TWO MEDICINE students who were killed while fighting for the so-called Islamic State were radicalised while at university in Galway, according to reports.
The Sunday Times reports that in September of 2013, two NUI Galway students, graduate Mustapha al-Hayani and visiting Malaysian student Tariq Mohainuteen, travelled together from Galway city to Dublin Airport before splitting up and joining branches of the terrorist group in Iraq and Syria respectively.
The outlet says that Irish ‘ISIS bride’ Lisa Smith claims that a prominent member of the Islamic State is originally from Galway. This man is believed to have had a major influence in the radicalisation of the two students.
Both trainee doctors held positions in the university’s Muslim Youth Society: al-Hayani as vice-auditor and treasurer and Mohainuteen as a liaison officer.
Members of the society claim they were completely unaware of the two men’s extremist beliefs.
Former medical students told the outlet that they saw a video of Mustapha al-Hayani standing over dead bodies in a Middle Eastern city, and The Sunday Times reports that when concerned students questioned the university on the whereabouts of the two men they were allegedly met with a ‘wall of silence’.
al-Hayani is believed to have flown directly from Dublin to Iraq. He was killed while fighting for the organisation, although details on when and where his death occurred are not known.
Mohainuteen died just weeks after flying to Turkey and crossing the border into Syria, killed as he fought for the Islamic State against rival group Al-Nusra, a group sometimes referred to as the ‘al-Qaeda of Syria’.
His family and other students described him as a ‘meek’ person, and told The Sunday Times that he had shown no signs of radicalisation before coming to Ireland to study.
