caused by extreme right-wing political activism.128 At the same time, it must be noted that incidents related to Islamophobia, for instance, are not systematically recorded and that therefore very little is known about actual anti-Muslim attacks in Ireland.129 In 2012, a decision-making forum of 100 people, the Convention of the Constitution, was set up in order to reappraise and update the Constitution of Ireland.130 It remains to be seen how drastic changes will be made to the Constitution of Ireland and what the consequences of these changes will be for its religious ethos, which originates from the days of de Valera. The current social and political atmosphere in Ireland seems to favour a somewhat secularising trend whereby Irish identity is not attached to religion. Yet again, there seems to be a strong Catholic sentiment in Ireland, for instance in issues such as abortion. Moreover, the Catholic Church still exerts its influence on Irish society and is extending its actions to multicultural issues in addition to education and health, as was discussed above.

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The institutionalisation of Islam in Ireland has, in general, not been problematic. Setting up Islamic communities as charitable organisations entails organisational structures which have a clear legal backing. All in all, Muslim communities are by now reasonably well-established in Ireland. 131 With regard to this institutional development, one can therefore say that Muslims enjoy religious freedom in Ireland; both the legal culture of the wider society and the Muslim communities aim towards this end. With a mosque as a place of worship and an imam as a religious leader, Muslim communities are close enough to a church-like structure with priests or pastors as religious personnel to fit well into the general religious landscape of Ireland. However, the adaptation of Muslim communities to existing church–state relations does not solve the problem of who can represent Muslims vis-à-vis the Irish state. As in some other European countries, this problem has been circumvented by choosing one mosque organisation or one imam, such as that of the ICCI, to act as official representatives of Muslims in Ireland.132 In addition to general freedom of religion, the Irish government has recently addressed a problem that Muslims face in the field of finance. For a decade at least, Muslims have expressed concern about their difficulties in securing mortgages because Islamic law forbids the payment of interest.133 In Britain, various alternatives to mortgages have been developed so that Muslims can purchase property in line with Islamic principles. For years, Muslims have negotiated to introduce similar practices in Ireland also. Finally, by removing some legislative obstacles, the Irish government has facilitated the development of Islamic finance in Ireland and has created suitable ways for Muslims to deal with mortgages.134 Islamic finance is one example of the way ‘secular’ Britain has served Muslims better than the more ‘religious’ Ireland. However, one explanation for this might be simply the difference in age and size of the Muslim populations of these respective countries. Notes 1. This part of the chapter on religious freedom in the Irish Constitution is revised and updated from Tuula Sakaranaho, Religious Freedom, Multiculturalism, Islam: Cross-reading Finland and Ireland (Leiden: Brill, 2006), pp. 173–94. 2. See Ibid., pp. 36–9. 3. See Tom Inglis, Moral Monopoly: The Rise and Fall of the Catholic Church in Modern Ireland (Dublin: University College Dublin Press, 1998), p. 2; Hilary Tovey and Perry Share, A Sociology of Ireland (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 2000), pp. 310–11. 4. Siobhán Mullally and Darren O’Donovan, ‘Religion in Ireland’s “Public Squares”: Education, the Family and Expanding Equality Claims’, Public Law, April 2011, p. 306; Oliver Scharbrodt, ‘From Irish Exceptionalism to European Normality? The New Islamic Presence in the Republic of Ireland’, Etudes Irlandaises, 39, 2014 (forthcoming).

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5. Kevin Boyle and Juliet Sheen, Freedom of Religion and Belief: A World Report (London: Routledge, 1997), p. 348; Maurice Ryan, Another Ireland: An Introduction to Ireland’s Ethnic-Religious Minority Communities (Belfast: Stranmillis College, 1996), p. 48. 6. Sakaranaho, Religious Freedom, p. 271; Breda Gray, ‘Catholic Church Civil Society Activism and the Neoliberal Governmental Projects of Migrant Integration in Ireland’, in Tuomas Martikainen and François Gauthier (eds), Religion in the Neoliberal Age: Political Economy and Modes of Governance (Farnham: Ashgate, 2013), p. 80; Iseult Honohan and Natalie Rougier, ‘Tolerance and Cultural Diversity. Discourses in Ireland’, Accept Pluralism Working Paper (Florence: European University Institute, 2010), p. 25. Available at http://www.eui.eu/Projects/ACCEPT/Documents/Research/wp1/ACC EPTPLURALISMWp1BackgroundreportIreland.pdf (last accessed 21 January 2013). 7. See Marcel Maussen, ‘The Governance of Islam in Western Europe: A State of the Art Report’, IMISCOE Working Papers, 2007. Available at http: //library. imiscoe.org/en/record/234826 (last accessed 11 June 2013). 8. Bryan S. Turner, Religion and Modern Society: Citizenship, Secularisation and the State (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), pp. 192−3; Jonathan Laurence, The Emancipation of Europe’s Muslims: The State’s Role in Minority Integration (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2012). 9. Scharbrodt, ‘From Irish Exceptionalism’. 10. See Mullally and O’Donovan, ‘Religion in Ireland’s “Public Squares”’, p. 284. 11. See Fergus Ryan, Constitutional Law (Dublin: Round Hall, 2002), p. 30. 12. Maussen, Governance of Islam, p. 5; Bader Veit, ‘The Governance of Islam in Europe: The Perils of Modelling’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 33:6, 2007, pp. 871–86. 13. See Maussen, ‘Governance of Islam’; see also Tuula Sakaranaho, ‘The Governance of Islamic Education in Finland: Promoting “General Islam” and the Unity of All Muslims’, in Tuomas Martikainen et al. (eds), Islam in the Margins of Europe (Leiden: Brill, forthcoming). 14. Integration: A Two Way Process, Report to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform by the Interdepartmental Working Group on the Integration of Refugees in Ireland (Dublin: Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, 1999), p. 9. 15. Ibid. 16. Prior to this action plan, there was a three-year anti-racism awareness programme, which is outlined in its final report published in 2003. Know Racism: The National Anti-Racism Awareness Programme. Final Report on Activities 2001– 2003 (Dublin: Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, 2003). Available at www.knowracism.ie/pdfs/National-Action-Plan-Against-Racism.pdf (last accessed 4 February 2013). 17. Planning For Diversity: The National Action Plan Against Racism 2005–2008 (Dublin: Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, 2005), pp. 27, 40–2. Available at http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/NPARen.pdf/Files/NPARen. pdf (last accessed 21 January 2013).

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24.

25.

26.

27. 28. 29.

30.

31. 32. 33. 34.

35.

Muslims in Ireland Ibid., p. 11. Ibid., pp. 41, 56. Ibid., pp. 38–9, 42. Ibid., p. 51. Ibid., pp. 29, 56. See James Carr, ‘Regulating Islamophobia: The Need for Collecting Disaggregated Data on Racism in Ireland’, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 31:4, 2011, pp. 574–93. Planning For Diversity, p. 106; Iseault Honohan and Nathalie Rougier, ‘Tolerance and Cultural Diversity in Ireland: Concepts and Practices’, Accept Pluralism Working Paper 2012/22 (Florence: European University Institute, 2012), pp. 33–45. Available at https://www.academia.edu/2079916/Tolerance_and_Cultural_ diversity_in_Ireland_Concepts_and_Practices (last accessed 21 January 2013). Education Act No 51 (1998). See also Promoting Anti Racism and Interculturalism in Education: Draft Recommendations towards a National Action Plan (Dublin: Department of Education and Science, 2002). Intercultural Education in the Primary School: Guidelines for Schools (Dublin: National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, 2005). Available at http:// www.ncca.ie/uploadedfiles/Publications/Intercultural.pdf (last accessed 27 March 2014); see also Intercultural Education in the Post-Primary School: Guidelines for Schools (Dublin: National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, 2005). Available at http://www.ncca.ie/uploadedfiles/publications/Interc%20 Guide_Eng.pdf (last accessed 27 March 2014). See Kitty Holland, ‘Primary schools get guidelines on cultural diversity’, The Irish Times, 18 May 2005. Intercultural Education, p. 169. Ibid., p. 3. Sakaranaho, Religious Freedom, pp. 45–68. See also Edna Longley, ‘Multiculturalism and Northern Ireland: Making Difference Fruitful’, in Edna Longley et al. (eds), Multi-Culturalism: The View from Two Irelands (Cork: Cork University Press in association with The Centre for Cross Border Studies, Armagh, 2001), pp. 1–44. Intercultural Education, p. 3. For a discussion on these terms, see Nasar Meer and Tariq Modood, ‘How does Interculturalism Contrast with Multiculturalism?’, Journal of Intercultural Studies, 33:2, 2011, pp. 175–96. Intercultural Education, p. 13. Ibid., p. 21. Holland, ‘Primary schools’. Intercultural Education Strategy 2010–2015 (Department of Education and Skills together with the Office of the Minister for Integration, 2010). Available at http://www.education.ie/en/Schools-Colleges/Information/Intercultural-Ed ucation-Strategy/mig_intercultural_education_strategy.pdf (last accessed 27 March 2014). See Honohan and Rougier, ‘Tolerance and Cultural Diversity in Ireland: Concepts and Practices’, p. 71.

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36. Migration Nation: Statement on Integration Strategy and Diversity Management (Office of the Minister of Integration, 2008) Available at http://www.integra tion.ie/website/omi/omiwebv6.nsf/page/AXBN-7SQDF91044205-en/$File/ Migration%20Nation.PDF (last accessed 21 January 2013). 37. Ibid., p. 7. 38. Ibid.; James Carr and Amanda Haynes, ‘A Clash of Racialisations: the Policing of “Race” and Anti-Muslim Racism in Ireland’, Critical Sociology, July 2013, doi: 10.1177/0896920513492805; Honohan and Rougier, ‘Tolerance and Cultural Diversity in Ireland: Concepts and Practices’, p. 30. 39. Migration Nation, p. 7. 40. Ibid, p. 8. 41. Ibid., p. 59. 42. Ibid., p. 57. 43. Honohan and Rougier, ‘Tolerance and Cultural Diversity in Ireland: Concepts and Practices’, p. 7. See also Steve Garner, ‘Ireland and Immigration: Explaining the Absence of a Far Right’, Patterns of Prejudice, 41:2, 2007, pp. 109–30. 44. Migration Nation, pp. 9–10, 13. 45. See Gray, ‘Catholic Church’. 46. Migration Nation, p. 44. 47. Ibid., pp. 44–5. See Gray, ‘Catholic Church’, pp. 69–90; Mullally and O’Donovan, ‘Religion in Ireland’s “Public Squares”’, p. 306. 48. Migration Nation, pp. 29–37. 49. See Jef Huysmans, ‘The European Union and the Securitization of Migration’, Journal of Common Market Studies, 38:5, 2000, pp. 751–77; Chris J. Bickerton et al., ‘Security Co-operation beyond the Nation-State: The EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy’, Journal of Common Market Studies, 49:1, 2011, pp. 1–21. With respect to Islam, see Laurence, Emancipation of Europe’s Muslims. 50. See Honohan and Rougier, ‘Tolerance and Cultural Diversity in Ireland: Concepts and Practices’, pp. 14–15. 51. Migration Nation, pp. 34; 52–3. 52. See Tuomas Martikainen and François Gauthier, ‘Introduction: Religion in Market Society’, in Martikainen and Gauthier, Religion in the Neoliberal Age, pp. 1–20. 53. Migration Nation, pp. 17–18. 54. Ibid., pp. 33–7. 55. Ibid., pp. 15–16. 56. Ibid., pp. 42. 57. See Gray, ‘Catholic Church’. 58. See NCCRI, http://www.nccri.ie/ (last accessed 27 March 2014); Dearbhail McDonald, ‘Equality board member quits over budget cuts’, Irish Independent, 17 December 2008. Available at www.independent.ie/irish-news/equalityboard-member-quits-over-budget-cuts-26500068.html (last accessed 27 March 2014). 59. Iseult Honohan and Natalie Rougier, ‘The Embodiment of Tolerance in Discourses and Practices addressing Cultural and Religious Diversity in the

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60. 61. 62. 63. 64.

65.

66. 67. 68.

69.

70. 71. 72. 73.

74.

75. 76.

Muslims in Ireland Political Sphere in Ireland’, Accept Pluralism Working Paper 2012/03. National Case Studies. – Political Life. Final Country Reports (Florence: European University Institute, 2012), p. 3. Available at http://cadmus.eui.eu/handle/1814/22237 (last accessed 5 June 2014). Honohan and Rougier, ‘Tolerance and Cultural Diversity. Discourses in Ireland’, p. 27. Ibid., p. 97. Ibid., p. 73. Carolyn Evans, Freedom of Religion under the European Convention on Human Rights (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 51. John Witte, ‘Introduction’, in John Witte and Johan D. van der Vyver (eds), Religious Human Rights in Global Perspective: Religious Perspectives (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1996), xvii–xxxv, xxiii. Ryan, Constitutional Law, p. 3. See also Gerard Hogan, ‘Foreword’, in Dermot Keogh and Andrew J. McCarthy (eds), The Making of the Irish Constitution 1937: Bunreacht na hÉireann (Dublin: Mercier Press, 2007), pp. 34–5. Hogan, ‘Foreword’, p. 13. Mullally and O’Donovan, ‘Religion in Ireland’s “Public Squares”’, p. 284. Bunreacht na hÉireann: Constitution of Ireland (1937) (Dublin: Government Publications, 2010). Available at http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/eng/ Publications/Publications_Archive/Publications_2010/March%202010%20Ver sion%20-%20Constitution%20of%20Ireland.pdf (last accessed 28 November 2013). For drafting of this document, see Keogh and McCarthy, Making of the Irish Constitution. Brian Lenihan, ‘Brollach. Foreword’, in Micheál Ó Cearúil, Bunreacht na hÉireann: A Study of the Irish Text. The All-party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution (Dublin: Government Publications, 1999), viii–ix. Ibid. James Casey, Constitutional Law in Ireland, 3rd edn (Dublin: Round Hall Sweet & Maxwell, 2000), pp. 73–7. ‘Preamble’, in Bunreacht; Boyle and Sheen call this preamble ‘theocratic’. Boyle and Sheen, Freedom of Religion, p. 345. Ryan, Constitutional Law, p. 2. Hogan cautions against over-emphasising de Valera’s contribution or the influence of Catholic thinking and social values on the Constitution. See Hogan, ‘Foreword’. For de Valera’s Catholicism, see Anthony J. Jordan, Éamon de Valera 1882–1975: Irish Catholic Visionary (Dublin: Westport Books, 2010). Dermot Keogh, ‘The Irish Constitutional Revolution: An Analysis of the Making of the Constitution’, in Frank Litton (ed.), Constitution of Ireland 1937–1987 (Dublin: Institute of Public Administration, 1988), p. 24. See also Keogh and McCarthy, Making of the Irish Constitution, p. 173. According to Boyle and Sheen, ‘Ireland’s 1937 constitution was one of the most liberal constitutions of its day’. Boyle and Sheen, Freedom of Religion, p. 345. Hogan, ‘Foreword’, pp. 16–19. Boyle and Sheen, Freedom of Religion, p. 345.

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77. See Keogh and McCarthy, Making of the Irish Constitution, pp. 150–2. Keogh and McCarthy note that, in the process of drafting the Constitution, ‘the article on religion remained the major stumbling block’. Ibid., p. 154. See also Hogan, ‘Foreword’, pp. 16–19. 78. Kelly, Irish Constitution, p. 662; Casey, Constitutional Law, p. 688. 79. Casey, Constitutional Law, p. 685. 80. Keogh and McCarthy, Making of the Irish Constitution, p. 172. 81. John Henry Whyte, Church & State in Modern Ireland, 1923–1979 (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1980), pp. 56–8. 82. Ibid., pp. 56–8; see Hogan, ‘Foreword’, p. 20. In the process of drafting the Constitution, de Valera consulted the leaders of both the Catholic and the Protestant Churches. See Keogh and McCarthy, Making of the Irish Constitution, pp. 158–61. 83. See Jim Hourihane (ed.), Ireland and the European Union: The First Thirty Years, 1973–2002 (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 2004); Anthony J. Foley and Stephen Lalor, Gill & Macmillan Annotated Constitution of Ireland 1937–1994 (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1995), p. 192. 84. See Foley and Lalor, Constitution, pp. 209–15; John A. Murphy, ‘The Church, Morality and the Law’, in Desmond Clarke (ed.), Morality and the Law (Dublin and Cork: Mercier Press, 1982), pp. 103–4; Patrick Hannon, ‘Legislation on Contraception and Abortion’, in James P. Mackey and Enda McDonagh (eds). Religion and Politics in Ireland at the Turn of the Millennium (Dublin: The Columba Press, 2003), pp. 119–31. 85. However, the Constitution does not express a right to propagate religion, even though it might be implicit in Article 44.1. See Casey, Constitutional Law, pp. 688–91. 86. Ryan, Constitutional Law, p. 139. 87. Ibid., p. 143. 88. Casey, Constitutional Law, p. 689. 89. John M. Kelly, The Irish Constitution, 2nd edn (Dublin: Jurist Publishing, University College, 1984), pp. 663–4. McGee v. Attorney General (1974) concerned the right of a person to order contraception from England. 90. Hogan, ‘Foreword’, p. 20. Hogan mentions here as an exception the Tilson case (1951), where the Supreme Court decided against a Protestant father’s right to give his children other than Catholic education. 91. Casey, Constitutional Law, pp. 695–6. 92. Sakaranaho, Religious Freedom, p. 183. 93. Casey, Constitutional Law, pp. 695–6. 94. Boyle and Sheen point to the anomaly of 100 per cent state funding for hospitals and other institutions providing health services, which operate in accordance with Catholic medical ethics and also demand that the staff, including doctors and nurses, abide by these ethics. Boyle and Sheen, Freedom of Religion, p. 349. It is interesting to note that for decades Muslim doctors have worked in Irish hospitals without any difficulties. The reason for this might be that, in general, Muslim doctors share the Catholic medical ethics.

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95. Siobhán Mullally, ‘Mainstreaming Equality in Ireland: A Fair and Inclusive Accommodation?’, Legal Studies, 21:1, 2001, p. 103. 96. Whyte, Church & State, pp. 57–60. 97. Murphy, ‘Church, Morality and the Law’, pp. 103–14. 98. Good Friday Agreement: Agreement reached in the multi-party negotiations, 1998. Available at http://www.dfa.ie/uploads/documents/Anglo-Irish/agree ment.pdf (last accessed 4 February 2013). 99. Mullally, ‘Mainstreaming Equality’, p. 100; Siobhán Mullally, Gender, Culture and Human Rights (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2006), p. 106. 100. See Mullally, ‘Mainstreaming Equality’, pp. 106–7. 101. Hannon, ‘Legislation on Contraception’. 102. Mullally, ‘Mainstreaming Equality’, p. 106. 103. Mullally, Gender, Culture and Human Rights, pp. 223–5. 104. See Carr and Haynes, ‘Clash of Racialisations’, p. 8; Mullally and O’Donovan, ‘Religion in Ireland’s “Public Squares”’. 105. See Paul Cullen, ‘Timeline: The A to X of abortion in Ireland’, The Irish Times, 19 December 2012, p. 4. 106. The Attorney General Plaintiff v. X. and Others Defendants [1992 No. 846P] See Casey, Constitutional Law, pp. 436−438; also Geraldine Kennedy, ‘Time limit a key issue arising from health committee hearings on abortion’, The Irish Times, 25 May 2013. 107. Kitty Holland, ‘Husband relieved truth about Savita’s death emerging’, The Irish Times, 12 April 2013. 108. Ryan, Constitutional Law, pp. 116−117. 109. Kitty Holland, ‘“Highly likely” Halappanavar would be alive if termination given, inquest told’, The Irish Times, 17 April 2013. 110. The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013, Number 35 of 2013. Available at http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/pdf/2013/en.act.2013.0035.pdf (last accessed 5 August 2013). See Ciara Kenny and Arthur Beesley, ‘Abortion legislation contains number of significant changes’, The Irish Times, 13 June 2013. 111. ‘Taoiseach says he does not intend to have another referendum on abortion’, RTÈ News Ireland, 26 April 2013. Available at http://www.rte.ie/news/ 2013/0425/385525-abortion-legislation/(last accessed 5 August 2013). See also Stephen Collins, ‘Enda Kenny’s political reputation at stake in abortion legislation’s safe passage’, The Irish Times, 18 May 2013. 112. Patsy McGarry, ‘Tone of bishop’s language on abortion an echo of other days’, The Irish Times, 7 May 2013. 113. Jerome Reilly, ‘Cardinal Seán Brady makes second abortion debate intervention in 24 hours’, Independent.ie, 4 May 2013. Available at http://www.independent. ie/irish-news/cardinal-sean-brady-makes-second-abortion-debate-interventio n-in-24-hours-29242526.html (last accessed 5 June 2013). 114. Ibid. 115. Fifth Progress Report: Abortion. The All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution (Dublin: Government of Ireland, 2000), p. 69. Available at http:// www.taoiseach.gov.ie/eng/Publications/Publications_Archive/Publications_

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116. 117. 118. 119. 120. 121.

122.

123.

124.

125.

126. 127.

128. 129. 130.

131.

[ 161

for_2000/OireachtasCommitteeOnConstitution5thReport.pdf (last accessed 5 June 2013). Ibid., p. 69. Ibid., p. 72. See also Michael O’Regan, ‘Imam defends rights of embryos’, The Irish Times, 26 August 2006, p. 8. Patsy McGarry, ‘Are senior church figures threatening or advising politicians?’, The Irish Times, 21 May 2013. Mullally and O’Donovan, ‘Religion in Ireland’s “Public Squares”’, p. 306. Ryan, Constitutional Law, p. 121. Casey, Constitutional Law, pp. 543–4. Blasphemy is also mentioned in section 7(2) of the Censorship of Films Act 1923 and the common law of blasphemous libel supplemented by the provisions of the Defamation Act 1961. See Consultation Paper on the Crime of Libel (Dublin: Law Reform Commission, 1991), p. 62. Joint Committee on the Constitution, First Report: Article 40.6.1.i – Freedom of Expression (Dublin: Houses of the Oireachtas, 2008), pp. 72–3. Available at http://www.oireachtas.ie/documents/committees30thdail/j-constitution/rep ort_2008/100708-Report1.pdf (last accessed 28 November 2013). Irish Politics Forum (Political Studies Association of Ireland). Available at http://politicalreform.ie/2013/11/06/the-progress-of-the-irish-constitutionalconvention-to-date/?relatedposts_exclude=738 (last accessed 28 November 2013). Fiona Dillon and Tom Brady, ‘Muslims target in “hate mail” campaign’, Irish Independent, 26 November 2013. Available at http://www.independent.ie/ irish-news/muslims-targeted-in-hate-mail-campaign-29783626.html (last accessed 13 January 2014). Sinead O’Carroll, ‘Shatter condemns hate mail sent to Muslim Community, says gardaí will take “appropriate actions”’, TheJournal.ie. Available at http:// www.thejournal.ie/muslims-attacked-racism-1191193-Nov2013/ (last accessed 28 November 2013). Dillon and Brady, ‘Hate campaign’. Ed Carty, ‘Justice Minister Alan Shatter condemns hate mail’, Irish Independent, 25 November 2013. Available at http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/jus tice-minster-alan-shatter-condemns-muslim-hate-mail-29782916.html (last accessed 28 November 2013). See Honohan and Rougier, ‘Tolerance and Cultural Diversity in Ireland: Concepts and Practices’, p. 7. See Carr and Haynes, ‘Clash Racialisations’; see also Scharbrodt, ‘From Irish Exceptionalism’. See Convention on the Constitution. Available at https://www.constitution.ie/ Convention.aspx (last accessed 28 November 2013). For the progress of the Convention, see also The Irish Politics Forum. See Oliver Scharbrodt and Tuula Sakaranaho, ‘Islam and Muslims in the Republic of Ireland: An Introduction’, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 31:4, 2011, pp. 469–85.

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132. See Brigitte Maréchal, ‘Institutionalisation of Islam and Representative Organisations for Dealing with European States’, in Brigitte Maréchal et al., Muslims in the Enlarged Europe: Religion and Society (Leiden: Brill, 2003), p. 157. See also Sakaranaho, Religious Freedom, p. 421. 133. Carl O’Brien, ‘So like the old Catholic Ireland’, The Irish Times, 14 May 2004, p. 17. Fiona Gartland, ‘Muslim entrepreneurs need access to Sharia-friendly financial products’, The Irish Times, 7 October 2010, p. 8. 134. Edana Richardson, ‘Islamic Finance for Consumers in Ireland: A Comparative Study of the Position of Retail-level Islamic Finance in Ireland’, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 31:4, 2011, pp. 534–53.

