The Halawa case
is Ireland's biggest Islamism-related story ever.
In June to Aug 2013,
four adult children of
Hussein Halawa,
the leading Muslim Brotherhood
cleric in Ireland,
became activists (and speakers) in the
massive
Muslim Brotherhood demos in Egypt
(after the toppling of Muslim Brotherhood President Morsi).
After taking part in protests for weeks, the Halawa siblings
were caught up in the violent Egyptian military crackdown on the
Muslim Brotherhood in Aug 2013.
They were jailed by the new Egyptian military dictatorship.
The Halawa sisters were released in Nov 2013 and returned to Ireland.
Ibrahim Halawa stayed in prison in Egypt until 2017.
This story has been
one of the greatest failures of the Irish media of my lifetime.
A long procession of journalists has written articles on the Halawa case without even mentioning
the most important fact about them, that they are
Muslim Brotherhood.
The journalists reported on four "Irish people"
or an "Irish family"
on "holiday"
who somehow got "trapped" in a mosque in Egypt
taking "refuge" from some protest.
The Irish media seemed totally uninterested in who these people are and what they were doing.
Is it the function of the media to hide information from us?
In 2017, the story ended as Egypt acquitted Ibrahim Halawa
and (in absentia) his sisters.
But many issues remain that cut to the heart of modern Ireland:
Support for the Muslim Brotherhood and radical Islamism in Ireland.
The Irish media not investigating Irish Islamists -
and attacking those who do investigate them.
The Irish left supporting Irish Islamists -
and attacking those who do not support them.
These issues have not gone away.
Quick introductions
This page lays out the evidence in detail.
If you want shorter introductions, see:
Its Imam is
Hussein Halawa,
father of the Halawas
and the most senior Muslim Brotherhood figure in Ireland.
Hussein Halawa is General Secretary of the
European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR),
based at the Clonskeagh mosque.
This is the main rule-making body
for the Muslim Brotherhood.
The ECFR was (until 2018) headed by Hussein Halawa's colleague
Yusuf Al-Qaradawi,
the
religious leader of the Muslim Brotherhood,
and one of the leading extremist clerics in the world.
Al-Qaradawi was banned from entering the US, the UK and Ireland because of his support for violence and terror.
The Muslim Brotherhood
is a fascist, anti-semitic, far-right Islamist organisation.
It supports sharia law and the suicide bombing of Jews.
It
is the origin of most of the Sunni Islamist and jihadist movements
terrorising the world today.
It is closely linked to the terrorist group Hamas,
which is the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza.
Not exactly a non-political family just on "holiday":
Here in late July 2013,
Ibrahim Halawa's father,
Hussein Halawa,
is campaigning for the deposed Muslim Brotherhood regime.
At the same time as this, his adult
children were protesting (for weeks on end) for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
Later, in August, they were arrested.
Timeline of events:
Ibrahim Halawa
said
he was involved in pro-MB protests from
28 June 2013.
Irish Times article
(by
Michael Jansen, 1 Dec 2014)
said
the Halawas in Egypt were at the pro-MB protests
from 3 July 2013.
The above event in Ireland was
after 26 July 2013
(see video within video)
and before 30 July 2013
(date of upload).
The MB protests in Egypt were violently suppressed on
14 Aug 2013.
The Halawas were arrested on 17 Aug 2013,
a month and a half after they started protesting.
Angry Muslim Brotherhood supporters protest, kill Christians and burn Christian churches.
The Halawas take part in the Muslim Brotherhood protests, June to Aug 2013.
They speak on stage to vast crowds of Muslim Brotherhood supporters.
They get injured in clashes with Egyptian security forces.
An "Irish family"?
Hapless Irish tourists stranded by
the violence in Egypt?
No. It turns out these are four adult children
of the Muslim Brotherhood linked
Imam of Clonskeagh, Hussein Halawa.
They were in Cairo with the Muslim Brotherhood protesters,
fighting to enslave Egypt under the sharia.
"I fear my son will never see his CAO offers", Evening Herald, 22 Aug 2013.
Does not mention they are Muslim Brotherhood.
Why do Irish journalists find young Halawa's CAO offers interesting
and his Muslim Brotherhood activism completely uninteresting?
David Vance
(and here)
smelled a rat, and asked for more information.
