‘I am extremely proud to be Irish... but there is no conversation about racism’

Dr Amanullah De Sondy spends most of his time imparting students at University College Cork (UCC) with knowledge and insight on global religious affairs and social studies. He spends another part of it responding to racist tweets questioning his place in Irish society.

“I think racism is an issue within all the places I’ve lived from Scotland to the United States, to Ireland. When I arrived in 2015 I was deeply concerned that racism was and is all around but there is no conversation about it at all, which is the biggest issue we face in Ireland,” he says.

De Sondy is the head of UCC’s Study of Religions Department and was born in Scotland to Pakistani parents. He has had to battle with racism laced with Islamophobia, with some people expecting him to conform to certain stereotypes.

“This is a mixture of racism with Islamophobia. Even though Islam is not a race, Muslims are racialised. We have very entrenched ideas about what a person looks like and what we expect of them. When we see somebody, it triggers in our mind on what box we want to put them into.

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“The box that people want to put me into is that I am Pakistani, a part of my identity is Pakistani, but I am Scottish, I was born and raised in Scotland.

“When I walk on the street, there is an explanation needed from me to say that I am Scottish and I’m Irish and that my parents are Pakistani. This is confusing for the racist because the racist needs you to sit in the box.”

Having received Irish citizenship, De Sondy posted an image earlier this month celebrating the arrival of his Irish passport. The backlash was almost instant.

“The fact that I got my Irish citizenship, the fact that I am now legally Irish, is hugely problematic for the racist because the identity features are triggering,” he says.

“The backlash that I’ve received is because I am not white, and the fact of the matter is plain and simply racist, but it also requires us to ask the deeper question — to what extent are we willing to accept this? To what extent are the good people — there have been many positive I’ve received in Ireland — willing to accept the narrative ‘Ireland for the Irish’, which is preposterous.

“We must counter this. Our ideas of what Irishness is must be much broader than what the racist are defining and that is something that is happening in Ireland now.”

A point he was keen to communicate on Twitter was that Irish citizenship has been “celebrated unequally”. When a white person from Britain or the United States gains Irish citizenship “they fit the racialised box”. He wrote: “Many Irish people of colour are tired and don’t want to stand up to this narrative that being Irish is equated with whiteness or American Irish diaspora.”

De Sondy is relatively unfazed about the abuse he receives online but he worries about people who don’t have the same profile.

“I hold a lot of privilege, I have a university position as a senior lecturer, I have a platform, I speak with a Scottish accent, and I have the privilege to speak on platforms. My concern is there are black, brown, and ethnic minority individuals like those who are in direct provision, for example, who are unable to speak out to seek the equality of what it means to be Irish.

“We were sent a letter by the Minister of Justice which clearly says: ‘We celebrate your background, we celebrate where you’ve come from, you will become a part of the rich culture of Ireland, we don’t want you to forget about where you’ve come from, we want you to speak out, we want you to take part in the political, economic and social system.’

“But based on the backlash that I have received, I am worried about the silencing of somebody who does not have fluency of language, who doesn’t have over 10,000 followers on Twitter, who doesn’t have a university position. What is happening to them? Where are their voices? Their voices are stifled. They are silenced, they are afraid to speak out.”

It is part of what motivates him not to back down when confronted with hate speech.

“I have had many friends who told me ‘Aman we totally agree with you, but we worry for your safety’.

“Nothing shocks me any more. I received death threats in 2017 which was covered by the media, my office is alarmed, the gardaí knows my situation. The reason is because my face is not allowed to speak.”

The message targeted at him, he says, is: “Function in our society but don’t you dare to offer us any form of commentary on society.”

Despite such experiences, De Sondy is proud to have become an Irish citizen.

“I am extremely proud to hold this passport, it is a huge privilege to be granted citizenship of any country. For a country to legally say that you are a citizenship of that country, that they are willing to stand by you in times of joy and grief, that’s a huge honour and privilege.

“The issue in Ireland is that we are yet to have an honest debate about what it means to be Irish, who gets counted as Irish and the people who tell you what it means to be Irish are often equating it to a specific religion [in Christianity] and a specific way that we look, and they are saying being Irish is an ethnicity and they are making this an exclusive club. This need to be challenged.”

Failure to do so will store up problems for individuals and society, he adds.

“To be a citizen of any county and to thrive in that country we all need peace of mind which will affect our mental and physical state.

“If you tell somebody that we are granting you citizenship but you will never be a part of us, you are never going to be able to identify with us, what does that do to that individual? That for me is dangerous.”