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7 Education and Muslim National Schools in Ireland 1 Tuula Sakaranaho

The Denominational School System Religion and education have recently been called ‘a thorny issue for Ireland’, one which regularly attracts the media glare.2 It is true that the denominational school system has evoked heated debate in Ireland.3 At least for the time being, however, it has firm roots in the Constitution of Ireland. In the Constitution of Ireland, family, parents and education are very much intertwined. Article 42.1 recognises the family ‘as the natural primary and fundamental unit group of Society, and as a moral institution possessing inalienable and imprescriptible rights’. It names the family as the main educator of children, hence stressing the limited nature of the State’s role in education, with a guarantee of the ‘inalienable right and duty’ of parents in this respect.4 According to McDonagh, the latter article ‘was an almost inevitable conclusion to the long struggle about education for Catholics in the nineteenth century and at the same time a genuine attempt to protect minority rights’.5 Moreover, the reference to ‘natural’ and ‘inalienable’ rights reveals the influence of Catholic teaching on Articles 41 and 42 along with the natural law philosophy imbuing both of these articles.6 According to Article 42.4, the State is obliged to ‘provide for free primary education’.7 A particular importance lies in the preposition ‘for’, which for Casey carries the whole history of such education in Ireland.8 For historical reasons, there is a particular legacy in Ireland of resistance to the idea of state schools.9 Hence, the role of the State is to provide premises and sufficient finance to schools, while the schools themselves are managed and run by trustees. Moreover, a similar arrangement concerns teachers who are paid by the State but have a contract with school trustees.10 With respect to these trustees, Irish schools are generally denominational, so that the vast majority of schools are owned or managed by the Catholic parishes or religious orders. In addition, there are some Protestant schools and a few schools owned by [ 163 ]

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other religious communities, such as Jews and Muslims, as well as a growing number of multi-denominational schools.11 The denominational system of education was supported in 1998 by a court ruling that has been called a ‘landmark case’.12 Both the High Court and the Supreme Court confirmed the constitutionality of the Irish school system in Campaign to Separate Church and State v. Minister for Education (1998), stating that state funding of chaplains in Roman Catholic and Church of Ireland schools cannot be considered as an endowment of religion within the meaning of Article 44.2.2 and that this funding does not discriminate between schools run by different denominations.13 Hence, the courts conceived schools in the same way as they conceived hospitals, as public and not religious institutions, serving the Irish public in general. The denominational system of education in Ireland has ensured that different religious communities, in addition to the Catholic majority, have been able to socialise children in their respective religious traditions. In a sense, the adamant efforts of the Catholic Church since the end of the nineteenth century to ensure its influence on Irish education have also paved the way for the interests of religious minorities. For instance, the Church of Ireland has argued with renewed confidence and vigour for the right to education reflecting its religious tradition and ethos.14 One of the most important issues for Muslims in Europe regarding religious freedom concerns Islamic education in general, and Muslim schools in particular. However, only about half the European countries house officially recognised and state-supported Islamic schools. As a rule, these schools do not exist in countries with a small Muslim population.15 In this respect, Ireland clearly forms an exception. With a Muslim population of around 50,000 (2011), Ireland has had a Muslim National School already for two decades. In 1990, Muslims started a National School in Dublin, which was joined by a second one in 2001. Both of these schools are run by trustees nominated by the Islamic Foundation of Ireland (IFI). Both schools are also supported by the State and hence, around 80 per cent of their funding is provided by the Department of Education and Skills. The rationale for Muslim schools lies most obviously in creating a new avenue for the socialisation of Muslim children, especially at a younger age, in accordance with Islamic values and world-views, and hence in fostering their identity and self-esteem as Muslims.16 In addition to religious schools, however, there is also growing pressure in Ireland for more schools which do not fit into the denominational system but instead are neutral regarding religion. Thus, there seem to be in Irish society two major trends as regards the role of religion in education: one promotes the right to run denominational schools, and the other aims at overcoming the ‘segregation’ in the field of education by starting non-denominational schools. Both of these trends are visible in recent debates about the patronage of schools and efforts to change the school system in Ireland. Both of these trends, moreover, touch upon Muslims.

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Starting Muslim National Schools in Ireland Towards the end of the 1980s, a number of Muslims had settled down in Ireland and wanted to raise their families there. This gave rise to the question of how the education of the second generation should be organised. It was felt that an education for children promoting Islamic values was needed: The issue of educating Muslim children is central to the Muslim Community. As parents and community, we feel it is necessary for us to take adequate steps to preserve, cultivate and promote the basic teachings of Islam among the younger generation of Muslims living in this country today.17

The initiative for a Muslim National School in Ireland got off the ground in 1988 when the first meeting between Muslim representatives and the Department of Education took place. The latter was in principle willing to support the establishment of a Muslim school, but in practice it needed proof that the establishment of such a school was viable.18 Muslims were required to prove that there were at least twenty-four children over the age of four who would attend a Muslim National School if such would be available in Dublin, and that they would actively support such a school by maintaining it and increasing its numbers of pupils.19 In order to gain support for the school project, an international conference was held in Dublin in 1989 that addressed the issue of Islamic education for children in Ireland. Guests from both Muslim and Christian communities were present at this conference. The conference was successful in the sense that it managed to gather enough people who were willing to support the school project.20 From then on, the establishment of the Muslim National School proceeded fairly rapidly. An application by the school was submitted to the Department of Education in March 1990, and already by July 1990 it was recognised by the Minister for Education. This decision was received with gratitude by IFI representatives: The Muslim National School is the first recognised national school in Ireland . . . and will stand as a monument to the respect and accord by the Irish State to the religious beliefs of minority groups, for this the Muslim people will always be grateful.21

In order to house the Muslim National School (Scoil Náisiunta Moslomach), the premises of the Islamic Foundation in South Circular Road were refurbished. The school, run by staff consisting of a principal, one assistant teacher and religious staff, was finally opened in September 1990. In the beginning there were forty-one pupils, but in the following years their numbers increased to such an extent that new staff were required. As the numbers of pupils continued to rise, the premises in South Circular Road soon proved to be inadequate. The need for extra classrooms and

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also for a playground made it necessary to consider another site for the school. In January 1993, the school was transferred to its new location in Roebuck Road, Clonskeagh. The former premises at the site were converted to the new school building, the financial support for the renovations coming from Sheikh Hamdan Al-Maktoum, who also financed the construction of the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland (ICCI) at the same site.22 The school was run by the IFI, but the Maktoum Foundation sponsored the pay of teachers of Arabic and Islamic Religious Education at the school.23 The new school site was officially opened in April 1993 by the President of Ireland, Mary Robinson. At the opening, she said that the children of the Muslim National School were both Irish and Muslims, and that ‘they help to broaden our sense of Irishness, they enrich us with their strong and symbolic sense of culture and ideals’.24 A similar observation was also made by Peter Thompson in The Irish Times: Seeing and learning these things, the visitor cannot but be aware that something entirely new is happening in Irish educational and social history . . . It is one more jolt to traditional concepts of what constitutes an ‘Irish’ person.25

The chairman of the school’s board of management felt that the opening of the Muslim National School marked a new phase in the relationship between the Irish authorities and Muslims in Ireland.26 The Muslim National School proved to be successful: ten years afterwards, the number of children attending it had grown by 200.27 Consequently, it was felt that a second school was needed. This was opened in September 2001 on the north side of the city, in Capra. The school started at a rather awkward time in view of the events of 11 September 2001. However, according to the acting principal at the time, there were no problems for the school; the hostility that Muslims might have felt outside on the streets did not affect the school. One reason for this might have been the school’s location; it was accommodated in temporary premises at the St Joseph’s School for Deaf Boys, on Navan Road. Unlike the Muslim school in Clonskeagh, the North Dublin Muslim National School did not have independent premises easily recognisable from the outside. In 2011, the school moved into new premises on Ratoath Road in Capra.28 Muslim Schools with Non-Muslim Teachers Both Muslim National Schools in Dublin are administered by the IFI. The imam of the Islamic Foundation, Yahya Al-Hussein, acts as patron of both schools. In this role, he chairs the boards of management consisting of six members, of whom two are appointed by the patron, two elected by the parents and two by the principal and teachers of the school. The principal acts as board secretary. In addition, the members of the board co-opt two

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more members from the wider society. The patron holds the power of dissolving the board of management if he so wishes.29 At present, both Muslim National Schools have Irish principals, Irish full-time class teachers, and some extra teachers, in addition to teachers of religion, Arabic and the Qur’an. More specifically, in 2007 Clonskeagh school had eighteen full-time teachers, in addition to the principal and six special-needs assistants, employed by the Department of Education and Skills. The Qur’an and Arabic were taught by five Religious Education teachers.30 The teaching staff of the North Dublin Muslim National School in 2012–13 consisted of the principal, seven class teachers, six support teachers and three teachers of Islam and Arabic.31 In both schools, the principals and the full-time teachers, paid by the Department of Education and Skills, are non-Muslims. In this respect, the Muslim National Schools in Ireland are similar to those of the Netherlands.32 The teachers of Islam and Arabic are Muslims, working as fee-paid teachers funded by the Maktoum Foundation. The Department of Education and Skills does not interfere with the religious instruction of the school, which is thus left for the school to administer independently. This is in accordance with the Department’s policy regarding religious instruction in Catholic and other faith-based schools in general. At the beginning of the 1990s, when there was less employment available for primary school teachers, it was rather easy for the Muslim school to find qualified teachers. However, at the beginning of the 2000s the situation changed, so that there was a shortage of teachers in Ireland. Consequently, it was hard also for the Muslim National Schools to find new qualified primary teachers, and unqualified teachers needed to be employed in order to complete the staff. New teachers are also needed owing to the constant turnover of staff. Undoubtedly, the easy access to employment opportunities can explain the readiness of teachers to move on in their career. However, in the case of the Muslim National Schools one can also discern some other reasons for the turnover of staff. First, teachers might find it easier to teach children who come from the locality and who speak English as their first language, which is common for Irish primary schools in general. Second, for some teachers, it can be difficult as non-Muslims to adjust to the Islamic ethos of the school. It must be noted, however, that the Irish female teachers are not, as non-Muslims, expected to cover their head while teaching; they are merely required to dress decently, excluding miniskirts and revealing clothes. Whatever the case may be, some of the Irish teachers enjoy working in the Muslim school and therefore would not look for a change in their position.33 Multicultural Pupils By the time the Clonskeagh school opened its doors in the new location in January 1993, the pupils already numbered 117. In the 1990s, however, the school expanded, so that in 1998 there were 257 pupils. Thus, the number of pupils grew over a twelve-year period, from 41 in 1990 to 255 in 2002.

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The numbers of girls and boys attending the school did not differ very much.34 At first, the classes in Clonskeagh school were larger at the lower levels of the school, but in recent years the school has reached the stage where more or less all the classes are full. There is a constant demand for places at the school, a demand which has not been diminished by the foundation of the Muslim National School in Capra. Their locations on different sides of Dublin partly explain the need for both schools. In addition, the growing population of Muslims will no doubt feed both of the schools with new pupils. Both Muslim National Schools have as their catchment areas the whole of Dublin.35 In general, the figures regarding pupils are affected by the movement of families in and out of the country; the families tend to be large, and therefore there might be several children of the same family coming to or leaving the school. Owing to the repatriation of some families, the school loses some pupils from different classes every year, and consequently it usually takes in new pupils at all class levels and not just the Junior Infants.36 The Clonskeagh school receives pupils from all the main Islamic centres in Dublin, namely the Sunni communities of the Islamic Foundation and the Islamic Cultural Centre, as well as the Shia community. All the children at the North Dublin Muslim school are Sunni.37 Both schools have to turn away applicants and therefore have a waiting list.38 In Clonskeagh, the children are enrolled according to the criteria laid down by the board of management on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. In addition, brothers and sisters get first preference. Thus, locality does not count in the case of the Muslim school. If it did, however, it would inevitably favour the more affluent Muslims since the area around Clonskeagh mosque consists of well-off middle-class suburbs. Now, the socio-economic backgrounds of the families vary significantly. Moreover, the families living near the mosque tend to stay in Ireland on a non-permanent basis, whereas the more established Muslims tend to live in other parts of Dublin. Drawing children from the locality would therefore increase the turnover of pupils in the school.39 The pupils of both Muslim National Schools reflect the general ethnic and linguistic heterogeneity of the Muslim population in Ireland. As a result, both schools are among the most multi-ethnic schools in Ireland. However, the majority of pupils are Irish citizens who have one parent or both coming from overseas. For instance, in 2010, the Clonskeagh school had 288 pupils, representing twenty nationalities. Over 70 per cent did not speak English as their first language.40 At the Muslim National Schools, the children are taught in English but they also learn Irish and Arabic. Consequently, the Muslim children who do not speak English or Arabic at home have to cope with a total of four languages in their everyday life. Such a situation generally applies to nonArabic Muslims in other European countries as well.41 In addition to their

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mother tongue, they need to learn Arabic and the language of the host country, and therefore are obliged to master at least three languages. For Arabic speakers who speak different dialects the situation is not necessarily much easier either. In Ireland, the Irish language, as one of the national languages, is also taught at school.42 Even though there is a possibility of applying for an exemption from learning Irish, this is not encouraged in either Muslim National School. To some extent, the English language constitutes a challenge for the pupils. In particular, the children whose families came to Ireland as refugees and asylum seekers often have to struggle hard to learn English and reach the level of other children who come from more settled backgrounds and who are already in command of the language. What adds to their struggle, and thereby to the efforts of the school to teach them, is the fact that their parents, who themselves do not know English, cannot help them with their schoolwork. Even though the extent to which the school can intervene in the lives of these children is limited, a great effort is made accommodate their needs in teaching them. The extra language and support teachers provide for these pupils undoubtedly do help in this effort.43 Moreover, the North Dublin Muslim National School has opted for a homework policy so that the pupils will every day use a certain amount of time studying English, so that parents will get involved in helping their children when necessary. The school’s policy paper also notes that some children attend language and Qur’an schools in the evening, which limits the time they have for schoolwork.44 All in all, the aim of the Muslim National Schools is to educate pupils as competent speakers of English. The problem in realising this aim is that there are no suitable English-language textbooks available in Ireland which would draw their examples from Islamic culture. Therefore, Muslim schools use the standard Irish textbooks, which are often informed by the Catholic ethos.45 To date, the Clonskeagh school, which began in 1990, has functioned for over twenty years. This is reflected in the fact that some pupils, as the children of the school’s former pupils, are already second-generation pupils. One former pupil has also been serving on the school’s board of management.46 Hence, a gradual generational change has begun in the management of the Muslim National Schools. Facilities The Muslim National Schools receive the same government capitation grant as other national schools. The financial aid covers the salaries of qualified teachers, who must be accepted by the Department of Education and Skills. The capitation grant pays for around 80 per cent of the general costs of the schools and the rest must thereafter be provided by the Muslim patron. Since the catchment area of the Muslim National Schools covers all of Greater Dublin, school transport is an essential service for the pupils. For the first ten years or so the State did not provide any financial aid for school trans-

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port, which was therefore funded by the IFI. It was only in 2001 that the Department of Education and Skills finally started to provide free transport for pupils living more than two miles from the school.47 Before the construction of the Islamic Cultural Centre in Clonskeagh, the school was the only building on the site purchased by the Maktoum Foundation, and therefore those working in the school felt its location to be very lonely and cut off. After all, the school had previously functioned in the centre of the city in South Circular Road, where it was close to the mosque and could at any time receive help from the patron of the school, the imam of the Dublin Mosque. However, the construction of the Islamic Cultural Centre in its vicinity changed the situation drastically. First of all, the Centre, buzzing with activity and attracting large numbers of visitors, broke the isolation of the school. Along with the construction of the Centre, moreover, an extension to the school was built, with five extra classrooms. In addition to extra classrooms, the ICCI has also contributed some other new facilities for the school’s use, such as a multi-purpose sports hall and the mosque where pupils can attend prayers.48 9 The school building is fairly invisible, as it is located at the side of the Centre. Because of its huge size, it is the Centre, and not the rather small onestorey school building, which first meets the eye when one enters through the gates. In itself, the invisibility might rather be a benefit than a drawback for the school, which, in the world formed post-9/11, needs to consider its security.49 The above-mentioned positive developments notwithstanding, the rapid growth in the number of pupils and staff has meant that the facilities of the Muslim National School in Clonskeagh have become cramped, and there is also a need for extra funding for running the school. Beyond the usual capitation grant from the Department of Education and Skills, the school does not receive any further funding to cover its costs because it is in a middleclass neighbourhood and such additional finance is reserved for schools in underprivileged areas. However, as a result of a survey done three years previously, it was shown that 40 per cent of the school’s pupils were disadvantaged and hence the school received a small three-year grant. Moreover, the usual fundraising organised by parents in other schools does not necessarily work for the Muslim school. The families of the pupils are scattered around Dublin, and therefore it is harder to get them together than in other Irish schools, where pupils live in the locality of the school.50 Irish Syllabus with Islamic Ethos The syllabuses of both the above-mentioned Muslim National Schools are the same as those of other national schools in Ireland.51 In addition, the school curriculum also includes instruction in Arabic language and Islamic religion. The organisation of the Muslim National Schools, hence, flexibly combines the requirements set for a national school in Ireland with the reli-

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gious interests of the Muslim parents. The schools are, in principle, open to non-Muslims, but to date all the current pupils come from Muslim families. Both of the schools are based on the Islamic ethos, which is apparent in the aim to ‘nurture an Islamic way of being’.52 For instance, North Dublin Muslim National School’s Code of Behaviour and Discipline is seen to ‘relate strongly to the Islamic ethos of the school’. The main emphasis in the code is ‘positive behaviour in children’ and ‘the cultivation of mutual respect and tolerance’.53 Islam also dictates the contents of religious education so that an hour per day is set for the study of religion, Arabic and the Qur’an. Examples of Islamic culture are, when possible, also integrated into teaching of the other subjects and Islam is represented in many areas of school activities. Moreover, ‘Islamic posters and pictures add to the Islamic atmosphere.’54 In addition to religious classes, religion is a fundamental part of the school day also in the sense that the children from the Junior Infants onwards learn how to prepare for and conduct prayer. In Clonskeagh, where the mosque is practically next door, boys and girls from third class onwards attend the midday prayer (dhuhr) in the mosque. The same is true for the Friday prayer.55 Without the facilitating mosque, the North Dublin Muslim National School organises prayers for pupils from the second class onwards in a room separated for this purpose. The Islamic ethos is also apparent in the dress code; the school uniform worn in the Muslim schools is very similar to that of the other Irish schools, with the exception that girls in the senior classes are obliged to wear a hijab. There have been some incidents in Clonskeagh where some parents have actually complained about the obligatory hijab. Nevertheless, since this dress code is in the school rules, it needs to be followed. In the North Dublin Muslim School the rule of the hijab has been readily accepted by parents. In both schools there are girls who, in accordance with their parents’ wishes, are already wearing a hijab prior to the beginning of puberty.56 In Ireland, the school year is generally ordered according to the Catholic Christian calendar. However, the Department of Education and Skills has made some concessions concerning the Muslims schools so that they can take their holidays during the main Islamic festivals, celebrated annually according to the Islamic lunar calendar. Thus, in addition to the ordinary Christmas and Easter holidays, the Muslim schools are closed for eight school days at the end of Ramadan (Eid al-Fitr) and for five school days during the feast of sacrifice (Eid al-Adha). In sum, one may note that the Islamic ethos permeates the school life in many ways. Following the success in setting up the Muslim National Schools, planning for a Muslim secondary school in Dublin has been in progress for quite some years. It is felt that a Muslim secondary school would strengthen the Islamic education of the children in general, but in particular would help the girls. Even though instances of wearing a hijab being treated as a problem in some Irish secondary schools are scarce, they do exist.57 Consequently, studying in a Muslim school would ease the pressure on the girls covering their heads.

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Moreover, the liberal atmosphere of secondary schools in comparison to primary schools and problems evident among teenage secondary-school pupils make some Muslim parents hesitate to send their girls to ordinary Irish secondary schools. Therefore, some parents would want the Muslim National School to keep their daughters for one more year in the primary school. However, the same does not apply to boys, who are encouraged to proceed with their education. Preparing Muslim children to face the teenage years in a non-Muslim environment adds to the responsibilities of the Muslim National Schools to educate their pupils in such a way that they will know for themselves what is allowed or forbidden in Islam.58 However, finding an all-boys or all-girls school for Muslim children is not a problem in Ireland, as it is in countries with co-education. In Ireland, the Catholic schools have followed the policy of separating boys and girls, and to a large extent continue to do so. In this respect, the expectations of Muslims and the wider society in Ireland smoothly coincide.59 The Governance of Muslim National Schools Governance is about doing the right things and Management is about doing things right.60

These words, spoken at a conference of the Irish Primary Principals Network (IPPN) by its Director Seán Cottrell, encapsulate the different sides of administering and regulating national schools and school education in general. ‘Governance’ is about setting goals and outlining appropriate policies, whereas ‘management’ is about running schools and providing education in practice.61 The main foundation of governing school education in Ireland is outlined in the Constitution of Ireland. The fact that, in Ireland, schools offering primary and secondary level education are predominately denominational has effectively provided structural facilities for establishing Muslim schools in this country. Moreover, the Rules for National Schools state that ‘these Rules do not discriminate between schools under the management of different religious denominations’.62 Starting a Muslim National School in Ireland went rather smoothly some three decades ago, and today there are two well-established ones in Dublin. In practice, however, there have been some challenges in the governance and management of these schools. According to Mr Cottrell, ‘the priority of a school board should be governance’, and, ‘it is the Principal who manages the school’. However, research undertaken by the IPPN has shown that ‘many Principals have a challenging relationship with their Boards of Management’ and that ‘most Boards do not understand where their role finishes and the Principal’s role begins’.63 Naturally, a question arises as to how the governance and management of the Muslim National Schools have been conducted.

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One of the main tools of the Department of Education and Skills for assuring the quality of the primary school system in Ireland is Whole School Evaluation (WSE), which has been carried out since 2005. The WSE reports on particular schools are publicly displayed on the Department’s web pages, which is a new development and adds to the transparency of the evaluations.64 One of the main justifications of these evaluations is the improvement of the national school system in Ireland, but they are also important internationally when reflected against the OECD’s aim of school improvement in its member states.65 The Clonskeagh Muslim National School was evaluated in 2005 and 2010. The 2005 report positively assessed the in-school management of the school, and especially ‘the professionalism of the principal, teachers and school staff in their work and their commitment to the ongoing development of the school’. The report also listed as one of the school’s strengths the ‘responsiveness and enthusiasm of the pupils and their engagement in the learning process’, as well as ‘the celebration of the culture of pupils and the high quality of the cross-cultural project work undertaken in many classrooms’. Finally, the evaluation identified ‘the very good work taking place in many areas of curriculum, across the whole school and providing for pupils with a wide range of abilities and particular language needs’.66 The recommendations for the further development of the school, on the main, concerned the board of management. The report stated that a board of management should be established in accordance with the Education Act 1998, and that it needed to operate properly and effectively for the benefit of the school. There had been some ‘serious differences between some members of the board’, and therefore the school patron had applied to the Department of Education and Science67 for permission to dissolve the board. The report recommended that the members of the new board would ‘receive appropriate training for their role’, and that ‘open and effective communication between the board of management and the school community’68 should be developed. The report referred to conflicts among Muslim members of the board and the difficulties this can have for the running of the school. According to the report, there were several matters that the board of management had failed to do. First, the board needed to implement admissions policy available to parents seeking enrollment of their children in the school and make ‘necessary arrangements for the school accounts to be audited and certified on an annual basis’. Moreover, during the evaluation process, the school timetable was to be adjusted so that there was less time spent on Religious Education and prayer in order that the legal minimum of time be spent in all classes covering non-religious subjects.69 Since only a minority of parents were opposed to the teaching of some aspects of music, history and physical education as contrary to their Islamic faith, the report urged the board of management to clarify the school’s ethos and the implementation of the curriculum so that parents could then decide whether they accepted the characteristics of the school or not.70 It strongly urged that pupils of

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the Muslim National School should have the fullest possible access to the Primary School Curriculum 1999.71 A minority of parents should not have a decisive role in the governance of the Muslim National School. Instead, the board should determine that, even though the school followed an Islamic ethos, the curriculum entirely fulfilled the requirements of the national curriculum. This would not curtail parents’ choice in terms of their children’s education, since they could always opt for not enrolling their children in this particular school. The issue regarding a minority of parents who might be dissatisfied with the management and governance of the Muslim National School in Clonskeagh became acute in summer 2009, when a parent of former pupils of this school complained on the Joe Duffy Liveline show, broadcast on the national radio channel RTE 1 in June 2009, about the poor educational standards of the school. The IFI published a statement in which it expressed deep concern that such ‘a respectable national radio station’ would give air time to a person who spread false allegations against ‘two respectable Muslim institutions’, that is, the Clonskeagh school and the IFI. The statement referred to the Whole School Evaluation of 2005 which had been favorable to the school. It also said that the reason behind this ‘vicious attack’ was a personal conflict between the school’s patron and the chairman of the board of management.72 Some sort of a campaign against the Clonskeagh school continued in the autumn of 2009, when many parents received an anonymous text message containing allegations of poor educational standards at the school, in Mathematics in particular. Moreover, leaflets containing similar complaints were distributed to parents outside the school gates. Consequently, a letter was sent to the parents, signed by the principal and chairman of the board of management, which highlighted the positive statement of the WSE report of 2005 and clarified the role of English and Mathematics tests in measuring the pupils’ performance.73 In October 2009, the principal went public about the controversy and, in Metro Éireann, explained his views about the ‘campaign to undermine’74 the Clonskeagh school. Somebody had handed the above-mentioned letter to Metro Éireann, and he decided to give an interview to the paper in order to clear up any misunderstandings.75 He was sorry that a minority of people were trying to undermine and damage the Muslim school and was of the opinion that the motivation behind the campaign against the Clonskeagh school was dissatisfaction with the patron and with mosque politics in the IFI. Moreover, he said that there were Muslim parents who thought that a non-Muslim should not be principal of a Muslim national school.76 At the same time, he emphasised that it was only a small minority of parents who were against the school and said that in general the board of management and parents were supportive of his work as principal. He was also sorry that the media seemed to give a platform to a loud minority of conflict-seeking Muslims and ignored those in the ‘silent majority’.77 However, there was also a more balanced coverage of the Clonskeagh school in the media, where

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a clear distinction was made between the two Muslim National Schools and the issues concerning their respective governance and management.78 In addition to the Clonskeagh school, the North Dublin Muslim National School also caught the eye of the media after the WSE report on the school, conducted by the Department of Education in November 2008, was released in June 2009.79 The report painted a very bleak picture of the way the school had been run.80 The board of management had failed to fulfil its main duties and the members of the board did not understand their roles and responsibilities regarding the governance of the school. The board had not established a health and safety policy or child protection guidelines in order to guarantee the safety of the pupils in school. The school did not follow the standardised school year, nor did the teaching follow closely the national Primary School Curriculum. For instance, the board of management did not allow any music to be taught in school. Accounts of the school finances were not available for inspection, and hence there was no evidence regarding how the board had used the resources granted to the school by the Department of Education. The school also wrongly imposed an enrolment fee on parents who wished to enrol their children at the school.81 Since the school began in September 2001, it had had four acting principals, of whom none had lasted very long in the post. Staff morale was low, and there was a constant turnover of staff. A clear indication of the problems faced by the school was the resignation of the whole mainstream staff in June 2008. There were two parents’ associations in the school, segregated according to gender, one for fathers and the other for mothers. During the investigation, some parents said they were unhappy with the educational provisions of the school. This dissatisfaction was also reflected in the number of pupils, which had decreased significantly since 2006. However, the exact number of pupils was not available for inspection owing to lack of proper figures for pupil admissions and attendances. The evaluation report noted that pupils were in the main ‘well-behaved, courteous, polite and respectful’, but that the school lacked a code of behaviour and that there were serious problems with discipline in some classes. The overall quality of teaching and learning was poor. An extra challenge for the school was the fact that almost half of the pupils needed support in learning English as an additional language.82 The North Dublin Muslim National School was from the start under the patronage of the IFI, which gave a statement concerning the WSE report. The statement was very vague, claiming that the school was ‘initially intended to be established under a different patronage other than the Islamic Foundation of Ireland’, but that the Foundation gave support to the school, and that ‘in December 2007 when no alternative patronage body was established, and the situation in the School management became untenable, the IFI decided to take an active role’. The statement makes also reference to the Clonskeagh school saying that this school ‘has been under the patronage of the Islamic Foundation of Ireland proper since its establishment in 1990’.83 Reading its statement, it seems that the IFI was not willing to take responsibility for

