{"id":131337,"date":"2025-11-10T01:14:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T01:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/131337\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T01:14:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T01:14:10","slug":"muslims-in-ireland-living-in-fear-of-far-right-extremists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/131337\/","title":{"rendered":"Muslims in Ireland ‘living in fear of far-right extremists’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Irish Muslim leaders say their congregations are \u201con edge\u201d and \u201cliving in fear\u201d following revelations of an alleged plot by far-right extremists to bomb a mosque.<\/p>\n

Imams told the Irish Examiner that the Government must \u201curgently\u201d lead a national campaign to tackle the spread of hatred, to reassure targeted communities they are safe, and to prevent possible attacks on places of worship and centres for asylum seekers.<\/p>\n

It comes as garda\u00ed and the PSNI are continuing a cross-border investigation into the emergence of a violent right-wing extremist organisation, identified as the Irish Defence Army (IDA).<\/p>\n

This organisation is considered small, with some eight members. It is understood that almost all of them are known to the authorities.<\/p>\n

It is believed security agencies have rendered the organisation \u201cimpotent\u201d after arrests last week.<\/p>\n

The IDA recently broke away from a wider group, which also sees itself as \u201cself defence against foreign and domestic threats\u201d.<\/p>\n

Security sources believe the second group has, so far, not taken the step from extremist ideology to violent extremism \u2014 but agencies are not complacent and suspect there will be more such groups. Garda HQ has devoted more resources to the Garda Crime and Security Intelligence Service to focus its units on this area.<\/p>\n

The Irish Examiner revealed on Thursday that two men had been arrested in the early hours of Wednesday<\/a> in Abbeyleix, Co Laois, on suspicion of being members of an unlawful organisation.<\/p>\n

The arrests were part of a cross-border operation which involved the discovery by the PSNI of suspect devices.<\/p>\n

In a court appearance last Friday, details were heard of an alleged intention by a violent right-wing group to bomb a mosque in Co Galway<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Imam Ibrahim Noonan, of Galway Mosque, described the alleged intention to bomb his mosque as \u201cshocking\u201d. He said:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n All our members, and Muslim people generally in Ireland, are on edge now \u2014 they are living in fear. We do not know what is coming next.\n <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a very high state of anxiety.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery prayer that we have now, we will be looking over our shoulder. We will have to put security on our front gates, tell people not to walk here but to drive. But I don\u2019t want to turn the mosque into a fortress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Praise for garda\u00ed and Galway’s mayor and deputy mayor<\/p>\n

He said local garda\u00ed were \u201calways good\u201d, calling to the mosque on Friday evening to \u201creassure\u201d them, and that the crime prevention officer was due this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He praised a visit by the Galway mayor Mike Cubbard and deputy mayor Alan Cheevers to the mosque on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"ImamImam Umar Al-Qadri of the Irish Muslim Peace & Integration Council: ‘Tech companies need to be held to account for hate and be responsible for content on their platforms.’ File picture: RollingNews<\/p>\n

At the Dublin Mosque, on South Circular Rd, senior member Fazel Ryklief said the developments brought back the heightened state of alert they felt during the Citywest rioting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we had Citywest, we had to lock up and bring the shutters down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are right on the main road and we feel very helpless if someone wanted to do something. The women say the abuse has gotten a lot worse. But now we hear they are making bombs. That is a lot more scary. All we can do is mind ourselves and depend on the Government and garda\u00ed to protect us.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said they have sought to have their monthly garda clinic in the mosque every two weeks.<\/p>\n

‘New phenomenon’<\/p>\n

Imam Umar Al-Qadri, the chairperson of the Irish Muslim Peace and Integration Council, said the emergence of a violent far-right group was \u201ca completely new phenomenon\u201d, and he praised the actions of the garda\u00ed.<\/p>\n

He said the Government has to act: \u201cNow is the time for policy-makers and the Government. They must act and stop extremism and prevent violence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The Government needs to meet all the faith communities publicly and ensure them of security. We need the public engagement of garda\u00ed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need a high-level approach, translated into policy and laws and practical solutions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n Tech companies need to be held to account for hate and be responsible for content on their platforms.\n <\/p>\n

Imam Noonan strongly agreed: \u201cWe can\u2019t have far-right terror groups emerging in Ireland. It will embolden other people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Many politicians are keeping quiet, but if society does not stand up now after this warning it could happen again, and it will happen again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Government, all parties, TDs, and councillors, need to stand up and speak out and say clearly \u2018we will not allow far-right violence\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

A statement from Garda HQ said: \u201cThe Garda National Community Engagement Bureau has a good relationship and engages with the Muslim community in Ireland on an ongoing basis, and continues to liaise with the Muslim community at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Community garda\u00ed and crime prevention officers also engage with them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Irish Muslim leaders say their congregations are \u201con edge\u201d and \u201cliving in fear\u201d following revelations of an alleged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1224,7782,61,60,1634,43,15151,12785,58],"class_list":["post-131337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-disinformation","tag-gardai","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-media","tag-news","tag-racism","tag-religion","tag-social-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}