Remarks at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland (ICCI) for its Annual Neighbourhood Week
28th November 2012
Dia dhíbh. Tá mé buíoch díbh as an fáilte a thug sibh dom.
Dia dhaoibh, a Dhaoine Uaisle. Tá fíoráthas orm a bheith anseo inniu in Ionad Cultúir Ioslamaigh na hÉireann le haghaidh an t-aonú ceann déag den tSeachtain Chomharsanachta bhliantúil. Is ócáid thábhachtach shóisialta atá sa tseachtain seo dóibh siúd a bhaineann úsáid rialta as an Ionad, agus dóibh siúd atá ina gcónaí sa chomharsanacht agus sna ceantair máguaird. Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghlacadh leis an t-Uasal Shaheen Ahmed as an gcuireadh a thug sé dom bheith in bhur gcuideachta anseo inniu agus daoibh go léir as an bhfáilte an-chineálta a chuir sibh romham.
[Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen I am delighted to be here today in the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland for the eleventh annual Neighbourhood Week. This week has become an important social event for those who regularly use the Centre and also for those living in the immediate locality and the surrounding areas. I would like to thank Mr. Shaheen Ahmed for the invitation to be here with you today and all of you for that very kind welcome.]
The theme of this Neighbourhood week is Islamic Art and I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the artists included in the exhibition I was privileged to view earlier, a beautiful exhibition which strongly demonstrates how our cultural experiences, both past and present, can so powerfully shape and influence our creative interpretation of the world we inhabit. I know that two of these talented artists who are with us here this evening have come from abroad, and I look forward to having the pleasure shortly of meeting Salah Almoussawy who has travelled from Leon and Ashraf Hussein who has travelled from Cairo to display their work.
When I was inaugurated as President of Ireland I stated that we must seek to build together an active, inclusive citizenship; based on participation, equality, and respect for all our people. Ireland has, in recent years, become an increasingly multi- cultural society with people from many different ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds choosing to come and make their home here. This has furnished this country with a diverse mix of traditions, customs and philosophies.
The Muslim community, as a rapidly expanding part of the Irish population, makes an important contribution to our growing ethnic, cultural and religious diversity. It is a community that now comprises people from over forty countries such as Pakistan, Malaysia, Somalia, South Africa, Nigeria, Algeria, Libya, Bosnia, and of course Ireland itself.
Islam is now our fastest growing religion and this Islamic Cultural Centre, with its award winning architectural design, has been an important landmark in the Clonskeagh area since it was first opened in 1996.
I am delighted, therefore, to be here today as the Islamic Centre so generously opens its doors, as it does each year, to the local community during this Neighbourhood Week in order to create opportunities for Irish citizens of all persuasions to come here and learn about the traditions, cultures and beliefs of the Islamic community. The importance of positive community relations and the need to embed understanding and respect of different faith-based groups, as a matter of course, through positive actions cannot be overestimated.
The growing diversity of the Irish population has given us the opportunity to reflect on what constitutes a truly multi-cultural society, and to realise it is more complex than simply accepting other cultures; of allocating conditional rights or ‘allowing’ the culture of the point of origin to sit alongside the culture of the point of destination. It is critical, if a culturally diverse society is also to be a fair and equal one, that the dangers of allocating a separate and segregated space to individual cultures are understood and that the ghettoising of ethnic groups and the erection of cultural barriers, built on fear, prejudice or ignorance, is avoided at all costs.
Our new Irish citizens have an important part to play in shaping and crafting our shared future; a future in which the many different cultures within our communities can come together and work together to offer their diverse and wide range of skills, talents and unique gifts to society as a whole and for the shared benefit of all.
If we are to practice equality and establish it as a general value, it must include the commitment to hear a multitude of stories, to share insights and to understand that ‘belonging’ is not based on imitation or the subservience of one culture to another. Rather, our diverse cultures should bring about a new sense of human solidarity, an ability to reach out to understand and respect each other’s cultures with self-reliance and to understand that integration is a two way process of mutual accommodation and mutual respect.
The encouraging role of intercultural dialogue and the exchanging of experiences plays an invaluable role in the sustaining of our cultural richness in all of its identities and diversities. It plays an enormously important role too in the challenging of stereotypes which are so often based on ignorance and misunderstanding.
Dialogue and understanding are key components in building an inclusive and cohesive society; one where diversity, equality, inclusion and interaction are valued and where the harnessing of our past to our future is understood to encompass the rich and multi-faceted story of all our pasts leading to a shared future which lets go of boundaries, barriers to seeing, cognition, understanding action and historicity.
So the journey towards becoming a truly multi-cultural society is an exciting one, but it is one that is not without challenges.
If we are to move forward effectively we must be prepared to look past familiar horizons and push past old boundaries so that our society might work well for all its constituent elements, without exception.
There can be no doubt that recognising and being open to new paradigms of thought and action can only enrich our social cultural and economic development, and lead to a common shared future built on the spirit of co-operation, of high ethical standards and integrity, the collective will, real participation and an exciting sense of what might be possible.
It is important, therefore, that as we move forward the tapestry that we make our narrative, be an inclusive one, a creation that respects the voices of all of our citizens, that does not place one version higher than another or grant one voice more respect and more credence than another.
If we truly believe in a democratic citizenship we must ensure that every citizen is allowed their right to participate in society and is given the opportunity to develop their personal and social selves in conditions of freedom, communal solidarity, justice and equality.
Ba mhaith liom críochnú agus an deis seo a thapú leis an Ionad Cultúir Ioslamaigh a mholadh as an obair leanúnach atá ar siúl acu agus as a dtiomanatas láidir d’imeascadh an Phobail Ioslamaigh in Éirinn.
[I would like to conclude by taking this opportunity to commend the Islamic Cultural Centre for their continued work and for their strong commitment to the integration of the Muslim Community in Ireland.]
I have no doubt that Neighbourhood Week 2012 will be a huge success and I would like to congratulate all those involved in organising the events this week.
Go raibh míle maith agat.