I filled him in on the Muslim Brotherhood connection, and he responded, 22 Aug 2013:
"Now, having established that the Halawas are ardent supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, we now need to ask WHY the Irish media universally decided to not ask the simple question what they were doing in Cairo? We know the Irish media was quick to suggest that lack of Irish concern shown for the Halawas may be Irish racism, but yet the same journalists so quick to cast such a slur on their fellow Irish men and women were unable to deploy their intelligence and ask WHY was this Irish family in Cairo in the first place. It's quite an indictment on the entire Irish MSM that they have wilfully closed their eyes to an important aspect of this story in an attempt to mislead the Irish public."
The Cairo four, Mary Fitzgerald, 23 Aug 2013.
Mary Fitzgerald writes the strangest articles.
She lays out yet again the evidence that Clonskeagh is a Muslim Brotherhood mosque,
and the Halawas' father is the top
Muslim Brotherhood guy in Ireland.
But this comes at the end of the article.
At the start of the article, she
paints the siblings' "political awakening" on "holiday" as due to the Arab Spring
- rather than due to being in Ireland's leading Muslim Brotherhood family.
Recall the same
Mary Fitzgerald in 2006 said:
"Many Muslim Brotherhood members I met recently in Cairo asked me if I knew Sheikh Halawa
after hearing I was from Ireland."
Irish Times article, 8 Aug 2015, quotes the Egyptian ambassador to Ireland as saying about the Halawas:
"The whole family is part of the Muslim Brotherhood
...
Usually, the kids, they are born within this ideology. So they defend that ideology. If the father and mother believe in the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, automatically the kids believe in that."
Tom Clonan
of the Irish Times
says our lack of concern for supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood must be because of racism!
"Irish family in mortal danger in Cairo - If they were Seán, Mary, Eileen & Michaela - Gilmore & Kenny would be v v vocal. What's up?"
Em, no.
If they were white supremacist neo-fascists called Seán, Mary, Eileen & Michaela,
then no,
I don't think the Irish government would be that vocal.
I replied:
"What's up is that they are supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is burning Christian churches across Egypt. Duh."
Nosayba Halawa at a protest at the Egyptian Embassy in Dublin
calling for her siblings' release.
Note the Muslim Brotherhood poster!
Even at a demo calling for the release of the siblings,
they couldn't resist carrying a political Muslim Brotherhood poster!
From here.
Their protest at the Egyptian Embassy in Dublin
was
segregated by sex.
Why leftists admire this kind of thing is beyond me.
This shows that Omaima Halawa was in the MB camp before the crackdown.
The journalist was brought on a tour of the camp:
"When I originally reached out to Rabaa Tour I was told to meet Mohamed at the "big white tent covered in the faces of martyrs." They said it would be easy to find, but this wasn't the case - I had a lot of big white tents covered in the faces of martyrs to choose from.
...
Mohamed introduced me to Omaima Halawa, 21, and Noha El Eraki, 22, two Egyptian women who have spent much of their lives living and studying in Ireland but came back to Egypt to participate in the protests.
Omaima said ... she butted heads with her parents when she insisted on coming."
Oddly, she failed to mention that her father is head of the MB in Ireland!
The Halawa sisters appear in a video,
"Rabaa Tour",
in Aug 2013,
promoting the protests.
A comment on this thread
confirms these are the Halawas in the video.
See full size.
Omaima Halawa, 6 July 2013,
posts a picture of herself and her sister Somaia Halawa holding a poster of Morsi at the MB protest.
Mary Fitzgerald, 23 Aug 2013,
says:
"On July 6th, Omaima posted a photograph on Facebook of herself and Soumaia holding a poster of Morsi at Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque, site of what would eventually become a weeks-long sit-in protest against Morsi's overthrow".
Far from being on "holiday", the Halawas had been protesting for the MB every day for weeks:
""The Halawas were at Rabaa all day every day," says Aly Zein, a coordinator for [the MB group EAD] who became friends with the
siblings during the sit-in. "Once people got there and saw what was happening, they got swept up in it. The solidarity we felt was
inspiring.""
Omaima Halawa, 27 July 2013,
says she envies the MB "martyrs" who have died in the crackdown,
and she longs for martyrdom:
"A night full of tears and action yet jealousy towards the shohad2a how much I envy them and ask Allah to gift me with the shahada yaraaaab".
