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THE CHAIR OF the Irish Muslim Peace and Integration Council, Shaykh Dr Umar Al-Qadri, has said people with extremist views are targeting “vulnerable” young Muslims in Ireland.
Dr Al-Qadri has been vocal about the risks of radicalisation here for a number of years. The Irish Muslim Peace and Integration Council launched an anti-extremism declaration and a guide to prevent radicalisation within the Muslim community in 2015.
His comments today come after it emerged that one of the attackers in last weekend’s terror attack in London, Rachid Redouane, had lived in Dublin for some time. He was not under surveillance by authorities here.
Dr Al-Qadri told Morning Ireland he did not know Redouane, but that one of the other attackers, Khurum Butt, looked “familiar”.
The imam said it was not enough to monitor individuals with extremist views, adding that attempts to deradicalise them need to be made.
“I, in fact, do not know [Rachid Redouane], but I know a number of other individuals that are still living in Ireland that are spreading their hatred, spreading their hate narrative on social media, as well as offline, and these individuals I’m sure they must be monitored by the Department of Justice, but only monitoring these individuals, I do not think it is sufficient.
I think these people need professional help. I think they need to be deradicalised and … if we cannot put these people behind bars, then at least what the State can do is to ensure that these people are given deradicalisation training to ensure that they are deradicalised.
Dr Al-Qadri said if this doesn’t happen these people will be “free to spread their very, very dangerous ideas” and “cancerous ideology to other Muslim youths, teenagers”.
A lot of them are vulnerable because they are young, because they have not dealt with the leaders of the Muslim community, have never spoken about theology, have never spoken about the Islamic stance on jihad for example. These youngsters, many of them that are going through grievances, are very, very vulnerable to radicalisation. Such individuals they use this, they exploit it.
Dr Al-Qadri said extremists may be aware they are being monitored and, as such, not carry out an attack but could encourage others to “commit an atrocity”.
He condemned the actions of the people behind the recent terror attacks in Manchester and London, saying they are “un-Islamic” and “will not be tolerated”. He is one of more than 130 imams and Muslim religious leaders who have refused to say funeral prayers for the perpetrators of the London attack.
In a statement to the same programme, the Department of Justice said there are a small number of people in Ireland who are being monitored by authorities as their activities are a cause for concern in terms of supporting terrorism. The statement added that, where evidence is available, these people will the face full rigours of the law.
‘Empathy education’
A conference highlighting the role education can play in preventing violent extremism is set to take place at the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre in NUI Galway later this week.
Speaking in advance of the conference, Professor Pat Dolan said: “We know that empathy education is now recognised as one of the key ingredients in the prevention of youth violent extremism.
“Ireland should not be complacent about this serious issue and needs to lead the way in the development of empathy education in schools. This is no longer just an issue in the UK, France and Belgium, it also has real resonance for Ireland, and the challenges of intolerance, hatred and fear is now a global humanitarian crisis.”
Gardaí ‘in control of situation’
Over the weekend, Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan said a terror attack is “unlikely” to happen in Ireland, but we must remain vigilant.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio’s This Week, Flanagan said: “We don’t have any direct evidence of any threat here for Ireland in terms of our national security but, of course, we’re by no means immune, we’re by no means exempt. Our threat level is currently moderate.”
Flanagan said he is “absolutely confident that the Garda Siochána, at every level, are fully in control of the situation here, the sharing of the intelligence internationally and obviously securing the State here from a national perspective”.
However, garda representative associations have previously said their rank-and-file members have received no training for such eventualities.
Writing for TheJournal.ie recently, security specialist Tom Clonan said: “Ireland currently fits that security profile as Europe’s weakest link in terms of counter terrorism awareness, preparedness and training…
Compared to other jurisdictions in Europe, Irish citizens are the least well-informed in terms of the current evolving and emerging terror threat and the appropriate responses to it.
Fine Gael leader and Minister for Social Protection Leo Varadkar has indicated he intends to establish a cabinet-level committee on national security similar to the Cobra committee in the UK.
On Sunday, TheJournal.ie revealed that armed garda units are monitoring Ireland’s major cities in the wake of the London attack.
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Complex mix of factors? Eh not really, the fact that women take on caring responsibility of children and/or elderly parents, so women either work part time and/or take career breaks and this is not recognised by society or the government as ‘working” so therefore no contributions.
I have taken career breaks and work part time due to the above, I know my pension will be effected but I will always choose my family and their needs, plus I am contributing towards society by providing unpaid care.
I could be dead by the time I can retire!
@Gucky: nail on the head here – my wife chooses to stay home and mind our children (not that we could afford childcare anyway) but I still think we would choose this anyway – all the government does is give you a measly 1500 per year tax credit for this and doesn’t recognize the work that goes into raising and taking care of the family – how about a better tax credit/ tax break for those spouses that want to contribute on their spouses behalf? All they seem to talk about is how they can get women back to “work” – equality should be there for those that choose to work and those that decide to stay at home.
@Gucky: And also the group in the study would have been affected by the Marriage bar – only lifted in the 70′s. Meaning a lot of them would of had to leave work once married, further hampering their potential to work and earn a pension. Horrible to think how they have been treated, forced out of work and also no provisions made to support them.
@Grainne Tallon: good point, I didn’t even think about that. A better analysis would be to analyse the current pension provisions of the current workforce if that’s the demographic that the laws are to effect.
@Sean Baylon: are you seriously saying that those that decide to work should get the same pension as those that decide to stay at home – with your logic the Jobseeker’s Allowance should be same average wage as those that go out to work
@lorcmulv: that isn’t what I said at all – I said that people who’s partners work should be allowed to contribute on their behalf as they are “working” in the home.
@Sean Baylon: 2 people work the same hours and one is specialised and earns 90k but the other 45k. Should they get the same pension? 2 people work different hours one earns 90k and the other 45k. Should they get the same pension? It doesn’t matter about gender or why the person works less hours. Simply some people pay more into their pension.
I’m not at all shocked by this. Women with children tend to not stay in the workforce as long as men over the course of their lives, as such, they get a lesser pension, usually just the state pension. Hardly a groundbreaking story.
So men who worked between 1965 and 2010 earned more pension than women in the same period?! They also earned more income. Women in the same period traditionally stayed home more. How is this news and why is the data 10 years out of date?
But there’s three different categories in retirement isnt there? Men women and politicians.
It is incorrect to conclude that there is no gender variance in the average state pension actually awarded.
The averaging of contributions over lifetime employments does reduce the actual, particularly for women, whose employment contributions are reduced by periods of domestic commitment.
Another factor is involuntary contract employment, whereby the state allowed widespread abuses by employers, to recategorise previously insure able jobs as self employment.
The recent announcement by a lady minister to redress these discriminations is limited in scope by age & records constraints, & does not offer equity universally. Unfortunately, The headline pronouncements do not reveal the continuing limitations to the rectification of these pension reductions.
I work with a number of job sharers who chose to work less hours because they wanted to spend time with their children. They are able to do this because their partners work full time. As a result they will have less pension contributions than their partner. Gender doesn’t come into it they simply earned less in paid employment which was their choice.
Every job sharer I know does no overtime and expect other team members to because they don’t have kids or they have a partner. This is not equality
Don’t have baby’s basically
Women also tend to be much more risk averse when it comes to finances. They are far less likely to invest money, preferring to keep it in deposit accounts – thus becoming poorer over time.
By the way, I’m not saying this is the main cause but it’s a large contributor.
Total household income is a much better indicator of economic well-being!
have your say