Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

I join colleagues in condemning unreservedly the appalling murder of 17 French citizens last week, an act for which there was no justification whatsoever. It was an absolutely indefensible act. As other Deputies noted, it was, sadly, not the only fact of indefensible violence that took place last week. We also saw the slaughter in the most vicious circumstances of 2,000 African citizens by Boko Haram. Nor was it the only act of indefensible violence carried out against journalists or artists. We should recall the 12 journalists murdered by the Israeli defence forces in Gaza last year, people whom the Israeli Foreign Minister described as terrorists who hold cameras and notebooks. I do not recall any outcry or demands for the defence of free speech and democracy in those instances. In fact, I take it as quite an affront that among those who gathered on the boulevards of France last week were persons responsible for those actions and who now seek to paint themselves as being on the side of the French people and the victims of this atrocity.

If we are genuinely to mourn the victims of the horrific murders in France, we have a responsibility to respond in a balanced way. There is no point in decrying the rise of Islamic extremism while saying nothing about the circumstances that gave rise to such extremism. There is no point in ignoring the fact that the US invasion of Afghanistan was one of the key motivators for the emergence of these groups. In an interview given under a pseudonym some years ago by a United States Air Force major, he made the following observations:

[When] I was in Iraq, we routinely handled foreign fighters, who we would capture... In their eyes, they see us as not living up to the ideals that we have subscribed to. You know, we say that we represent freedom, liberty and justice. But when we torture people, we're not living up to those ideals. And it's a huge incentive for them to join al-Qaeda. You also have to kind of put this in the context of Arab culture and Muslim culture and how important shame, the role of shame is in that culture. And when we torture people, we bring a tremendous amount of shame on them. And so, it is a huge motivator for these people to join al-Qaeda...

That is how things look to the people in those countries which are on the receiving end of the so-called war on terror.

We must be balanced and measured in our response. I believe in freedom of expression and human rights, which is why I equally condemn the use by President Obama of the Espionage Act, for example. We must be on guard against knee-jerk reactions which result in greater state powers to patrol liberty. We should bear in mind that the perpetrators of this crime were known to the surveillance forces. Surveillance of itself is no solution. In fact, what will make the world a better and safer place is non-intervention.

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