Not all countries in the Middle East aspire to a western-style democratic model and it is this misunderstanding of people’s needs that has led to the inexorable rise of IS, writes JP O’Malley.

The destruction of historical and religious artifacts in Nimrud, by the so-called Islamic State, is merely the latest example of these fundamentalists hiding evidence of a past that contradicts their rigid contemporary orthodoxy (Irish Examiner, April 13).