The citizens of Ireland should change the use of Shannon as a stop-over for US troops so that what happened in London could be avoided, an Islamic cleric said in Dublin yesterday.
Anjem Choudary, the leader of Al Muhajiroun in Britain, said it was not his personal view but groups such as al-Qaeda may consider that Ireland was a target. "If you allow Shannon to be used that is not a position of neutrality. It is part of waging this type of carnage in Iraq. So they would see the Irish as collaborators and are not going to distinguish."
He said the citizens of Ireland should change this so what happened in London could be avoided. He did not want such events to happen again and it was not something that he wanted to see occur. His children also lived in London, he said.
Mr Choudary was speaking before a debate in TCD on whether the attacks on September 11th, 2001, were a legitimate form of resistance to US pressure on the Islamic world.
Musleh Faradhi, president of the Islamic Forum in Europe, said the attacks were an act of terror against the basic teachings of Islam.