Ibrahim Halawa, a Dubliner who spent more than four years in prison in Egypt after being caught up in a siege at a mosque in 2013, has acted as an intermediary for Omar Abdelkafi, an Egyptian cleric who has been described in Britain as a “hate preacher”.
Abdelkafi, who has made antisemitic and anti-western remarks in the past, recently spoke at the Islamic Cultural Centre in Clonskeagh. In 2015, he said the terrorist attacks of 9/11 were a “comedy show” and that the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris were the sequel.
After Abdelkafi was invited to speak in Clonskeagh last month, where his talk was in Arabic, The Sunday Times emailed him for comment in order to clarify controversial remarks attributed to him in the