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the initial problems at the North Dublin Muslim National School, although it is not clear from the statement under which patronage other than the Foundation’s the school would have been. Whatever the case may be, it was clear that, at the time of the negative media coverage in 2009, the North Dublin school had for a long time suffered from confusion about patronage, conflicts in the school board and a lack of proper management, which amounted to a non-functional situation in the school. The most recent evaluations of both Muslim National Schools clearly indicate that the problems regarding their governance and in the management of the North Dublin school have largely been solved. The IFI has clearly stated its patronage of both schools,84 the school boards have fulfilled their duties in trying to remedy the previous problems, and both schools now have a qualified principal.85 It is clear that having a long-term, experienced and dedicated principal in Clonskeagh gave stability to the school while no such asset was available for the North Dublin school prior to 2009, when the first qualified principal was appointed. The huge improvements made in the North Dublin school are also visible in its web pages, which offer a very thorough picture of its policies and everyday functioning.86 In 2011, a new Muslim Primary Education Board was set up by the patron of the two Muslim schools. Its aim is ‘to define and advise on the Islamic perspective on educational issues relating to the teaching of religion and other subjects in Muslim and other schools attended by Muslim children’. Moreover, its role is ‘to manage and develop Muslim pupils’ education through dedication and excellence through upholding Islamic values’.87 In order to assess the actual role of the above-mentioned recently established board in the governance of Muslim National Schools, more time and research is needed. In summary, Muslim National Schools began very smoothly and, with their Islamic ethos, integrate well into the denominational schools system in Ireland. They are governed under Muslim patronage and via boards of representatives made up of Muslim parents. However, the management of the schools is in the hands of non-Muslims, and also, teachers in both schools, those of Islam and Arabic excluded, are non-Muslim. In the eyes of some Muslim parents, this raises the question of whether these schools can be perceived as genuinely Islamic. These reservations notwithstanding, it is clear from a practical point of view, as also noted in the WSE reports, that in order to maintain stability in the management of the schools and guarantee a high level of teaching, Muslim National Schools need for the time being to resort to the help of non-Muslims. Muslims and the Denominational School System The recognition of the denominational rights to education in Ireland is good news for new religious groups, such as Muslims, for whom transmitting religious traditions to the next generation in the wider European society is

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a challenge. Therefore, having the right to set up a Muslim National School is a boost to their religious freedom. However, Muslims in Ireland also face problems. These problems reveal the contradictory tendencies that prevail in Irish society between the state rhetoric about the ‘inclusive Ireland’ and the practical problems in mainstream schools.88 A recent report on education and anti-racism in Ireland pointed out that the Irish system of education is failing to sufficiently address the needs of families who are not Catholics. The present situation, where most of the schools are under the ownership and management of the Catholic Church, and where, therefore, only 1 per cent of schools are multi-denominational, leaves very little choice for parents with respect to their children’s education. After all: It is both unlikely and impractical to expect that all the various ethnic minorities arriving in Ireland in recent years would establish schools that would meet their own religious and cultural needs. Therefore, the reality is that they are going to be educated mainly in the existing denominational schools, which . . . are mainly Catholic. At the same time, Ireland has both a moral obligation and a legal duty to cater for the needs of all within those schools.89

The two Muslim National Schools operating in Dublin serve a very limited number of Muslim pupils. Therefore, the question arises as to how the religious adherence of the majority of Muslim children, most of whom attend Catholic schools, is taken into consideration in the general system of education. The answer is that in the main it is not. In general, a religious ethos and single-sex schools can be appealing to Muslims, but there are some areas where problems can arise.90 As Philip Watt, the director of the National Consultative Council on Racism and Interculturalism, noted, ‘You have, for instance, Muslim children in Catholic schools who are sitting at the back of the class or playing in the corridor while the rest are being taught religion. That’s hardly acceptable in the long run.’91 Parents have a constitutional right to withdraw their children from Religious Education and many Muslim parents make use of this right, but often the schools have no possibility of making alternative supervisory arrangements. Another issue that can be problematic from the point of view of Muslim pupils is that the schools ethos is fostered by an integrated curriculum where religion is taught not simply as a separate subject but as a part of the entire school curriculum. The particular religious ethos is supposed to permeate the entire school community and inform all subjects taught in the school, as well as its social and cultural activities. Consequently, taking into consideration the needs of Muslim children is a much wider issue than just one concerning Religious Education classes. Growing pluralisation has widened this issue to concern Hindus and other religions in Ireland, in addition to Muslims.92 Hence, a more general question remains as to how mainstream Irish schools will, in accordance with the Education Act 1998, accommodate the religious

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and cultural needs of their pupils and deal with the consequent ‘implications for these schools in terms of change in managements structures, in terms of change in ethos and in terms of the resourcing of these schools’.93 A further problem that Muslims face in Ireland is admission to secondary schools. Muslim girls, especially, have experienced problems in being admitted to (Catholic) secondary schools on the grounds that wearing the hijab violates the Catholic ethos of the school.94 A headscarf controversy that hit the headlines arose in 2008 in Gorey Community School, County Wexford, where Muslim parents requested that their daughter be allowed to wear the hijab in school.95 The principal of the school contacted for advice the Department of Education hoping that it would give some general guidelines on how to deal with the issue. In his view, it was not right to have divergent policies where one school would permit Muslim pupils to wear headscarves and another would not. When there was no clear reply from the State, the school decided to allow the pupil to continue to wear her headscarf.96 The Minister of Education saw that the question of the hijab mainly concerned ‘school dress codes and diversity’ and hence placed it at the doorstep of the Minister of State for Integration to be considered as a part of the Government’s intercultural education strategy, then in progress.97 Finally, the Government decided not to issue a directive concerning the hijab in schools.98 However, the Ministers of Education and for Integration jointly gave recommendations concerning school uniform policy in which they reminded schools that they should follow the Education Act 1998, which emphasised respect for diversity in a democratic society.99 In practice, they warned against policies which would discriminate against pupils and stated that where the hijab was of the same colour as the school uniform problems had not arisen.100 All the main teachers’ unions welcomed the Government’s decision and noted that its recommendations were in line with the pragmatic policies already followed in schools, where, in any case, wearing religious symbols and clothing had not been a problem. However, the Irish Council of Liberties criticised the Government’s decision as being ‘a policy of not having a policy’ and emphasised the responsibility of the state which, in its view, should take a firm stand on sensitive issues.101 Some commentators, moreover, warned against making the hijab a major issue since it easily shifts the focus away from more critical issues concerning integration into Irish society, such as language skills.102 In the current situation, where there is no legislation concerning the right to wear the hijab at school, schools can also opt for its prohibition. For instance, a case occurred very recently (2013) in Dún Laoghaire, Dublin, in which a Muslim girl was not allowed to wear the hijab in secondary school.103 The Gorey incident gave rise to some kind of headscarf controversy in the Irish media after representatives of two opposing parties announced that Muslim girls should not be allowed to wear the hijab in public schools. First, the Labour spokesman for education, Ruairi Quinn, said that ‘if people

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want to come into a western society that is Christian and secular, they need to conform to the rules and regulations of that country’. He also said that ‘nobody is formally asking them to come here. In the interests of integration and assimilation, they should embrace our culture’. He concluded by saying, ‘Irish girls don’t wear headscarves. A manifestation of religious beliefs in such a way is unacceptable.’ At the same time, the Fine Gael spokesman for education Brian Hayes said that everybody should wear similar school uniform and claimed that ‘the wearing of the hijab was not a fundamental requirement to be a Muslim, but more an example of modesty and cultural mores’. In similar fashion to Quinn, who supported ‘integration after [a] U-turn on multiculturalism’,104 Hayes was of the opinion that Ireland should not continue on the route to multiculturalism.105 Both of the above-mentioned commentaries on the hijab can be seen as examples of an ‘exclusionary narrative’, indicating politics of belonging that, first and foremost, require abiding by dominant cultural norms.106 With respect to the views on the hijab expressed by Quinn and Hayes, the director of the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism, Philip Watt, expressed his disappointment at the ‘illthought’ comments from both political figures. Hayes’ views were also criticised by the ICCI spokesperson Summayah Kenna, who maintained that wearing a headscarf was the religious duty of a Muslim woman.107 The Government did not engage in any serious public debate about the issue. A spokesperson for the Minister for Integration, Conor Lenihan, merely expressed opposite views to those of Quinn and Hayes, saying that he saw no problem with students wearing the hijab and that ‘for those that wear the hijab, it’s an issue of modesty’. He also recalled recent history in Ireland by noting that ‘it’s not so long since Irish women wore headscarves to church, so we have to respect that’.108 As with politicians, the headscarf attracted opposing views among Irish people in general. According to a survey conducted on behalf of The Irish Times, public opinion was divided more or less evenly, with 48 per cent of the Irish people siding for allowing headscarves in Irish schools and 39 per cent being against it. Almost half of those surveyed were also of the opinion that the Government should provide guidelines on this issue.109 The increasing diversity can also generate anxiety. As an example of this, the Association of the Secondary Teachers of Ireland made a submission to the Government on the issue of the hijab, in which it expressed a fear that allowing difference can give rise to fundamentalism.110 According to Rougier, the connection between the hijab and fundamentalism ‘echoes an underlying fear that allowing the hijab in schools could lead the way to the greater visibility and greater affirmation of Muslims in Irish society’, which ‘could possibly represent a first step towards the emergence of Islamic fundamentalism’.111 The connection between the hijab and Islamic fundamentalism can also be seen as an example of the way in which Muslims are constructed as outsiders in Ireland and excluded from what it means to

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be Irish.112 Thus, one can look at the issue of allowing headscarves in schools as a question of inclusion: who are ‘we’ and who are ‘they’? In other words, ‘how do you become Irish?’113 Another issue that seems to be at stake here is Islamophobia of some sort, which has only recently received attention in Ireland.114 The parents of the teenage girl in the above-mentioned Gorey case wrote a letter to The Irish Times saying that the controversy had given rise to ‘an upsurge of anti-Muslim feeling’.115 Whatever the case may be, a consultative forum, set up by the then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in 2008, gave a joint statement on school uniform which emphasised the obligation of non-discrimination under the Equality Status and Education Act as well the requirement to promote diversity. According to Mullally and O’Donovan, the Statement suggests a recognition on the part of the State that religion will continue to play a role in Ireland’s ‘public squares’, and that the traditional sensibility displayed towards religion in public schools, will need to be expanded to take account of the increasing diversity of religious beliefs and practices within the State.116

In the long run, there are some general changes in the field of education that might and will affect Muslims also. In 2010, around 90 per cent of Irish national schools were Roman Catholic, some two hundred other Christian schools, one a Jewish school and two Muslim schools. However, there is a growing pressure in Ireland to secularise the school system so that, for instance, the patronage of the schools would no longer be primarily in the hands of the Catholic Church. The report of the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sector, set up the Minister for Education and Skills Ruairi Quinn in 2011, notes that it is unique among developed countries that 96 per cent of primary schools are under denominational patronage, as it the case in Ireland. It also says that ‘the reasons for this are deeply rooted in history and in the belief system of the population’.117 At the same time, the report also refers to the extensive social change in Irish society, whereby its population, to a growing extent, consists of people adhering to different religions or no religion at all. It was not, however, the advisory group’s duty to introduce a new design for primary schooling, but simply to look at possible adaptations to the existing system so that ‘it might achieve better balancing of rights with greater inclusivity and diversity’.118 It urged a diversification of the patronage system and that the wishes of parents in a particular locality should be taken into account.119 It remains to be seen how the patronage of schools will develop in future and what its effects will be on religious minorities such as Muslims. A further issue that touches upon Muslims is that of multi-denominational schools, whose number has steadily increased in the last twenty years or so. These schools are secular in the sense that they do not identify with any religious ethos. A new opening in this field are the so-called community primary schools, which started in 2008 and are run directly by the State. There are

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also Muslim parents who prefer multi-denominational schools, which, in their view, facilitate their children’s integration into Irish society better than Muslim schools: We wanted them [children] to be integrated. You cannot do that when there are only other Muslim children in the school. They wouldn’t see any Irish children there. We want them to get to know all kinds of Irish people, especially when they will be staying here. In the future, when they grow up and get jobs, they should have no problems. This kind of school will have a future in Ireland. Integration is everywhere.120

For some Muslim parents, success in education and future employment are more important than religious education provided by a school. Religious or not, they are Muslims for whom religion is a private matter. There are also Muslim parents who are critical of particular Muslim schools. In many European countries, Islamic schools have been objected to for very similar reasons. An oft-stated argument expressed both by members of the wider society and by Muslim communities relates to the allegedly marginalising effect of these schools. It is feared that these schools prevent the successful integration of Muslim children and hence create ghettoes, which in turn are seen as a breeding ground for religious fundamentalism.121 More research is needed on the choices that Muslim parents in Ireland make concerning their children’s education between Muslim, Christian and secular schools, and how Muslim pupils fare in and after these schools. Without a doubt, regional factors also play an important role in the opportunities Muslim parents have in their choice of school. In small towns the choice is of necessity limited. In order to gain a fuller picture of the educational field it is also necessary to pay attention to the choices that Irish parents in general tend to make. It has been noted that Catholic parents would seem to prefer schools where there are no immigrants or pupils from different cultural and religious backgrounds. In other words, the state promotes intercultural communication, while Irish parents seem to avoid it. In time, this could lead to educational segregation.122 Conclusion When examining the State’s policies and public discourses on Islam and Muslims in Ireland, one can observe parallel and perhaps at times even contradictory processes taking place in Irish society. This observation is not surprising when one takes into consideration the rapid social, cultural and economic changes that Ireland has undergone since the beginning of the 1990s. These changes occur differently in different sectors of the State and society and touch people in divergent ways. This is obvious also in relation to the governance of Islam and Muslims in Ireland, as will be summarised in the following.

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One of the main instruments of state governance is national legislation. With respect to religions and religious rights, this tends to reflect a particular relationship between church and state, whatever forms that might take. Even if it is contested, religion continues to hold an important place in the public sphere in Ireland, and the Catholic legacy, in spite of the crises that have rocked the Catholic Church, is still very visible in, for instance, the Constitution of Ireland. The Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, whereby Muslims have encountered no problems in setting up organisations in Ireland. Moreover, the denominational school system, premised on the understanding that the state supports religious communities in running schools in accordance with their particular religious ethos, has worked well for Muslims, who run two national schools in Dublin. However, putting the letter of law into practice is far from simple. As an example, one can mention the above-mentioned Muslim National Schools, which are a target of external and internal governance, engaging various actors with different and at times even contradictory persuasions. On the one hand, the Muslim National Schools are managed by non-Muslim principals, and the overall Irish curriculum is taught by non-Muslim teachers. On the other, the schools are directed under Muslim patronage and by the board of management, most of whose members are Muslims and who are in charge of defining the religious ethos and outlining different policies concerning pupils at the school. At present, both Muslim National Schools function well on a day-to-day basis. At the same time, running these schools is fraught with tensions, which are due very much to conflicting views among Muslims themselves concerning the right way to govern these schools. Muslims in Ireland are socially, ethnically and religiously very heterogeneous, and so are their visions of the kind of Islam that should be professed in Ireland. In consequence, the internal governance of the Muslim National Schools becomes a platform where different, and at times conflicting, aspirations are negotiated. With respect to these tensions, Muslim National Schools are a very illuminating example of the way in which religious freedom, guaranteed by the law, can in practice be a very complicated issue. In addition to being a target of internal governance, Muslim National Schools are also a target of external governance. As state-funded schools, they are under state surveillance, in which the main tools of control are the Whole School Reports made by the Department of Education and Skills. These reports evaluate the schools in accordance with the educational policies of the Irish state and make recommendations concerning their internal management and governance. However, in addition to the State, the media also plays an important role in the assessment of these schools in giving a platform to critics of the schools and providing coverage of problems from which they might suffer. As a consequence of media involvement, running Muslim National Schools has become a public issue, involving diverse actors in Irish society. In the process, the rights of religious minorities, and even the role of religion in Irish society at large, have become contested.

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Another important area of government policies that touch upon religious minorities, such as Muslims, concerns the issue of integration and intercultural relations. Several policy papers have been published in Ireland in relation to these issues in general and with respect to school education in particular. These policies notwithstanding, there are critical voices claiming that the country requires a more systematic and coherent integration policy. One can observe a shift in Irish integration policy, in accordance with a more general European trend, away from an intercultural towards a more cautious and perhaps even an assimilationist approach, with an emphasis on the neoliberal discourse of economic productivity. For example, Ireland has tightened its naturalisation policy, which is felt especially by the Muslims who come to Ireland as refugees and who do not have the same educational and professional background as the previous generations of Muslims. Moreover, debates that at times have erupted about the wearing of the Islamic headscarf in schools have attracted fairly clamant voices demanding that newcomers to Ireland, Muslims included, should ‘live in Ireland as the Irish do’. It seems that, as elsewhere in Europe, the increased numbers and visibility of Muslims in some cases invoke negative reactions, for instance in response to the construction of new mosques in different cities of Ireland. Even if Muslims have, in the main, settled down well in Irish society and enjoy the goodwill of the Irish state, they certainly test the limits of Irish people’s tolerance of difference and are still far from being accepted as an integral part of Ireland. Notes 1. This chapter is enlarged and revised of Tuula Sakaranaho, Religious Freedom, Multiculturalism, Islam: Cross-reading Finland and Ireland (Leiden: Brill, 2006), pp. 184−191, 383−408 and Tuula Sakaranaho, ‘For God and Eternal Values: Muslim National Schools in Ireland’, in Ednan Aslan (ed.), Islamische Erziehung in Europa. Islamic Education in Europe (Vienna: Böhlau, 2009), pp. 203–18. 2. Claire Hogan, ‘Accommodating Islam in the Denominational Irish Education System: Religious Freedom and Education in the Republic of Ireland’, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 31:4, 2011, pp. 554–73. 3. See John Murray and John Carr, ‘Is denominational education suitable for 21st century Ireland?’ The Irish Times, 7 April 2008, p. 12. 4. James Casey, Constitutional Law in Ireland, 3rd edn (Dublin: Round Hall Sweet & Maxwell, 2000), p. 612; John Henry Whyte, Church & State in Modern Ireland, 1923–1979 (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1980), p. 52. 5. Enda McDonagh, ‘Philosophical-Theological Reflections on the Constitution’, in Frank Litton (ed.), Constitution of Ireland 1937–1987 (Dublin: Institute of Public Administration, 1988), p. 200. 6. Whyte, Church & State, p. 52. Against this background it is no surprise that disputes over the religious upbringing of children have also reached the Irish courts. This has particularly been the case with respect to mixed marriages between Catholics and Protestants. The policy of the Catholic Church in these

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7.

8. 9. 10.

11.

12. 13. 14.

15.

16. 17.

18. 19. 20.

21. 22. 23. 24.

Muslims in Ireland cases has been that parents in mixed marriage guarantee the Catholic upbringing of their children. Casey, Constitutional Law, p. 612. According to some estimates, around 95 per cent of the primary education provided in ‘national schools’ is state-supported. Casey, Constitutional Law, p. 656. Ibid., p. 655. See Whyte, Church & State, p. 21. The criteria for eligibility for funding, as well as the qualifications of teachers at primary school level, are set out in Rules for National Schools under the Department of Education (Dublin: Government Publications, 1965). However, since the adoption of the Education Act in 1998, the Minister for Education has had a right to make regulations concerning the qualifications of teachers. See Eoin G. Cassidy, ‘Modernity and Religion in Ireland: 1980–2000’, in Eoin G. Cassidy (ed.), Measuring Ireland: Discerning Values and Beliefs (Dublin: Veritas, 2002), pp. 17–45; Casey, Constitutional Law, p. 655. The Education Minister Ruairi Quinn announced in March 2014 that four new Educate Together schools were to start the following September. See ‘New multi-denominational schools to open – Quinn’, Irish Government News Service: MerrionStreet.ie. Available at http://www.merrionstreet.ie/index.php/2014/ 03/new-multi-denominational-schools-to-open-quinn/?cat=7 (last accessed 20 March 2014). Hogan, ‘Accommodating Islam’, p. 559. Casey, Constitutional Law, p. 655; see also Hogan, ‘Accommodating Islam’, p. 55. Kenneth Milne, ‘The Protestant Churches in Independent Ireland’, in James P. Mackey and Enda McDonagh, Religion and Politics in Ireland at the Turn of the Millennium (Dublin: The Columbia Press, 2003), pp. 64–83. See Brigitte Maréchal, ‘Modalities of Islamic Instruction’, in Brigitte Maréchal et al., Muslims in the Enlarged Europe: Religion and Society (Leiden: Brill, 2003), pp. 50–1. Muslim National School. Available at http://muslimns.scoilnet.ie/blog/ (last accessed 19 April 2013). Ibid.; Islamic Foundation of Ireland: Education. Available at http://islaminireland.com/education/the-muslim-national-school/(last accessed 19 April 2013); see also Sakaranaho, Religious Freedom, p. 385. Rules for National Schools, p. 9. Ibid., p. 16. Muslim National School; Islamic Foundation of Ireland: Education; Sakaranaho, Religious Freedom, p. 386; Siraj Zaidi, ‘The growth and development of Muslims and Islam in Ireland’, The Friday Times, 1, 2003. Islamic Foundation of Ireland Info, The Muslim National School, 1993, unpublished document; see also Sakaranaho, Religious Freedom, p. 386. Muslim National School; Sakaranaho, Religious Freedom, pp. 386–7. Ibid., pp. 386–7. Muslim National School.

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30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38.

39. 40.

41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49.

50. 51.

52. 53.

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Peter Thompson, ‘Where the twain do meet’, The Irish Times, 4 May 1993, p. 14. Sakaranaho, Religious Freedom, p. 387. Ibid., 390. North Dublin Muslim National School. Available at http://northdublinmuslimnationalschool.scoilnet.ie/blog/ (last accessed 16 April 2013). Sakaranaho, Religious Freedom, p. 388; ‘Islam in Dublin. Islam and Muslims in Ireland’. Available at http://www.muslimtents.com/islamindublin/ireland. htm (last accessed 15 February 2013). Muslim National School. Ibid. Maréchal, ‘Modalities of Islamic Instruction’, p. 52. Sakaranaho, Religious Freedom, p. 389. Ibid., p. 389. Ibid., p. 391. Ibid., p. 390. Ibid., pp. 395–7, 398–9, 401. Adelina Campos, ‘City’s Muslim school is eyeing up new site as waiting list swells’, Herald.ie, 25 August 2010. Available at http://www.herald.ie/news/ citys-muslim-school-is-eyeing-up-new-site-as-waiting-list-swells-27960226. html (last accessed 19 April 2013). Sakaranaho, Religious Freedom, pp. 388–99. Whole School Evaluation Report (WSER), Muslim NS, Clonskeagh, Dublin 14, Uimhir rolla: 19949B, Date of inspection: 11 October 2010 (Dublin: Department of Education and Skills, 2011). For figures for the previous decades, see Sakaranaho, Religious Freedom, pp. 389–95. Maréchal, ‘Modalities of Islamic Instruction’, p. 37. In order to enter one of the national universities in Ireland one must have a grade in Irish. Sakaranaho, Religious Freedom, pp. 396–7. North Dublin Muslim School. See Sakaranaho, Religious Freedom, pp. 397. Muslim National School. Sakaranaho, Religious Freedom, p. 393. Ibid., pp. 393–4. After 11 September 2001, the Muslim National School tightened its security so that the gates leading to the school were locked, and, therefore one needs to enter the school area through the main gate of the ICCI, which is equipped with cameras. Sakaranaho, Religious Freedom, pp. 393–4. See Primary School Curriculum. Available at http://www.curriculumonline. ie/en/Primary_School_Curriculum (last accessed 19 April 2013); see also North Dublin Muslim National School: Our curriculum. Available at http://north dublinmuslimnationalschool.scoilnet.ie/blog/ (last accessed 19 April 2013). See North Dublin Muslim School. Ibid.

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61. 62. 63. 64.

65. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70. 71. 72.

73. 74.

75. 76. 77. 78.

79.

Muslims in Ireland Muslim National School. Ibid. Sakaranaho, Religious Freedom, pp. 398−9. See Natalie Rougier, ‘The hijab in the Denominational Irish Education System – Tolerated or Accepted?’, Education Inquiry, 4:1, 2013, pp. 149−66. Sakaranaho, Religious Freedom, p. 400. Maréchal, ‘Modalities of Islamic Instruction’, p. 49. Seán Cottrell, ‘Challenge of School Management’, International Confederation of Principals. (IPPN: IPPN Publications, 2008). Available at http://www. icponline.org/index.php/news-mainmenu-51/276-challenges-of-school-man agement-sean-cottrell-ippn-director (last accessed June 5, 2013). Ibid. Rules for National Schools, p. 9. See Cottrell, ‘Challenge of School Management’. There was previously controversy about releasing the former school reports known as Tuairsicí scoile. Available at http://www.skoool.ie/skoool/parents. asp?id=2046 (last accessed 5 June 2013). Whole School Evaluation (WSE) (Dublin: INTO Education Committee 2009), p. 5. Whole School Evaluation Report (WSER): The Muslim NS, Roll number 19949B, (Dublin: Department of Education and Science, 2005), p. 10. Currently Department of Education and Skills. WSER: Muslim NS 2005, pp. 3, 10. Ibid., pp. 3; 5. Ibid., p. 2. Ibid., pp. 2, 10. The Islamic Foundation of Ireland: Statement in response to Joe Duffy’s Liveline show on the subject of Muslim schools. Available at http://dialogueireland. files.wordpress.com/2009/12/statement-in-response-to-joe-duffy-show-on-th e-subject-of-muslim-schools.pdf (last accessed June 5, 2013). Islamic Foundation of Ireland, October 2009, unpublished letter. Author’s interview with Principal Colm McGlade, 21 October 2009. Catherine Reilly, ‘Muslim school fights back – Principal claims criticism of teaching standards is “politically motivated”’, Metro Éireann, 22 October 2009, p. 1. Personal communication with Colm McGlade. Reilly, ‘Muslim school’. Personal communication with Colm McGlade. See Kim Bielenberg, ‘Why I’m so proud of our Muslim school: Dublin principal highlights its academic and sporting success’, Irish Independent, 17 Monday June 2013. Available at http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/education/ why-im-so-proud-of-our-muslim-school-26546007.html (last accessed 17 June 2013). Whole School Evaluation Report: North Dublin Muslim NS, Uimhir rolla: 20152L, (Dublin: Department of Education and Science, 2009).

