16 December 2016

Regulate all mosques to stop radical preachers - Irish imam

A leading Irish imam has called for the Government to regulate Islamic affairs in Ireland to prevent unqualified imams radicalising Muslims.

Shaykh Dr Umar Al-Qadri, chairman of the Irish Muslim Peace and Integration Council, said the Government should set up "a Muslim council to regulate all affairs in Ireland such as how mosques are being run and what education they are providing".

He said the body should be supervised by the Government and provide accreditation without which imams would not be allowed to operate. The Irish Council of Imams, which he helped to found but from which he resigned last year, was not such a body, he said.

Dr Al-Qadri, who runs a mosque in Clonee, Dublin, also said although the Government monitored individuals it suspected of having extremist links, it also needed to have a strategy to monitor levels of radicalisation and an initiative to promote integration. [Independent.ie] Read more