'Dublin imam takes on the fanatics'
The Observer finds a Muslim it likes (i.e. who denounces mainstream Muslims as extremists):
"Beneath a basketball net in a freezing sports hall, a Muslim cleric is waging war on Islamic extremism. Imam Shaheed Satardien is taking a stand against those Muslims in Ireland whom he claims are too sympathetic to Osama bin Laden and the cult of the suicide bomber. At Friday prayers in the sports hall in north-west Dublin, the South African-born former anti-apartheid activist warns his multinational congregation against blaming other religions and the West in general for all Muslims' ills....
"Satardien fell out with the main Dublin mosque at Clonskeagh, singling out the influence of Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian born sheikh who has spoken openly in support of suicide bombers and issued fatwas on gays. According to Satardien, al-Qaradawi's European headquarters is based at the Clonskeagh mosque in south Dublin. Its own website refers to al-Qaradawi and to Clonskeagh as the headquarters of the sheikh's European Council for Fatwa and Research.
"The authorities at the Clonskeagh mosque and at the South Circular Road mosque, the other main establishment in Dublin, angrily deny the extremist accusation. They point out that these mosques attract thousands of mainstream Muslims to their doors each week."
As an example of the sort of bigotry this sort of "liberal" reporting plays to, a right-wing Canadian Christian blogger writes that the Observer story offers "more reasons to halt Muslim immigration to Canada".
Martin Sullivan
in Right Wing, Liberal, UK, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Ireland
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