A spokesman for Ireland's largest mosque in Dublin has described as "really shocking" that US President Donald Trump should place a 90-day block on entry to the US by people from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia, claiming it would help protect Americans from terrorist attack.
Dr Ali Selim of the Clonskeagh mosque in south Dublin described the President's actions since assuming office as being "not only anti-Muslim but anti-everything. He is very much pro-confrontation at all levels."
His banning of people from the seven Muslim-majority countries selected “shows how limited is his understanding of the national and international situation,” Dr Selim said.
“People should ask to what extent is he serving US interests by making these decisions. I believe he is only serving his own interests. He doesn’t care about the US or others, only himself.”
His executive order against those Muslim-majority countries had also “given a platform to a lot of racist behaviour in the US as illustrated in the burning down of a mosque (at Victoria in southern Texas) on Saturday,” he said.
Shaykh Umar al-Qadri, imam at the mosque in west Dublin's Blanchardstown, described the 90-day ban as "disgusting, disgraceful, inhumane" and of no help to refugees.
Noting that the ban came into effect on Holocaust Memorial Day, he said we should never forget also that the US banned Jews during the Holocaust.
“We should learn from the history of the Holocaust,” he said.
Instead of banning Muslims from entering the US, President Trump “should ban bombing their countries! That is how you minimise terrorism.”
He also noted how the "9/11 attackers were from Saudi Arabia which is excluded from the ban."
Shaykh al-Qadri noted how new US Vice President Mike Pence used to be opposed to such a ban on Muslims and pointed to a tweet from then Governor Pence in August 2015 where he said that “calls to ban Muslims from entering the US are offensive and unconstitutional.”
Shaykh Al-Qadri noted, too, how "hours after Trump's executive order "a Texas mosque was burned to the ground."
He continued “welcome to the new America of#POTUSTrump!#USA.”
