Irish Islamic Cleric with MB links Threatens Lawfare Against Journalists over Cartoons

Irish Muslim Cleric Dr. Ali Selim of the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland threatened legal action against any Irish media which dared to republished the famous cartoons produced by Charlie Hebdo, the target of a massacre carried out yesterday by three jihadist gunmen which killed twelve people:

When asked by Niall Boylan on 4FM if he (Boylan) retweeted the cartoon would his life be in danger, Dr Selim – who condemned the shootings – said: “Not your life would be in danger but definitely we will check the Irish law and if there is any legal channel against you, we will take it,” he said.

The Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Watch, an intelligence digest which tracks Muslim Brotherhood connected groups, has previously documented that Dr. Salim is an Irish Muslim Brotherhood leader, with ties to Muslim Brotherhood chief jurist Yusuf Al Qaradawi:

The Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland (ICCI) is an important part of the European Muslim Brotherhood serving as host for the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR), the theological body headed by global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi. The ICCI is also the registered headquarters for Qaradawi’s International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS). Noah Al-Kaddo, the ICCI Executive Director, is also an officer of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (FIOE), the European umbrella organization for the Muslim Brotherhood and the parent organization of the ECFR. Ali Selim is the private secretary to ICCI Imam Hussein Halawa and is described as a “resident theologian.” Mr. Selim attracted a great deal of local media attention in September 2006 when he told a newspaper interviewer that, ideally, he would like to see Shariah law adopted in Ireland in the “event of a Muslim majority.”

Selim, perhaps unintentionally, illustrates the key role played by Muslim Brotherhood groups in the overall global effort by Islamists to institute Islamic law- including blasphemy law. While Al Qaeda (or perhaps ISIS) may have been responsible for the murder of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists, acting as sharia enforcers, it’s Muslim Brotherhood-linked groups which attempt to implement “lawfare”-abusive litigation and other legal tactics- to achieve the same end, often successfully. The two efforts are not diametrically opposed, rather they are symbiotic. MB groups offer an apparently reassuring way out, telling us what we must, and must not do, to avoid the wrath of their fellow ideologues.  For this reason it’s just as vital to oppose Islamist lawfare and legal intimidation as it is to engage the kinetic jihadist actors. Sadly Selim’s confidence in openly stating such an agenda shows just how far down the road to imposed blasphemy laws much of the West has gone.