Lucinda Creighton: Our Muslim youth are easy prey for IS brainwashers

IT’S a good thing that focus has rested on Islamic extremism in Ireland since IS fighter Khalid Kelly blew himself up in Iraq some weeks ago.

For so long we have turned a blind eye to the risk of radicalisation.

In fact, it is more than a risk, as extremism has become a reality here in recent years.

There are an estimated 30 to 40 Irish citizens and residents who have left to join the Islamic State group in Syria, according to Irish authorities.

Many were dual-nationals, including Hisham Habbash and Shamseddin Gaidan, who were both born in Libya, Alaa Ciymeh (Jordan), Hudhaifa El Sayed (Egypt) and Abu Hamza al Muhajir (Algeria).

Terence “Khalid” Kelly, who was born in Dublin’s Liberties, converted to Islam in the 1990s while serving a prison term for brewing alcohol in Saudi Arabia, where he had been working as a nurse.

After his release he travelled to Britain, joined the Islamist extremist group al-Muhajiroun and grew close to its co-founder Anjem Choudary — a notorious hate preacher who was jailed for five-and-a-half years in September for urging support of IS.

Kelly was known for defending terror attacks in the West — including 9/11 and the 7/7 bombings — and expressing his desire to see Sharia law implemented across the globe.

Bizarrely, in the mid 2000s our national broadcaster saw fit to host him on the Late Late Show, where he shared his radical anti-Western views.

He is believed to have trained alongside the Taliban in Pakistan between 2009 and 2010, before returning to Ireland and claiming in a 2011

interview that he would like to kill Barack Obama for alleged crimes against Muslims.

As this was just prior to the US President’s visit to Dublin, Kelly was arrested and later released without charges.

Then in June of last year he was detained and questioned again after making known his support for IS.

Khalid is believed to have travelled to IS territory earlier this year — and then died in a failed suicide mission on November 4 as Iraqi forces moved to retake Mosul.

Although the focus on extremism in Ireland is relatively recent, many Muslim clerics here have been on record expressing concern about radical elements since the mid 2000s.

Their concerns were largely ignored.

Out of the more than 50,000 Muslims living in Ireland today, Islamic leaders claim that there are up to 100 extremists.

Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald warned in June that people are becoming radicalised online — but not enough is known to stop it.

Gardai are monitoring some cases, but remain tight-lipped on numbers and strategy.

It should be of concern to them that Yusuf al-Qaradawi — who has pronounced support for suicide bombings in Iraq and called for a global caliphate — is perceived as an influential voice in some quarters of the Irish Islamic community.

There is also some evidence that IS supporters are using this country as a logistics hub for the movement of foreign fighters and for fundraising.

In November 2015, authorities suspected that a group of 12 Irish-based individuals had been harbouring extremists from Britain and mainland Europe, and providing them with fake passports and other forms of documentation.

Foreign intelligence agencies have also reported that young Islamists are training in Ireland to become foreign fighters in Iraq and Syria.

These prospective recruits reportedly go to “training camps” in Leinster, with one such camp reportedly having taken place in autumn 2015.

Irish authorities have also identified an elaborate financial ring operated by an individual based in Dublin.

He reportedly received thousands of euro a month from the Department of Social Welfare and had links to al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

In addition to laundering money through several front companies, the individual provided false documentation to gain entry to other countries.

In June, Ireland deported a Jordanian man — unidentified for legal reasons — accused of being the primary IS recruiter in the country.

He had been living here since 2000 and arranged travel for jihadist recruits.

It is unclear whether he was also the Dublin financier.

It is time to face up to this extremist risk to Irish citizens.

This risk is heightened as Iraq government forces drive IS out of their strongholds in Mosul and elsewhere.

Once defeated, they are likely to turn their terrorist focus on easier targets in Europe.

We cannot be complacent. The Government and An Garda Siochana will need to step up and resource their counter-extremism efforts.

