Dublin-based Dr Satardien said that he lived less than 20 metres away from a primary school, yet it could not accept his Irish-born son because he was not a Catholic.
"Many people from the East can rightfully question the readiness of the Irish host community and their 'talk' of integration, as there is no 'walk' of integration," he said.
Dr Satardien, who is also chairman of the European Muslim Council for Justice, Peace and Equality, said he was a South African Muslim of Asian, Arabic and Irish ancestry, holding refugee status in the Republic.
He told the weekend Burren law school, in Ballyvaughan, Co Clare, that he could, therefore, have a somewhat novel perspective on its theme, "East meets West, a Clash of Cultures".
Born in Cape Town, he was one of 13 brothers and sisters, and his parents were of Indian and Arab origin.
"I have always been very drawn to my religion, but I did not have an exclusivist view on spirituality." Dr Satardien said that he had grown up in a very dysfunctional society, which celebrated skin colour above all else.
"And yet, it was a very diverse society. Now I live in a society that celebrates being Catholic above all else.
"The apartheid era's emphasis on the superiority of racial origin, over innate human ability, was self-evidently stupid, and that easy observation ensured that any reasonably intelligent person would make an effort in the opposite direction to such stupidity.
"Discrimination on the basis of religion or creed is equally stupid and immoral." He said that many Muslim migrants came from areas with large Muslim populations, such as the Maghreb, Pakistan and the Middle East.
"So their perspective is formed by the religious homogeneity of these environments.
"Such a lack of experience of diversity, along with inadequate education, can make it something of a culture shock when immersion in contemporary western civilisation takes place. Hence, ghettoes get formed."
Dr Satardien said that during the apartheid era in South Africa it was government policy to seek separation of the races, and to stigmatise integration on any level, whether personal or cultural.
"It ultimately failed, but its consequences are still being played out in South African society today, or we would not need Niall Mellon and his magnificent volunteers to build homes in the townships, in spite of apartheid having been turned on its head.
"Now it is the black and the Indians who are oppressing the whites and the coloureds." Dr Satardien accused the "mighty media" of trying to get the story amid the action, concentrating on the conflict, the lurid and graphic.
He added that the media had been "very harsh on those of us who called for a moderate type of Islam and integration in Ireland".