Among the people who "like" this
is her sister Nosayba Halawa.
Omaima Halawa, 28 July 2013,
says she is staying at the MB protests and won't quit
"because we only fear allah not bullets".
Among the people who "like" this
is her father,
Imam Hussein Halawa of Clonskeagh.
Somaia Halawa
at a pro-Palestinian demo in Dublin, June 2012.
From
album:
"Palestinian Hunger Strike Solidarity Vigil".
On Facebook of
Fatin Al Tamimi (IPSC activist).
She is holding a poster of Hassan Safadi.
Israel
suspects
him of links to the terrorist group the PFLP.
The other poster is of Samer al-Baraq.
Israel
suspects
him of links to Al Qaeda.
The Halawa siblings address the vast Muslim Brotherhood protest at Rabaa al-Adawya square, Cairo.
This video was posted
here
on 1 Aug 2013.
It was removed but luckily I saved this copy for you.
The banner is of
"Egyptians Abroad For Democracy",
which is a
pro-Muslim Brotherhood group.
Caroline O'Doherty, The Irish Examiner, 21 Aug 2013,
says:
"The Irish-Egyptian siblings being held in Egypt may have been on the security forces' watch list after they addressed hundreds of thousands of protesters several weeks ago.
The three Halawa sisters and their brother, all from Dublin, spoke to the crowd at Rabaa Square in Cairo, which was a focal point for supporters of ousted Egypt president Mohamed Morsi before the crackdown on demonstrations began."
Caroline O'Doherty, The Irish Examiner, 23 Sept 2017, says the video above shows the Halawas.
Mary Fitzgerald, The Irish Times, 23 Aug 2013,
says:
"Three weeks ago, the Halawas' sister Nosayba posted a video on YouTube showing her siblings address the Rabaa crowd
against a banner reading "Egyptians Abroad for Democracy"".
Fatima Halawa
is quizzed about this and agrees they were there.
See screenshot
formerly here.
And screenshot
formerly here.
Finally, Ibrahim Halawa was presented with this video on the
Late Late Show on 3 Nov 2017, and confirmed that it is him.
Even if you don't speak Arabic (and I don't)
you can hear:
At 5:35
"My name is Ebraheem Halawa and I am from Ireland"
At 10:33
"My name is Omaima Halawa and I am from Ireland"
At 11:44
"My name is Somaia [Halawa] and I am from Ireland"
A contact of mine who speaks Arabic
provides the following translation of the video.
[0:04]
Here tonight we have some people from other countries, they are here with us even though they should be doing their studies or spending their weekends, but they came here to support their country, Egypt. These ones decided to spend their vacations in Rabaa Al Adaweya instead of doing other stuff and you can see they are young and they look nice.
[1:19]
Peace etc.
Greeting and the heroes who are here, men, women, young, old. We came from abroad from different countries to share with you, to support you because also we think that the others are stealing Egypt and also the future of the people. We are getting our power from your standing here.
Allah Akbar etc.
[2:46]My name is Ahmed, I am Egyptian, living in Germany, going to the faculty of medicine and spending my vacation with you. I swear to Allah it is an honor to be here with you and spend the summer. All the people of foreign countries are admiring you and I read in Der Spiegel that the people (you) who are supporting legitimacy are still standing despite the violence used against them. Egyptian people are great ones. I would like to thank the German government for what they did and we deserve democracy, yes we do. Before I came to Egypt I asked my friend "do you need anything?" He said "yes, say hello to Dr. Morsi."
We say together "The people admire the standing of the President! The people admire the standing of the President!"
etc.
[5:35]My name is Ebraheem Halawa and I am from Ireland. I am in the first year at University and I am here since one month ago. I came directly from Ireland to Rabaa and I was there at the Republican Guard massacre and I got two birdshot wounds, and it did not stop me. Your standing here makes me stay with you. Also, during the massacre at Sadat's Memorial I was there and saw the people killed even though Salah Sultan
said to come back, but they stayed to face the police and our standing there stopped the police and the thugs. And then I came to the hospital at Rabaa, then they took me to Medinat Nasr hospital because I stopped breathing because of the gas. We are saying to them we are not leaving, we are not leaving.
