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Trump to deliver 'high-risk' speech to Muslim world today promoting 'peaceful vision'

The speech will come less than a day after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called on Iran to ‘dismantle its network of terrorism’.

Trump US Saudi Arabia Trump meeting Bahrain's King Hamad bin Ia Al Khalifa earlier today Evan Vucci Evan Vucci

US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump will tell 50 Muslim leaders in Saudi Arabia today of his “hopes for a peaceful vision of Islam” a day after Washington took issue with Shiite Iran.

Trump’s major speech on Islam takes place on his first foreign trip as president and in the cradle of the Islamic faith.

It also comes a day after the United States and the Sunni Gulf kingdom signed agreements worth more than $380 billion (€339 billion) – almost a third of that military-related.

“That was a tremendous day. Tremendous investments in the United States,” Trump said yesterday at talks with Saudi King Salman.

Hundreds of billions of dollars of investments into the United States and jobs, jobs, jobs.

His Secretary of State Rex Tillerson set the tone when he urged Iran’s newly re-elected President Hassan Rouhani to dismantle his country’s “network of terrorism”.

Tillerson also said the new arms deals signed between Riyadh and Washington aim to help Saudi Arabia deal “with malign Iranian influence”.

Today’s speech on Islam would be onerous for any US president, but for the real estate billionaire-turned-politician, it has the potential to be a high-risk exercise.

The speech has been touted as a major event along the lines of a landmark address to the Islamic world given by his predecessor Barack Obama in Cairo in 2009.

It will be especially sensitive given tensions sparked by the Trump administration’s attempted travel ban targeting several Muslim-majority nations and accusations of anti-Islamic rhetoric while campaigning.

Trump US Saudi Arabia (L to R) Rex Tillerson, senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, and HR McMaster Evan Vucci Evan Vucci

Trump’s influential national security adviser, HR McMaster, has said he will deliver “an inspiring, direct speech”.

“He will meet and have lunch with leaders of more than 50 Muslim countries, where he will deliver an inspiring, direct speech on the need to confront radical ideology and the president’s hopes for a peaceful vision of Islam,” McMaster said ahead of the visit.

‘He’ll be very blunt’

A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the speech would be “uplifting”.

He’ll talk about what unites us in uplifting terms, but he’ll also be very blunt in talking about the need to confront extremism and the fact that many in the Muslim world have not only not done enough, they’ve actively abetted this extremism, even as some of them have talked a good game on the surface but in quiet, continue to fund extremism.

In December 2015, Trump told a campaign rally he was calling for a “total shutdown” of Muslims entering the United States “until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on”.

His words shocked many Americans, with Trump detractors noting that the US Constitution prohibits religious discrimination.

“I think Islam hates us. There is a tremendous hatred there. We have to get to the bottom of it,” Trump said in a March 2016 interview with CNN.

But now he is in the White House, Trump may chose a path not far removed from those of his predecessors, Obama and George W Bush.

After Al-Qaeda claimed the 9/11 attacks on the United States, Bush visited a Washington mosque.

“Islam is peace,” he said, insisting that “the face of terror is not the true faith of Islam”.

And Obama chose Cairo University to deliver a speech detailing his vision of Islam in June 2009.

He addressed the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims with the traditional Arabic greeting “Salam alaikum”, and went on to call for “this cycle of suspicion and discord” to end.

Trump, who next travels to Israel and the Palestinian territories before visiting the Vatican, Brussels and Italy for NATO and G7 meetings, is looking to leave his domestic troubles behind.

James Comey, the former FBI chief fired by Trump, has agreed to testify publicly about Russian interference in the US elections.

Reports have also emerged that Trump called Comey “a nut job” and that the FBI have identified a senior White House official as a “significant person of interest” in its probe of Russian meddling.

© – AFP, 2017

Read: Donald Trump bows to Saudi king and signs $110 billion arms deal with the Gulf state

Read: CNN anchor apologises for saying guest would defend Trump ‘if he took a dump on his desk’

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    Mute Mark Byrne
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    May 21st 2017, 8:43 AM

    Looking forward to his big finale where he shows the picture of Mohammed he drew for them.

