One of Ireland's most senior Muslim clerics, Imam Al-Hussein, has strongly criticised the Government's asylum-seekers policy. He has also spoken about discrimination against Muslim girls in Dublin secondary schools.
Imam Al-Hussein, who has been leading prayers at the mosque on Dublin's South Circular Road since 1983, said he is opposed to the policy of dispersing asylum-seekers throughout the State, and expressed frustration at Department of Justice decisions in some "strong, genuine" cases.
Yesterday, the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, said the deportation of failed asylum applicants was to be stepped up shortly. He also defended the Government's asylum-seeker dispersal programme, which he said was necessary due to the chronic accommodation shortage in Dublin.
The arrival of asylum-seekers and refugees has doubled the Muslim population in Ireland over the past five years to approximately 12,000. About half are in Dublin. The Muslim refugees have come primarily from Bosnia and Kosovo, with asylum-seekers from Algeria, Libya, Iraq, Somalia and Nigeria.
Imam Al-Hussein said dispersal meant asylum-seekers suffered greater isolation as they were "pulled away from their own [frequently Muslim] community". They were also more likely to experience prejudice in a smaller town or village where their presence would be more conspicuous, he said.
For educational reasons, to facilitate correct religious practice, he believed the asylum-seekers, while their applications are being processed, should be allowed to stay "in two or three of the bigger cities if not all in Dublin".
He fully supported the call by the Catholic Bishops Committee on Asylum-Seekers and Refugees during the week for a regularisation of the applications' processing procedure.
Imam Al-Hussein also expressed disquiet about decisions made by the Department of Justice where some asylum-seekers were concerned. "There are so many genuine, strong cases yet they are not allowed stay. They can't go home . . . they'll be imprisoned or killed. I don't know how they [Department officials] cannot see the strong cases . . ." Addressing the problems being experienced by Muslim girls at some secondary schools in Dublin - which he did not wish named - he said the girls were being prevented from wearing the hajab head-covering, as obliged by their religion.
Imam Al-Hussein spoke of being asked by a Muslim family to go to one school where the head nun told him girls wearing the hajab "threatened the Catholic ethos of the school". She was not prepared to allow it to be worn and pointed out that in the relevant cases the parents had signed a form agreeing to accept the school's rules.
Ms Rabia-a Najjair, who is responsible for women's affairs at the Islamic Centre on Dublin's South Circular Road, said that last month she had withdrawn two of her daughters from another south Dublin secondary school because they were refused permission to wear the hajab.