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80. See, for instance, Seán Flynn, ‘Department delivers scathing report on Dublin Muslim school’, The Irish Times, 18 June 2009, p. 6. 81. WSER: North Dublin Muslim NS 2009. 82. Ibid. 83. The Islamic Foundation of Ireland: Statement Re North Dublin Muslim National School. Available at http://muslimschoolsireland.blogspot.fi/2009_06_01_ archive.html (last accessed 17 June 2013). 84. The Islamic Foundation of Ireland: Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary School (Submissions on Behalf of the Islamic Foundation of Ireland, 29 November 2011). Available at http://www.education.ie/en/ Press-Events/Conferences/Patronage-and-Pluralism-in-the-Primary-Sector/Pa tronage-Forum-Submissions-November-2011-/fpp_islamic_foundation_irela nd_17nov2011.pdf (last accessed 5 June 2013). 85. See WSER: Muslim NS 2010; Whole School Evaluation Report. Muslim NS, Uimhir rolla: 20152L (Dublin: Department of Education and Skills, 2012). 86. North Dublin Muslim School. 87. Muslim Primary Education Board (MPEB). Available at http://www.mus limeducation.ie/ (last accessed 17 June 2013). 88. Sakaranaho, Religious Freedom, p. 417. 89. Donal O’Loingsigh, ‘Intercultural education and the school ethos’, in Fintan Farrell et al. (eds), Responding to Racism in Ireland (Dublin: Veritas, 2001), p. 116. 90. Rougier, ‘The hijab’, p. 151. 91. Paul Cullen, ‘Classroom revolution: the changing ethnic mix in our schools’, The Irish Times, 12 April 2005, p. 13. 92. Ibid. 93. O’Loingsigh, ‘Intercultural education’, p. 116. 94. See Patsy McGarry, ‘Muslims wishing to practice should be facilitated – Imam’, The Irish Times, 18 October 2000, p. 4. 95. Mary Fitzgerald, ‘“The hijab is a religious requirement for all Muslim ladies who have reached puberty”’, The Irish Times, 20 May 2008, p. 3; Rougier, ‘The hijab’, p. 151; Siobhán Mullally and Darren O’Donovan, ‘Religion in Ireland’s “Public Squares”: Education, the Family and Expanding Equality Claims’, Public Law, April 2011, pp. 296−300. 96. Ruadhán Mac Cormaic, ‘Principal calls for guidelines on wearing hijab in schools’, The Irish Times, 19 May 2008, p. 1. 97. Ruadhán Mac Cormaic, ‘O’Keeffe says review will look at hijab policy’, The Irish Times, 20 May 2008, p. 3. 98. Patsy McGarry, ‘No directive for schools on use of Islamic scarf’, The Irish Times, 15 August 2008, p. 1. 99. Report on the Need for a Guidance Note to Schools when Reviewing their Policies on School Uniforms: School Development Planning Initiative (Dublin: Department of Education and Science, 2008). Available at http://www.sdpi.ie/other_des_ publications.html (last accessed 8 January 2013). 100. Hogan, ‘Accommodating Islam’, pp. 556–7.

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101. Mac Cormaic, ‘Hijab policy’, p. 3; Hogan, ‘Accommodating Islam’, p. 557. 102. Breda O’Brien, ‘It is better to avoid making hijab a major issue’, The Irish Times, 31 May 2008, p. 14. 103. See Shaun Connolly, ‘Quinn refuses to intervene in veil ban’, Irish Examiner, 16 August 2013. Available at http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/quinnrefuses-to-intervene-in-veil-ban-240039.html (last accessed 20 January 2014). 104. Harry McGee, ‘Quinn supports integration after U-turn on multiculturalism’, The Irish Times, 3 June 2008, p. 7. 105. Patricia McDonagh, ‘Muslim anger at opposition call for school ban on hijab’, Irish Independent, 2 June 2008 Available at http://www.independent.ie/irishnews/muslim-anger-at-opposition-calls-for-school-ban-on-hijab-26451464. html (last accessed 24 March 2014); Rougier, ‘The hijab’, pp. 155–6. 106. See Mullally and O’Donovan, ‘Religion in Ireland’s “Public Squares”’, p. 297; see also Oliver Scharbrodt, ‘From Irish Exceptionalism to European Normality? The New Islamic Presence in the Republic of Ireland’, Études Irlandaises, 39, 2014 (forthcoming). 107. Fitzgerald, ‘The hijab’. 108. McDonagh, ‘Muslim anger’; Iseult Honohan and Natalie Rogier, ‘Tolerance and Cultural Diversity in Ireland: Concepts and Practices’, Accept Pluralism Working Paper 2012/22 (Florence: European University Institute, 2012), p. 64. Available at https://www.academia.edu/2079916/Tolerance_and_Cultural_diversity_in_ Ireland_Concepts_and_Practices (last accessed 21 January 2013); Rougier, ‘The hijab’, pp. 155−6. 109. Carl O’Brien, ‘Pupil’s right to wear hijab is backed by almost half surveyed’, The Irish Times, 9 June 2008, p. 1; Rougier, ’The hijab’, p. 156. 110. Rougier, ’The hijab’, p. 156. 111. Ibid. 112. See James Carr and Amanda Haynes, ‘Clash of Racialisations: The Policing of “Race” and Anti-Muslim Racism in Ireland’, Critical Sociology, July 2013, as doi: 10.1177/0896920513492805. 113. Rougier, ‘The hijab’, p. 161. 114. See James Carr, ‘Regulating Islamophobia: The Need for Collecting Disaggregated Data on Racism in Ireland’, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 31:4, 2011, pp. 574–93; Carr and Haynes, ‘Clash of Racialisations’. 115. Fitzgerald, ‘The hijab’. 116. Mullally and O’Donovan, ‘Religion in Ireland’s “Public Squares”’, pp. 298–9. 117. John Coolahan et al., The Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sector: Report of the Forum’s Advisory Group, 2012, p. 1. 118. Ibid., p. 7. 119. Ibid. 120. Rosita Boland, ‘Keeping religion at home’, The Irish Times, 31 August 2005, p. 11. 121. Bo Johansson, ’Islamiska friskolor – lyckad intergration eller hot mot mångfalden’, in Ingvar Svanberg et al. (eds), Blågul Islam? Muslimer i Sverige (Nora: Bokförlaget Nya Doxa, 1999), pp. 184–5; 188−9; Saphinaz-Amal Naguib, ‘The

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Northern Way: Muslim Communities in Norway’, in Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad et al. (eds), Muslim Minorities in the West: Visible and Invisible (Walnut Creek: Altamira Press, 2002), p. 164; Kari Vogt, ‘Integration through Islam? Muslims in Norway’, in Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad (ed.), Muslims in the West: From Sojourners to Citizens (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 98. 122. Rougier, ‘The hijab’, pp. 161, 163.

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8 Muslim Women in Ireland Yafa Shanneik

Introduction This chapter provides an overview of the diversity of the Muslim women’s presence in Ireland by analysing the narratives of over one hundred Irish women converts to Islam and of Sunni and Shia Muslim women migrants coming from Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Sudan and Iraq. The socio-economic, educational and residential status in Ireland of these women, as well as their political orientations, are as diverse as their religious affiliations and understandings of Islam. The research material in this chapter involves several in-depth interviews, numerous focus group discussions and participant observations with women in their homes, as well as during their visits to various mosques or religious centres in different parts of Ireland including Dublin, Cork and Limerick. This fieldwork research spanned the period between September 2009 and December 2013. While the ethnographic material presented here merely provides a snapshot of diverse Muslim women’s lives in Ireland, this chapter illustrates the various factors and dynamics impacting on their identity-formations and discusses ‘real-life’ Islam as practised and understood by these women. Despite the diverse backgrounds of the women interviewed here, all share what Cohen refers to as the fragmentation and multiplication of identities.1 Werbner talks in this context about complex or segmented diasporas or identities, in which the ‘borders are porous, their identities multiple, intersecting and in constant flux, shifting situationally’.2 In the women’s accounts, one can observe a constant negotiation of their multiple identities in Europe that shift between religious, (trans)national, ethnic and/or cultural identities. These multiple identities3 are emphasised in their narratives, highlighting the need these women have to belong to a specific community in order to feel secure and protected. The women’s fragmented and multiple identities increase their ‘homing desire’,4 to use Brah’s term, which refers to people’s [ 193 ]

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yearning for belonging and for feeling at home. This ‘homing desire’ is not necessarily related to a specific geographical location,5 but rather to a desire to belong to a particular religious, national, ethnic, cultural and/or ‘imagined’ community.6 For many of these women, religion in all sorts of forms and ideological understandings has proven to be useful in this regard, mirroring Vasquez’s argument that ‘religion helps immigrants imagine their homelands in diaspora and inscribe their memories and worldviews into the physical landscape and built environment’.7 McLoughlin adds that ‘the power of religions resides in their mythic, symbolic and ritual resources to narrate the idealized fictions and abstracted unities which seek to emphasize stability over flux and secure continuity through time and across space’.8 The women in this study generally engage in what I term ‘religio-cultural home-making’ in which they use a particular understanding of religion and/or culture to create alternative allegiances and places of belonging9 to reach stability and security within their ‘multi-localit[ies]’10 in Europe. This chapter examines this religious or cultural home-making among Sunni, Shii and convert women in Ireland expressed through their various discourses, practices and memories.11 Irish Women Converts to Islam Two generations of Irish women converts to Islam with different conversion narratives were identified that reflect Ireland’s socio-religious and economic context as well as the demographic changes in Irish society since the 1980s. The conversion experiences as recalled by the women differ in terms of how they encountered Islam and the types of Islam to which they ultimately converted. Irish women converts dwell between multiple identities, expressed through their various life stages and understandings of religion in general. The first generation of Irish women converts experimented with various identities prior to their conversion to Islam.12 In the 1970s and 1980s, alternative scenes such as the hippy, the hard rock or the Gothic gained popularity in Ireland as part of an emergent ‘counter-culture’.13 Many people, among them the women converts interviewed for this study, entered these scenes, experimented with other lifestyles and engaged in various religious, ideological and political understandings.14 Some also converted to other religions such as Buddhism as they were attracted to its spiritual and mystical practices. They went to the mountains in West Cork, dressed up in Asian attire, read literature on Buddhist meditation techniques and practised them with others. These women felt suffocated by the Catholic Church’s control15 in their upbringing and thought that by joining the alternative scene they would escape social and religious constraints. As one of the women explains: ‘No formalities. No one tells you how a good girl should behave or “this is not appropriate” [laughing]. Everything was allowed.’ Another woman describes her feelings about being in the mountains in West Cork as follows:

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‘I felt of being in a different world, living like wolves, sleeping outside by the fire, dancing around, meditating, drinking and having sex. That was life. That was freedom. That was happiness.’ The women’s first encounter with Islam was through male Muslims coming mainly from South Asia and Africa, who they usually met at their workplace, as one of the converts explains: I worked in a food shop owned by a person from Pakistan. I was the only women and the only Irish in the shop. All the others were from Pakistan or from Nigeria. It was great. I never ever saw a black person in my life before and now I am surrounded by them.

The majority of the converts were eager to know more about foreigners, their lives, habits, traditions and religions. They therefore joined the men’s communities, and many felt that in doing so they belonged to a visibly ‘different’ community. The attachment to and fascination with Islam expressed by the Irish converts at this stage reflects their search for an alternative lifestyle, similar to their initial involvement in the alternative scene; it serves as an instrument with which to oppose their former Catholic social milieux. These women perceived Islam and Muslims to be the expression of an ‘Oriental’, mysterious and fascinating ‘Other’ which they romanticised and idealised. The women’s affiliation to a religious community was at this stage a means of belonging to a perceived different community. Later, however, especially after meeting some other Irish women converts who thought of converting to Islam, they became more seriously engaged with Islam and started to search for ‘the right path to Allah’. As one of the converts explains, ‘We were left alone in our search for the truth’. Mosques were not very well-established at that time in Ireland. In many places at the beginning of the 1990s, mosques were only prayer rooms, with no women’s section. Therefore, the converts did not have a real encounter with female Muslim migrants born and raised in this religion and had to look for answers themselves. As one of the converts explains: ‘At the end of the 1980s there was no Internet or the like. Therefore, we had to read the few books that were in the mosque.’16 These books were inexpensive booklets written in a very simple and accessible style for a lay audience, with titles like The Good Muslim or Obligations and Rights of a Good Muslim Wife. This literature is full of Salafi references, mainly the interpretations of the former Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Bin Baz (d. 1999), or others such as Abdullah Al-Salih Al-Uthaymin or Muhammad Al-Albani. These booklets were brought over mainly from the UK, as one of the converts explains: ‘We asked people coming from the UK to bring with them some literature, which was often donated by the Saudi Arabian embassy in London.’ Another convert adds: ‘They were nice and easy. Even I could understand them [laughing].’ The converts searched for answers to everyday questions: ‘I wanted to know how to wake up, how to dress, how to act with my husband, how to cook, how

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to think. I wanted to know everything that I need to do in order to be a good Muslim.’ The women believe that this pre-set plan of life guarantees the correctness of their chosen identity. Olivier Roy observes this among Salafis in general, whose entire life and everyday activities are sacralised and need to follow Islamic practice.17 Irish women converts prefer a religion that monitors and sacralises their everyday activities. Converting to a Salafi understanding of Islam serves the women very well, as this type of Islam is transnational and de-cultural. It emphasises strict adherence to religious instructions based on religious texts and less on traditional interpretations. The converts therefore argue against an institutionalised, culturally oriented and socially controlled understanding of religion. In contrast, they highlight their Irish national belonging, refusing to recognise any cultural elements in their Islamic religiosity. The Salafi type of Islam these converts have adopted claims a clear separation between religion and culture. It allows them, therefore, to maintain their Irish national identity after having become Muslim. This is very important for these women, as they emphasise their conversion to a religion, not to a culture. Many Irish women converts I interviewed and visited in their homes emphasise their Irishness, displaying an Irish certificate of family heritage next to a framed Qur’anic verse in the living room for everyone to see. One of the women I interviewed says: ‘Look at me and listen to me . . . I look Irish, I speak as an Irish . . . I am Irish.’ These women do not discard their national identity,18 but question, however, the nationalist project of a homogeneous Irishness by adding a new non-Catholic religious identity to it. In regarding themselves as Irish and Muslim at the same time, these women challenge existing notions of Irishness understood in terms of being white and Catholic. These Salafi converts in particular emphasise their double marginality in Irish society. The women feel themselves to be in a quasi-diasporic state in relation to their own country because of their rejection of the Catholic model and their conversion to Islam: ‘We [converts] are not different than Muslim migrants who came to Ireland and live far away from their families. When I converted to Islam I gradually detached myself from my family and friends.’ Another convert says: ‘Yes, I am different in the way I dress and in the way I live my life but I am still the same person. My friends couldn’t deal with this situation.’ These women feel, in their new model of Irishness, not greatly accepted, and therefore feel to a certain extent displaced and alienated from their own society. As the women elaborated in their narratives, their families and friends find it difficult to accept them as Irish and Muslim at the same time. They also mentioned the challenges in finding ways to harmonise their national and religious identities. Some, for example, take part in particular religious occasions that are strongly celebrated within their Irish families, such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. They would, however, emphasise particular Islamic regulations they believe in. Some Irish Muslim mothers, for example, would insist on not giving presents to their children at Christmas but rather on observing one of the Eid celebrations. Others would bring a

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halal turkey on Thanksgiving – a turkey that has been slaughtered according to Islamic regulations. By holding onto their religious particularities they mark themselves as being different and highlight their rejection of Christian customs prevalent among Irish families. However, by taking part in these events, they emphasise their cultural and national affiliation to Ireland as their country, despite their conversion to Islam. Some Irish women converts are interested in addressing their new Irish model of being Irish and Muslim in public. One of the converts, for example, described her active engagement in supporting the campaigns of Sinn Fein, canvassing for its anti-EU platform prior to the Irish referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon in 2009. The period during which they inhabited the alternative scene expresses the women’s disagreement with their former pre-set lifestyle that had been dominated by the Catholic Church, their families and their social environment. In this scene, the women acted, felt and believed themselves to be ‘different’. These differences are visibly articulated through their bodies. The body acts both as a symbol of difference and at the same time as a medium of empowerment and control. This control is shown by shaping the body in a way that runs counter to the norms and values of the Catholic context. Covering the body with a hijab or, in the case of a very few converts, the niqab is like tattooing, an expression of being different. The first generation of Irish women converts are in general very keen on constructing a new identity that is Irish and Muslim at the same time. The second generation of Irish women converts has a different experience of conversion.19 According to their narratives, they were in general overwhelmed by the rapid socio-economic changes that took place in their society during Ireland’s economic boom in the Celtic Tiger period in the 1990s. They highlight in particular a perceived religious and moral decline in Irish society and their dissociation from its increasing secularisation. These women argue that in the past the Catholic Church used to play a dominant and controlling role in Irish society, but that today Christianity has lost its spiritual capacity to lead people in a secular environment. They criticise Christian churches for compromising too much with the demands of modern life.20 The women describe their pre-conversion period as one in which they felt ‘lost’ and ‘not belonging’ to the larger social context because of its religious and moral decline. This decline of moral values within Western societies is contrasted with an idealised vision of Islamic ethics and ways of life.21 Religion can be one alternative social space in which individuals, in particular women, are able to find their position and role in society.22 The construction of an idealised space within a Muslim/ethnic community that appears to the women a ‘perfect system’23 functions as a form of compensation for their lack of adaptation to a fast-changing and consumerist lifestyle. The types of Islam women of the second generation of converts have embraced are very diverse.24 However, they all have in common that their conversion can be seen as a kind of response to the dislocating effects of the Celtic Tiger transformations, offering an alternative religious and/or cultural space in which

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they hope to find recognition and self-fulfilment. These women represent an example of an ongoing phenomenon in Europe, in which women in particular search for religious alternatives that offer them spaces for self-fulfilment in a globalised and secularised age.25 Irish women converts to Islam are very active within their Muslim communities, especially in their engagement in proselytising (da‘wa), particularly among other Irish women.26 As minorities within the Muslim communities and recent converts themselves, many Irish women converts are keen to increase their numbers. New members are welcomed and very well looked after. In the mosque, as the women describe, they felt important. They express a sense of a rapid belonging to a community and to an ersatz family. As one of the women explains: ‘It was as if we were a family. Especially the other Irish women in the group were very polite and interested in me.’ Another woman says: ‘Everyone was curious to know more about me and my life. I never thought that my life would interest anyone. It suddenly became important. I became important.’ The women felt their world-views were understood by the other Irish converts. They talk frequently about the ‘fallen world’ and the moral decline of Irish society. One of the women says: ‘These sisters understood me. They know what I am talking about. They see how our society is falling. They disagree with this as well.’ These women were able to find a place within their new communities that provided them with a feeling of belonging and stability. The majority of the women I interviewed have converted to a Salafi understanding of Islam. Some, however, would emphasise their affiliation to ethno-cultural groups such as the Sudanese or the Pakistani, which tend to be more relaxed about integrating specific cultural practices in an Islamic framework. The women’s cultural home-making is expressed through cultural practices in form of rhetoric and modes of expressions, daily rituals or appearances. These women mimic the way Sudanese or Pakistani women speak by speaking English in an Arabic or Urdu accent, even when talking to other Irish women outside their Pakistani or Sudanese communities. They mimic the rhythm and sound of Arabic or Urdu while speaking English as one of the women says: ‘You see I’m not Irish any more. Even the way I talk is not Irish or English either. I speak English as the others would speak as well.’ By speaking English with a Sudanese or Urdu accent the women dissociate themselves from mainstream Irish society, building boundaries through language – or to be more precise, through the sound of the language. The women’s dissociation from Irish society plays a role in their search for an alternative space within an ethno-cultural community they feel they belong to. These Irish women converts have not only changed their way of talking but also the way they dress. Some of them wear a Serwal Kameez (an Indian-style dress with a long top over trousers) in their everyday lives. One of the women explains: ‘I love these clothes. They make me part of the community, they make me different.’ Another woman says: ‘With these clothes I am not Irish any more, I am Pakistani [laughing].’ Like changing their accent

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while speaking English, wearing Pakistani clothes in their everyday lives expresses their desire to detach themselves from mainstream Irish society, emphasising their feeling of belonging to a different ethnic group: ‘All the women wear such clothes when they go out, when they meet together. They are always like that. It’s part of their identity and it’s part of my identity now as well.’ Other women wear the very colourful traditional Sudanese long gown (thowb), not only in their community meetings but also outside them. In addition to the dress, the women apply henna in a particular Sudanese style. By doing this they believe they express one of the important aspects of Sudanese culture: ‘You aren’t a proper Sudanese without henna.’ These women believe they need to discard their Irishness in order to become ‘authentic’ members of Sudanese or Pakistani minorities in Ireland. One of the converts affiliated to a Sudanese group explains: ‘I don’t want to be recognised as Irish. I am different. I am exceptional. I am the blonde woman in the red and orange thowb.’ By looking, behaving, acting and speaking like a Sudanese or Pakistani these women express their affiliation to a different culture. By adapting particular cultural elements and ethnic behaviours and practices, the women try to find acceptance within these ethnic communities. The homing desire of Irish women converts can be observed through their multiple identities, that range from a national Irish and/or Muslim and/ or other ethnic and/or cultural identities. Their attitude towards Irishness varies. Some question a model of Irishness as being white and Catholic by adding the Muslim element. Others, however, reject their Irishness completely and try as much as possible to adopt the cultural elements of another ethnic group. The body often becomes an important instrument with which to express difference. Covering the body with a hijab or niqab, speaking English with an Arabic or Urdu accent, applying henna, wearing a Serwal Kameez or a traditional Sudanese thowb – all are public expressions marking difference in opposition to mainstream notions of Irish identity. Migrant Muslim Women in Ireland This section focuses on Arab-Muslim migrant women from Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Sudan and Iraq. These women not only belong to different nationalities, they are also highly diverse in terms of their ideological and sectarian orientations and socio-economic backgrounds. In the following, I will illustrate how these women engage in ‘religio-cultural home-making’ in which they use a particular understanding of religion and/or culture to create alternative allegiances and places of belonging. Algerian Salafi Women27 The Algerian women I interviewed were part of the Islamic Salvation Front movement (Front Islamique du Salut (FIS)), which was established in the late 1980s as a reaction against the secular Francophone postcolonial elite that

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Algerians consider to have oppressed Algerian national, ethnic, religious and linguistic identity. The FIS party fought for the recognition of Islam as the official religion and Arabness and Berberness as essential aspects of Algerian identity. After several electoral successes by the party in the early 1990s, the situation escalated between FIS members and sympathisers and the Government, which led to a civil war in the early and mid-1990s.28 In 1997, a ceasefire was declared and the FIS party was dissolved. FIS activists were jailed or took refuge in European countries such as Ireland.29 I was able to interview a number of these refugees, who in the meanwhile had acquired Irish citizenship. Irish society, being largely Christian, is considered to pose a threat to Algerian Muslim identity in the same way that French colonialism did in the past. The loss of culture, country and Arab-Islamic history through French colonialism and Western imperialism is compensated for by these women through the creation of a global Islamic umma that manifests itself through a Salafist understanding of Islam. The women’s ‘homing desire’ is expressed through their belonging to an imagined global Islamic community, al-umma al-islamiyya. This belonging is placed in contrast to the Irish Catholic mainstream, developing a counter-discourse expressed through the classical division of the world into dar al-Islam (the land of Islam) and dar al-harb/al-kufr (the land of war or disbelief). The women regard Irish society as kuffar, ‘infidels’, and feel a ‘threat’ – as they call it – to their national, ethnic, cultural and religious identities in Ireland. They locate themselves in a religious, national and historical narrative that supports their construction of a world of us and them. Different from other Algerian and Muslim groups in Ireland, these women insist on ‘othering’ themselves as the example regarding schools below will illustrate. They highlight their religious, cultural and ethnic differences30 in order to feel secure and protected.31 As Chapter 7 of this book has described, there are two Muslim schools in Dublin: the North Dublin Muslim School and the Muslim National School in Clonskeagh. The majority of the Algerian Salafi women I interviewed do not send their children to either of these two schools because of the lack of Muslim teachers and principals there: ‘How can we send our children to a socalled Muslim school when the principal is a kafir [infidel]?’ By sending their children to a Catholic school they believe they can draw clear lines of distinction between who is who: ‘We just tell our children that we are Muslims and they are kuffar. We will go to Paradise and they will go to Hell.’ The children go to the mosque every day after school for a couple of hours to learn Qur’anic verses by heart and to ‘know who their people are’. Their friends are limited to other Muslim pupils at school or to other Muslim children they meet during afternoon school at the mosque: My children need to know that they are Arabs and Muslims. We are different. We are not Irish or Catholic. We are going to Paradise. Allah loves my children because they are Muslims and they fear Allah not like the kuffar out there.

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Religious home-making among Algerian Muslim Salafi women is based on setting boundaries and determining who is and is not part of this religious home: ‘It constructs collective identity and, concomitantly, imagines degrees of social distance.’32 The Algerian Salafi-oriented women use religion to map religious space through religious rhetoric33 which, for example, relies on startling and frightening children in order to maintain boundaries. If children make friendships with Irish children at school they will be told: ‘These are kuffar. It is as if you are making friendship[s] with the devil and you don’t want to be the devil’s friend, do you, my dear?’ The mothers have to safeguard these boundaries in the family and among their children between who is a kafir and who is not: ‘Allah will judge me on the Day of Judgement after all . . . Allah gave me as a mother the responsibility to raise good Muslim children who fear Allah, glory be to him.’ Another woman adds: ‘Everything must be under my control because I will be the one who will stand in front of Allah on the Day of Judgement. I will be punished. I am the mother.’ Another woman highlights the challenge of raising ‘good Muslim children’ in the West as follows: Our task is even harder than any other one. Back in Algeria they don’t face the same problems as we do here in the West. It is harder for us here because our children are surrounded by evil and forbidden things [munkarat wa-muharramat].

