Madam, - I was disheartened to read your report of the call by Fine Gael's Alan Shatter for the Government to refuse a visa to Ibrahim Mussawi to visit and speak in Ireland (The Irish Times, October 5th).
Together with Minister Brian Lenihan's trembling waffle about not wishing to curb free speech, but needing to have "due regard to the requirements of public order in its widest sense", whatever that means, it makes sad reading indeed.
Mr Shatter goes on to describe the anti-war movement here as stridently "anti-American", and comprising "a collection of misty-eyed old Soviet Union sympathisers who have now befriended Islamic fundamentalists".
I for one take exception to his aligning me, or any other person with anti-war views, with Islamic fundamentalism. The anti-American accusation is old and weak. One may presume that Mr Shatter, as well as deploring Islamic fundamentalism and anti-Americanism, also deplores the Israeli government's holding of hundreds of Palestinians without trial, and the existence of Israel's "secret" torture chambers such as Camp 1391 (first reported on in Le Monde Diplomatique and the Guardian as far back as 2003), as well as the US memos authorising the use of torture covered so concisely on the front page of that same October 5th issue of The Irish Times.
Can we look forward to a statement from him on these breaches of the Geneva Convention? As for free speech - if Mr Shatter condemns the idea of Mr Mussawi's speaking in Ireland, he will have no problem condemning the Israeli government's refusal of visas a couple of years back to some Palestinian poets who wished to read their work in Dublin at the Irish Writers' Centre. - Yours, etc,
FRED JOHNSTON, Carn Ard, Circular Road, Galway.
Madam, - I am writing to express my strong support for Alan Shatter's demand that the Government refuse to issue a visa to Ibrahim Mussawi. Mr Mussawi is associated with the Hizbullah television station, El Manar, which has been banned from broadcasting to France because of its anti-Semitism.
Like most people in Ireland I was against the illegal war in Iraq launched by the US and Britain in 2003 and I would like to see the Irish Government forbid Irish citizens from joining foreign armies which participate in such squalid colonial enterprises. I also support the right of Lebanon to its territorial integrity and the right of the Palestinian people to national self-determination; and I condemn all the Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
However, I think it is vital to distinguish between anti-zionism and anti-Semitism, as Palestinians themselves have frequently pointed out. El Manar does not do this and therefore Mr Shatter's demand for its spokesman to be refused a visa is fully justified. No concessions should be made to anti-Semitism under any circumstances. - Yours, etc,
ED KELLY, Szeged, Hungary.
Madam, - Given that the Irish Anti-War Movement (IAWM) has previously hosted a public debate where a speaker from the US embassy was permitted to spout yards of war-mongering, anti-Iranian propaganda, it would be unjust to prevent an employee of Al-Manar TV station from addressing the IAWM's conference on October 13th, even if the speaker might express strident anti-American or anti-Israeli views.
In his attempt to defend American values against the Irish "anti-American" movement, Alan Shatter would do well to reflect on the implications of the first amendment in the US Bill of Rights: "Congress shall make no law. . .abridging the freedom of speech. . ." Freedom of speech is the fundamental principle that most clearly distinguishes free, democratic countries such as the United States and Ireland from countries such as Syria and the former Soviet Union. While the IAWM has promoted this principle by inviting a speaker from the US embassy to public debate, Mr Shatter undermines it by calling for the Minister for Justice to deny the Lebanese speaker an entry visa.
Just as Iran's President Ahmadinejad was recently permitted to speak at a public meeting in New York and to hear harsh criticism of his political views, so must the Irish Government permit speakers to travel from abroad to present diverse political views and to engage in open debate with the public.
By the same principle of free speech, it would be most constructive for the IAWM to arrange a public debate between Alan Shatter and the Lebanese speaker, either during the conference or at a separate event. - Yours, etc,
COILIN Ó hAISEADHA, Metropolitan Apartments, Bóthar Inse Chór, Cill Mhaighneann, Baile Átha Cliath 8.