Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left) | Oireachtas source

Like every civilised person on this planet, I was appalled and outraged at the events in Paris last Friday night. I want to express my deepest sympathy and solidarity with the victims of this outrage, their families and the French people. Nothing can justify these atrocious acts which have left 129 people dead and 352 injured. Only for the security guard in the Stade de France stopping one of the attackers, the toll would be much higher.

I want to make clear my complete and utter rejection of the reactionary and semi-fascist ideology of Daesh, Islamic State, al-Qaeda, al-Nusra Front, Boko Haram and the Taliban fundamentalists in Pakistan and Afghanistan. I also want to put on record my disgust at western support for the ruling elite in Saudi Arabia which has spent more than $100 billion exporting the same reactionary fascist ideology of salafism throughout the world over recent decades. These are the same western powers, particularly the US and the UK, which today label as terrorists their former allies and freedom fighters. There is no question that al-Qaeda was a creation of the CIA in its war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Al-Qaeda was not deliberately fostered by Iraq but arose as a consequence of the US-British invasion. Al-Qaeda in Iraq operates as the al-Nusra Front in Syria and has received funding and arms from the US, Britain, the Saudis and the Qataris. Islamic State, itself, has been funded by the Saudis and, particularly, by the equally reactionary regime in Qatar. We cannot ignore the fact that there is a wider agenda at play.

We now have a very odd situation whereby US imperialism and its western allies support one group of rebels against the Assad dictatorship while bombing another group. In effect, the US is carrying out military operations in Iraq with its archenemy Iran while, on the other hand, it is supporting the military campaign by Saudi Arabia against the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen. What is one to make of all of this? For a start, I have no illusion that great power politics, as engaged in by the US and its allies or by Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia, shares a responsibility not just for what happened in Paris but also what has happened to the millions who have been maimed, killed and displaced from Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. The solution to these horrors will not come from those responsible for them unless they recognise they are responsible and then implement the economic, social, cultural, educational actions needed to embrace all the peoples of colour, creed and race.

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