David Quinn
Photo: Damien Eagers/PA Wire We now find ourselves in a situation where the Faith that is still practiced by a huge number of Irish people finds itself under constant criticism while everything new is celebrated, writes David Quinn
It is almost two years since the visit of Pope Francis to Ireland. The contrast with the visit of St Pope John Paul II in 1979 could not have been starker. He drew huge crowds, while Pope Francis couldn’t fill Croke Park, never mind the space allocated for the Mass in Phoenix Park.
Pope John Paul came to an Ireland which, outwardly at least, was still strongly Catholic, while Pope Francis came to a country that has become much more secular and hostile towards the Church, sometimes with good reason.
There was very negative coverage in the media in the run-up to the visit. We were warned that there might be an outbreak of disease at the Phoenix Park Mass. We were told a temporary morgue would be set up at the park for those who might die there. Older people were put on notice that the walk to the site of the Phoenix Park Mass would be so arduous they would have to prepare as if they were climbing Mount Everest.
Debates
We had the usual debates about the teachings of the Church that create most friction with the prevailing secular morality, and a big report about clerical sex abuse in the dioceses of Pennsylvania was published that received lots of coverage and reminded people of the scandals in this country. The voices of abuse victims filled the airwaves again.
Last week, another, very different religious event took place in Croke Park. This time it was to mark the annual Muslim festival of Eid.
It was held at the GAA stadium because Covid-restrictions mean only very limited numbers of worshippers can gather indoors. About 150 Muslims took part.
The event received glowing and uniformly positive coverage. No questions were asked about the content of Muslim faith. No light was shone on its attitude towards women or homosexuality as happens all the time in the case of the Catholic Church.
Nothing was said about Islamist extremism or about the fact that several dozen Muslims have gone from Ireland to fight for ISIS.
Why not? The answer is that Islam is a minority faith in the West, particularly so in Ireland where we have relatively few Muslims compared with say, Britain or France, and so it is accorded great latitude and given every benefit of the doubt.
Modern liberalism evaluates every group according to the amount of power it has. Those with power must be torn down. Those which lack power must be lifted up. This is an egalitarian impulse.
After the event …Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who attended with other religious leaders, had his car surrounded by protestors who denounced what had just taken place”
The Catholic Church must be pulled down, and even after that, kept down. It must therefore be subjected to a constant barrage of criticism. Islam must be raised up, or rather Muslims must be raised up.
This means Islam must not be subjected to hard questioning. Indeed, hard questions will be taken as evidence of intolerance, which can be very real.
For example, after the event at Croke Park, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who attended with other religious leaders, had his car surrounded by protestors who denounced what had just taken place and abused him as a ‘traitor’ and ‘heretic’. It was a revolting display on their part.
The man who organised the event was Dr Umar Al-Qadri, who runs a small Mosque in Dublin.
Dr Al-Qadri is the face of moderate, even liberal Islam. He supports religious freedom, including in Muslim countries, and he bravely calls out Muslim extremism.
Disappointingly, he supported the repeal of the Eighth Amendment. The leadership of the far bigger mosque at Clonskeagh, and the Islamic Cultural Centre attached to it, took the opposite view.
It is odd that an Imam with a small congregation is presented as the face of Islam in Ireland, when the leaders of a far bigger part of the Muslim community here are rarely seen in the media.
The Croke Park event was praised as an exercise in ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusion’.
Dr Al-Qadri himself said: “This is a country that is proud of its diversity and embraces those who become part of the society.”
He said the ceremony had sent out a strong message that Ireland is a country of céad míle fáilte.
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We now find ourselves in a situation where the religion that is still practiced by a huge number of Irish people finds itself under constant criticism, and a religion that is relatively new to our shores, but is very big and old elsewhere, avoids any real critical scrutiny.
This is despite that fact that on the issues of current controversy, Islam is often even stricter than Catholicism.
From the point of view of Official Ireland, the new religion of Ireland is now ‘diversity’. Catholicism is to take its place within this new religion and is to be considered no more and no less important than any other faith, while at the same time, for reasons of history, it is to be constantly attacked.
That is to say, its history is to be a source of criticism only. Catholicism’s deep historical roots and great size are not to be seen as a reason to accord it a greater place at the table of Official Ireland.
Sacrifice
Eid, by the way, remembers the episode in the Bible (and the Koran) when God tells Abraham he does not have to sacrifice his son Isaac, after all. Abraham has shown that he is willing to trust God in all things and that is enough.
But the religious lesson of Eid was totally overlooked in the coverage of the Croke Park event, because our new diversity creed isn’t really interested in the actual content of minority religions. It does not engage them on their own terms. They are welcomed only to the extent that they accept the new creed and their place within it.
‘Diversity’ is a religion that wants no challengers. It is to be regarded as the ‘ultimate truth’, which is what all religions believe, when you think about it. How ‘diverse’ is that really?