Daphne Anson: In President Higgins's Ireland, The Wearin' Of The (Islamic) Green?

Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind. (Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)

We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East. (From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)

With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last. (Friends of Israel Initiative)

Tuesday, 15 November 2011

In President Higgins's Ireland, The Wearin' Of The (Islamic) Green?

Higgins at an anti-Israel rally in Galway in 2007

As the Irish blogger Mark Humphrys has remarked, deploringly, Michael D. Higgins, sworn in on 11 November as the ninth President of the Republic of Ireland, is the most anti-American and most anti-Israel head of state in the western world.

With Higgins's track record, its no wonder the extremely virulent Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign is cock-a-hoop at its old friend's rise to a position if not of wide formal powers, then certainly of not inconsiderable influence.

I've taken my eye off the Emerald Isle since posting about Michael D. Higgins a little while ago. So I'm grateful to Mark Humphrys (whose blog has many revealing photos of Higgins like this one) for paying a visit to this site just now, and giving me the tidbit that at President Higgins's inauguration an Islamic cleric recited a prayer.

Nothing wrong with a little bit of ecumenism, you might say. After all, what better way to make all sections of society feel they are part and parcel of the nation in which they live than by their religious representatives participating at such a state occasion?
Quite so.

The cleric in question, Iraqi-born Dr Noob al-Kaddo, has been director, since 1997, of the Clonskeagh mosque in Dublin, a mosque that appears to have ties to the hardline Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, and if that is the case, then any cosying up of President Higgins to its leader is bound to make many people, Mark Humphrys included, uneasy.

Back in the late nineteenth century, when Britain's Liberal Prime Minister William E. Gladstone proposed Home Rule for Ireland, opponents of the measure, believing that it would lead to the eclipse the influence of the Anglican Church in Ireland and to the political ascendancy of the Roman Catholic Church to which the majority of Irish people belonged, were quick to coin the phrase "Home Rule means Rome Rule".

How incomprehensible that all seems now ...

It might be unnecessarily alarmist, in view of his restricted powers, to say that with Higgins at the helm the Irish ship of state might be heading for uncharted waters. But with him blasting his favoured course on the megaphone, it might be plain sailing for the anti-American, anti-Israel crowd ...

6 comments:

Juniper in the Desert16 November 2011 at 04:54
Mary Robinson,the previous president, went on the flotilla to Gaza. The Irish are notoriously anti-semitic. But they are not a pillar of the Western world and if they sink into the islamic sewer, no loss to mankind!!
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Daphne Anson16 November 2011 at 05:15
Ah, but there are some fine Irish champions of Israel, Juniper, including Prof. Denis McEoin.
In Australia one of the staunchest philosemites was a lovely Catholic priest, the late Father William Smith.
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Daphne Anson16 November 2011 at 05:16
I meant to add that Father Smith, if I recall correctly, was from the Emerald Isle.
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Empress Trudy16 November 2011 at 11:39
I'm reminded that Ireland casually permitted German U-Boats to dock when it was convenient for them to do so.
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Mark Humphrys18 November 2011 at 08:28
Since Daphne kindly links to me again, let me correct that commenter about u-boats.

Ireland was a disgraceful neutral during WW2, even after 1943 when Germany was clearly losing and could no longer threaten Ireland, and even until 1945 when de Valera followed strict protocol and sent condolences to the German embassy on the death of Hitler. (Surely one of the most shameful events in Irish history.)

However Ireland did not permit German U-Boats to dock. That never happened. Maybe you are thinking of the illegal IRA, who did collaborate with Nazi Germany. The Chief-of-Staff of the IRA, Sean Russell, died on a Nazi u-boat. Shamefully, a statue of this traitor to the West stands in Dublin.

While I'm here, re: another commenter above, I don't think Mary Robinson, much as I dislike her, went on any flotilla to Gaza. But any commenter who thinks the loss of a western democracy would be no big deal is hardly someone we should take seriously. All western democracies should stand together. That's why I stand with Israel.

Mark
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Daphne Anson18 November 2011 at 21:06
Thanks for your comment, Mark. I apologise for tardiness in posting it - my home computer is dead.
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https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9685/britain-little-lies

'Islamophobia does NOT come from the same wellspring of hatred as antisemitism. Antisemitism is a true prejudice because the hatred and demonisation it promotes derive entirely from lies and a repudiation of rationality itself.
Islamophobia is a false allegation of prejudice which is deployed to silence rational criticism based on actual facts about attitudes and practices within the Islamic world.
[L]ethally compromised even-handedness is to misunderstand, and thus minimise, antisemitic attitudes and behaviour while shutting down legitimate and necessary discussion of the threat from the Islamic world – even to demonise as “Islamophobic” anyone who draws attention to the extent and consequences of Muslim antisemitism.' Melanie Phillips (14 December 2016)

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Europe is today facing a crisis as serious as the confrontation with Nazism. If Western leaders continue behaving like Chamberlain and fail to stand up to this global threat, it could usher in a new Dark Age in which the Judeo-Christian culture is subsumed by primitive barbarism. The writing is on the wall Isi Leibler (12 January 2015)

Expose The Lies!

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The "Apartheid" Slur

The division of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) into three separate areas “A”, “B” and “C” was agreed on by Israel and the PLO pursuant to the Oslo Accords.
95% of the West Bank Arabs live in Areas A and B and their daily lives are under the total administration and control of the PLO since the Palestinian Authority was disbanded by Abbas in January 2013. The PLO has total security control in A and shares security control in B with Israel. Israel has total administrative and security control in C.
Israel is entitled to and will continue to take responsibility for the security of Jews living in the West Bank.
Jews were given the legal right to settle in the West Bank under article 6 of the Mandate for Palestine and article 80 of the UN Charter. They did so for decades until they were driven out in 1947 and not able to return there until 1967.
There are Arab roads only in the West Bank that Jews are not allowed to use. Jews are also forbidden from entering Area “A”. Selling land to Jews is forbidden by the PLO under pain of death. The PLO runs the daily lives of 95% of the West Bank Arabs and Hamas runs the daily lives of 100% of the Gazan Arabs. They have been under occupation – and subjugation – by these two evil groups for the last ten years and given no say in their future or any opportunity to elect others to lead them following the disastrous political decisions of their leaders over the past ten years. Hamas and the PLO do not accept the continued existence of a Jewish State and call for its disappearance.
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