Stop blaming ourselves for Islamic fanaticism

Dr Edward Horgan (Irish Examiner, Letters, June 30) has a disgraceful interpretation of the awful tragedy in Tunisia on Friday. 

He blames such actions by Islamic fundamentalists on Western foreign policy and military interventions in the Middle East. This is the standard, albeit childish, left-wing view.

But what is outrageous is Horgan’s snide implication that the three Irish citizens slaughtered by the killer were collateral damage because the Irish government allowed the US military to use Shannon airport as a stopover. The killer had likely never heard of Shannon airport.

We need to stop this masochistic, self-loathing interpretation of Islamic fanaticism as somehow our fault, the fault of the West. Islam has been around for 1,400 years and has been characterised by Sunni-Shia sectarianism from nearly the very beginning.

Today, the vast bulk of worldwide victims of Islamic violence are other Muslims. From Boko Haram, in Nigeria, to Al-Shabaab, in Somalia, to ISIS, in Syria and Iraq, and countless other groups, Muslim fanatics have been slaughtering fellow Arab and black Muslims for many years.

Even if the West did not exist at all, fanatical Muslims would still freely butcher those they perceive to be enemies, be they Christians, Jews, Yezidis or other Muslims.

Dr Frank Giles

Ballsbridge

Dublin 4