A MUSLIM GROUP which distributed an e-mail falsely linking a TD with highly derogatory remarks about Palestinians has admitted it made a mistake.
On 5 January, the Muslim Public Affairs Committee in Ireland (MPACIE), whose aim is to “defend Muslim interests and Islam throughout Ireland and Europe”, sent an e-mail to members of the Muslim community and other interested parties, claiming that Fine Gael’s Alan Shatter TD had said he’d rather “drink his own urine” than help the Palestinians.
However, Liam Egan of the group later confirmed that they had inadvertently used a made-up ‘quote’ which originated on a satirical website.
The e-mail sent by MPACIE had begun by referencing a 12-year-old boy who it said had been killed by an Israeli missile that morning. “A pilot-less drone fired a missile at the children playing on the roof, ” it stated, in reference to how the boy was killed.
The second half of the e-mail referred to Alan Shatter TD who it claimed had said he would “rather drink his urine than help a Palestinian”.
But the ‘quote’ attributed to Shatter had in fact been found on a satirical website established to lambaste politicians in the Dáil.
“The owner of the site contacted us stating that the comment was a satirical take on Shatter’s politic regarding Palestinians and requested that we remove the reference and the link [on our website], which we did. ”
Egan added that the ‘comment’ had been originally posted in April 2008, and suggested that Shatter had had plenty of time to contest it. It appears that the MPACIE has not issued any apology to the Dublin politician.
At press time Shatter, who comes from a Jewish family and is a strong critic of Hamas, was unavailable for comment.
