‘I will never go back to Egypt after prison ordeal’ – Halawa

IBRAHIM Halawa said he didn’t support the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood when questioned by Ryan Tubridy on whether he was a member of the organisation.

The 21-year-old Firhouse native, who returned home to Ireland last month after spending four years in prison in Egypt, said he was never involved in the Sunni Islamist organisation.

“At 17, you don’t know what it is,” he told Tubridy on the ‘Late Late Show’ on RTÉ One last night. “I don’t support their ideology.”

He dismissed as “nonsense” claims that he was ever a political activist. This is despite being arrested along with three of his sisters at a protest in Cairo in August 17, 2013, following the massacre of more than 800 people by Egyptian security forces three days earlier.

He said he addressed a Muslim Brotherhood rally because two of his friends had been shot dead in the massacre.

“I was at a cinema, chilling,” he said, but he ended up taking centre stage at the rally, where he told the crowd: “I’m only up on stage after some friends were shot dead.”

He said his involvement was simply an act of altruism, which he likened to a child donating their pocket money to the Trocaire box.

“I didn’t agree with them or with the Muslim Brotherhood being elected,” he said.

Asked if he would ever return to his family’s homeland in Egypt, he said: “Never, ever, ever, ever again. No way.”