sirenianshores

According to a US official quoted in today’s Observer

Irish society is in denial over the threat of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism on its soil, an expert in counter-terrorism has warned. Former US customs official Joe King has conducted a survey of the Dutch, UK and Irish police forces’ responses to the Islamist terror threat for the John Jay Police College in New York City and concluded that the threat is not being taken seriously enough. King stressed that al-Qaeda is present in the Republic but said: ‘I think
most estimates are that the numbers are low and the activities are restricted more to support type operations. Charities, preaching and societies are ways the jihadist can function and stay within the law but still be useful to the mission. This doesn’t mean they don’t operate as a sleeper cell, but they can stay off the radar.’

The Islamic community in Dublin didn’t strike me as being particularly militant or politicised compared to other countries. Their intention seemed to be keep their heads down and avoid any trouble, to the extent where they were reluctant to even participate in anti-war demonstrations.

But like the Irish immigrants abroad in times past who supported the IRA, a minority will be intent on supporting terrorism back in their home countries. As a consequence, the Irish government does need to be more pro-active here. The previous internal threat from Republicans and Loyalist terrorist groups has now ended to a large extent. The resources previously directed at those groups should be redeployed against Islamic terrorists. The worst thing the Irish government could do is repeat what their colleagues in other European countries did prior to 9-11, which is ignore the problem so long as the Islamic radicals didn’t cause trouble at home and focused their efforts abroad.