The Algerian women interviewed here dwell between various identifications: On the one hand, they create a counter-discourse of a Salafi-oriented lifestyle against an Irish Catholic way of life, highlighting the religious and moral superiority of the former and justifying it with eschatological connotations of reward and punishment in the afterlife. Salafi-oriented Algerian women feel an indirect interference in their Islamic religiosity in Ireland because of the Catholic presence in public life that affects them and their children on a daily basis: ‘Wherever we go we see their Jesus, in schools, in hospitals, just everywhere.’ Salafi women consider themselves and their children in particular to be under constant pressure and feel the influence of the Catholic ethos around them. Children praying several times a day at school, going to Mass on a regular basis, people on the bus crossing themselves whenever they pass by a church – all these practices are noticed by Muslim migrant children, and require their parents to constantly remind their children of being different. Therefore, Salafi-oriented Muslims in the diaspora in Ireland are not so much challenged by secularism, as in most other European countries, but by a much larger ‘threat’ – in their view, Islam in Ireland is challenged by Catholicism and its ubiquitous public manifestations. On the other hand, they regard the diaspora as a place for purifying Islam from any cultural influences, particularly through the learning of classical Arabic as opposed to the cultural and political influences of their countries of origin. They regard Algeria as ‘not Islamic enough’, particularly with regard to the language. In the ‘country of kuffar’ the Algerian children are able to

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learn classical Arabic – the language of the Qur’an – whereas in Algeria, as one of the women explains, ‘there is no real Arabic language any more. Our language got torn into pieces and became a mixture of Berber, French and Arabic.’ This language, ruptured through colonialism, is not present in Ireland, since the different religious classes in the mosques are mixed, with children coming from various Arab as well as other Muslim countries. The language that is used and taught is classical Arabic. In their opinion, such quality of language cannot be achieved in Algeria: ‘When going back to Algeria I am proud of my children and their ability to speak fusha [classical Arabic] better than the other children there who are lost between different languages.’ While they regard Ireland as a country of kufr (disbelief), Ireland as a diasporic space still offers for them certain opportunities. Their children being able to learn and speak an Arabic ‘purer than that spoken in Algeria’ illustrates their ambivalent attitude towards life in Ireland. A similar ambivalence is visible in their attitudes towards Algeria. The ‘homing desire’ of Salafi-oriented women becomes manifest in the construction of a space that goes beyond territorial spaces and extends national boundaries. The Salafi-oriented women define themselves in religious terms as Muslims and Salafis primarily and not in national terms as Algerians. They believe in a global Islamic umma and do not necessarily look at identities in terms of nations but more in terms of believers and unbelievers. However, one can notice an ambivalent relationship towards their natal homeland and a resulting sense of a fragmented identity: ‘We don’t know what we are any more. [They] have taken everything from us.’ The women blame the West for Algeria’s current socio-political and cultural situation, saying: ‘They [Europeans] destroyed our country, language, culture and unity. They destroyed everything, even our respect for ourselves . . . our dignity.’ Assuming a religious identity is part of a process of acquiring a safe label and idea of selfhood. This identity has to be the opposite of the identity of the forces which caused the instability and rupture of their country – the West. An Islamic identity which is regarded as the opposite pole to a Western Christian or secular orientation serves for these women as compensation for the lost country, language, culture and religion. Arab Women of the Muslim Brotherhood (Akhawat) The case is different among those women, coming from Algeria, Libya or Egypt, who are members of or sympathiser with the Muslim Brotherhood (Akhawat). They are from middle-class backgrounds and came to Ireland for educational purposes or to work as doctors, university lecturers, nurses or midwives. These women emphasise the importance of living an active life in Europe by being ‘ambassadors of Islam’, as one of the women puts it. They criticise the Salafi women’s division of the world into dar al-Islam and dar al-harb, and rather regard Irish Catholic society as ahl al-kitab (People of the Book), the Qur’anic umbrella term for Jews and Christians. The Akhawat’s

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socio-economic background and their reasons for migrating to Ireland create a different relationship between them and mainstream Irish society from that experienced by the Algerian Salafis who were forced out of their country and sought refuge in Ireland. Whereas the Akhawat regard Ireland as a country of opportunities for themselves and for their children, the Salafi women dissociate themselves from mainstream Irish society in order to protect their Islamic identity. Akhawat feel their religious identity to be secure and understood in Ireland because of its Catholic tradition. The Catholic ethos in public life reminds them of the Islamic ethos in their home countries, where religion still plays an important role in society. They associate this ethos with certain moral and ethical values that are very similar to those back home. They identify similarities between Irish and Arab culture in terms of family values and solidarity. They compare the weekly attendance at Mass on Sunday that many Irish still make with the Muslim attendance of Friday midday prayer in the mosque and see in it a familiar reflection of their own religiosity. Muslim Brotherhood supporters feel much more comfortable living in a Catholic society than living in a secular society where ‘people don’t fear God’. A saying was constantly repeated by different Muslim Brotherhood supporters: ‘Don’t fear those who fear God.’ This perception plays a central role in interpersonal relationships between Muslim Brotherhood supporters and the mainstream Irish society. Moreover, it delivers a different foundation on which relationships can be built – not on the basis of believers versus infidels, but on the notion of the ‘People of the Book’ who share a common belief in one God and a religiously grounded sense of morality. The Akhawat still feel the need to preserve their Islamic identity and transmit it to their children who are growing up in a Catholic context. Unlike the Salafi women, the Akhawat do not polarise or dichotomise society according to Muslims and non-Muslims, as they believe Christians to be of ahl al-kitab and therefore do not regard them as a threat; however, a distinction is still made, particularly with regard to belief and religious practices. The children, for example, have to follow Islamic dietary rules, which include consuming only halal meat. Children are encouraged to perform the Islamic prayer (salat) five times a day. Akhawat believe salat to be particularly important for those children who go to a Catholic school in which praying is a daily practice: ‘Catholics are very nice people and we believe in them as being of ahl al-kitab but our children still need to know that we do not pray their prayers but have our own prayers which they need to perform when they come back from school.’ The Akhawat children interviewed for this study socialise with non-Muslims and participate in recreational and sports activities with other Irish children. Diaspora provides the opportunity to reflect critically on religious and cultural understandings. This echoes Vertovec’s understanding of ‘religious diaspora consciousness’,34 in which the believer is displaced from her or his social, national and religious environment and is therefore in a position to

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engage critically with it. The Akhawat start to realise that ‘the routine habitual practice, rote learning and “blind faith”’35 are no longer adaptable in the diaspora. This critical approach is articulated by the prominent Egyptian tele-evangelist Amr Khaled,36 whom the Akhawat follow intensively, particularly after having come to Ireland. Amr Khaled is perceived critically by Salafi-oriented women, as he received religious training outside traditional religious channels or organisations. In several religious gatherings (halaqat) which I attended, he was adopted as a reference-point by the Akhawat on different religious topics through his various satellite programmes and internet sites. The Akhawat search for different interpretations of Islam that can be adopted today while still following the ‘Prophet Mohammad as a timeless role model for mankind’.37 Amr Khaled offers such an understanding of religion, which is popular among young Arab Muslims in particular. As one of the women I interviewed says: ‘Amr Khalid makes you think. You do what you do not out of fear but out of understanding.’ Akhawat regard their stay in Ireland as temporary. They are very keen to integrate their children into Irish social life as much as possible during their stay, as long as they can follow their religion while doing so. Akhawat use their stay in the diaspora to learn and develop their professions and teach their children English and other social and sports activities. It is important for these women, when returning home, to present the results and outcomes of their stay away from home in terms of successful educational and professional development in the form of further educational and professional qualifications, fluency in the English language and material achievements. All these qualifications will grant these women and their families a unique social status in their home societies and also legitimise their temporary sojourn in Europe. The Salafi and Muslim Brotherhood women in Ireland interviewed differ in their ‘homing desire’. The Akhawat regard their stay in Ireland as an opportunity to develop their educational careers further. They prefer the Catholic ethos of Irish society to a secular environment, as they regard it as similar to their own Islamic way of life. Salafi-oriented Algerian women, on the other hand, are still affected by the repercussions of colonialism and blame the West for Algerian’s long-lasting suppression through French colonialism, as Tweed points out: ‘Nationalism – and diasporic nationalism – creates an imagined community that has affective bonds with the natal land.’38 The Salafi and Muslim Brotherhood women’s constructions of their identities in the diaspora are thereby responsive to their colonial, national, historic, political, socio-economic and educational, as well as Salafi or Muslim Brotherhood, discourses, which ultimately define their relationship to Irish society. Iraqi Shia Women in Ireland39 The Shia communities in Ireland are small in number (around 6,000 people). They reside mainly in Dublin and are highly diverse in terms of their

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national, ethnic and socio-political backgrounds and religious affiliations. Iraqi Shiis in Dublin are part of a young, inward-looking migrant community, most of whose members have come from Iraq since the 2003 toppling of Saddam Husayn. The major Shia centre in Ireland is the Ahlul-Bayt Islamic Centre (husayniyya) in south Dublin. It is both a religious and a cultural centre, in which various religious, cultural and national celebrations take place. In the husayniyya, various women participate in different religious ritual practices. Since Shiis were oppressed in Iraq during Saddam’s regime and were persecuted whenever religious Shia activities took place, they feel liberated in Ireland in terms of their religious and cultural identities, as participation in Shia rituals is now permissible without the constant fear of arrest and punishment. The women celebrate this liberty by visiting the husayniyya on a regular basis, which has become a symbol for the liberation from Saddam’s regime: ‘We are free here in the husayniyya. Saddam (may he not rest in his grave) used to torture us whenever we had any religious gathering. And now we are proud to have the freedom to come to our husayniyya whenever we want.’ Because of their recent migration to Ireland, the older generation of Iraqi Shiis still possess a strong diasporic consciousness, expressed through the creation of national Iraqi as well as religious Shia communal identities. The Iraqi Shia women interviewed express their national Iraqi identity mainly in religious terms. Every Shii believer needs to choose one source for emulation (marja‘ al-taqlid) and emulate his teachings, interpretations and religious edicts (fatwas).40 There are several leading Shia scholars of different nationalities in the world who are considered a marja‘ al-taqlid. In Iraq, as the women explain, one would follow a common source for emulation in one’s own social environment, one which also reflects the women’s regional origin. The marja‘iyya in Iraq would therefore not be a main topic of discussion. This is different in the diaspora, where in the husayniyya people from various backgrounds and numerous religious and political factions meet. The husayniyya becomes a diasporic space in which Shia encounter people following various maraji‘ representing different ideological understandings and defining various religious practices. The Ahlul-Bayt Islamic Centre in Dublin represents itself officially as following Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Husayni Al-Sistani (b. 1930), who is regarded as one of the highest sources for emulation. The majority of the older generation of Shia women used to be followers of Sistani prior to their migration to Ireland. They prefer, therefore, to remain followers of Sistani, as this is for them an expression of their religious identity that used to be suppressed under Saddam Husayn’s regime. Holding onto their former marja‘iyya is an articulation of their religious freedom and liberty in Ireland. They insist on maintaining their marja‘iyya, even if he does not serve their needs in their new diasporic environment. The younger generation did not experience this period of religious oppression in Iraq during Saddam Husayn’s regime and therefore cannot relate to these emotional bonds regarding maintaining a particular marja‘. Shia women in the diaspora

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are exposed to a variety of maraji‘, allowing them to choose what best serves their needs within a European context. In the diaspora, because of social, economic and emancipatory changes in women’s lives, as well as social and cultural restrictions in European societies, the younger generation of Shiis in particular choose the source for emulation that responds to their individual needs. One of these figures to whom they are exposed is the late Lebanese Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah (1935–2010), whose views on gender roles are perceived as more liberal than the more conservative interpretations of Sistani and therefore more popular among younger women in particular. Fadlallah believes that Islam needs to be reinterpreted according to contemporary needs and changes in young people’s lifestyles. Because of the political situation in Iraq the majority of Iraqi Shia women interviewed were forced to leave their families, husbands or children, who were killed in Iraq, imprisoned or received as refugees in another country and came to Ireland either as migrants or refugees on their own. The changes in their familial situation challenge traditional gender roles and require the women to search for new ways of life supported by new religious authorities. The majority of women, among the younger generation in particular, find Fadlallah’s teachings, interpretations and fatwas helpful in their everyday lives in Ireland. As one of the interviewees says: ‘Sistani’s views work well in Iraq where you have the community’s security but here in Ireland we are left alone. We need to be strong and independent. Sistani’s views on women do not help us to be independent enough.’ The majority of (particularly young) Iraqi Shiis emphasise the adaptability of Fadlallah’s views on women in a Western context and describe how they facilitate new ideas about lifestyles in Europe. Some Shii women do not find following one marja‘ sufficient for their religious needs nowadays and therefore find the practice of tab‘id, mixing different sources for emulation, very useful. As one of the interviewees says: ‘I would be very restricted if I would follow one marja‘. Choosing from different sources for emulation what fits my daily needs is the best.’ Another woman adds: ‘In the ‘aqa’id [fundamental beliefs] I follow Sayyid Sistani but in social issues I follow Fadlallah.’ Another woman explains this further in saying: ‘In my dress I follow Fadlallah because I believe that his fatwas go with our time and place here in the West, whereas in everything that has to do with religious rituals I follow Sistani in order not to be too different from my family.’ These women try to show respect to the older members of their community by following its official marja‘, in this case Sistani, but combine this with various other sources for emulation that fit their lifestyle in Europe. Religious home-making among Iraqi Shiis is expressed through ‘long distance nationalism’41 in which their Iraqi national identity is maintained through following religious sources that represent their particular regional and/or national origin. Whereas this is particularly important among the older generation of Iraqi Shiis, the younger generation tries to detach itself

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from it by finding new ways in expressing their understandings of ‘home’. They do this mainly by being critical of their parents’ views on Shia history as well as critical of their understanding of the concept of the marja‘iyya in general. Being born in Ireland, the younger generation do not have an emotional national attachment to their parents’ countries of origin and are therefore keen on developing their own version of Shia identity within their European context. Sudanese Women in Ireland Ireland has a long history of Sudanese migrants coming to Ireland as medical students, trainees or well-established doctors working in hospitals or in their own private practices.42 This section relies on in-depth interviews with middle- and upper-class educated and professional Sudanese women, mainly from the capital Khartoum, who have lived in Ireland for at least ten years.43 The social structure of Sudanese communities is very hierarchal. Gender differences and gender roles are greatly respected within these Sudanese communities. Although they are highly educated and have been very active in the public sphere in Sudan, the majority of Sudanese women in Ireland interviewed here have given up or have held back their careers as medical doctors and have devoted their time to raising their children. One of the main issues is the Irish system of medical education, which entails the constant movement of doctors within Ireland in order to gain further professional knowledge nationwide. Hospitals do not offer doctors more than twelve-month contracts, thereby forcing them to constantly relocate to different hospitals in various cities across Ireland. There is a possibility of the family being split up when parents, who are both doctors, are posted to hospitals in different cities. As one of the Sudanese women explains: ‘Isn’t it enough to be separated from our families in Sudan? There is no need to split our small family life here as well. This is why I stay at home in order to give our children at least familial stability.’ In general, priority is given to the men to find an appropriate position. Gender roles among Sudanese migrants shifted after migration, supporting patriarchal definitions. In Sudan, both men and women worked as professionals, while the children were taken care of by extended family members or by someone hired for this purpose. These educated and middle-class Sudanese women in Ireland feel more restricted in terms of freedom and mobility than in Sudan, where they enjoyed more freedom of movement and self-fulfilment because of stable work conditions and familial support, particularly as regards childcare. These unstable work conditions are one of the reasons why a number of Sudanese women feel a need to decorate their homes in a Sudanese way in order to feel secure and have a sense of belonging in the diaspora. Particular objects carry certain meanings or, in some cases, meanings are attributed to them, as they are regarded by the women as visual representations of their origins. Objects become for them the tools with which they can hold on to the

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memories that maintain links to the homeland and to the people and culture they left behind: ‘After some years you even forget the shared memories with your family and friends back home. I have been here for nearly twenty years now and hardly remember what it means or how it feels to be Sudanese in Sudan.’ This loss of shared memories is compensated for by the construction of a ‘little Sudan’ in the diaspora, expressed through an intensifying of the decoration of their houses with various religious, national, cultural and ethnic objects and symbols. Those Sudanese women in particular who have been living in Ireland for a longer period of time use the space of their homes to display smaller and larger objects brought from Sudan in order to express visibly their emotional belonging and attachment to Sudan. Thus, the homing desire of these Sudanese women can be observed through their various religious, national, ethnic and/or cultural identity constructions, expressed through material objects and symbols that are placed within their houses. Some of these objects become personalised by carrying shared religious, cultural, individual and/or collective memories.44 These memories are kinetic and are transformed through various objects that are like the women themselves, de-territorialised and re-territorialised45 through migration. Some of these memories are preserved through particular objects and gain through displacement new meanings. The Sudanese women migrants interviewed for this study are in a state of in-betweenness, to use Bhabha’s term; they live in Ireland, but are still anchored in the social networks of their country of origin. Paul Gilroy talks, in this context, about double consciousness or duality of consciousness, a term that describes the migrant as living at home and away from home at the same time.46 Similarly, James Clifford argues: ‘[It is] the connection (elsewhere) that makes a difference (here).’47 This need to connect to the homeland is the reason for the Sudanese women’s intense display of different national, religious, cultural and ethnic objects in their houses, since by doing this they build a ‘little Sudan’48 in the diaspora. One of the objects used are mawlid dolls. The mawlid marks the celebration of the birth of the Prophet Muhammad, at which different religious sects and cultural groups in Sudan gather for several days. Colourful mawlid dolls and horses decorated with coloured paper are presented to little girls and boys. These are traditional presents given to children in Sudan, and they generally do not have a religious meaning. However, the majority of the Sudanese women interviewed here regard these dolls as baraka (a blessing) and as a symbol of protection – a function only associated with Sudanese people in the diaspora. One of the Sudanese women keeps her doll in a very central position on an upper shelf in the kitchen. It is a special space in the house as it looks over and through the different rooms. A spiritual meaning is attributed to this object, as one of the women explains: ‘It looks after the house and protects it from the evil eye.’ This example reflects Tweed’s argument that certain non-religious objects might have religious connotations, or, as this case illustrates, religious associations might be assigned to them.49

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Figure 8.1 Mawlid doll in Sudanese Home, Cork The dolls as such do not carry a religious meaning, but Sudanese women in the diaspora who do not celebrate the mawlid as in Sudan believe they have brought the spirit and the religious atmosphere of the mawlid celebration that is personified in the dolls with them to Europe. One of the main objects displayed in Sudanese houses is called gabanat al-qahwa, which is an Ethiopian-style pot for boiling traditional Arab/ Sudanese or Ethiopian coffee.50 The women emphasise the authenticity of the coffee that is boiled within the gabanat. The original coffee reflects the origin of the people of the house and of the respect they show towards visitors when the coffee is boiled within the gabanat. The gabanat is for the women also a reminder of their roots, that becomes more important particularly in the diaspora, as one of the women explains: ‘You need to know where you come from. A tree without roots is a dead tree.’ These women emphasise the diversity of African cultures and traditions in Sudan, which, as the example of the gabanat shows, have developed over the years to be regarded as part of Sudanese culture. As one of the women says: ‘In the end we are all Africans, isn’t it?’

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The women see themselves as possessing multiple identities depending on the context they are in. They express their multiple identifications via objects displaced from their private locations. Among each other they regard themselves as Sudanese, highlighting, however, their Khartoum origins by labelling themselves khartumiyyat (women from Khartoum). This identification is emphasised through the display of particular objects, typical of the capital Khartoum, in the house. The hierarchies in Sudanese society are maintained by emphasising the superior educational and social status of Sudanese women from the capital. In front of other Arabs, and especially in situations where they want to emphasise being different, they label themselves Africans (ifriqiyyat). This is made visible particularly by placing in the house African objects such as wooden statues, that some Arabs may regard as idols and therefore reject having in their homes. In front of other African women, they turn to identifying themselves as Arabs in order to highlight their ethnic and linguistic difference and superiority. The ability to move51 between various national, ethnic and religious identities helps the women to express visibly their attachment to or detachment from particular groups. The homing desire of the Sudanese women can be observed through their placing of various Arab and African, as well as local tribal, objects in their homes, objects which provide them with a feeling of stability and belonging. Conclusion In this chapter, I have provided an overview of the diverse female Muslim presences in Ireland, both of converts and of migrants. I have argued that these women engage in ‘religio-cultural home-making’ in which they use a particular understanding of religion and/or culture to create alternative allegiances and places of belonging. Among Irish converts, this is expressed by converting either to a Salafi understanding of Islam or by adopting the religio-cultural habits and practices of particular ethno-religious groups. In either case, these women’s acquired Islamic identity is positioned in opposition to the Catholic Irish mainstream and challenges conventional notions of Irishness, with the women emphasising their identity as being both Irish and Muslim or assimilating to the lifestyle of a minority ethnic group. As regards migrant women, the reasons for their coming to Ireland, as well as their socio-economic and educational status, influence their relationship to mainstream Irish society and have an impact on their feelings of ‘home’. All the migrant women interviewed express an ambivalent attitude towards Ireland as well as towards their own countries of origin. In their narratives, one can observe fragmented identity understandings which are placed in multiple localities. These understandings are context-dependent and are in constant change according to the geopolitical status of their countries of origin, but also according to their socio-economic and political status in Ireland. Some Sudanese women, for example, emphasise the

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historically long-respected public image of Sudanese migrants in Ireland, which is based, in their view, on their professional and educational status. As one says: ‘We’ve been known in Ireland for years. It is “normal” to see Sudanese doctors here.’ Some express their fear of the changing image of Sudanese people within Irish society as a result of the increasing influx of Sudanese asylum seekers and Africans in general in the last twenty years. The repercussions of the so-called Arab Spring are also felt among Arab migrant communities across Europe. In Ireland, for example, political changes in the Arab world have highlighted the transnational links between migrants and their countries of origin. Some Libyan women, for example, engaged actively in NGOs, helping other Libyans who were injured during the civil war to receive medical treatment at Irish hospitals. At the peak of the Libyan civil war, an Irish international school in Tripoli was shut down. Some Libyan women in Ireland helped pupils who were affected by the school’s closure to come to Ireland to sit their leaving-certificate exams. Money and clothes were collected to help those affected by the uprising and civil war in Libya. The recent influx of migrants and refugees coming from the Middle East has also highlighted the sectarian dynamics within particular national groups. Whereas in the past, particularly during Saddam Husayn’s regime, it was mainly Shiis who came from Iraq, since the Shia empowerment in Iraq more Sunnis have settled down in Ireland. This change in the sectarian background of a particular national group has an impact on its identityunderstanding in the diaspora and is formed by the sectarian conflicts in the Middle East. The increased diversity of Muslim migrants in Ireland causes their increasing disaggregation into several groups and sub-groups. Sunni Iraqi women who used to be in the minority in Ireland and who would have socialised with Shia Iraqi women disconnect themselves and build their own Sunni Iraqi communities. Muslim women’s presence in Ireland is as diverse as their narratives about their migration to Ireland or their conversion to Islam. Their understandings of their identities and their relationship with Irish society are expressed in numerous ways and exhibit change in various contexts and at various times, shaped as they are by numerous factors such as their ethno-national background, their socio-economic status and educational background, their particular sectarian and ideological understanding of Islam and their overall affiliation with and identification with Islam. As a result, it is impossible to create a single narrative that encompasses the diversity of Muslim women in Ireland. Notes 1. Robin Cohen, ‘Diasporas and the Nation-State: From Victims to Challengers’, International Affairs, 72:3, 1996, pp. 507–20. See also Steven Vertovec, ‘Conceiving and Researching Transnationalism’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 22:2, 1999, pp. 447–62.

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2. Pnina Werbner, ‘Complex Diasporas’, in Kim Knott and Seán McLoughlin (eds), Diasporas: Concepts, Intersections, Identities (London: Zed Books, 2010), p. 77. 3. On multiple identities see Werbner, ‘Complex Diasporas’, pp. 74–8. See also Steven Vertovec, ‘Transnationalism and Identity’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 27:4, 2001, pp. 573–82. 4. Avtar Brah, Cartographies of Diaspora: Contesting Identities (London: Routledge, 1996), p. 180. 5. Brah distinguishes between a ‘homing desire’ and the desire for a ‘homeland’ (Brah, Cartographies of Diaspora, p. 197), in which the latter describes the yearning to go back to one’s roots and one’s geographical origin. 6. See Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1983). 7. Manuel A. Vásquez, ‘Historicizing and Materializing the Study of Religion: The Contribution of Migration Studies’, in Karen I. Leonard et al. (eds), Immigrant Faiths: Transforming Religious Life in America (Lanham, MD: Altamira Press, 2005), p. 238. 8. Seán M. McLoughlin, ‘Muslim Travellers: Home, the Ummah and British – Pakistanis’, in Knott and McLoughlin, Diasporas, p. 227. 9. See Peggy Levitt, ‘“You Know, Abraham was Really the First Immigrant”: Religion and Transnational Migration’, International Migration Review, 37:3, 2003, p. 851. 10. Vertovec, ‘Conceiving and Researching Transnationalism’, p. 450. 11. To avoid any ethical problems, the anonymity of my interviewees has been protected by mentioning neither names nor personal information in this chapter unless otherwise agreed. In all of my meetings with interviewees, the purpose of my presence and of the conducted interviews was known to the women. The translations from the Arabic are my own. In some cases, where it is important to show the particular expression of thought, I have added the Arabic words to the English version. 12. This section relies on my research published in 2011. See Yafa Shanneik, ‘Conversion and Religious Habitus: The Experiences of Irish Women Converts to Islam in the Pre-Celtic Tiger Era’, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 31:4, 2011, pp. 507–21. 13. Laurence Cox, ‘Counter Culture and Social Change since the 70s’, Paper presented at the research symposium: Everyday Creativity, Counter Cultures and Social Change. An activist research symposium on how we can transform this Society. Maynooth, 13 October 2007 (published on CD-ROM), p. 13. See also Olivia Cosgrove, Laurence Cox, Carmen Kuhling and Peter Mulholland, “Editor’s Introduction: Understanding Ireland’s New Religious Movements”, in Olivia Cosgrove et al., (eds), Ireland’s New Religious Movements (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011) pp. 1–27. 14. See Laurence Cox, ‘Building Counter Culture: The Radical Praxis of Social Movement Milieux’, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation (Dublin: Trinity College Dublin, 1999). 15. This mirrors what Inglis terms as the ‘moral monopoly’ of the Church. See Tom

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16.

17. 18. 19. 20.

21.

22. 23. 24.

25. 26. 27.

28. 29.

30.

