11.12.2013
Interfaith Forum Calls for Support for Islamic Communities
Dublin City Interfaith Forum (DCIF) has expressed its deep concern at the recent circulation of a hate letter to schools and mosques in Dublin. The organisation, which comprises a number of Dublin faith communities including the Church of Ireland, said the ugly and semiliterate letter constituted an offence to all citizens of Ireland and especially to our Muslim brothers and sisters. “It is a deliberate attempt by a tiny, hate fuelled and totally unrepresentative group of people to promote a breakdown in social solidarity and community cooperation,” a DCIF spokesperson said.
In a message of support to the Islamic Community, the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Michael Jackson said: ”I should like to express solidarity with members of the Islamic Community in Ireland and further afield at a time when too much hatred is being voiced against them. Good relations make for stable society and such stability is based on giving the same level of respect we should like to receive – and a bit more. Yesterday’s stranger is today’s neighbour and we do not want to treat today’s neighbour as tomorrow’s enemy. I appeal for courtesy and cordiality in all our relationships and most of all for understanding and dignity.”
DCIF states that Dublin City is a place of diversity, a place where many religions, cultures and people meet, interact and enrich society. “Dubliners like to take pride in believing that we live in a friendly, neighbourly city. If we are to be or become a society where the stranger is truly welcome them we are all obliged to learn how to meet, promote and learn from the wonderful diversity in religion, culture and lifestyle that is the rich inheritance of our city. We would further suggest that we need to learn to stand up to and utterly reject the threatening, violent and pernicious voices in our society who are determined, for their own self–serving reasons, to create a society which would refuse to acknowledge that a multitude of choices exist,” the spokesperson said.