REPUBLICAN NETWORK for UNITY Chairperson, CARL REILLY has called on the Catholic Primate of Ireland, Sean Brady to resign his position.

Sinn Féin was out in strength on Saturday 30th July proudly supporting Belfast Pride 2011. Ógra Shinn Féin activists and the Sinn Féin LGBT group were joined by Belfast Mayor Niall O’Donnghaile, DCAL Minister Caral Ni Chuilin, Gerry Kelly MLA and a host of Sinn Féin councillors to celebrate the biggest pride parade in Ireland.

Your article in the summer 2011 edition of ‘Emma’ entitled ‘A Black Spring’ expresses concern about the possibility of a Muslim Brotherhood dominated government in Egypt in the future after the transition period. You conclude that the easiest aspect of the fight is with the violent jihadists; and whilst Bin laden is dead, the doctrine of jihad lives on. In another article*   you say: “...the gradualist approach is far more likely to win the prize of state power. All that Khomeini did before he came to power in Iran was to preach the merits of a society based on Islamic law. He did not engage in terrorism. Yet he and his followers took over Iran – a feat far greater than bin Laden ever achieved. In Iran the violence came later.” 

In reality, however, ‘doctrine’ alone was not the reason behind the brutal Islamic movement’s rise to political power. In Iran, for example, the rise of Islamism was aided by the US-led foreign policy of creating a green or Islamic belt around the then Soviet Union during the Cold War. At a conference in Guadeloupe, Western powers decided to back Islamism at the expense of a left-leaning revolution that was crushed in order for the Islamic Republic of Iran to establish itself. In fact, to secure power, the regime slaughtered an entire generation. As a result, we have witnessed the rise of the political Islamic movement for several decades.