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Inglis, Moral Monopoly: The Rise and Fall of the Catholic Church in Modern Ireland (Dublin: University College Dublin Press, 1998). In the recent years women have started to go online to search for religious guidance, for example at the website http://www.fatwa-online.com (last accessed 24 June 2014), which is very Salafi-oriented and accessibly formulated. Roy mentions this website among others used by converts and born-again Muslims. See Olivier Roy, Globalised Islam: The Search for a New Ummah (London: Hurst, 2002), p. 241. Ibid., pp. 243–7. See in contrast Roy’s observation that most Salafis reject a particular cultural or national identity in favour of a universal Islamic identity. Ibid., pp. 23–4. See Yafa Shanneik, ‘Conversion to Islam in Ireland: A Post-Catholic Subjectivity?’, Journal of Muslims in Europe, 1:2, 2012, pp. 166–88. Ali Köse, ‘The Journey from the Secular to the Sacred: Experiences of Native British Converts to Islam’, Social Compass, 46:3, 1999, pp. 303–4; Louise Soutar, ‘British Female Converts to Islam: Choosing Islam as a Rejection of Individualism’, Language and Intercultural Communication, 10:1, 2010, pp. 3–16. This confirms similar findings among British and Swedish converts. See on British Converts, Ali Köse, Conversion to Islam: Study of Native British Converts (London: Kegan Paul, 1996); on Swedish converts, see Madeleine Sultan, ‘Choosing Islam: A Study of Swedish Converts’, Social Compass, 46:3, 1999, pp. 325–35. See Linda Woodhead, ‘Women and Religion’, in Linda Woodhead et al. (eds), Religion in the Modern World (London: Routledge, 2002), pp. 384–411. Soutar, ‘Choosing Islam’, p. 331. I also came across a few Irish women who would understand Islam more as a philosophy of life (or spirituality) than as a way of life guided by a particular religious discourse and its doctrines and legal and ritual prescriptions. See Abby Day, ‘Wilfully Disempowered: A Gendered Response to a “Fallen World”’, European Journal of Women’s Studies, 15:3, 2008, pp. 261–76. There has been increasing interest among Eastern European women in Ireland in converting to Islam, an area that needs more academic research. No figures can be provided on the number of Salafis or Muslim Brotherhood members. For more information see Yafa Shanneik, ‘Religion and Diasporic Dwelling: Algerian Muslim Women in Ireland’, Religion and Gender, 2:1, 2012, pp. 80–100. For a historical overview on Algeria see Martin Evans and John Phillips, Algeria: Anger of the Dispossessed (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2007). It is not possible to state the exact number of FIS-Algerian activists who sought asylum in Ireland. However, a total of 1,907 Algerians applied for asylum in the years 1992–2010. For detailed information on figures of asylum seekers and migrants see Oliver Scharbrodt, ‘Muslim Immigration to the Republic of Ireland: Trajectories and Dynamics since World War II’, Éire-Ireland: A Journal of Irish Studies, 47:1&2, 2012, pp. 221–43. On the ethnicisation of Muslims in Europe see Bassam Tibi, ‘Ethnicity of Fear? Islamic Migration and the Ethnicization of Islam in Europe’, Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, 10:1, 2010, pp. 126–57.

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31. The face covering is one of the main signifiers by which a space can be constructed. It creates a literal and symbolic boundary between the Algerian Salafi women and other Muslims. Several Salafi women in the mosque said that they did not take their face covering off completely but only folded it back in order to show the other Muslim women in the mosque who do not cover their faces that they are different: ‘. . . that way they can see that I am a better Muslim since I cover my face as Allah has commanded us to do.’ 32. Thomas A. Tweed, Crossing and Dwelling: A Theory of Religion (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006), p. 111. 33. See Michael Billing, Arguing and Thinking: A Rhetorical Approach to Social Psychology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987). 34. Steven Vertovec, The Hindu Diaspora: Comparative Patterns (New York: Routledge, 2000), p. 149. 35. Ibid. 36. On Amr Khalid see Aaron Rock, ‘Amr Khaled: From Da‘wa to Political and Religious Leadership’, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 37:1, 2010, pp. 15–37. 37. Ibid., p. 31. 38. Tweed, Crossing and Dwelling, pp. 110–11. 39. Yafa Shanneik, ‘Gendering Religious Authority in the Diaspora: Shii Women in Ireland’, in Niamh Reilly and Stacey Scriver-Furlong (eds), Religion, Gender and the Public Sphere (New York: Routledge, 2013), pp. 58–67. 40. Linda S. Walbridge, ‘Introduction: Shi‘ism and Authority’, in Linda S. Walbridge, The Most Learned of the Shi‘a: The Institution of the Marja‘ Taqlid (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 6. 41. Benedict Anderson first used this term: see Benedict Anderson, Long-distance Nationalism: World Capitalism and the Rise of Identity Politics (Amsterdam: Centre for Asian Studies Amsterdam, 1992). See also Gabriel Sheffer, ‘The Emergence of New Ethno-National Diasporas’, Migration, 28:2, 1995, pp. 5–28. 42. This information relies on interview material. In the 1990s, a growing number of Sudanese asylum seekers came to Ireland. Between 1992 and 2010 around 1,300 Sudanese applied for asylum in Ireland. For more information see Scharbrodt, ‘Muslim Immigration’, pp. 221–43. There are no official figures for Sudanese migrants in Ireland, but it is estimated, according to the interviewees, that their number is around 1,500. 43. The interviews were conducted in Dublin and Cork between September 2009 and February 2012. For more information see Yafa Shanneik and Marja Tiilikainen, ‘Sudanese and Somali Women in Ireland and in Finland: Material Religion and Culture in the Formation of Migrant Women’s Identities in the Diaspora’, in Tuomas Martikainen et al. (eds), Muslims in the Margins of Europe (Leiden: Brill, forthcoming). 44. See Danièle Hervieu-Léger, Religion as a Chain of Memory (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2000). 45. See Manuel A. Vásquez, More than Belief: A Materialist Theory of Religion (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).

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46. Paul Gilroy, The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness (London: Verso, 1993). 47. James Clifford, ‘Diasporas’, Cultural Anthropology, 9:3, 1994, p. 322. 48. On the construction of a ‘New Sudan’ in diaspora see Anita Häusermann Fábos, ‘Sudanese Identity in Diaspora and the Meaning of Home. The Transformative Role of Sudanese NGOs in Cairo’, in Nadje Al-Ali and Khalid Koser (eds), New Approaches to Migration? Transnationalism and Transformations of Home (London and New York: Routledge, 2002), pp. 34–50. 49. Thomas A. Tweed, ‘Space’, Material Religion, 7:1, 2011, pp. 116–23. 50. Women on the move would have a traditional Arab pot for boiling coffee (called ghalayet qahwa or bakraj qahwa), as it is faster than the gabanat, in which the coffee needs to be boiled for several hours. A gabanat is usually made of clay and breaks easily. 51. Tweed, Crossing and Dwelling.

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Conclusion: Being Irish, Being Muslim Oliver Scharbrodt

Various factors and variables have impacted on the formations of Irish Muslim identities and discourses: the backgrounds of Muslim immigrants, whether national, ethnic, linguistic, socio-economic or educational; the transnational links and connections between Muslims and their different communities back to their countries of origins and across Europe; and the ways in which they have organised and institutionalised Islam in Ireland, as well as the specific circumstances of the Irish context in which Muslims have settled and in which their identities and discourses have evolved. By employing a triangulation between community, context and individual as an analytical framework, this book has discussed these factors and variables. Muslim Immigration Patterns to Ireland Examining the trajectories of Muslim immigration to Ireland, three stages can be differentiated. Up to World War II, Muslim immigration occurred within the British colonial context. Muslims coming to Ireland were visitors, merchants, sailors, servants, students and academics, some of whom, like Mir Aulad Ali, became quite prominent in their time. Unlike in Britain, a more permanent communal presence did not emerge. In the period from World War II to the mid-1990s, the Muslim presence primarily comprised students, medical doctors, other educated professionals and a few business people who became part of the middle and upper classes of Irish society and numbered a few thousand before large-scale immigration began in the wake of the Celtic Tiger. In this sense, post-World War II Muslim immigration to Ireland differs from that to other Western European countries, whose Muslim immigrants were for the most part unskilled labourers from rural areas in their countries of origin, whose socio-economic marginalisation very often continued after settlement in Europe. Early Muslim immigrants to Ireland, by contrast, were [ 216 ]

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well-educated and often from wealthy backgrounds achieving a high degree of socio-economic integration into Irish society. During the Celtic Tiger years, Ireland transformed itself from a country of emigration to a country of immigration, leading to a rapid growth in the Muslim population within twenty years in line with the country’s wider socio-cultural and religious diversification. This recent experience of religious and cultural diversity makes the Irish case similar to those of other smaller European countries such as Portugal, Greece and Finland that only began to experience major waves of Muslim immigration from the 1990s onwards.1 While the rapid numerical growth of the Muslim population in Ireland has expanded and solidified the Muslim presence, the pre-Celtic Tiger period is also viewed with a certain nostalgia by more settled, middleclass Muslims remembering the past as an untroubled time when Muslims were seen as members of ‘a well-respected and recognised community’.2 Muslims in Ireland – A Triangulation What do we know about Muslims in Ireland in the twenty-first century? They are a rapidly growing but also a very young presence, with the vast majority (almost two thirds in 20063) having arrived in the last ten to fifteen years. While now almost a third of the Muslim population are Irish citizens, the reference point for most of them is still their countries of origin. The ‘myth of return’ prevalent among first-generation migrants causes a strong diasporic consciousness, a focus on efforts to re-create the homeland in the diaspora and a high degree of fluctuation and of inward and outward movement.4 As yet, Muslims in Ireland have not claimed their place in Irish society, recognising that their presence will be a permanent feature of Irish society. The second generation of Muslim immigrants is just coming of age and – if patterns in other European countries repeat themselves in Ireland – their attitudes and needs will become more pronounced in the future. However, little is known of them, of their place in Irish society, of their identity discourses and of the relationship between their Muslim and Irish identities. A further disaggregation of religion and ethnicity can be observed among the growing number of Irish converts to Islam who need to negotiate their new Islamic identity along with their Irishness, notions of which always had strong confessional underpinnings. That a third of Muslims hold now Irish citizenship will also alter the dynamics of interaction with Irish society and state. What marks the Muslim presence in Ireland is its diversity. Different ethnicities among Muslims, a diverse range of sectarian identities, various identifications with Islam, generational and gender cleavages and class distinctions are important variables shaping relations among Muslims themselves but also with wider society. The children of a Muslim doctor who grew up in middle-class Milltown, in south Dublin, and who attend university and embark on a professional career develop a different rapport with Irish society from that developed by the children of asylum seekers who are

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confined in detention centres. More research is needed on the various expressions of real-life Islam in Ireland, the daily challenges individual Muslims encounter, their identity discourses, their involvement or lack thereof with Irish society, generational dynamics within Muslim families and gender issues in order to capture fully the diversity of Muslim life in Ireland. While the last chapter makes important contributions to understanding the place, identities and discourses of Muslim women in Ireland, future ethnographic research needs to include men and young Muslims growing up in Ireland. The institutionalisation of Islam in Ireland has followed similar patterns as in other Western European countries. Initially, a single community centre catered for the Muslims of a locality. As a consequence of the increasing number of Muslims, the diversification of mosque communities has begun, according to sectarian, ethnic and linguistic lines, whenever a group has reached the critical mass it needs to establish its own communal space. As in other Western European countries, transnational movements associated with political Islam have played a central role in organising Islam in Ireland. The first Muslim organisations underwent a shift from addressing the immediate needs of local Muslims to aligning themselves with Islamist organisations in order to access funding for the creation of communal spaces. In this respect, the Irish experience is not different from that of other European countries.5 What is different, however, is that owing to the small size of the country and the initially small number of Muslims, organisations affiliated to European networks of the Muslim Brotherhood have been more successful in dominating the public representation of Islam in Ireland. The position of the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland in Clonskeagh is also less contested because the Islamist background of most of its employees is not a major concern for the Irish public or the Government. Other European countries have either created alternative forums or favoured different Muslim groups as interlocutors in order to counter the dominant role of Islamist organisations in institutionalising Islam in Europe.6 Representatives of the Islamic Cultural Centre are also rather discreet about their connections to European networks of the Muslim Brotherhood. How the current anti-Brotherhood backlash and the wider repression of Islamist movements and parties in the Middle East will impact on the rapport of European governments with Muslim organisations close to the Brotherhood will be seen in the future.7 While the monopoly of the Clonskeagh mosque in representing Islam in Ireland has been challenged, these attempts have not been very successful.8 The nature of church–state relations in Ireland is one contributing factor. As the Irish public and the Irish government are used to interacting with one representative of the Catholic Church and of the various Protestant denominations, both seek a similarly single-voiced representation of Muslims. Other organisations and communities have been unable to compete with the Islamic Cultural Centre, as they encounter enormous difficulties in organising communities, running appropriate facilities and securing funding for their construction, expansion and maintenance. While plans have been

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developed and planning permissions granted, many local Muslim communities are unable to secure funding for their mosque projects. The specific national, cultural, legal and socio-cultural contexts in which Muslim minorities are placed across Europe are often the most interesting aspect of research on Muslims in Europe. As the discussion of immigration patterns to Ireland shows, the Irish context has changed over time. As Western Europe’s only postcolonial nation, Ireland was part of the British Empire before acquiring nominal independence in 1922 and cutting off all ties with Britain with the declaration of the Republic in 1948. The 1937 Constitution created a state that combined adherence to civil and human rights central to liberal democracies in Europe with a strong Catholic ethos by legally enshrining Catholic social teachings as part of the socio-moral fabric of the Irish state. Reflecting the Catholic underpinnings of Irish national identity and the dominance of Catholicism in Irish society, the 1937 Constitution laid the foundation for an Irish state that perceived its population to be culturally and religiously homogeneous. In this respect, religion, in the form of Catholicism, has played a much more important public role in Irish society than in the more secularised contexts of other Western European societies. This has provided opportunity structures for Muslim organisations in Ireland to find government support for their particular cultural and religious needs, as the example of the swift establishment of two Muslim primary schools in Dublin illustrates. The Irish context has changed dramatically during the Celtic Tiger years. Irish society has become culturally and religiously more diverse as a consequence of large-scale immigration and also more secular, with the Catholic Church having lost its ‘moral monopoly’.9 Current debates in Irish society about the role of the Catholic Church in the denominational educational system and its core social teachings, such as the prohibition of abortion, have had only a marginal impact on Muslim communities, whose spokespersons usually support the denominational structure of the educational system and the translation of Catholic social teachings into positive law. Muslims in Ireland, however, perceive the ‘Catholic’ versus ‘secular’ nature of Ireland differently depending on their own understanding of Islam, their socioeconomic backgrounds, their reasons for moving to Ireland and their rapport with Irish society. The repercussions for Muslim organisations of recent efforts in Ireland to demarcate church and state more clearly by revising the current constitution, by limiting the Catholic ethos of the legal culture and by secularising the educational system will be seen in the future. The governance of immigration has been marked by contradictions. Irish governments have promoted ‘interculturalism’ as an alternative to the assimilationist and multicultural models operating in other European countries. Yet, despite the Government’s rhetoric in support of cultural and religious diversity, little action has followed. Government bodies and departments with the task of monitoring racism, discrimination and inequality and of promoting the integration of migrants have either been abolished

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or curtailed in their activities following significant budget cuts in the wake of the global economic and fiscal crisis post-2008. Neither mainstream political parties nor public discourse have seriously challenged traditional monocultural definitions of Irish identity. Muslim Spaces in Ireland – Past and Present Ireland is Western Europe’s only postcolonial nation. The historical memory of British colonialism in the construction of Irish nationalism and an independent Irish nation-state is present, for example, in the annual commemoration of the Easter Uprising of 1916, museums documenting the Great Famine of 1845–52 and events and exhibitions on Irish emigration in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries resulting from economic deprivation during British colonial rule. Such events have become markers of the postcolonial memory, reflecting the degree of repression by British colonial rule and the hardship of the Irish struggle for independence. This postcolonial historical memory is often used to suggest commonalities with African and Asian countries in the shared historical experience of colonial subjugation by British and European imperialism. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Irish nationalists were part of a global network of anti-colonial activists including Egyptian, Indian and Iranian nationalists.10 The young Irish republic exhibited a strong ‘Third World’ orientation, being involved in anti-apartheid initiatives in South Africa and exhibiting a strong proPalestinian stance.11 As a consequence, the historical complexities shaping the relationship of Muslims to wider society in countries such as Britain or France on the basis of their colonial past are not present. On the contrary: it appears that Ireland’s postcoloniality aligns it with other former colonies in Africa and Asia and separates it from the imperialist history of the rest of Europe. Interviews with representatives of Muslim organisations have highlighted a historical experience of colonial subjugation shared between Muslims and Irish: ‘What the Irish experienced by the British is much worse than what we Muslims experienced during colonialism.’12 The decision to launch the European version of the Hijabi Monologues, an American theatre project that brings stories of Muslim women to the stage, in Ireland was based on the argument ‘that Ireland is uniquely positioned to host the European premiere – unlike the historical relationships European Muslim minorities have had with other EU nations and colonialism, Ireland does not have the same history with its Muslim communities and new immigrants’.13 The overall pro-Palestinian stance of the Irish government is presented as constituting a different relationship between the Irish state and society and Muslims. The Irish are seen as ‘“almost unique”. . . in the West in their sympathy with the Palestinians’.14 In the light of European debates around the place of the Islamic headscarf in the public sphere and legislation in some European countries to ban it from public schools, one contribution posits a causal connection between

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Irish colonial experience and a different attitude of Irish society towards other cultures.15 The article argues that current negative views on Muslim minorities in Europe and their construction as Europe’s internal ‘Other’16 have their roots in historical notions of European cultural superiority which shaped the continent’s encounter with other cultures in the colonial age and served as a rationale to legitimise European imperialism. However, Ireland, as Western Europe’s only postcolonial nation, is unique in this regard: Ireland is exceptional among the EU member states because for centuries it experienced colonialism from the perspective of the colonised. While this history remains tragic, today it gives the country a unique position in Europe. Not only could this experience help Ireland to accommodate the growing cultural diversity in its own society; it also enables the country to play a leading role in redefining the European stance towards other cultures.17

These discursive references to Ireland’s colonial past suggest ‘that there is a huge amount of historical and traditional commonalities between Muslim immigrants and the Irish natives’.18 In addition, with the increasing importance of commemorating the Great Famine of 1845–52, efforts have been made to connect this paradigmatic tragedy of colonial Ireland with Muslim relief efforts at that time. In addition to Queen Victoria and some Native American tribes, the Ottoman Sultan Abdül-Mecid I (1823–61) donated £1,000 (after being dissuaded by Queen Victoria from donating more) and secretly sent three or five ships with food aid to Ireland which could unload at the port of Drogheda in 1847.19 In several Muslim web blogs, this episode is seen as an example of ‘Turkish–Irish friendship’,20 showing ‘how Muslims helped Ireland during the Great Famine’21 and explaining why ‘the Irish people, especially those in Drogheda, are friendly to the Turks’.22 To honour the contribution of the Ottoman Sultan, the football club Drogheda FC apparently adopted the star and crescent as part of its coat of arms.23 In order to carve out Muslim spaces in Irish society and to anchor them historically, connections are also made between Islam and icons of Gaelic culture. In a letter to the editor, one Muslim contributor to IrishCentral. com denounces radical Islam and the views expressed by an Irish convert to Islam with sympathies for Al-Qaida. Listing the contributions Muslims have made to Irish society, he refers to ‘Professor Mir Aulad Ali who lectured at Trinity College for over 30 years and influenced W. B. Yeats, James Joyce and AE. He was also a prominent member of Conradh na Gaeilge – the Gaelic League.’24 A planned translation of the Qur’an into the Irish language, under the auspices of the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland, was also meant as a symbolic gesture, given the significance of Gaelic in the cultural decolonisation of Ireland.25 Such episodes are supposed to create a space for Muslims in Irish postcolonial memory and serve different purposes; they suggest a special rapport between the Irish and Muslims, facilitating an easier integration and

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acceptance of Muslims in Irish society because historical colonial barriers and their postcolonial continuities between Muslim migrants and their European host societies do not exist. Muslims cannot be construed as the ‘Other’ of Irish national identity, because both groups have too much in common to be opposed to each other. In addition, Ireland’s postcolonial credentials, its tradition of neutrality and military non-intervention and its pro-Palestinian stance provide little opportunity for young Muslims to be antagonised by the Irish state and to be lured by radical Islamic discourse.26 However, Ireland’s postcolonial memory of victimisation and nationalist struggle obscures the actual complicity of certain segments of Irish society in British imperialism. A more balanced reading of Ireland’s postcoloniality needs to pay attention to the ambivalent position of Ireland in the British Empire: ‘Given that the colonial moment was, and the imperial moment is, determinative of the cultural and political identities of twentieth-century peoples, Ireland is doubly hybrid, subject and object of the process.’27 Many Irish were involved in the British Empire as colonial officials, businessmen, soldiers, officers and missionaries.28 The racialisation of anti-colonial discourse also becomes evident in notions, put forward by early twentiethcentury nationalists, that the very whiteness of the Irish is the reason why they should be independent.29 Irish anti-colonial struggle is therefore marked by ambivalence. On the one hand, it is based on an anti-British and anti-imperialist ideology which shaped Irish national identity formation after independence and resulted in Ireland’s support for the anti-colonial struggles of African and Asian nations. On the other hand, it is also based on a mono-cultural understanding of Irish identity as defined by ethnicity, Gaelic language and culture and Catholicism.30 While Ireland’s postcoloniality is used to suggest a more accommodating environment for Muslim migrants, the ambivalence of the Irish colonial experience can also result in a more defensive stance on the part of an Irish society whose mono-cultural self-perception is increasingly challenged by mass immigration. In fact, mass immigration to Ireland and the actual experience of cultural diversity has yielded more exclusionary notions of Irish national identity and citizenship, leading to an increasing visibility of racist attitudes in Irish society.31 The deficient regulation of immigration and the fairly easy access to Irish citizenship triggered the Irish Citizenship Referendum of 2004, in whose course public debates tapped into concerns about mass immigration, the dilution of Irish ethno-cultural homogeneity and the abuse of welfare benefits by immigrants and asylum seekers.32 Racialised notions of Irishness were upheld by mainstream political parties, with their own postcolonial historical baggage of fighting for the country and defending it against foreign intrusion.33 However, a real Islamophobic discourse did not emerge and was not picked up by any of the political parties and in wider public discourse before and after the Citizenship Referendum. Unlike with the increasing ‘securitisation of Islam’ post-9/11 across Europe and North America,34

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Muslims in Ireland have not been perceived as potential security risks either, neither by the government nor by mainstream media.35 However, with the growing numbers of Muslims living in Ireland and their increased visibility in the public sphere, discourses have emerged that echo anti-Muslim sentiments across Europe. The highly politicised debates about the place of Islamic headscarves in European societies have also reached Irish shores, as the minor headscarf affair of 2008 illustrates. In the course of the public debate, the hijab was presented as ‘a symbol of repression and submission’,36 as expressing ‘a refusal to integrate’,37 and as an example of ‘repressive minority customs’.38 Ruari Quinn, at that time Labour spokesperson for education and since 2011 Minister for Education and Skills, stated that the hijab conflicts with the values of ‘a Western society that is Christian and secular’,39 echoing similar discourses across Europe which see wearing the headscarf as a sign of the assertion of Muslim identity and as a challenge to a secularised cultural Christian identity of Europe.40 Recent incidents in which Muslim girls and women were not allowed to wear the headscarf at school, at work and in public institutions illustrate the uncertainty around this issue and the prevalence of views that deem the hijab to have no place in Irish society.41 A recently concluded research project has found out that Muslim women in Ireland wearing the headscarf are more prone to be victims of anti-Muslim verbal and physical assaults than Muslim women who do no wear it or Muslim men whose religious identity is not openly displayed.42 There has been increasing opposition to mosques in Ireland, usually related to traffic and planning issues, as examples from Cork,43 Galway44 and Clongriffin, north Dublin,45 show. While such opposition to mosque projects was rare in Ireland in the past, with the growing number of mosques and their increasing visibility, public debates around mosque construction have risen, mirroring similar debates in other European countries. While they are disguised in bureaucratic jargon with references to planning permission, noise and traffic, etc., these debates reveal a growing unease with the increasing visibility of Islamic religious practices in the public sphere across Europe.46 In November 2013, as part of an Islamophobic letter campaign, threats were made to Muslim communities, organisations and individuals.47 This particular occurrence illustrates the presence of anti-Muslim attitudes and their potential and actual violent expressions in Ireland. Emergent discourses around the headscarf, the construction of mosques and the overall place of Islam in Irish society give an indication that discourses around Ireland’s new Islamic presence are similarly framed and influenced by wider European debates and perceptions. As Ireland has become more secular, concerns about Islam’s growing presence in the European public sphere, raised from a secular liberal perspective, have also emerged in Ireland. Further complicating predicaments lie in the very late experience of cultural, ethnic and religious diversity in Irish society and a deficient state and public engagement

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with the issue of racism in general and racism as directed against Muslims in particular.48 The state has adopted a neoliberal immigration regime, relegating issues around the accommodation and integration of migrants to local communities, the voluntary sector or philanthropic initiatives.49 The racialisation of Irish national identity and citizenship which came to the fore during the Citizenship Referendum of 2004 is not just a by-product of the Celtic Tiger and a consequence of large-scale immigration, but dates back to postcolonial ethno-national definitions of Irishness as based on descent, Catholicism and Gaelic culture which emerged in contradistinction to perceptions of Britishness.50 Muslim immigrants and converts pose a particular challenge to Irish national identity as standing outside conventional definitions of Irishness because of their different race, culture and religion. Such racialised notions of Irish identity have become manifest in antiMuslim racism, which recently concluded research has just begun to document.51 Yet, in immigration debates in Ireland, Muslims have not emerged as Ireland’s internal ‘Other’, contrary to discourses that have been observed in other Western European countries. The apparent lack or weakness of an anti-Islamic discourse in Ireland is often interpreted as suggesting that the integration of Muslims into Irish society has been easier than their integration into other European countries. However, the socio-economic position of early Muslim immigrants as part of the Irish middle and upper classes, the small size of the Muslim population prior to the 1990s and the very invisibility of Muslims until recently have been mistaken for integration, accommodation and acceptance. Protestants and Jews, Ireland’s historical minorities, have faced an exclusionary silence vis-à-vis an overwhelming Catholic hegemony in Irish society. These religious minorities were historically invisible, having retreated to their sociocultural ghettoes while encountering a nationalist discourse that equates being Irish with being Catholic.52 While Ireland has become more secular and the Catholic Church cannot claim its hegemonic role as in the past, Catholicism remains an important marker of Irish national identity and sense of belonging.53 In light of the persistence of such a ‘Catholic habitus’54 in Irish society, how can religious minorities find their place in Irish society? Jews and Protestants have not only been silenced and retreated – their numbers have also declined. With the growing number of Muslims (and of followers of other migrant religions), a much more diverse religious landscape in Ireland will not easily retreat and poses various challenges to public institutions, which are often ill-prepared for such diversity because of their mono-cultural ethos and traditions. On the other side, the ‘celebratory multiculturalism’ of the Celtic Tiger years conceived an Irish society consisting of different communities with their own fixed identities whose rights need to be recognised and contributions to Ireland appreciated. Despite its wellintentioned aims, such a culturalist recognition of diversity foregrounds the cultural coherence of both the new migrant communities and the indigenous

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Irish. In the Irish context, such a discourse construes the pre-Celtic Tiger Ireland as culturally homogeneous, with difference only brought in by the others – the immigrant communities. Such an essentialised construction of culture overlooks the actual historical cultural and religious diversity of Ireland and the diversity within various migrant communities, including Muslims.55 The rhetorical and symbolic gestures of such a ‘celebratory multiculturalism’ do not really address the question of how a truly inclusive Irish society can emerge in which Muslims too can find their place. ‘Irish Muslim’ has been understood so far as an accidental geographical term. For the future development of an Irish Muslim identity, it will be necessary for Muslims themselves to claim their place in Irish society and consider their presence in Ireland as permanent, and for mainstream Irish society to move away from a mono-cultural and mono-religious definition of Irish identity in recognition of both Ireland’s historical religio-cultural diversity and its currently changing demographics.56 Notes 1. Tuula Sakaranaho, Religious Freedom, Multiculturalism, Islam: Cross-Reading Finland and Ireland (Leiden: Brill, 2006), pp. 225–69; Nina Clara Tiesler, ‘No Bad News from the European Margin: The New Islamic Presence in Portugal’, Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, 12:1, 2001, pp. 71–91. 2. Interview, private home, Cork, 27 December 2010. 3. Malcolm Macourt, ‘Mapping the “New Religious Landscape” and the “New Irish”: Use and Limitations of the Census’, in Olivia Cosgrove et al. (eds), Ireland’s New Religious Movements (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011), p. 39. 4. On recent rise of emigration from Ireland in the aftermath of the global economic and fiscal crisis see Irial Glynn at al., Irish Emigration in an Age of Austerity (Cork: University College Cork, 2013). Available at http://www.ucc.ie/en/media/ research/emigre/Emigration_in_an_Age_of_Austerity_Final.pdf (last accessed 26 May 2014). 5. John L. Esposito, ‘Introduction: Modernizing Islam and the Re-Islamization in a Global Perspective’, in John L. Esposito and François Burgat (eds), Modernizing Islam: Religion in the Public Sphere in the Middle East and Europe (London: Hurst, 2003), pp. 12–13. 6. Sara Silvestri, ‘Public Policies towards Muslims and the Institutionalization of “moderate” Islam’, in Anna Triandafyllidou (ed.), Muslims in 21st Century Europe: Structural and Cultural Perspectives (London and New York: Routledge, 2010), pp. 45–58; Peter Mandaville, Global Political Islam (London and New York: 2007), pp. 295–6. 7. ‘David Cameron orders review of Muslim Brotherhood’, BBC News, 1 April 2014. Available at http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-26830284 (last accessed 26 May 2014).

