Racism growing nationwide says prominent immigrant
VISCIOUS anti-immigrant literature has circulated in Mullingar in recent months, while a prominent local immigrant has described xenophobia as being at its worst ever level in Ireland since he migrated here.
According to Rashid Butt, who chairs the Westmeath Immigrants Network (WIN), some Irish people have come to view anyone who looks foreign as “a scrounger who shouldn’t have been allowed in [the country] in the first place”.
He described this proportion of native Irish society as “a growing minority” and a “thorn in the side” to the majority population.
Butt, who migrated to Ireland in 2000, said many immigrant families across the country have no plans to move and want to positively contribute.
“I have been asked so many times when I’m going back to my own country that I have lost count,” said Butt, who became Ireland’s first Peace Commissioner from the immigrant communities in 2009.
“Some people have adopted this as their home country and have every intention of making it a better Ireland.”
Originally from Pakistan and now living in Mullingar, Butt noted how anti-immigrant literature from the so-called Immigration Resistance Movement had circulated in his hometown in recent months.
“My wife was driving in town when the man pushed it through the half-open window while she stopped at traffic lights,” he said.
The letter, seen by Metro Éireann, carries an outline of Ireland surrounded by the words “A beacon of hope for white nations”, and is styled as “more random racial reflections”.
It urges readers to “get mad, get passionate, get up off your racial knees, stop grovelling on the ground before the invading hordes”. It also castigates the “general media” for apparently portraying black men as “sexually superior” and says any organisation which shows images of “mixed races” in promotional literature is gaining from “race-mixing promotion grants from some unknown govt [sic] grant or EU grant fund”.
The letter is signed by a Tom Nee from Longford, but Metro Éireann’s phone calls to the printed number went unanswered.
Rashid Butt said he did not alert local gardaí to the letter because, after consulting with friends, he thought there was “nothing that could be done” under present legislation despite it being “a very racist letter”.
Butt referred specifically to incitement to hatred legislation that has been under review by successive governments. It makes it an offence for a person to “publish or distribute written material” which is “likely to stir up hatred”, but anti-racism campaigners have noted numerous weaknesses, including a possible defence of lack of intention to stir hatred.
Mayor of Longford Town Peggy Nolan (Fine Gael) said she had not come across the letter, nor ever heard of someone in Longford by the name of Tom Nee.
She urged anyone in receipt of such a letter to alert gardaí and said there are huge efforts towards integration locally.
Cllr Peter Burke. also of Fine Gael, who represents Mullingar East on Westmeath County Council, said he had not come across the letter and noted that “random events happen but they can happen anywhere”.
He described relations between native and new locals as “very open and good”.
However, Rashid Butt said that although relations both locally and nationally may appear fine “on the surface”, there are “underlying currents” which are concerning.
He said anti-racism education must become a Government priority and cited the film The Guard, which stars Brendan Gleeson, as a “training video” for people wishing to understand more about “deep-seated racism”.