I am going to give you a little word here, I am going to open it the way President Morsi
used to do. "Oh great Egyptian people!" You standing here for 35 days on asphalt although you are under war, threats, live fire, your standing is a life for those ones who died. The people are two different kinds. People who are alive but they are dead, and others who have died but are still alive.
Your standing here is a life for those ones who are under the control of the media and supporting the army. We are standing with you here, we are standing with you here.
What do we want? Freedom! When do we want it? Now!
etc.
[8:31]My name is Mahmoud Ahmed Iraqi and I have been living in Ireland for 15 years. I came on the 28th and I was there at the Republican Guard and Sadat Memorial massacre. I got this birdshot wound during the Sadat memorial massacre and I fell down and had trouble breathing, but we came back because we are men. You brought us here. We are here because of you. We could have spent the summer in Ireland. You showed us the will. You show us the standing and because of you we are here. We are going to stay here until we bring back the will of the Egyptian people. Don't leave the square of Rabaa until you bring what you want!
[10:33]My name is Omaima Halawa and I came from Ireland to stand with my people, with my brothers and sisters. We will bring democracy back, Please Allah! Big greetings for those ones who defended us and who were in the front lines at the Sadat memorial massacre. And they refused to get back to defend us even after they attack them. Big greeting also to those ones who carried the dead and injured. Because of their courage we are still alive and by your standing here you are going to defeat those ones who made the coup soon.
[11:44]My name is Somaia from Ireland. And I came here in March to settle down in Egypt because I thought Egypt brought democracy and I believed I would live in Egypt in pride and dignity. After the coup I was looking for a job and did two interviews. And I decided to stop looking for work until we defeat the coup and bring democracy back. I would like to send a message to those who are watching us from home. Join us! Join us to bring democracy and defeat the coup! If you stay at home and something wrong happens to us here you are not going to have the calm life you are expecting. Then the regret will be useless. The Prophet said if somebody helps somebody to kill another even with a word, he will come on the day of judgement and written on his forehead will be 'he is desperate from the mercy of Allah', because silence means you agree that we should be killed. We think the PM and the government are responsible for the blood that will run tonight and also for the people who are mandated to fight us (the army). We expect their visit soon - anytime - but we trust in Allah to be with us. I swear to Allah we are not going to leave the square until we get back the dignity of all the Egyptians, whether they are with us or not! Keep standing in the square and the victory of Allah is coming soon!
Ibrahim Halawa in his speech above declares that the following two people are his leaders:
Salah Soltan, senior Muslim Brotherhood leader,
who: (a) spreads the medieval blood libel against the Jews,
(b) says Israeli tourists in Egypt should be killed,
and: (c) says people all over the world "thirst for the blood of the Jews".
Mohamed Morsi, senior Muslim Brotherhood leader,
who: (a) says Jews are "the descendants of apes and pigs",
(b) says children should be raised to hate the Jews,
(c) says apostates from Islam should be killed,
and: (d) says proselytisers for other religions should be killed.
Hard to explain this away!
"There is no such thing as democracy. Democracy is founded on principles of heresy.The ten principles of democracy constitute utter heresy: the freedom of religion, the freedom of belief - we have a punishment for apostasy
...
In Egypt, there are 80 million citizens, only five million of whom are
Crusaders
... They are a minority. A minority in a Muslim country has a certain status. Don't say everyone is equal. Don't tell me that every citizen enjoys equal and complete rights. Says who?! How can you possibly draw a parallel between the majority and a minority?
...
There are 70 million of us! So how can you talk to me about equal rights? Whenever I build a mosque, he deserves to build a church?! Says who?"
-
The
Muslim Brotherhood's
Wagdi Ghoneim, Aug 2011.
The banner in the video above, "Egyptians Abroad For Democracy",
has fooled some people into thinking this was a "pro-democracy" protest.
But in fact
the Muslim Brotherhood does not believe in democracy, as Wagdi Ghoneim shows.
How dare I link this fascist to the Halawas?
Well mainly I dare because
Wagdi Ghoneim has repeatedly been invited
to the Clonskeagh mosque.
He appears on
Halawa social media.
This video was
posted here.
It was later removed.
But luckily
I have saved a copy for you.
Click to play.
