Ibrahim Halawa

[magpie seanie]

The day before Ibrahim was arrested I posted this video in the "Middle East landscape rapidly changing" thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6Mnm9neSLc&sns=tw

It showed in graphic and bloody detail the brutality been handed down by the military who had taken power in a coup.

The following day I was watching the news and details started to emerge about a group of people who were taking refuge
in a Mosque and were under attack from the military and their thugs.  Live coverage started to come from the Mosque,
and it was Ibrahims sister giving a running commentary.

I posted about it at the time as it was unfolding here:

http://gaaboard.com/board/index.php?topic=18356.510

Over the following days, weeks months and then years, I followed his case. It was a horrible case, and at one stage he went
on hunger strike to protest his innocence. Then thankfully yesterday he finally arrived home to a fantastic reception.

He was a 17 year old lad when arrested, and is now a 21 year old man with 4 brutal years in a hell hole to deal with.
He never should have been arrested and held as long as he was, but thanks to a lot of hard work by many, he is now free,
and as innocent as the day he was arrested.

The comments on here and in many social media posts over the past couple of weeks since it was announced he was to be freed
are disgusting. Ibrahim was born in Ireland and he is as Irish as anyone else born here. Yet, due to his colour and faith,
people fail to see him as Irish. Have people forgotten how many innocent Irish people were imprisoned because of their nationality or religion?  Has the cow forgotten it was a calf?
One thing is for sure, Racism is alive, well, and thriving here in many guises. The remarks about Ibrahim confirm this.

Those who say he never should have been there and he never should have been protesting, are the same people who do nothing when they see injustice. They sit in the comfort of their homes and all they can do is criticise those who take a stand. Ibrahim and his sisters have more courage in their little fingers than those who have been criticising them.

I followed closely what was going on in Egypt at that time, and I for one am very proud of my Irish brother and sisters who
took a peaceful stand against not only a brutal dictator, but against all the other state actors who backed Sisi and his bloody coup.

Welcome home Ibrahim, and may you recover in time from your horrific ordeal.

Good post GHD.

[easytiger95]

The day before Ibrahim was arrested I posted this video in the "Middle East landscape rapidly changing" thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6Mnm9neSLc&sns=tw

It showed in graphic and bloody detail the brutality been handed down by the military who had taken power in a coup.

The following day I was watching the news and details started to emerge about a group of people who were taking refuge
in a Mosque and were under attack from the military and their thugs.  Live coverage started to come from the Mosque,
and it was Ibrahims sister giving a running commentary.

I posted about it at the time as it was unfolding here:

http://gaaboard.com/board/index.php?topic=18356.510

Over the following days, weeks months and then years, I followed his case. It was a horrible case, and at one stage he went
on hunger strike to protest his innocence. Then thankfully yesterday he finally arrived home to a fantastic reception.

He was a 17 year old lad when arrested, and is now a 21 year old man with 4 brutal years in a hell hole to deal with.
He never should have been arrested and held as long as he was, but thanks to a lot of hard work by many, he is now free,
and as innocent as the day he was arrested.

The comments on here and in many social media posts over the past couple of weeks since it was announced he was to be freed
are disgusting. Ibrahim was born in Ireland and he is as Irish as anyone else born here. Yet, due to his colour and faith,
people fail to see him as Irish. Have people forgotten how many innocent Irish people were imprisoned because of their nationality or religion?  Has the cow forgotten it was a calf?
One thing is for sure, Racism is alive, well, and thriving here in many guises. The remarks about Ibrahim confirm this.

Those who say he never should have been there and he never should have been protesting, are the same people who do nothing when they see injustice. They sit in the comfort of their homes and all they can do is criticise those who take a stand. Ibrahim and his sisters have more courage in their little fingers than those who have been criticising them.

I followed closely what was going on in Egypt at that time, and I for one am very proud of my Irish brother and sisters who
took a peaceful stand against not only a brutal dictator, but against all the other state actors who backed Sisi and his bloody coup.

Welcome home Ibrahim, and may you recover in time from your horrific ordeal.

Good post GHD.

+1 Well said GHD.

We should order some full length mirrors for the board....so some posters can take a good long look at themselves.

Whatever about the facts of Halawa's case (although you know charges are trumped up if even a brutally repressive regime with no regard for the rule of law can't make them stick), the general tone of "F**k him, he deserved it, he should have know not to go" is depressing, nihilistic, ignorant and the exact opposite of the values you would hope citizens of a republic would espouse.

It is no wonder that democracy is in crisis all over the world with this cynicism.

[Asal Mor]

There are serious questions to be asked of the Halawas. Mainstream Irish media and our political leaders aren't asking them, but when your objective is to be seen to be inclusive to Muslims rather than to look at the story objectively, the hard questions are best left alone. Mark Humphrys writes an excellent piece on it here.

http://markhumphrys.com/halawa.st.html

[foxcommander]

There are serious questions to be asked of the Halawas. Mainstream Irish media and our political leaders aren't asking them, but when your objective is to be seen to be inclusive to Muslims rather than to look at the story objectively, the hard questions are best left alone. Mark Humphrys writes an excellent piece on it here.

http://markhumphrys.com/halawa.st.html

What an excellent piece.

It certainly destroys the notion they were holidaymakers.

When will the irish population wake up?

[foxcommander]

The Halawa family on Holiday in Cairo having "gone out for a choc ice" and accidentally ending up on stage speaking to 10,000 Islamists. "Sure, it could happen to anyone."

LOL

[Keyser soze]

There are serious questions to be asked of the Halawas. Mainstream Irish media and our political leaders aren't asking them, but when your objective is to be seen to be inclusive to Muslims rather than to look at the story objectively, the hard questions are best left alone. Mark Humphrys writes an excellent piece on it here.

http://markhumphrys.com/halawa.st.html

What an excellent piece.