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8. John Burke and Eoghan Rise, ‘Fascist fundamentalism is rife among young Irish Muslims’, Sunday Tribune, 13 August 2006. 9. Tom Inglis, Moral Monopoly: The Rise and Fall of the Catholic Church in Modern Ireland (Dublin: University College Dublin Press, 1998). 10. Mansour Bonakdarian, ‘Erin and Iran Resurgent: Irish Nationalists and the Iranian Constitutional Revolution’, in Houchang E. Chehabi and Vanessa Martin (eds), Iran’s Constitutional Revolution: Popular Politics, Cultural Transformations and Transnational Connections (London: I. B. Tauris, 2010), pp. 291–318; Rozina Visram, Ayahs, Lascars and Princes: Indians in Britain, 1700–1947 (London: Pluto Press, 1986), pp. 77–110. 11. Rory Miller, ‘The Politics of Trade and Diplomacy: Ireland’s Evolving Relationship with the Muslim Middle East’, Irish Studies in International Affairs, 15, 2004, pp. 123–45. 12. Yahya Al-Hussein, interview with author, 10 June 2009. 13. Sahar Ullah, ‘Column: Muslim women face all kinds of assumptions. Let’s look behind the headscarves’, The Journal.ie, 25 March 2012. Available at http://www. thejournal.ie/readme/column-muslim-women-face-all-kinds-of-assumptionslet%E2%80%99s-look-behind-the-headscarves-393986-Mar2012/#comments (last accessed 26 February 2014). 14. Andy Pollock, ‘“Just another chapter of Muslim suffering”’, The Irish Times, 19 January 1991, p. 13. 15. Jakob de Roover, ‘No point in banning headscarves and turbans’, The Irish Times, 19 June 2008, p. 16. 16. Anna Triandafydillou, ‘Nations, Migrants and Transnational Identifications: An Interactive Approach to Nationalism’, in Gerard Delanty and Krishan Kumar (eds), The Sage Handbook of Nations and Nationalism (London: Sage, 2006), pp. 285–94. 17. De Roover, ‘No point in banning headscarves’, p. 16. 18. Ali Selim, ‘Integration of Muslims in Ireland’, Spectrum, 9, July 2005, p. 28. 19. Antoinette Kelly, ‘New evidence shows Turkey delivered food to Ireland during the famine’, IrishCentral, 2 June 2012. Available at http://www.irishcentral. com/news/new-evidence-shows-turkey-delivered-food-to-ireland-during-thefamine-156681255-237507681.html (last accessed 26 February 2014); ‘The Great Irish Famine and Ottoman Humanitarian Aid to Ireland’, The Pen, 30 December 2011. Available at http://www.thepenmagazine.net/the-great-irish-famineand-the-ottoman-humanitarian-aid-to-ireland/ (last accessed 26 February 2014). 20. Jawad Yaqub, ‘How quickly we forget’, Razormind, 6 August 2013. Available at http://www.razormind.co.uk/how-quickly-we-forget-how-muslims-helpedireland-during-the-great-famine/ (last accessed 26 February 2014). 21. Mehdi Islam, ‘How Muslims helped Ireland during the Great Famine’, archive:islam, 28 March 2013. Available at http://archiveislam.com/how-mus lims-helped-ireland-during-the-great-famine.html (last accessed 26 February 2014). 22.‘How the Khilafah aided the Irish during the famine of 1845’, Khilafah.com: Building

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23.

24.

25.

26.

27. 28.

29.

30.

31. 32.

33. 34.

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Census of Ireland 1901/1911, National Archives of Ireland, http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/ (last accessed 23 June 2014). Central Statistics Office, ‘Population usually resident in the state by religion and birthplace [CD759]’, http://www.cso.ie/en/census/census2011reports/census 2011profile7religionethnicityandirishtravellers - ethnicandculturalbackgroundin ireland/ (last accessed 30 October 2012). Central Statistics Office, ‘Actual change and percentage change in population in each regional authority area classified by religion 2006 and 2011 [CD755]’, http://www. cso.ie/en/census/census2011reports/census2011profile7religionethnicityandiri shtravellers-ethnicandculturalbackgroundinireland/ (last accessed 30 October 2012). Central Statistics Office, ‘Population aged 15 years and over classified by religion and educational level [CD767]’, http://www.cso.ie/en/census/census2011reports/ census2011profile7religionethnicityandirishtravellers-ethnicandculturalbackgro undinireland/ (last accessed 30 October 2012). Centre Islamique de Genève, www.cige.org (last accessed 17 May 2014). The Community Religions Project (CRP), http://www.leeds.ac.uk/arts/info/1250 10/the_centre_for_religion_and_public_life/1999/the_community_religions_pro ject_crp (last accessed 28 March 2014). Convention on the Constitution, https://www.constitution.ie/Convention.aspx (last accessed 28 November 2013). Cryptome.org, ‘Libyan intelligence service activity in the UK’, http://cryptome.org/ mi5-lis-uk.htm (last accessed 4 February 2010). Darley, www.darley.co.uk (last accessed 17 May 2014). Discover Islam, http://www.discoverislam.ie/index.php (last accessed 21 May 2014). Dubai Duty Free, www.dubaidutyfree.com (last accessed 17 May 2014). Dublin Airport Authority, www.dublinairportauthority.com (last accessed 17 May 2014). Dublin Horse Show, ‘History of the Aga Khan Trophy’, http://www.dublinhorseshow. com/index.jsp?p=348&n=435 (last accessed 22 May 2014). Dublin Welfare Society, http://www.dublinwelfaresociety.ie/ (last accessed 21 May 2014). Education in Ireland, Publications, http://www.educationinireland.com/en/ Publications/ (last accessed 3 June 2014). Employment Permit Section of the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, http://www.djei.ie/labour/workpermits/statistics.htm (last accessed 3 June 2014). European Council for Fatwa and Research, www.e-cfr.org (last accessed 17 May 2014). Fatwa-Online, http://www.fatwa-online.com (last accessed 24 June 2014). Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe, www.fioe.org (last accessed 17 May 2014). Federation of Student Islamic Societies in Ireland (FOSIS), http://ireland.fosis.org.uk/ (last accessed 29 April 2010). Galway Islamic Cultural Centre, http://gicc.ie/ (last accessed 17 May 2014). Godolphin, www.godolphin.com (last accessed 17 May 2014). Higher Education Authority, Statistics, http://www.hea.ie/en/statistics/overview (last accessed 3 June 2014). Irish Genealogy: Explore Your Family History, Church Records, http://churchrecords. irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/ (last accessed 23 June 2014).

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Index

Note: ‘n’ denotes endnote, ‘t’ denotes table, page numbers in italic indicate illustrations. Abacus International, 54 ‘Abdül-Mecid I, Sultan, 221 Abdülhamid II, Sultan, 37 Abdullah, Sayyid, 34 Abdullah bin Bayyah, Sheikh, 101 abortion, 151–3 Abu Talib, Mirza, 33–4 acrobats, 39 Aer Lingus, 53, 54 Aer Rianta, 97–8 Africans, 62t, 117–18; see also Nigerians; Somalis; South Africa; Sudanese Aga Khan, 123 Aga Khan III, 51, 123 Aga Khan IV, 123 Aga Khan Trophy, 123 Ahern, Bertie, 88n24, 180 Ahlul-Bayt Islamic Centre (husayniyya), 119, 120 Ahmad, Mirza Ghulam, 123 Ahmad, Mirza Masroor, 124 Ahmad, Mirza Tahir, 123–4 Murder in the Name of Allah, 124 Ahmadis (Jama‘at-i Ahmadiyya), 113, 123–4 Ahmed, Ihab, Sheikh, 129 Ahmed, Mohamed (Egyptian sailor), 39 Air Algérie, 53 airlines, 53, 54, 97–8; see also aviation industry airports, 83, 97–8 Al-Albani, Muhammad, 195 Algeria, 199–200, 202 Algerians, 56, 97 asylum seekers, 61, 62t charity towards, 80 employment, 62t Salafi women, 199–202, 203, 204 students, 83 Algiers, 29, 30

Ali, Arthur, 36, 38 Ali, Mir Aulad, 32–3, 33, 34–6, 37–8, 41, 42–3, 221 Ali, Mir Zamin, 33 Ali, Rebecca, 36, 38 Aliens Office, 39 All Bangladeshi Association of Ireland (formerly Bangladeshi Association of Ireland), 118 All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution, 152 Al-Alwani, Taha Jabir, 102 America, 4, 92, 93, 102 Anglo-Indians, 34 Anglo-Irish Treaty (1921), 42 Ansari, Humayun, 28 anti-Semitism, 142 Aontacht Éireann, 55 apartheid, 41, 52, 80 Arab nationalism, 108n10 Arab Spring, 105, 211 Arabic language, 34, 132, 167, 170, 201–2 Arabic speakers, 84, 93, 97, 168–9 Arabs, 17, 52 Ardkeen Village (Waterford), 132 Argiag, Adam, 103 Al-‘As, Ahmad, 84 Asmal, Kader, 52 Association of the Secondary Teachers of Ireland, 179 asylum seekers, 61–3 and language, 169 Limerick, 131, 132 Muslim Brotherhood, 92, 93 rise in, 56, 119 see also refugees El-Atrash, Ahmad, 79 aviation industry, 83; see also airlines

[ 255 ]

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Muslims in Ireland

ayatollahs, 121 Azakhana-e Zahra centre (Blanchardstown, Dublin), 119–20 Azzam, Abd Al-Rahman (Azzam Pasha), 94, 95 Azzam, Muna bint Abd Al-Rahman, 95 Azzam, Salem, 94, 95 Babul-Ilm Society, 120 Bahrain, 55, 64, 88n24 Bahrain Declaration (1980), 55 Bajwa, Dr Saud, 130 Baker, Captain Godfrey Evan, 9, 34 Balfour, Arthur, 36 Balkan nationalism, 37 Ballybrit mosque, 124 Ballyhaunis (County Mayo) mosque, 85, 86, 86, 87 United Meat Packers Limited, 85–7 Baltimore (West Cork): Sack of, 29, 30 Bandaly, Kamal, 39 Bandon mosque, 113 Bangladeshi Association of Ireland see All Bangladeshi Association of Ireland Bangladeshis, 56, 60–1, 62t, 117–18 Al-Banna, Hasan, 92, 93 Barelwi tradition, 115 Bari, Mazhar, 106 Bari, Mian Ghulam, 106, 114–15 Bashir, Isam, 100 Bayly, C. A., 41, 42 Bazelya, Khalifa, 52, 55 Belfast: Queen’s College, 32 Bengal, 41 Bengali immigrants, 117 Bhamjee, Moosajee, 9–10 Bin Baz, Sheikh, 195 Blanchardstown (Dublin) Azakhana-e Zahra, 120 mosque, 107, 125, 126 Al-Mustafa Islamic Centre, 117, 126 blasphemy, 153 ‘Bloody Sunday’ (1972), 54 Blunt, Sir Wilfrid, 42 Bosnia-Herzegovina, 37, 102 Bosnians, 56, 97 Brady, Seán, Cardinal, 151 Britain: Muslims in, 28 British Empire: 28, 29, 31, 32, 41, 42–3, 219, 222 Buddha, 37 Buddhism: 57t, 194–5 burials, 38 butchers, halal, 78–9, 85 Capra (Dublin): Muslim National School, 166 Carlow mosque, 113 Carolin, the Revd J. S., 38 Casey, James, 147, 163 Catholic Church/Catholicism and abortion, 151, 152 and change, 17, 144, 151, 219 and education, 97, 163, 177, 182 and Irish identity, 3, 222, 224

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and jurisprudence, 146, 147 and mixed marriage, 183n6 power of, 5, 139, 153, 197 Protestant criticism of, 149–50 State recognition of, 147, 148, 149, 218, 219 as a threat to Islam, 201 Catholics burials, 38 Census data, 57t education, 32, 163 nationalism, 41 Cavan Islamic Cultural Centre, 104 mosque, 113 Celtic language see Gaelic language Celtic revivalism, 36 Celtic Tiger, 1, 5, 17, 59, 114, 119, 197, 217, 219 Censuses, 1, 7, 9, 11, 39, 46n65, 56, 66 Ceric´, Mustafa, 101, 102 charities, 80–1 children, Muslim Algerian Salafi, 200, 201 education, 17, 84–5, 96, 120, 128; see also schools integration, 203, 204 religious practices, 203 socialisation, 164 Christianity: conversions to, 9 Christians and abortion, 151 Ottoman Empire, 30 and secular society, 197 Christmas, 171, 196 Church of Ireland, 9 Census data on, 57t and education, 164 State recognition of, 148 churches Census data on, 57t endowment of, 149 national, 149 Presbyterian, 148 see also Catholic Church; Church of Ireland citizenship, 18, 56–7, 66, 144, 217, 222; see also naturalisation policies Citizenship Referendum (2004), 222, 224 civil service, 32, 34 Clancy, John Joseph, 36 Clare mosque, 113 Clifford, James, 208 Clonee mosque (County Meath), 116 Clongriffin mosque project (North Dublin), 126, 223 Clonskeagh (Dublin) European Council for Fatwa and Research, 101–2 Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland, 98, 102, 103–4, 106, 120, 153, 218 Muslim National School, 98, 99, 120, 166, 167–8, 169, 170, 171, 173–5, 176, 200 Coercion Act (1887), 36 ‘coffee culture’, 209 Cohen, Robin, 193

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Index colonialism British, 5, 28, 29, 31–2, 39, 41, 42, 43, 55, 76, 123; see also British Empire and cultural superiority, 221 Egypt, 94 French, 200, 202, 204 intra-colonial relations, 41 and Ireland, 220, 221 Muslims and, 220 Confucius, 37 Congregation of the Mission, 30 Congress of Berlin, 37 Conradh na Gaeilge see Gaelic League conscience: freedom of, 149 consciousness: duality of, 208 Constitutional Review Group, 150 Coovadia, Hoosen, 52 Coovadia, Ismail, 79 Coovadia, Musa, 79 Cork, 127–9 Dean Mahomed in, 9, 34 immigration, 127 Iraqi Shiis, 129 Islamic information centre, 129 Malaysian Islamic Student Society, 127 mosques, 104, 105, 113, 128, 129, 223 Queen’s College, 32 University College Islamic Society, 127 Yemenis, 39 Cork Muslim Society, 104, 127, 128 Cornwallis, Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquis, 41 corsairs, 29, 30, 31 Cottrell, Seán, 172 counter-culture, 194 Coury, Ralph, 108n10 Crimean War (1853–6), 37 Daly, Jane, 34 Davis, Thomas, 29–30, 47n87 de Valera, Éamon, 51, 77, 123, 147, 148, 153, 158n, 159n Dean Mahomed, Sake (Shaykh Din Muhammad), 9, 33–4 Department of Education and Science: Promoting Anti Racism and Interculturalism in Education, 142 Department of Education and Skills Intercultural Education Strategy, 2010–2015, 142–3 and Muslim National Schools, 164, 167 Whole School Reports, 173, 182 Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, 56 Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform Integration: A Two Way Process, 140 Planning for Diversity, The National Action Plan Against Racism, 141 Derry: ‘Bloody Sunday’, 54 Dialogue, Peace and Relief Centre, 125 diasporas, 4–5 Iraqi, 211

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[ 257

Irish, 1, 3–4, 17, 196 Muslim, 120, 205–6, 217 religious, 203–4 Sudanese, 207–8 Discover Islam Ireland initiative, 126 discrimination: schools, 143, 178; see also apartheid; anti-Semitism diversity, 5–6, 140–2, 150, 217–18, 223, 224; see also identities divorce, 58 Docrat, Ismail, 79 doctors, 39, 41, 52, 55, 118, 207, 211 dress, 17–18 female teachers, 167 headscarves, 2, 171, 178–80, 183, 220–1, 223 Iraqi Shia women, 206 Irish converts, 198–9 Mir Aulad, 33, 34–5 niqab, 197 thowb, 199 turbans, 17–18 Drogheda, 221 Dubai, 64, 88n24, 98 Dubai Duty Free, 97–8 Dublin Ahlul-Bayt Islamic Centre (husayniyya), 119, 120, 205 ‘Araby’ Bazaar, 38, 43 Azakhana-e Zahra centre, 119–20 Babul-Ilm Society, 120 as centre of Islamic jurisprudence for Muslim Minorities (fiqh al-aqalliyyat), 102–3 hospitals, 39 Jewish community, 40, 78–9 Koinonia House (student hostel), 78, 79, 94 Malaya House (later Malaysia House), 52 migrants to, 38–9 mosques, 80, 83–4, 84–5, 94, 95, 105, 113, 116, 126: Anwar-e Madina Mosque, 115–16; Blackpitts Mosque, 114–15; Clondalkin Mosque, 117; Dublin Mosque, 84, 98, 104, 125, 170; Naas Islamic Centre, 117–18 Mount Jerome Cemetery, 38 Muslim National Schools, 85, 120, 164, 165, 166–8, 169–70, 173–6, 177, 200 Muslims, 39, 40, 57 Al-Mustafa Islamic Centre, 116–17 Shia Ahlul-Bayt Centre, 106 Tivoli Theatre, 39 Trinity College, 32, 34–5 University College, 51, 63, 77–8 Dublin Airport: prayer room, 83 Dublin Airport Authority, 97 Dublin Horse Show, 123 Dublin Islamic Centre, 80–3 Dublin Islamic Society (later Islamic Foundation of Ireland), 79–85 annual meetings, 94 charitable giving, 80–1 founding of, 51–2, 79–80 as a Friendly Society, 81, 95

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Muslims in Ireland

Dublin Islamic Society (cont.) fundraising for, 80–3 imam, 83–4, 95 and International Conference for Islamic Cultural Centres and Bodies in Europe, 94–5 becomes Islamic Foundation of Ireland, 84–5, 96 Logbook, 76, 80 membership, 97 mosque project, 81–3, 84–5, 94, 95 and Muslim Brotherhood, 92 Dublin Welfare Society, 126 Duffy, Joe see Joe Duffy Liveline show Dundalk mosque, 113 East India Company, 9, 33, 34 Easter, 171 Easter Uprising (1916), 220 economy Celtic Tiger years, 1, 5, 17, 59, 114, 119, 197, 217, 219 post 2008, 145 Educate Together schools, 184n11 education and anti-racism, 177 Dublin, 32 and Gaelic language, 35–6 girls, 171–2 Gülen movement, 126 higher, 56, 63; see also universities intercultural, 142–3 and Irish Constitution, 163 Muslims, 17, 58, 60f; see also Muslim National Schools primary, 84–5, 96, 120, 163, 176 and religion, 163 religious, 85, 96, 97, 167, 177 right to, 147 statistics, 56, 63 Turkish-Irish Educational and Cultural Society, 126 see also schools Education Act (1998), 142, 143, 177–8 Egypt, 41, 42, 92 Egyptian immigrants, 39, 40–1, 56, 61, 62t Egyptian Standard, 42 Eid, 79, 107, 118, 130, 196 Ekin, Des: The Stolen Village: Baltimore and Barbary Pirates, 29 Elkadi, Ahmed, 93 emigration, 3–4, 143, 144–5; see also immigration; migration Emmet, Robert, 47n87 employment asylum seekers, 62 Bangladeshis, 118 Europeans, 62t Muslims, 58; see also labour migration ‘non-nationals’, 56 teachers, 167 see also unemployment Engels, Friedrich, 31

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English language, 35, 146, 175, 198 Ennahda Movement see Al-Nahda party Ennis mosque, 113 entertainers, 38–9 Equality Authority, 145 Equality Status and Education Act, 180 Europe imperialism, 221 Muslim immigration to, 2, 64–5, 216 European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR), 99, 100–2 European Economic Community, 5 European Forum of Muslim Women, 99 European Institute of Human Sciences, 103 European Media Association, 99 European Muslim Council for Justice, Peace and Equality, 125 European Union, 144 exceptionalism, 5 exclusion, 179; see also discrimination face covering, 214n31 Fadlallah, Sayyid Muhammad Husayn, Grand Ayatollah, 122, 206 Fahmy, Osman, 39 Faisal, King of Saudi Arabia, 82, 95 Al-Faisal, Muhammad, 95 families Algerian Salafi, 201 Irish Constitution and, 163 Sudanese, 207 famine see Great Famine fatwa, 121, 206 European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR), 99, 100–2 Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe (FIOE), 99, 103, 128 Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS), 126 festivals, 171, 196–7, 208; see also Christmas; Easter; Eid; Ramadan; Thanksgiving finance, 154 Fine Gael, 179 Fiqh Council of North America, 102 firemen, 39, 51 Fitzsimons, Arif, 152 Flood, Gavin, 11 folklore culture, 35 food practices, Muslim, 39–40, 78–9, 85, 197, 203 Forrestal, Alison, 30 Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organisations, 99 Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sector, 180 France: Union des Organisations Islamiques de France, 100 Friendly Societies Act (1896), 81 fundamentalism, 179, 181 Gaddafi, Muammar, 54, 97, 104 Gaelic language, 35–6, 41, 221, 222 Gaelic League, 36, 42, 221

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Index Gaelic Union, 36 Galway Ahmadi Muslims, 124 medical industry, 129 mosque, 105, 113, 124, 130–1, 223 National University of Ireland, 129 Queen’s College, 32 University College, 53 Galway Interfaith Alliance, 124 Galway Islamic Cultural Centre, 104, 105, 130 Galway Islamic Society, 124, 129–30 Galway University Hospital, 151 Gandhi, Mahatma, 77 gender and education, 171–2 Muslim population, 58 and religion, 194 and research, 12 Shia attitudes to, 206 Sudanese and, 207 see also girls; women Ghaleb, Sayed (doctor), 39 Ghannouchi, Rachid, 100 Gilltown (County Kildare), 123 Gilroy, Paul, 208 Girgis, Eskander (doctor), 39, 41, 42 girls: education, 171–2 globalisation, 144 Good Friday Agreement (1998), 5, 150 Gorey Community School (County Wexford), 178, 180 Great Famine (1845–52), 3, 220, 221 grocery stores, 117 Gülen, Fethullah, 126 Gülen movement, 113, 126 halal meat, 40, 78–9, 85–6 Halal Meats, 85–7, 86 Halappanavar, Savita, 151 Halawa, Ebraheem, 105 Halawa, Hussein, Sheikh, 101, 102, 103, 106, 152 Hameed, Abdul, 115 Al-Hammadi, Ahmed, 128 Hanif, Muhammad, 124 Haughey, Charles, 55 Hayat, Tajmmul Hussain, 81 Hayes, Brian, 179 headscarves, 2, 171, 178–80, 183, 220–1, 223 Henry II, King of England, 31 Higher Education Authority, 56, 63 hijab see headscarves Hijabi Monologues theatre project, 220 Hillery, President Patrick J., 55 Hindus, 57t Hindustani language, 34 ‘homing desire’, 193–4, 200, 202, 204, 208, 210 Honohan, Iseut, 145 horse racing industry, 98, 123 hospitals contracts, 207 Egyptian doctors, 39