Ibrahim Halawa inside the besieged
Al-Fateh mosque in Ramses Square, Cairo, Aug 2013.
He says he has been at the protests since
28 June 2013,
"since day one".
(Morsi was toppled on 3 July 2013.)
He came straight from Ireland.
He has been "in the 4 killings so far".
He says "the Army and the cops" (or is it "the Copts"?)
are "working together" to kill the Muslim Brotherhood.
The person who did
this subtitled version
goes for "the cops".
He says they are willing to be Islamic martyrs.
Mary Fitzgerald, Irish Independent, 25 July 2015, says this is Ibrahim Halawa.
She says he is saying:
"Everyone is willing to give themselves to the last bullet."
Caroline O'Doherty, The Irish Examiner, 23 Sept 2017, says this is Ibrahim Halawa.
Finally, Ibrahim Halawa was presented with this video on the
Late Late Show on 3 Nov 2017, and confirmed that it is him.
Ibrahim also confirmed the above video on the
Neil Prendeville show on 24 Nov 2017.
He
said he is wearing a "Palestinian" headband.
Does he see himself as Irish or Egyptian?
Lefties make a big thing of anyone seeing Halawa as not Irish.
Anyone suggesting that is called "racist".
I don't mind how he sees himself.
But I am amused that he is not co-operating with what leftists want him to say.
In the video above, he describes Egypt as "my country"
and Ireland as
"the country I live in".
Since Irish leftists love to call critics of Ibrahim Halawa "Nazis",
it is absolutely hilarious that there were real Nazis at Ibrahim's speech,
not just rhetorical ones.
Disclaimer: Ibrahim Halawa may not know they are Nazis, of course.
But if so, why is he still mentioning them approvingly years later on Irish TV?
He needs to do some research!
On the Late Late Show on 3 Nov 2017, Ibrahim denied that he spoke at a sectarian Muslim Brotherhood protest.
He said
that Christians were there.
He specifically mentioned "Christians Against the Coup".
Of course I am the only person in Ireland to research this statement.
I wondered how on earth Christians could be at a MB protest.
Most Egyptian Christians hate the MB.
So who were these Christians that Ibrahim mentioned?
Christians Against the Coup
is a tiny group founded
by Rami Gan, co-founder of the Egyptian Nazi Party.
Click to play video.
See also Hitler on his Facebook.
(From here.)
This group is totally unrepresentative of the majority of
Egypt's Christians, who hate and fear the MB.
They are like the
"God Hates Fags" church
of Egyptian Christians.
Why do they like the MB?
They like the MB because the MB is anti-semitic and
pro-Nazi.
The fact that this tiny group of Egyptian Nazi Christians
like the MB is a strong argument against the MB,
against Ibrahim's protest,
and against Ibrahim for mentioning this repellent group years later on the Late Late Show.
Ibrahim was a "child"
One line of sympathy for Ibrahim Halawa is
that he was only a child
when arrested in 2013.
(He was 17.)
On the one hand, there is something in this.
Few people know what they are doing at 17.
And he only protested and went to jail because he was being a "good son"
following his father's (horrible) ideas.
One might have sympathy for him.
But on the other hand,
he was
campaigning to oppress Egyptian adults under sharia.
You can't have it both ways.
If you want to be treated as a child,
you have no right to be involved in politics.
If you are
campaigning to oppress adults,
then you have no right to claim child status.
If you are a child, stay out of politics.
Halawa sisters released by Egypt, return to Ireland, Nov 2013.
Their brother Ibrahim Halawa remained in prison in Egypt.
Kitty Holland, Irish Times, 15 Nov 2013, writes about the Halawas' release, and still hides the fact that
they are Muslim Brotherhood supporters.
She says they
"were jailed without charge ...
during clashes between supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi and security forces.
They were arrested after they had taken refuge in Cairo's Al Fateh mosque during the violence.
They had all been in the country for a summer holiday and to visit family."
And that's it.
Yet again I ask:
Is it the job of the media to hide the truth?
For 4 years, from 2013 to 2017,
Ibrahim Halawa remained in jail in Egypt.
For 4 years, the Irish media uncritically promoted his campaign,
and hid his links to the Muslim Brotherhood.
The job of the modern media is not to tell us the facts.
It is to change the world in the direction they think it needs changing.
