“The Civil Service is a bit like a rusty weathercock. It moves with opinion then it stays where it is until another wind moves it in a different direction.”
Tony Benn
In early August 2017, Dublin City Council agreed to erect a banner on its Civic Offices in support of the Dublin City Interfaith Forum, representing the various faiths in Ireland. Suspecting that the Council had no plans to extend similar support to atheistic groups, Alliance of Former Muslims sent an email to its chair, Owen Keegan, reminding him of the Council’s legal responsibility towards those of no religion:
The Council’s reply was evasive in the extreme. Being unable to refute the charge of discrimination, Mr. Keegan’s only recourse was to describe the banner as a “once-off gesture”, to be taken down by the end of August. It could hardly be a more feeble response:
The dismissive nature of this reply betrays the Council’s antipathy towards Ex-Muslims. Contrast this with their fawning over Hussein Halawa, the imam of the Clonskeagh Mosque, who features prominently on the Council website. We take exception to this gross imbalance, and have stated it explicitly in our reply:
That last email was sent on August 14th 2017. The Council has yet to reply, though it would seem unlikely. We are not entirely surprised at the Council’s approach, being a state institution: we have already seen how multicultural appeasers work to undermine the asylum claims of Ex-Muslims in Ireland. We invite the reader to follow us on Twitter, to be kept abreast of these issues and much more.
Alliance of Former Muslims 