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[ 259

Galway University Hospital, 151 Iraqi nurses, 55, 59 Libyan students, 53 Malaysian students, 59 Muslim professionals, 127, 129, 131, 132 prayer rooms, 126, 132 as public institutions, 164 state support for, 149 husayniyya, 119, 120, 205 Al-Hussein, Yahya, Sheikh, 84, 106, 166 Hyde, Douglas, 36, 47n87 Ibrahim, Idris, 83 identities Algerian, 200, 202 and human body, 197, 214n31 Iraqi, 206–7, 211 Irish, 36, 43, 143, 217, 222, 224 Muslims, 40, 41, 200, 217–18, 223, 225 plural, 42, 193, 210 and religion, 7, 27, 32–3, 43, 202, 205 women, 196 see also diversity Ikhwani thinkers, 93 imams, 101, 102, 103 Ahlul-Bayt Centre, 121 Ahmadi community, 124 Anwar-e Madina Mosque, 115, 116 commissioning of, 104 Cork, 129 Dublin Islamic Society, 83–4, 95 financiers of, 104 Galway, 130 influence of, 105 Irish Council of Imams, 106–7 Islamic Foundation of Ireland, 166 Al-Mustafa Islamic Centre, 116 as representatives, 154 Shia, 119 Togher (Cork), 128 Urdu-speaking, 115 Waterford, 132 immigrants duties, 144–5 origins, 143 second-generation, 17, 165, 169, 197–8 immigration acceleration of, 5 governance of, 143–4, 219–20 Muslims, 1, 2, 49–66: doctors, 39, 41, 42, 52, 53, 55; exceptional nature of, 64–5; labelling, 49; patterns of, 216–17; students, 51–2, 53 and racism, 222 inclusion, 18, 177 India, 31–2, 33, 41, 42 Indian clubs (exercise), 34 Indian restaurants, 9 Indians, 33–4, 76–7, 131 insider/outsider debate, 11, 12–13; see also Muslims: Otherness Institute of Industrial Research and Standards, 53

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Muslims in Ireland

integration, 140–6, 224 governance of, 145 and multiculturalism, 179, 183 partnership approach to, 144 and responsibility, 144–5 in schools, 181 interculturalism, 142–3, 219 interfaith dialogue, 126 Interfaith Roundtable, 125 International Conference for Islamic Cultural Centres and Bodies in Europe, 94–5 Internet, 117 IRA, 97; see also Provisional Irish Republican Army Iranians, 122 Iran–Iraq War (1980–8), 86 Iraq, 121 Iraqis asylum seekers, 61, 62t, 64 migrants, 55, 56 refugees, 97, 121 Shia Muslim, 119, 129, 204–7 Ireland Anglicanisation of, 35 and British colonialism, 220, 221, 222 and British Empire, 28, 31, 32, 41, 42–3, 219, 222 and emigration, 143 and Libya, 52–3 links with Egypt, 42 meanings of, 3–4, 5 national identities in, 5 and national unity, 148, 150 and the ‘Orient’, 31–2 population, 3, 143 religious conflict in, 5 religious inclination in, 147 Republic of, 3 reputation of, 141 socio-cultural developments, 1 status of, 31 Irish–Arab Society, 52, 53, 54, 55 IrishCentral.com, 221 Irish Constitution and abortion, 151 and blasphemy, 153 and Catholic Church, 219 Convention on, 153 and education, 163, 172 and family, 163 and freedom of religion, 147–50 languages of, 146 Preamble to, 147, 148, 150 religious ethos of, 146–7, 153 rights in, 147 Irish Council for Overseas Students, 83 Irish Council of Imams (ICI), 102, 106–7 Irish culture, 4 Irish Declaration of Independence (1919), 42 Irish diaspora, 1, 3–4, 17 Irish Free State, 3, 42 Irish Home Rule movement, 36

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Irish identity, 36, 43, 142, 143, 166, 196, 199, 217, 222, 224 Irish language see Gaelic language The Irish Muslim, 126 Irish nationalism, 29, 41, 220, 222 Irish nationality, 36 Irish Primary Principals Network (IPPN), 172 The Irish Times ‘Dublin’s first Muslims’ article, 39–40 and headscarf controversy, 179, 180 and Irish identity, 166 Irisleabhar na Gaedhilge (journal), 36 Islam Arab dominance of, 109n20 attitudes to, 2 Barelwi tradition, 115 Catholic threat to, 201 and Christianity, 37, 124, 203 commercial, 39 converts to, 4–5, 17, 29, 30, 126, 194–9, 217, 221 Deobandi interpretation of, 115 development in West, 92 ethnification of, 50 European, 96 food practices, 39–40, 79 Friday prayers, 78, 79, 80 institutionalisation of, 8–9, 10, 87, 91, 94, 99, 128, 154, 218 Joyce and, 43 literature on, 195 Mir Aulad’s defence of, 37–8 and Muslim identity, 7 and Ottoman Empire, 37 political, 18, 96–7, 99, 105, 125, 218 practice of, 40, 79 reification of, 8 research on, 2 respect for, 139, 140 as a social problem, 140 stereotypes of, 65 as a threat, 27, 145, 222–3 Islamic Association see Jama‘at-i Islami Islamic Centre of Geneva, 81, 93 Islamic Centre of Ireland, 97–9 Islamic Circle of North America, 93 Islamic Council of Europe (ICE), 95 Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland (ICCI), 98, 99, 102, 103, 107, 120, 125, 154, 170, 218, 221 Islamic Foundation of Ireland (formerly Dublin Islamic Society), 84–5, 96–7, 98, 104, 164, 166; see also Dublin Islamic Society Islamic information centre (Cork), 129 Islamic laws, 154 Islamic Medical Association of North America, 93 Islamic organisations see Islamic societies; Muslim organisations Islamic Salvation Front movement (Front Islamique du Salut (FIS)), 199–200 Islamic societies

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Index Cork Malaysian Islamic Student Society, 127 Cork Muslim Society, 128 Galway Islamic Society, 124, 129–30 universities, 64, 126, 127 see also Dublin Islamic Society Islamic states: model constitution for, 108n12 Islamophobia, 18, 140, 142, 153, 180, 222–3 Ismailis, 122–3 Jaballah, Ahmad, 100 Jama‘a Islamiyya, 100 Jama’at-i Islami (Islamic Association), 8, 95 Jamatkhana, 122 Jeldtoft, Nadia, 7 Jenkins, Richard, 7, 10 Jews, 141 and abortion, 151 Dublin, 40, 78–9 integration of, 224 Ottoman Empire, 30 State recognition of, 148 see also anti-Semitism Jhavary, Yousuf, 79 Joe Duffy Liveline show, 174 Jordan: Yarmouk University, 88n24 Joyce, James, 221 ‘Araby’, 43 Finnegans Wake, 43 judiciary, 150 jurisprudence, 102–3; see also legal issues Al-Kaddo, Dr Nooh, 111n57 Kamil, Hamed (doctor), 39, 41, 42 Kamil Pasha, Mustafa, 42 Al-Kathiri, Abdullah, 79 Kenna, Summayah, 177 Kenny, Enda, 151 Kerry mosque, 113 Khaled, Amr, 204 Khan, Mohammed, 93 Kildare Islamic Cultural Centre, 117 Kilkenny mosque, 113 Knocknacarra (Galway), 130 Knott, Kim, 11 Kosovans, 56, 61, 62t Kotwal, Ismail, 115 Kuwait, 55 Kuwaiti Ministry of Awqaf, 83, 104 Kuwaitis, 64, 120 labelling, 7, 10, 49, 92, 210 labour migration, 1, 59–61, 120 Lamki, Harith, 79 languages Arabic, 34, 132, 167, 168–9, 170 eastern, 43 English, 35, 146, 175 Gaelic, 35–6, 41 Hindustani, 34 and integration, 145 Irish, 35, 36; see also Gaelic of Irish Constitution, 146

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[ 261

Irish converts, 198 Muslim National School pupils, 168–9, 170, 175 Persian, 34 Shia Muslims, 119 Turkish, 126 Urdu, 114, 115, 117, 129 Le Vacher, Jean, 30 League of Nations, 123 Leerssen, Joep, 32 legal issues, 150–3, 154; see also jurisprudence Lenghi, Dr, 53 Lenihan, Brian, 55 Lenihan, Conor, 143, 179 Lennon, Joseph, 31 Libya and Dublin mosque project, 82 Irish international school, 211 migrants from, 97, 211 refugees from, 103, 104 relationship with Ireland, 52–5, 97 students from, 52–3, 83 see also Tripoli Libyan Airlines, 53, 54 Limerick, 131–2 Islamic Cultural Centre (Raheen), 131 mosques, 113, 131 Qur’anic schools, 131, 132 University, 132 University Hospital, 132 Al-Liwa (Egyptian newspaper), 42 Lockhart, Hoosen, 79 London Indian migrants, 34 Regent’s Park Islamic Cultural Centre project, 82 University College, 34 Londonderry see Derry Lynch, Jack, 148 McDonagh, Enda, 163 McDowell, Michael, 141 McGee v. Attorney General (1974), 149 McLoughlin, Seán, viii, 194 MacNeill, Eoin, 36 Al-Maktoum, Hamdan bin Rashid, Sheikh, 98, 166 Maktoum family, 98 Maktoum Foundation, 98–9, 101–2, 103, 119, 125, 166, 167 Maktoum mosque network, 106 Malaysia, 63, 88n24 Malaysians employment, 59, 62t migrants, 56, 97 students, 52, 59–60, 63 Mannan, Abdul, 115 Manneh, Ebrahim, 79 marja‘ al-taqlid, 121 marriage inter-religious, 9, 34, 36, 51, 80, 183n6 Muslims, 58 material objects, 207–10

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Matouk, Atef, 53, 54, 55 Mawlawi, Faisal, 100 mawlid dolls, 208–9, 209 medical industry, 129 Members of Parliament, 9–10 memories: preservation of, 208 merchants, 39–40 Metro Éireann newspaper, 125, 174 Middle East: links with Ireland, 55; see also Bahrain; Dubai; Libya; Saudi Arabia; UAE milad marches, 117 Minhaj-ul-Quran movement, 116 Minty, Abdul Samad, 52 Minty, Ismail, 52 Mir Aulad see Ali, Mir Aulad missionaries, 30 moral values, 5, 197, 203 Moroccan migrants, 62t Al-Morsi, Mohamed, 105 mosque associations, 113 mosques Algerian Salafi children and, 200 Al-Mustafa Islamic Centre, 116–17 Ballyhaunis (County Mayo), 85, 86, 86, 87 Cavan, 104 Clondalkin, 117 Clonee (County Meath), 116 Cork, 104, 105, 113, 128, 129 dhikr sessions, 115, 116 diversification of, 218 Dublin, 80, 81, 83, 94, 95, 103, 105, 116: Anwar-e Madina, 115–16; Blackpitts, 114–15; Blanchardstown, 107; Clongriffin, 126; Dublin Mosque, 84, 98, 104, 125, 170 funding for, 218–19 Galway, 104, 105, 124, 130–1 and gender, 195 Irish attitude to, 183 Limerick, 131 Mullingar, 113 Naas, 117 networks, 97–9, 104, 106, 125 opposition to, 223 organisations, 8, 103–4, 114–18 Sunni, 113, 120 threats to, 153 Togher (Cork), 104, 128 vandalism to, 131 in warehouses, 114, 115, 116, 117, 125, 128 women and, 195, 198 Muftah, Salem Faituri, Sheikh, 104, 128 muftis, 100 Muhammad, Prophet: celebration of birth, 208 Muhammad, Shaykh Din see Dean Mahomed, Sake Mullally, Siobhán, 150, 180 Mullingar mosque, 113 multiculturalism, 2, 4, 142, 144, 219 and abortion debate, 152–3 and cultural coherence, 224–5

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and governance, 150 and integration, 179, 183 and Islam, 7 and Muslim National Schools, 167–9 and religious freedom, 146 Munich Islamic Centre, 81 Muslim American Society, 93 Muslim Association of Ireland (MAI), 103 Muslim Brotherhood , 91–6 in Egypt, 92 influence of, 8, 99, 125, 218 in Ireland, 92–6 Sudanese, 105 women of (Akhawat), 202–4 Muslim Council of Ireland, 125 Muslim National Schools, 166–76 Algerian Salafi women’s attitudes to, 200 curriculum, 174, 175, 182 Dublin, 164, 166–7, 169–70, 171, 173–6 facilities, 169–70 governance, 172–6, 182 growth, 96–7 management, 169, 182 multicultural pupils, 167–9 and religious freedom, 177 relocation, 98, 99 Shia Muslims, 120 syllabus, 170–2 textbooks, 169 Muslim organisations, 8–9, 51–2, 75–6, 125, 126, 218 Europe, 93–4 transnational network, 95 United States, 93 see also Dublin Islamic Centre; Dublin Islamic Society; Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe; Irish-Arab Society; Jama‘a Islamiyya; Muslim Association of Ireland; Muslim Brotherhood; Supreme Muslim Council of Ireland Muslim Primary Education Board, 176 Muslim Sisters of Eire, 126 Muslim societies see Islamic societies; Muslim organisations Muslim Youth of North America, 93 Muslims and abortion, 151–2 Ahmadi, 113, 123–4 Arab, 17 in Britain, 28 Census data on, 7, 11, 46n65, 56–9, 66 and citizenship, 18, 56–7, 66, 217 communities, 13–14, 40, 49–50, 93 countries of origin, 56 divorce, 58 Dublin, 39 economic status, 58, 59f education, 58, 60f employment, 58 and finance, 154 heterogeneity of, 65, 182 identity, 7, 40, 41, 200, 217–18, 223, 225

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Index

[ 263

immigration, 1, 2, 49–66, 216–17 integration, 27, 224 Ismaili, 122–3 labelling, 49 ‘myth of return’, 217 names, 36, 39 ‘non-organised’, 9, 14 Otherness, 6–7, 43, 195, 200, 221, 222, 224 political participation, 102; see also Islam: political population, 1–2, 57–8, 164, 217 radicalism, 145 religious freedom, 154 representation of, 154 research on, 2, 6, 17 rivalries, 124, 125 rules, 172 Salafi, 196, 198, 199–202 secular, 52 Shia, 106, 113, 118–22, 129, 204–7, 211 social class, 58, 60f, 119, 120, 216–17 social identity, 7 socio-economic status, 6, 49, 50, 51, 58, 64, 65 South African, 51–2 South Asian, 17, 113 sub-Saharan, 17 and suicide, 152 Sunni, 100, 106, 113, 120–1, 211 unemployment, 58 violence against, 122, 153, 223; see also Islamophobia see also Islam

Nigerians, 56, 117, 126, 129 asylum seekers, 61, 62t, 64 niqab, 197 Noonan, Ibrahim, 124 North Dublin Muslim National School, 166, 167, 168, 169, 171, 175 Northern Ireland Derry, 54 creation, 3 and Good Friday Agreement (1998), 5 Muslims, 4 Queen’s College, Belfast, 32 ‘Troubles’, 148 nostalgia, 65, 217 nurses, 53, 55

Naas Islamic Centre, 117–18 Al-Nahda party (Ennahda Movement), 100 Nasser, Gamal Abdel, 92 National Action Plan Against Racism (2005), 142 National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism, 145, 179 National Consultative Council on Racism and Interculturalism, 177 National Council for Curriculum and Assessment: Intercultural Education in the Primary School, 142 National University of Ireland (Galway), 77, 129 National University of Ireland (Maynooth), 123 nationalism, 204 Arab, 108n10 Balkan, 37 Iraqi Shia, 206 Irish, 29, 41, 220, 222 methodological, 14 naturalisation policies, 144, 183; see also citizenship networks and intra-colonial relations, 41 mosques, 97–9, 104, 106, 125 transnational, 95

Pakistan, 114, 123 Pakistanis asylum seekers, 61, 62t community growth, 113 Cork, 129 employment, 60–1, 62t immigrants, 56, 117 Limerick, 131 mosques, 114–16 Shia Muslim, 119–20 Palestine, 41, 55, 222 Palestinians, 80, 220 paramedics, 53 ‘participant observation’, 11 Persian language, 34 philanthropy see charities; Maktoum Foundation pilgrims, 39 pilots: Libyan, 54 pluralisation, 177 political participation, 18; see also Islam: political political surveillance, 41 Portlaoise mosque, 113 prayers Ismailis, 122 Muslim and Catholic practices compared, 203

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Ó Dálaigh, Cearbhall, 82–3, 95 O’Donovan, Darren, 180 Office for the Promotion of Migrant Integration, 145 Office of the Minister for Integration: Migration Nation: Statement on Integration Strategy and Diversity Management, 143, 144, 145 Office of the Refugee Application Commissioner (ORAC), 56, 61 O’Flaherty, Terry, Councillor, 130 O’Malley, Kate, 41 oral history, 11 Oriental Studies, 32 Orientalism, 31, 43 Ottoman Empire, 28–9, 30, 37 outsiders see insider/outsider debate; Muslims: Otherness

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prayers (cont.) at Muslim National Schools, 171 provision for, 78, 79, 80, 83, 85, 96, 114, 115, 126, 130, 131, 132; see also mosques restrictions on, 129 Presbyterian Church, 148 proselytising, 198 Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013, 151 Protestants, 3, 9, 149–50, 183n6, 224 Provisional Irish Republican Army, 54 Al-Qadri, Muhammad Tahir, 116 Al-Qadri, Umar, Sheikh, 106, 116–17 Al-Qaradawi, Yusuf, Sheikh, 100 Quinn, Ruairi, 178–9, 180, 184n11, 223 Qur’an, 167, 169, 171, 200, 221 Qur’anic schools, 96, 131, 132, 169 Qutb, Sayyid, 93 race theory, 31 racial segregation see apartheid racing industry, 123 racism action plan on, 141, 142 and education, 177 Irish nationalists and, 222 and mass immigration, 222 National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism, 145 public engagement with, 223–4 see also anti-Semitism radicalism, 145 Rae, Professor William Norman, 77 Rafique, Arfan, 87 Rafique, Sher Mohammed, 85, 87 Raheen (Limerick), 131, 132 Rajmohamed, S. E., 67n11 Ramadan, 79, 115, 132 Ramadan, Said, 93 Ramadan, Tariq, 102 Ramadan Al-Bouti, Muhammad Sa‘id, Sheikh, 102 Al-Rawi, Ahmed, 100 reform, 41 refugees, 97, 119 integration of, 140–1 Iraqi, 121, 206 and language, 169 Limerick, 131, 132 Middle Eastern, 211 naturalisation of, 183 see also asylum seekers registers of aliens, 39 Reis, Murat, 29 religion Census data on, 9, 56, 57t and education, 163 and food, 39–40 freedom of, 146, 147–50, 151, 154, 177, 182 and identity, 2, 7, 17, 27, 32–3, 50, 202, 205

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Muslim women, 194, 201, 202 and oppression, 29–30 role of, 144 and schools, 180 and stability, 194 see also Catholic Church; Islam religious hatred, 153; see also Islamophobia Religious Society of Friends, 148 religious symbols, 178 religious tolerance, 30, 139–40, 146 restaurants: Indian, 9 rights abortion, 151, 152 education, 147 human, 108n12 Irish Constitution and, 147 migrants’, 18 minority, 140, 182 political, 147 religious, 146, 182 religious education, 177 Robinson, Mary, 4, 98, 166 Rougier, Natalie, 145, 179 Roy, Olivier, 196 Roy, Ram Mohun, Raja, 41 Royal College of Surgeons, 51, 52, 63 Indian students, 77, 78 Institute of Leadership, 88n24 international campuses, 64 and mosque project, 82 Muslim Committee, 79 Muslim students, 82 Rushdie affair, 2 Rustomjee, Jivanji Ghorkhodu ‘Parsee’, 77 Rustomjee, Sorabjee, 51, 77, 123 Rustomjee family, 76–7 Ryan, Fredrick, 42 Saddam Husayn, 121, 205 Said, Edward: Orientalism, 31 Saig, Mirza, 119 sailors: Egyptian, 39 Salafis, 196, 198, 199–202 Al-Saleh, Ali, Sayyid, 106, 119, 121–2 Al-Salih Al-Uthaymin, Abdullah, 195 Sallabi, Ali, Sheikh, 104–5 Sallabi, Khalid, Sheikh, 104 Satardien, Shaheed, Sheikh, 107, 125 Saudi Arabia and Dublin mosque project, 82, 94 Grand Mufti of, 195 and International Conference for Islamic Cultural Centres and Bodies in Europe, 94–5 medical training, 64 migrants from, 56 schools Catholic, 97 and change, 17 choice of, 181 denominational, 143, 163–4, 176–81, 182, 219 discrimination, 143, 178

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Index Educate Together, 184n11 governance, 172 headscarf wearing, 178, 179, 183 inclusion, 177 integration, 181 Islamic, 84–5, 117, 128, 164, 181; see also Muslim National Schools; Qur’anic schools management, 172 media involvement, 182 multi-denominational, 163 Muslim see Muslim National Schools national, 180; see also Muslim National Schools national curriculum, 96 non-denominational, 165–6 patronage system, 180, 182 primary, 142, 180–1 Qur’anic, 96, 131, 132, 169 secondary, 171–2, 178 teachers, 165, 166–7 transport, 170 uniforms, 178, 179, 180 Whole School Evaluation (WSE), 173, 174, 175–6 Whole School Reports, 182 see also education secularisation, 17, 151, 153, 197, 223, 224 security, 145, 170 Seedat, Dr Ebrahim, 66n6 Selim, Dr Ali, 151–2, 153 servants, 51 Serwal Kameez, 198 Shatter, Alan, 153 Sher Halal Foods, 87 Sherwin, Seán, 54–5 Shia Islamic Education Trust, 122 Shia Muslims, 106, 113 Cork, 129 female, 122 Iraqi, 204–7, 211 religious authority, 121–2 relationship with Sunni Muslims, 120–1 Twelver, 118–22 Sikhs, 17–18 Sinn Fein, 197 Al-Sistani, Ali Al-Husayni, Grand Ayatollah, 121, 122, 205 slaughtering plants, 85 slaves, 30 social cohesion, 145 social identities, 7, 10 Socialist Party, 42 Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language, 35, 36 Society of Friends see Religious Society of Friends Somalis, 56, 61, 62t, 64 South Africa apartheid, 41, 76, 80 Indians, 51, 76–7 students, 51–2, 77–9, 81, 123 South Asians, 113, 114–18; see also Ahmadis;

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[ 265

Bangladeshis; Bengalis; Pakistanis Statistics of Education in Ireland, 63 students countries of origin, 64 as imams, 83–4 Indian, 34, 77 Irish Council for Overseas Students, 83 Libyan, 52–3 Limerick, 131 Malaysian, 52, 59–60, 63, 127 medical, 39, 51–2, 53, 63, 77–9, 82, 93, 98, 101, 118, 129 Middle Eastern, 55, 64 postgraduate, 52, 53 South African, 51–2, 77–9, 81, 123 statistics on, 56, 63 Sudanese, 83, 84 Sudanese Muslims, 56 asylum seekers, 61, 62t, 64, 211 culture, 199 employment, 62t social class, 210 students, 83, 84 women, 207–10 Sufism, 17, 115, 116, 117, 129 suicide, 152 Sunni Muslims, 100, 106, 113, 120–1, 211 Supreme Court, 151 Campaign to Separate Church and State v. Minister for Education, 149, 164 Supreme Muslim Council of Ireland, 107 Syria, 121 teachers Association of the Secondary Teachers of Ireland, 179 Muslim National Schools, 165, 166, 175, 176, 182 non-Muslim at Muslim schools, 166–7, 174 payment of, 163, 169 qualifications, 184n10 terrorism, 122 textile industry, 114 Thanksgiving, 196, 197 Thompson, Peter, 166 thowb (Sudanese Muslims’ gown), 199 Togher mosque (Cork), 104, 128 Tonabrockery (Galway), 130 Tone, Wolfe, 47n87 Tralee mosque, 113 Treaty of Berlin (1878), 37 Tripoli, 30, 109n21, 211 ‘Troubles’, 148 Al-Turabi, Hasan, 100 Turkish-Irish Educational and Cultural Society, 126 Turkish language, 126 Turko-Russian wars (1877–8), 36–7 Turks emigration from, 56 employment, 60–1, 62t and Great Famine, 221

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Turks (cont.) Gülen movement, 113, 126 and Sack of Baltimore, 29 see also Ottoman Empire Tweed, Thomas A., 204, 208 UAE, 55, 64, 97; see also Abu Dhabi; Dubai umma, 200, 202 unemployment, 58; see also employment Union des Organisations Islamiques de France, 100 United Halal Foods, 87 United Meat Packers Limited, 85–7 United States see America Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 108n12 Universal Islamic Declaration of Human Rights, 108n12 universities, 33, 34, 51, 53 Bahrain, 88n24 Cork, 32 Dublin, 32, 34–5, 51 Galway, 32, 53 Iraq, 55 Islamic societies, 64, 126, 127 Jordan, 89n24 London, 34 Malaysia, 88n24 medical training, 63 National University of Ireland (Galway), 77, 129 National University of Ireland (Maynooth), 123 Urdu speakers, 114, 115, 117, 129 Usmani, Muhammad Taqi, 101 Vaizie, Dr Yusuf, 66n6, 82 Vásquez, Manuel A., 194 Vertovec, Steven, 203–4

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Victoria, Queen, 221 violence Iraq, 61 Irish, 31 against Muslims, 122, 153, 223 Northern Ireland, 148 Waterford, 132 mosque, 113 Watt, Philip, 177, 179 Wavertree, William Hall Walker, 1st Baron, 123 The Weekly Irish Times: ‘The Decay of Islamism’ article, 36–8 welfare benefits, 222 Werbner, Pnina, 193 Whyte, John Henry, 148, 149 women, Muslim and abortion, 151–2 Muslim, 11, 193–211: Algerian Salafi, 199–202, 203, 204; converts to Islam, 126, 194–9; dress see under dress; employment, 58; European Forum of Muslim Women, 99; face covering, 214n31, identities, 193, 211; and mosques, 195, 198; of Muslim Brotherhood, 202–4; and religion, 194; Shii, 122, 204–7, 211; Sudanese, 207–10; Sunni, 211; and theatre, 220 as teachers, 132, 167 Wright, William, 32 Yeats, W. B., 221 Reveries over Childhood and Youth, 43 Yemenis, 39 Zada, Mohamed Riad (doctor), 39 Zaveri, Zakiudeen, 79 Al-Zawahiri, Ayman, 108n11

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