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    Mute Micheal S. O' Ceilleachair
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    May 21st 2017, 9:04 AM

    Easy now! The Jihadis might watch Mark “Burn”!!!

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    Mute Irving Chubbie
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    May 21st 2017, 10:20 AM

    @Mark Byrne:

    ROFL! Aye. This speech is a bad idea. Why can’t they just shove a big lump of tremendous chocolate cake in his face and dump him out in the desert with a golf club. Tell him he just bought the bigliest dandiest bunker in the world.

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    Mute Anthony Byrne
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    May 21st 2017, 8:56 AM

    He’s playing with fire here. I don’t think he has the basic communication skills or indeed the social intelligence to manage and manipulate a delicate relationship with the Muslim world in such a way as to keep it on an even keel. We’ll see.

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    Mute Tony Daly
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    May 21st 2017, 8:59 AM

    @Anthony Byrne: I would not bet against you being right on this. I can’t see this working out well.

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    Mute Kieran O'dwyer
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    May 21st 2017, 9:01 AM

    @Anthony Byrne: it’s easy to give a speech. Obama did so in 2009. Is the follow through that’s most important… on both sides. I doubt many Muslims think Trump has their best interests at heart regardless of what the speechwriter wrote for him.

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    Mute Scundered
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    May 21st 2017, 10:19 AM

    @Anthony Byrne: in fairness it wouldn’t matter which leader you used when addressing such a backwards group.

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    Mute Tony Daly
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    May 21st 2017, 8:45 AM

    If the analysis in the article is correct, Trump and his administration want to develop a close strategic and military relationship with the Sunnis and make a common enemy against the Shiites.

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    Mute Joe Conlon
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    May 21st 2017, 8:57 AM

    @Tony Daly: Oh shiite, I hope that’s not true!

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    Mute Mark Byrne
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    May 21st 2017, 9:51 AM

    @Joe Conlon: go and Shiite! :)

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    Mute ktsiwot
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    May 21st 2017, 9:44 AM

    What a nut he signs an arms deal worth 110 billion to the Saudis, the biggest sponcer of terrorism in the world promoting extreme sharia law, and then lectures on peace, he is truly deranged.

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    Mute Jack Cassady
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    May 21st 2017, 11:34 AM

    @ktsiwot:
    Cmon, it worked for Obama didn’t it. He ended up getting the Nobel Prize to boot.

    25
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    Mute Larry Doyle
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    May 21st 2017, 11:44 AM

    @Jack Cassady: he got the peace prize at the start of his two terms.

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    Mute Jack Cassady
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    May 21st 2017, 12:00 PM

    @Larry Doyle:
    For nothing then?
    Just as I thought.

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    Mute The Dunes Of Inchy
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    May 21st 2017, 1:36 PM

    @Jack Cassady: He accepted that he didn’t deserve the award,and gave all the money to charity.Try to keep up troll.

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    Mute John Mullan
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    May 21st 2017, 10:30 AM

    How can you make a speech about a peaceful vision for the Middle East when you have just signed a multi billion dollar arms deal with the Saudis?

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    Mute Jack Cassady
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    May 21st 2017, 11:35 AM

    @John Mullan:
    All American presidents do it.

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    Mute Dave O Keeffe
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    May 21st 2017, 12:58 PM

    @Jack Cassady: wasn’t he meant to be different? Wasn’t that the whole point?

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    Mute Alan
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    May 21st 2017, 1:21 PM

    @Dave O Keeffe: let’s face it, the only jobs he can create back home are military and arms related.

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    Mute The Dunes Of Inchy
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    May 21st 2017, 1:46 PM

    @Alan: Don’t forget undertakers.

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    Mute Tony Daly
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    May 21st 2017, 9:01 AM

    To translate

    “When I say that I hate all Muslims, I mean that I hate only the poor Shiite ones” . I like the rich Sunni ones.

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    Mute Micheal S. O' Ceilleachair
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    May 21st 2017, 9:06 AM

    Sunni side up so. The poor gobishiites better be careful.

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    Mute gregory
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    May 21st 2017, 1:12 PM

    @Tony Daly: what about Yemen?

