Midtown Blogger/Manhattan Valley Follies: Sky News- Tougher Terror Laws in Ireland

Saturday, February 7, 2015

Sky News- Tougher Terror Laws in Ireland

New anti-terror measures will see 10-year jail sentences introduced in Ireland for anybody convicted of promoting terrorism.

06:55, UK, Saturday 07 February 2015

By David Blevins, Ireland Correspondent

Ireland is preparing to introduce the toughest anti-terror measures in its modern history to combat any threat from foreign fighters returning home.

Ireland and Finland top the table of European countries from which the largest proportion of the Muslim population has travelled to Syria.

Housam Najjar, from Dublin, fought alongside Syrian rebels and describes himself as a "soldier of summer," but acknowledges the risk of radicalisation.

He said: "Basically, when a young man arrives and he feels very vulnerable at the checkpoint, he's going into what would basically look like a horror movie of ruins and gunfire.

Houdaifa Elsayed, who was shot dead on the Syrian border.

"So these radical elements would approach them, offer them a weapon, offer them a kind of brotherhood and this unsuspecting person, in his vulnerable state, would probably accept that offer."

Houdaifa Elsayed, 22, from Drogheda, was shot dead when he went to the aid of a wounded comrade on the Syrian border.

His father Abdel Basset Elsayed explained: "At that time (there) was this regime of Bashar (al Assad) and the people want to have the freedom and democracy and were looking for the support of the world to help them in asking for their rights.

"But now, it's completely different. In what way? Like Islamic State and all that is really not the way we can send our children there. We will be much more worried, so I don't think the situation is the same now."

One in 1,500 Irish Muslims travelled to Syria, compared to only one in 5,000 in the UK, but few are thought to present any danger back home.

Prominent members of the community doubt the existence of violent jihadists in Ireland, but concede there is potential for extremists to recruit.

Hussein Buhidma, from the Irish Association of Muslims, said: "You cannot predict what your kids or grandchildren will think tomorrow.

"So I cannot say that they will or they will not, but we shouldn't look at the end of the story.

"We should start at the beginning, because why do we have these problems? Because there is dictatorship in the Middle East."

The new anti-terror measures, already passed by Dublin's upper house, will introduce 10-year jail sentences for recruiting, training and promoting terrorism.

Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald TD explained: "We've seen what's happened in France recently and in Belgium and in other European countries.

"There are thousands of young men and some women who are going to become foreign fighters and obviously there's a huge risk when they return of being radicalised and posing a danger."