It certainly destroys the notion they were holidaymakers.

When will the irish population wake up?

That article is a load of tosh, anybody that considers the writer of such arrant nonsense to be a serious journalist needs their head examined.

[Asal Mor]

Perhaps you'd like to go into a bit more depth on why it's  a "load of tosh" there Keyser. Maybe you could break it down and disprove some of the links he's found between the Halawas and the Muslim Brotherhood. Or is it more of a vague, general sort of toshness that's difficult to define?

[Eamonnca1]

The day before Ibrahim was arrested I posted this video in the "Middle East landscape rapidly changing" thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6Mnm9neSLc&sns=tw

It showed in graphic and bloody detail the brutality been handed down by the military who had taken power in a coup.

The following day I was watching the news and details started to emerge about a group of people who were taking refuge
in a Mosque and were under attack from the military and their thugs.  Live coverage started to come from the Mosque,
and it was Ibrahims sister giving a running commentary.

I posted about it at the time as it was unfolding here:

http://gaaboard.com/board/index.php?topic=18356.510

Over the following days, weeks months and then years, I followed his case. It was a horrible case, and at one stage he went
on hunger strike to protest his innocence. Then thankfully yesterday he finally arrived home to a fantastic reception.

He was a 17 year old lad when arrested, and is now a 21 year old man with 4 brutal years in a hell hole to deal with.
He never should have been arrested and held as long as he was, but thanks to a lot of hard work by many, he is now free,
and as innocent as the day he was arrested.

The comments on here and in many social media posts over the past couple of weeks since it was announced he was to be freed
are disgusting. Ibrahim was born in Ireland and he is as Irish as anyone else born here. Yet, due to his colour and faith,
people fail to see him as Irish. Have people forgotten how many innocent Irish people were imprisoned because of their nationality or religion?  Has the cow forgotten it was a calf?
One thing is for sure, Racism is alive, well, and thriving here in many guises. The remarks about Ibrahim confirm this.

Those who say he never should have been there and he never should have been protesting, are the same people who do nothing when they see injustice. They sit in the comfort of their homes and all they can do is criticise those who take a stand. Ibrahim and his sisters have more courage in their little fingers than those who have been criticising them.

I followed closely what was going on in Egypt at that time, and I for one am very proud of my Irish brother and sisters who
took a peaceful stand against not only a brutal dictator, but against all the other state actors who backed Sisi and his bloody coup.

Welcome home Ibrahim, and may you recover in time from your horrific ordeal.

Good post GHD.

Hear hear

[Syferus]

I hate that this discussion has devolved into a parody of US politics.

Ibrahim is either absolved of all errors in judgement or agrivating circumstances and racism is used as a battering ram to describe both those who are racist and those who have genuine misgivings about the situation, or he is vilified as a radical. As always, the truth is far more murky than either side would ever admit.

Most of ye need to grow up and grow out of the entrenched left-right viewpoints, and the troll accounts still need to be banned.

[Eamonnca1]

I hate that this discussion has devolved into a parody of US politics.

Ibrahim is either absolved of all errors in judgement or agrivating circumstances and racism is used as a battering ram to describe both those who are racist and those who have genuine misgivings about the situation, or he is vilified as a radical. As always, the truth is far more murky than either side would ever admit.

Most of ye need to grow up and grow out of the entrenched left-right viewpoints, and the troll accounts still need to be banned.

I could not agree more.

[whitey]

I hate that this discussion has devolved into a parody of US politics.

Ibrahim is either absolved of all errors in judgement or agrivating circumstances and racism is used as a battering ram to describe both those who are racist and those who have genuine misgivings about the situation, or he is vilified as a radical. As always, the truth is far more murky than either side would ever admit.

Most of ye need to grow up and grow out of the entrenched left-right viewpoints, and the troll accounts still need to be banned.

I could not agree more.

So when you started the thread Eamonn were you wishing to discuss it just with with those people who already agreed with you, or were you interested in discussing it with people who held disparate opinions?  From my vantage point you immediately branded anyone who didn't agree with your Disnified  version  of events as a rascist

[Eamonnca1]

I was lifting a rock to expose the ugly prejudices that always come up in this kind of discussion. My opponents are exactly who I wanted to discuss it with.

As for the troll who shall remain nameless, I stand by my position that he should be banned from this forum.

[whitey]

I was lifting a rock to expose the ugly prejudices that always come up in this kind of discussion. My opponents are exactly who I wanted to discuss it with.

As for the troll who shall remain nameless, I stand by my position that he should be banned from this forum.

Would that not fall under the banned behavior of shit stirring?

[Asal Mor]

I was lifting a rock to expose the ugly prejudices that always come up in this kind of discussion. My opponents are exactly who I wanted to discuss it with.

As for the troll who shall remain nameless, I stand by my position that he should be banned from this forum.

You keep bringing prejudice and trolling into it Eamon without addressing the reasonable questions wrt the Halawa family's seemingly strong links with radical, political Islam. I know it might be difficult, for someone as tolerant of other races and cultures as you are, but maybe you could take a break from calling people racists for long enough to explain away those links as raised in the article above. I don't have any strong feelings for or against Halawa but there are questions there that are being ignored by our leaders and media.

[trileacman]

I was lifting a rock to expose the ugly prejudices that always come up in this kind of discussion. My opponents are exactly who I wanted to discuss it with.

As for the troll who shall remain nameless, I stand by my position that he should be banned from this forum.

Run away crying to the moderator like you did the last time then.