'Allowing ISIS jihadis to return to Ireland serves the best interest of the state' -Dr. Ali Selim (Ireland)
Dr Ali Selim says allowing ISIS jihadis to return to Ireland serves the best interest of the state and will strengthen our security system.
"We all condemn ISIS. However, if someone joined ISIS for one reason or another, and then they want to come back, logically I think if we don't have any constitutional problem to have them back, we should have them back and having them back serves the best interest of the state on a number of levels:
"No.1 People who have joined these people, they have been ideologically manipulated.
"No.2 The problem has social dimension. We need to look into that and deeply into that. Practically speaking we have seen when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, the America hailed the concept of jihad and so the Arabia funded people going to fight over there. They fought over there and the Soviet Union lost and it was a dramatic loss for the Soviet Union and then these people after that wanted to go back home, everybody wanted to go to his country. But the countries of these people did not want them to come back. What was the result of that? The formed cells in different places and instead of having one spot where we know the people are fighting for this reason, and we can deal with that ideologically and theologically..."
Matt Cooper interjected: "But what's that got to do with us. What's that got to do with Irish citizenship and Irish people then going to other fights, coming back to Ireland and expecting to be looked after here?"
Selim: "...Basically you don't want them to come back but having them back is going to be something good because they can be rehabilitated, they can be..."
Matt Cooper: "Why is it our job to rehabiliated people who get involved..."
Ivan Yates: "Why should we harbour jihadis?"
Selim: "Well, [Chuckles] why should you not have jihadis if they can be..."
Yates: "Because they're nothing to do with Ireland."
Selim: "No, you say that because you think they are imposing danger to Ireland when in fact these people went thousands of miles away from us, they fought thosands of miles away from us. They did something bad. We don't agree with what they've done and they want to come home but..."
Yates: "But they're treating Ireland like a flag of convenience!"
Selim: "That is not true, that is not true."
"If we are talking about prevention, then we should let these people come back if they want to come back. We all disagree with what happened but again, we have to understand that these people have been intellectually manipulated. If we bring them back, it will give us a better insight. They have been there. They lived with them. We need to find out what exactly they found appealing so they were recruited."
"That is going to strengthen our security system."
Bríd Smith also said she agreed with the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and the UK MP Jacob Rees-Mogg that jihadis with Irish passports should be allowed to come back to Ireland.
"If we find they're murderers and all sorts of terrible people, then we monitor them or we charge them."
Broadcast: The Tonight Show | Virgin Media One | 26 Feb 2019
https://www.invidio.us/channel/UCgzyycFR6PEv-B90rAiFsQg