Mark O'Regan
is another journalist who
never asks hard questions about Catholicism
Islam.
Mark O'Regan, 6 Apr 2014, writes about Ibrahim Halawa remaining in prison,
and still hides the fact that
he and his family are Muslim Brotherhood supporters.
I told him.
No reply.
Yet again, Apr 2015,
Mark O'Regan writes entire article about Halawa without mentioning he is Muslim Brotherhood.
Mark O'Regan, 28 Mar 2014, writes about a judge who made comments about Islam and wife beating.
I think the judge's comments were inappropriate, but how could you write about this without
mentioning the well-known
wife-beating verse of the Koran?
Instead he just printed a response from Islamic fundamentalist
Muhammad Taufiq Sattar.
As I said:
"What the journo did not do with story: google "Koran wife beating".
What he did do: Ring up fundie for quote."
Daily Beast article on Halawa, 22 Feb 2015.
It is sympathetic to Halawa, but also says:
"the Irish and European authorities have been careful to label Halawa as a prisoner of conscience, but sidestep the context of the Muslim Brotherhood. There is no evidence that Halawa himself is remotely political, while other members of his family frame their connection to the group as being pro-democracy and pro-human rights, especially in the context of outrage at the removal of Mohammed Morsi from power. For a variety of personal and perhaps tactical reasons, they are reluctant to say openly whether they are supporters, or members, of the Brotherhood.
Longstanding suspicions that the patriarch, Sheikh Hussein Mohammed Halawa, is a prominent Brotherhood figure in Europe are outlined in a leaked U.S. Embassy cable from 2006, due to his position at a body called the European Council for Fatwa and Research."
He declares that Halawa
"was visiting Cairo in August 2013 when he and his three sisters were caught up in the chaos of anti-government demonstrations. They took refuge in a downtown mosque, and there Egyptian security forces seized them."
Complete rubbish, as you can see on this page.
"From western governments' feeble response, you'd think Ibrahim was a dangerous reject, one of those lost children of Europe who have gone off to augment the Islamic State. But he wasn't."
Not so fast.
He is a supporter of the fascist MB.
He is definitely someone Ireland should be worried about,
even if he is not an IS fighter.
"Even if he joined the demonstrations - and there is absolutely no evidence for the dictatorship's claims ..".
There might be no evidence for their claims that he perpetrated violence,
but there is no doubt that he joined the demonstrations, as you can see on this page.
".. these were predominantly peaceful protests against the overthrow of the only freely elected government in Egypt's history."
Complete rubbish. The MB mobs burnt churches and killed police.
And "freely elected government"?
The MB are vile fascists who would drag Egypt into a new dark age.
The article is a real muddle.
There is no doubt that the new regime in Egypt abuses human rights.
So did the MB regime.
So will any alternative, since only about 10 percent of Egyptians even believe in human rights.
So yes I agree the regime is oppressive.
But that is no excuse for hiding the truth about the Halawas and the MB.
Hot Press, 28 Oct 2016, writes entire article on Ibrahim Halawa without mentioning the Muslim Brotherhood.
Majid Freeman,
a supporter of
top Al Qaeda terrorists Aafia Siddiqui and Anwar Al-Awlaki,
also
calls for the release of Ibrahim Halawa and
"the rest of our brothers in Egypt".
But
Ibrahim Halawa's own mosque (where his father is imam) never seemed bothered.
Can anyone explain?
Ireland's trendy leftists all have little "Free Ibrahim Halawa" stickers and icons.
But his own mosque does not.
It does not mention him.
The above is its Twitter as at Sept 2017.
Irish leftists write about Halawa endlessly
and self-righteously.
They viciously attack those who do not support him.
The Journal
runs items on him every other week.
But, as at Sept 2017, after 4 years in jail, Ibrahim Halawa's own mosque has apparently
never written a single post about him.
Can anyone explain?
Site
Number of Google hits on site for "Ibrahim Halawa" (as at Sept 2017)
The Irish left campaigns for Ibrahim Halawa.
The Irish mosques do not.
Not even the one run by his father.
None of the main Irish mosques have ever written a single post about him.
At the start, in Aug-Nov 2013,
the Egyptian Sisi regime
offered to free the Halawas
if Mr. Halawa recognised the regime.