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    Mute Mick Power
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    May 21st 2017, 8:54 AM

    Trump is basically a coward he won’t say anything til he gets on twitter on the plane home.

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    Mute Dave O Keeffe
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    May 21st 2017, 9:45 AM

    @Mick Power: like in Mexico

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    Mute Jack Cassady
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    May 21st 2017, 12:03 PM

    @Mick Power:
    Twitter co-founder Evan Williams has apologised for Twitter getting Donald Trump elected.
    Hahaha.

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    Mute Zx5vZulB
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    May 21st 2017, 9:45 AM

    Trump might not be everyones cup of tea, but if he knocks a few muslim heads together and manages to wipe out the fundamentalist gobshiites you would have to say its a job well done.

    33
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    Mute John003
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    May 21st 2017, 9:51 AM

    This might well help the moderates in Iran….Their present policy has Iran very isolated…..Irans proxy army Hezbollah is a common enemy of several Sunni nations…..Iran is trying to export its revolution rather than confront problems at home….

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    Mute Matty Kineven
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    May 21st 2017, 10:46 AM

    @Zx5vZulB: Sorry dude but the chances of that happening are non existent. Trump is a moron

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    Mute Alan Mulcahy
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    May 21st 2017, 3:36 PM

    @Zx5vZulB: I think he is selling weapons to the fundamentalists and calling Iran (the enemy of Isis) the sponsor of terrorism…

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    Mute Austin Rock
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    May 21st 2017, 6:25 PM

    @John003: But the moderate has won in Iran, they are not going to abandon Shites to the Sunni murder machine which is currently starving Yemen, crushing the Shites in Saudi Arabia. So when Trump urges them to drive out the extremists and crush their enemies he actually means Iran.

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    Mute Dean Burroughs
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    May 21st 2017, 9:14 AM

    Love how the bow to the king was negative despite the fact if he hadn’t done it you’d be accusing him of ignorance, also the first lady not wearing the head scarf was brave yesterday??? Awhile ago you slated her for not wearing one in turkey… More fake news

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    Mute Dave O Keeffe
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    May 21st 2017, 9:53 AM

    @Dean Burroughs: did the first lady go on an official visit to Turkey? Or are you thinking of when Marine LaPen went to visit a religious leader? Personally, and this is just me I’m not saying anyone is right or wrong, I’d wear it to meet a religious leader in their place of worship but not to meet a politician in their place of work, sometimes those two are the same and in that case I’d decide based on whether I was there to discuss work or spiritual life

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    Mute Lisa Saputo
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    May 21st 2017, 10:37 AM

    @Dean Burroughs: I think the only hypocrite here was Trump who attacked Michelle Obama for not wearing one while obviously not being concerned that neither his wife or daughter wore one. It doesn’t matter anyway visitors aren’t expected to wear one.

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    Mute Deborah Behan
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    May 21st 2017, 11:03 AM

    @Dean Burroughs: the only people who criticised Trump for bowing were the white supremacists who were crying their frog like tears because he did a little curtesy! Lol! And as for Melania, no First Lady has ever covered up with a scarf the only thing that was criticised was Trumps old tweet criticising Michelle Obama for doing the same.

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    Mute The Dunes Of Inchy
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    May 21st 2017, 3:27 PM

    @Dean Burroughs: *********************BREAKING NEWS*****************

    “On same weekend as record-breaking arms deal, Saudis announced $100 million donation to Ivanka fund”

    NOTHING TO SEE HERE …BUT….BUT….HILLARY…

    4
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    Mute Donal Carey
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    May 21st 2017, 9:32 AM

    I have to give him credit for taking the bull by the horns and trying break down the barriers and put an end to the violence throughout the world. Give the man a chance at least he is not sitting on his arse like The of politicians we have all talk and no action just protecting the wealthy.

    33
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    Mute Tony Daly
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    May 21st 2017, 9:36 AM

    @Donal Carey: laughing.

    35
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    Mute Lisa Saputo
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    May 21st 2017, 10:39 AM

    @Donal Carey: He’s trying to promote peace after agreeing to sell the Saudis 110bn worth of arms? Yea, give him a chance indeed.

