Minutes of the 2^nd Meeting of the 161^st Session

4^th October 2007 ~ The Islamic Terrorism Debate

AND so it was that the second meeting of the year was held here in the Kirwan, with Paddy Cluskey chairing. The meeting opened with the minutes of the previous meeting being passed with one objection, carefully ignored. Main business for the evening was the Islamic Terrorism debate, but before that Ms. Muireann O’Dwyer began Private Members’ Time with the motion ‘TTH Would Boycott the Beijing Olympics’. Muireann said a lot of stuff about how the Chinese government is bad and doesn’t respect people’s rights, but unfortunately not much of what she said was offensive or sexist, so that’s as far as she gets in my minutes.

Tony McDonnell opposed the motion, saying how mixing sport and politics doesn’t work, and how if we want to hit them we should stop buying their goods.

Zoe McNair responded in proposition, saying how refusing to by their goods would only result in us all being without clothes. In Galway. In winter. She also summed up the entire debate with the statement ‘Bad China, bad! No Olympics for you!’.

Bob Cox opposed the motion on the grounds that America has human rights abuses like China, but we would never boycott their games. He said instead of boycotting China next year, we should instead boycott London’s 2012 Olympics for their 813 years 7 months and 23 days of oppression.

James Hope questioned whether forces abortions are the way forward and quoted Robert Kennedy’s freedom from oppression speech, which despite searching for it on Wikipedia for literally several minutes, I couldn’t find.

The Motion was put to the House, and was heavily defeated.

So onto main business for the night, TTH Believes 9/11 is Justifiable. As our campus newspaper said earlier in the week, we were about to poke a giant bear with a stick, and that we did. First to speak in proposition of the motion was Mr. Anjem Choudary. In fairness, we were expecting a fire and brimstone type speech that would have the Garda Special Branch reaching for their pistols, but Mr. Choudary avoided the argument like like how Kate & Gerry McCann avoid justice. ‘Now I’m not trying to justify this, but . .’. He said how 9/11 and the London Bombings were designed to convert you to Islam, and how these attacks took place because of atrocities in the Middle East. He said how any question you could possibly think of is answered in the Qur’an, even global warming. He said how we can stop more attacks by leaving Iraq and stop supporting Israel, and how while he cannot speak for his brothers in Iraq, we should have expected retaliation. Then he said how 9/11 was not designed to kill women and children, but just targeted America’s infrastructure instead, obviously under the assumption that people don’t actually work inside giant office blocks at 10am. In summation, Choudary said how he believes in a peaceful, prosperous society built on the Islamic faith, and also told us how capitalism has failed as it has not core beliefs.

In opposition, Sheikh Dr. Shaheed Satardien, said Choudary was misinterpreting Islam for his own means, and slurring the faith. He stated how although Islam has a right to defend itself with violence, it does not tolerate the killing of innocent civilians. He said how if followed correctly, Islam will lead you to the middle ground, and away from extremism. He said how Choudary’s Islam is corrupted and one of perpetual violence and a heresy. In summation, Sheikh Satardien called on the proposition speakers to study Islam properly and not be blinded by hatred.

In second proposition, Umar Javeed said how the Sheikh was a hypocrite, with his fellow Muslims rotting in prison for only wanting the truth. He said in Islam there is only one way, and no middle ground, and how there is a Law of Equality in the faith, similar to ‘and eye for eye, a tooth for a tooth’ whereby if you kill my children, I will kill yours. He quoted the Qur’an saying how ‘I am the Prophet of Massacre and Slaughter. I have come to eradicate disbelief.’ He claimed the morality of the holocaust and the slave trade is part of Christian culture and that English is the language of thieves. Javeed continuing his scary talk in summation, saying how it is prophesy that Islam will conquer the world and how we are in war between Islam and the West, and in wartime violence is necessary.

In second opposition, Ronan Harrington (3^rd Arts) said how Choudary was a cop-out, and was hiding his true believes from us. Ronan said how on previous occasions Choudary had called for the execution of the Pope and for the flag of Islam to fly above the Dáil. He said the Choudary with us tonight was a cop-out, afraid to say what he means. Ronan said how the idea of blowing up innocent people in order to get 70 virgins in paradise is not a religious belief, but a mental illness. He told us how half of Muslim countries have democratic elections, and they always reject extremism at the ballot box. He also said how justifying terrorism because the Americans killed your friends doesn’t work, because it just creates a vicious circle of violence and drowns out the voice of the moderates. Finally he said how men like Choudary prey on disenfranchised and uneducated young men in Muslim ghettos and manipulate them in carrying out these attacks. In summation, Ronan claimed Al Qaeda is now a sectarian organisation, intent on killing fellow Muslims, and how the only answer the proposition gave us to how to stop violence was yet more violence.

With that, the motion was opened to the floor. First to speak in proposition of the motion was Abu Jihad wa Qital, or Johnny Baghdad as I will refer to him from now on. Johnny said how those who worked in the World Trade Centre contributed to the continuing poverty and oppression in the Middle East, and were legitimate targets. He also said how the state of Israel should not exist, and how Jews would be more than welcome to live a new Palestinian state with Sharia Law, presumably after they, you know, stop being Jews and all.

Peter O’Brien opposed the motion, saying how all religions lead to peace and compassion, but most have been abused and misinterpreted by extremists and all sides. He said religion has been corrupted beyond any use and should be done away with.

Yousuf Loughnane (LL.B) proposed the motion, saying how it’s no good for Muslims to just use passive resistance against those oppressing them. He quoted Malcolm X, saying how we must free our people by any means necessary, including violence. Yousuf said how those in Palestine only have stones to fight with, while the Israeli’s have tanks. Finally he said how these people are not terrorists, but just ordinary people trying to free their land.

Adam Petcham said how these extremists are blinded by hate and purposely went out to maximise civilian casualties on September 11^th. He said the whole situation boils down to 19 people murdering 3,000 people.

At this point, so many people wanted to speak that speeches were reduced to one minute and because of my hangover and laziness while writing up these minutes, I will cover what they said as follows; lots of people, some being students and some not being students, spoke in proposition and opposition of this motion, including Donna Cummins, Katie Doherty, Joesph Quinn, Pastha Something, Guy with Palestinian Scarf, and Blonde Girl.

With time rapidly running out, the motion was put to the House HoHand was massively defeated. With that we retired to Paddy’s Bar for drinks and funsies, while the devout Muslim speakers went to the lapdancing club on Dominick Street to snort cocaine off the bare breasts of Polish hookers. Presumably.

These are the Minutes as Recorded.