Community group says mosque should not be 'price' in ICCI row

RTÉ News​

02-05-2025

A new Muslim community group has called for dialogue between parties involved in a dispute that has seen the closure of the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland and its mosque in Clonskeagh.
"We are not officials, we are simply fathers, mothers, students, teachers, ordinary citizens, people carrying an extraordinary concern," spokesperson for the new 'Muslim Community Ireland' group Abdul Hasseb said at the group's first press conference.
The group describes itself as a grassroots group which came into being in response to the recent closure of the Islamic Cultural Centre and its mosque.
The mosque remained closed for Friday prayer, for a second week in a row, with no prospect of it re-opening in sight.
The mosque and the wider centre's closure followed fractious scenes at and outside a meeting at the ICCI on 19 April.
In a statement the ICCI said that it was closed "as a preventive measure to ensure the safety and security of the property, staff, children and members of the public".
The Muslim National School and creche were able to re-open on Monday under tight security and with curtailed access for parents to the site.
However the mosque and other parts of the centre, including two independent businesses, a restaurant and a grocery shop, remain closed.
"We understand that institutions face challenges, but we ask humbly and urgently that the mosque itself not be the price," Mr Hasseb told the media outside the locked gates of the ICCI.
"We respectfully call on all stakeholders, including the respected leadership of Al Maktoum Foundation (the centre's funders) and the ICCI management to engage in open, transparent dialogue," Mr Hasseb said.
"As members of the community we are ready to engage and work to alleviate any concerns about security and safety," he added.
"Our plea is simple: open the mosque for the five daily prayers, for Friday prayers, and for Eid. Allow the House of Allah to serve His worshippers, while other matters are dealt with separately with due care and process."
Dr Zahid Jamil, a member of the ICCI Board of Directors, who also attended the meeting on 19 April, welcomed the community group's initiative saying that he was "very grateful to people who were concerned about this".
Dr Jamil said that the board had a "multitude of concerns" but "the most serious are the security concerns".
He said that "nothing had changed" in relation to the security concerns which had led to the ongoing closure of the mosque.
He added that those who wanted to help "need to have a plan on how they wish to solve those problems."
The Muslim Community Ireland press conference heard from a number of speakers about the impact the closure had on their lives.
Father of three, Saif Uz Zaman, gave an emotional account of how his wife had died just two months ago.
He told the press conference that he and his wife had moved their home close to the ICCI eight years ago and his wife took their children there "several times a day".
Since she died, he said he continued to go there every day with his children, until it closed.
"Even my four-year-old, she choose a place where my wife used to pray, now she is asking to me, 'Baba I want to go to that place, I want to pray in that place, so I have no answer for her,'" Mr Uz Zaman said.
Speakers also raised concern about the impact the closure is having on the livelihoods of those running businesses on the site.
The Olive Tree Restaurant and a grocery store both have a number of employees and have been shuttered since the centre closed.
Lorraine O'Connor, the founder of Muslim Sisters of Éire, and who is also married to group spokesperson Adbul Hasseb, told the press conference that the restaurant's closure is also impacting the charity's weekly soup kitchen, which provides food to around 400 people.
Ms O'Connor said the restaurant owner had consistently supplied the charity with up to 80 meals a week, but that last week, the centre's closure meant that this could not happen.
Ms O'Connor said that this was "not a small set-back".
"It's the first time ever we had to turn so many people away, normally we can manage a shortfall of five to ten meals but this was simply overwhelming" Ms O'Connor said, later confirming that 47 people had gone without food that night.
"That was the detrimental effect of what happened here, now this week we are a bit more prepared but we are still down 80 meals," Ms O'Connor said.
Due to an ongoing dispute with the board of directors of the ICCI, the Quranic School no longer operates at the site on evenings and weekends.
The press conference heard that other services provided in the centre have separately been effected by the centre's closure.
"Every Wednesday we have learning circles called a Halaqah, a couple of us gather together and we remind ourselves about the goodness that we need to do to prevent evil in the world and stuff like that," Sabina Syed told RTÉ News.
"Its a space for us to get together and just to talk and just to get that stress out of our heads so that we can go back and give better to our families," she said, "that's been taken away".
Even though the national school has re-opened, she said that the centre's closure and ongoing restrictions are still proving challenging for parents and children.
"I think I'm the only parent who has an exemption of going into the school (rather than dropping the child at the gate) because I have a child with special needs," Mrs Syed said.
"The school and the staff are doing an amazing job in keeping the school open and maintaining a regular routine for the kids... but obviously the kids are confused, especially the older ones because they used to go to the mosque to pray and now they have to pray in the school hall so it is just having an effect on everybody's mental health," Mr Syed said.
Her daughter and third year student at the Royal College of Surgeons, Hafsah Syed, is a youth leader at the Islamic Cultural Centre.
She told the press conference that "the recent temporary closure of our centre has left a painful gap in our lives, not just as Muslims, but as young people searching for belonging, guidance and community".
She told RTÉ News that she used to work with two youth groups of girls, the seniors who are 12 and over and the juniors who are aged seven and up.
"We have a youth club every Saturday which is really nice, we play games, we talk about Islam, we talk about school, just a safe space for the youth that come to ICCI," Ms Syed said, but that this had now stopped.
"I meet some of the girls out shopping or whatever and they really express how upset they are that it is closed, and you know it wasn't just a place to learn, it was a place to connect with their peers ... they've lost that place."