Ireland is a soft target with a worrying lack of an effective strategy to deter radicalisation.

Fianna Fail Bill is a total Mayor to councillors



IT feels a bit like deja vu this week as Fianna Fail proposes a Dail Bill to introduce a directly elected mayor of Dublin.

When I first ran as a Dublin City Council candidate in 2004, Fianna Fail were in power and Fine Gael, my then party, was campaigning for a directly elected mayor.

It was one of our most important policies as far as I was concerned.

It would allow the city to have a mayor with great democratic legitimacy and the power to really get things done.

Dublin would have a champion at national and international levels.

It is enormously disappointing that 12 years later nothing has happened on the issue.

Fine Gael, despite being the original proponents of the idea, wasted almost six years of opportunity to get it done.

Then Environment Minister Phil Hogan cynically ditched the idea by allowing sitting councillors to vote on and veto the plan.

It was cynical because many councillors harbour the hope of becoming a mayor or county chairman through the current closed shop process — and most would not have a hope in hell of winning the top job in any direct election.

It is hard to take the Fianna Fail position on this seriously.

When we campaigned back in the early 2000s, they dismissed it for the same reason as Hogan — keeping city and county councillors happy.

I hope that the Fianna Fail position has genuinely changed, although after 12 years of expectation, forgive me for being a little sceptical.

Cabinet can’t be jury on judges



CHIEF Justice Susan Denham’s call this week for reform of the judicial appointment process is an unprecedented step.

It was taken by our top judge, above, in utter exasperation at the lazy misinformation circulated by Minister Shane Ross.

I cannot recall a time when the Chief Justice had to correct “inaccurate discussion and misrepresentation” of the position of the judiciary in such a fashion.

It is not usual for the Chief Justice to have to enter the public fray, even less so when it involves publicly disagreeing with a Minister.

Ross has long railed against the manner in which members of the judiciary are appointed.

In this respect he is 100 per cent right.

The Judicial Appointments body puts forward a long list of potential judges, and then the Cabinet decides who actually fills the vacancies.

It is a deeply political process, with party loyalists and major donors being rewarded for their assistance to the Government parties of the day.

The way in which this can be rectified is to take a few small steps.

Firstly, reduce the discretion afforded to the Cabinet, putting forward only a very small number of suitable candidates.

Secondly, end the practice of unsuccessful candidates ‘rolling over’ for consideration again and again. This circumvents what should be a transparent process.

The problem here is not the judiciary, it is the Cabinet. They are the ones who can change what is an outdated system.

Minister Ross should concentrate on convincing his colleagues, or shaming them into action.

Attacking the judiciary is just populist and counterproductive.

It undermines public confidence in the independence of our judiciary and this is a dangerous course of action, as history repeatedly tells us.

The judiciary are an easy scapegoat because they are constrained in how they can engage in public debate.

I take my hat off to Susan Denham for standing up for the very democratic foundations of the State. It cannot have been an easy decision.

Free jams and get till bells jinglin’



IT IS only the middle of November, but already Christmas shopping traffic in Dublin is bumper to bumper.

While the Gardai usually roll out the jam-relieving Operation Freeflow in mid-December, I think there is a strong argument to bring it forward.

Given the allure of the historically weak sterling, we are already seeing droves of people heading to the North to start their festive shopping.

One further push factor for this exodus across the Border will undoubtedly be the traffic chaos in our capital city — unless it is resolved very quickly.

The Luas works already make navigation of the city centre quite difficult — though, to be fair, the impact has certainly been minimised this time around.

And the addition of Christmas shoppers to the mix will make the idea of travelling into central Dublin very off-putting.

This time of year is such an essential period for our businesses, particularly those in the retail sector.

Those in authority owe it to them to ensure that we further minimise the traffic chaos in Dublin and make the shopping experience as pleasant as possible.

Otherwise we are likely to see the Republic lose out to more competitive retailers located in the North.