Sinn Féin member Phil Flanagan clarifies IS ‘are’ terrorists

A Sinn Féin member has insisted he believes Islamic State is a “terrorist” organisation after initially saying he was uncomfortable with the term because it “demonised” individual groups.

Stormont MLA Phil Flanagan and his party stressed last night he did not intend to give any impression of defending the organisation after being heavily criticised for the remarks to a newspaper in Northern Ireland.

Speaking to the Tyrone and Fermanagh-based Impartial Reporter newspaper, Mr Flanagan — who last courted controversy over comments he made about abuse survivor Máiría Cahill — said bombing Syria in response to last week’s atrocities in Paris “is not the answer” and other options need to be considered.

Asked if he believes IS is a “terrorist” group, the Sinn Féin MLA said he is not comfortable with the term as it “demonised organisations” and should not be used by countries with colonial histories.

“I am not comfortable with the approach by the British establishment and other countries involved in invasion and colonial activities in the past in labelling organisation terrorists,” he said.

In a statement last night, Mr Flanagan insisted he believes IS are terrorists. He said IS is “engaged in terror and responsible for countless atrocities in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and most recently in Paris along with being linked to groups who carried out the attacks in Mali”.

While saying that “for those chasing headlines, let me be clear, IS are terrorists”, he said Irish people should know “from our own troubled history that there are no purely military solutions” as “diplomacy, negotiations and political resolution of conflict is key”.

A Sinn Féin spokesperson last night said that both the party and Mr Flanagan believe “the people who are engaged in these acts [Paris] are terrorists. It’s very clear that these people are engaged in terrorist acts”.