    36
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    Mute Revolting Peasant
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    May 21st 2017, 11:30 AM

    There’s a picture in yesterdays report about the Iranian elections http://www.thejournal.ie/iran-election-2-3400420-May2017/ showing three girls voting, now I’m sure it’s PR fluff but I couldn’t imagine there ever being a Saudi equivalent. But yet who are we being trained to see as the rouge state? The Saudi sponsored ideological invasion poses more of a risk to us as a people but as long as they’re paying then sure you’re grand,

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    Mute Tony Daly
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    May 21st 2017, 9:49 AM

    I come in peace. I seek only p*ssy.

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    Mute Jack Cassady
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    May 21st 2017, 12:05 PM

    @Tony Daly:
    Go and read a Harold Robbins novel and liberate the forum for intelligent contributors to continue the discussion, thanks.

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    Mute Dave O Keeffe
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    May 21st 2017, 12:58 PM

    @Jack Cassady: I guess that means you’ll have to leave too then?

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    Mute David
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    May 21st 2017, 9:09 AM

    This can only go one way… well.

    10
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    Mute JJ O Riordan
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    May 21st 2017, 12:48 PM

    @David: one way? Yep. Far right.

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    Mute lavbeer
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    May 21st 2017, 9:30 AM

    Henceforth the Zakat will be paid directly to Ivanka

    9
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    Mute Brendan Moriarty
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    May 21st 2017, 10:44 AM

    What could possibly go wrong?

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    Mute Davin Ryan
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    May 21st 2017, 1:05 PM

    @Brendan Moriarty: Trump shows up with a ham sandwich in one hand and a clump of Koran pages in the other as a napkin?

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    Mute Dave Hogan
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    May 21st 2017, 11:02 AM

    After that arms deal with the headchoppers the outlook for iran is grim.

    8
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    Mute gregory
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    May 21st 2017, 1:15 PM

    @Dave Hogan: this strengtens the russia-iran axis.

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    Mute Tony Daly
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    May 21st 2017, 9:27 AM

    Trump the Hawk embarks on peace!

    8
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    Mute Revolting Peasant
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    May 21st 2017, 10:28 AM

    @Tony Daly: Are you going all multi-post on us again Tony?

    11
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    Mute Tony Daly
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    May 21st 2017, 11:23 AM

    @Revolting Peasant: yes.

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    Mute Jack Cassady
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    May 21st 2017, 11:37 AM

    A watershed moment in Middle East politics.

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    Mute The Dunes Of Inchy
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    May 21st 2017, 3:30 PM

    @Jack Cassady: ************BREAKING NEWS********

    “On same weekend as record-breaking arms deal, Saudis announced $100 million donation to Ivanka fund”

    But…But….Hillary is bought!

    4
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    Mute Stouts O Shea
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    May 21st 2017, 11:34 AM

    Billion s made and thousands of jobs
    On one trip to Saudi??
    While our hero politician’s slink off on st Patrick’s day
    Hole blowing about all the jobs they are going to create, while running up an expenses tab
    Paid for by Irish taxpayers,
    Then We sit back sucking a sweet and critise trump?????? Big joke

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    Mute Ross Stewart
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    May 21st 2017, 2:04 PM

    I’d prefer no jobs, to jobs making weapons that will kill and injure countless innocent people.

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    Mute John O'Driscoll
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    May 21st 2017, 2:07 PM

    If he wants a peaceful Islam he’ll have to rip out half the pages in the ‘Holy’ Koran.

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    Mute Tony Daly
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    May 21st 2017, 4:18 PM

    Technogical evolution will render oil based economies increasingly redundant by 2023. Oil based economies will be unable to spend so much on arms in the future.

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    Mute Jack Cassady
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    May 21st 2017, 12:20 PM

    ….

    1
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    Mute John O'Driscoll
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    May 21st 2017, 2:09 PM

    Stop buyin their oil stop selling them weapons send them back to their natural state of being goat-herders and pearl-divers and that is where they are most safe, dressing their women up in binsacks and believing in magical flying horses and that angels won’t come into an house with dogs or pictures in.
    To really defeat Global Jihadism all we have to do is stop buying their oil and selling them weapons and start developing proper nuclear power generation networks so the entire road can go electric.

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