Why did they care about the opinions of Mr. Halawa?
Because he is a leading MB figure, of course.
Ibrahim could have been freed in 2013 if his father had renounced the Muslim Brotherhood.
"Sheikh Halawa announced that he rejected the bargain since the freedom of millions is worthier than that of his own children."
("Freedom" here of course means "slavery under sharia".)
From International Students Against the Coup.
Halawa campaign in May 2017: "If this was your son what would you do to bring him home?"
To which I have a short reply.
And the above longer reply.
My position has been mis-represented by many people.
So here is what I said while this case was on, from 2013 to 2017:
On Ibrahim himself:
Should Ibrahim Halawa be in prison?
A. No idea.
He supported the MB, a fascist organisation that killed police and burnt Coptic churches.
But I have seen no evidence that he did that.
Some people say he should be freed.
Some say he should be jailed.
Where do you stand?
A. Neither.
I do not take either position.
Do you trust Egypt to give Halawa a fair trial?
A. No. I have no trust in the Egyptian government or courts.
Egypt under Sisi is a tyranny.
Just as it was a tyranny under the MB and a tyranny under Mubarak.
Are you upset that a MB guy is in prison?
A. No, I can't say that could ever upset me.
Did Halawa tear up his Irish passport on video?
A. I have seen no evidence for that story.
On the MB in general:
Are MB members suffering abuse of their human rights under Sisi?
A. Yes, probably. That's how Sisi (and every Egyptian regime) operates.
No one gets justice in Egypt.
Is that bad?
A. Yes, I guess, but it is nowhere near the worst thing wrong with Egypt.
Egypt needs, among other things, proper freedom for Christians, gays, apostates, atheists
and critics of Islam.
Treatment of MB prisoners is entirely unimportant compared to these huge issues.
Do you feel personally upset that MB prisoners might suffer abuse of their rights in Egypt?
No.
Not really.
I despise the MB and I am not interested in their problems.
Other questions:
Should the Halawa sisters be extradited to Egypt?
A. No. Ireland should not extradite people to Egypt.
Should Amnesty be defending Halawa?
A.
No. Amnesty should not defend Islamists.
Are you annoyed that the Irish government is helping Halawa?
A.
No. It's what governments do.
But don't expect me to join in.
What else should the Irish government be doing?
A. Asking what went wrong with immigration
that a family that supports the Muslim Brotherhood
was allowed settle in Ireland.
What would it take for you to support Halawa?
A. Him denouncing sharia law and the MB,
and calling for freedom for apostates, atheists, Copts and gays.
Him declaring that Irish law is superior to sharia law.
I am not campaigning for Halawa to be in prison (or to be freed).
I have no idea about his guilt or innocence.
I just want the Irish media to explain who he is
and what he believes.
I want them to cover the story with questioning and scepticism (as they should every story).
I never had any opinion as to whether Ibrahim should be in jail or not.
Egypt never presented any evidence he did anything other than support the Muslim Brotherhood.
And that is what I am interested in.
If he has reconsidered his support for the Muslim Brotherhood, I would love to hear it.
He should tell us.
Hilarious:
The Egyptian English-language magazine
Egypt Today, 8 Nov 2017, slags off Ireland for welcoming Halawa back.
"[Youssef Qaradawi's]
influence is strong in Ireland, however, where anyone who dares to speak up is ridiculed and bullied."
What I said Ibrahim Halawa should do when he left Egypt in Oct 2017.
I got a lot of angry abuse for this - all from people who I am sure never heard of Salah Soltan.
However, the tweet is meant as an optimistic one.
It holds out the possibility of a different future.
"This is the problem: the minute you hear that a Muslim youth is doing something they are an extremist. We just have to highlight what kind of Muslims we are; we are active in our communities and there's nothing wrong with that."
-
Hajar Al-Kaddo, a friend of the Halawas, complains about the stereotyping of Muslims, 25 Aug 2013.
Rather ignoring the fact that these Muslims are extremists!
They are supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood.
"Can we have some investigative journalism rather than a PR platform for the Muslim Brotherhood?"
- A comment of 2 Sept 2013 underneath
yet another article about the Halawas
sums up the anger of so many people online
with the Irish media.
I finally broke down this media silence in 2016 with
my Sunday Times article.
