Sir,
while acknowledging that religious fanatics may always exist Vincent Durac (Irish Times, 22 September) is right to contextualise the often violent protests directed against US Embassies over the silly but hate inciting film Innocence of Muslims.
The reaction to the film may have been very different had not Muslim countries being bombed, invaded and occupied, their citizens tortured and their natural wealth exploited over the last eleven years in a war that former US President Bush coined a ‘crusade’.
Hundreds of thousands of Muslims have been killed. The latest atrocity, committed by NATO last Sunday in Afghanistan, killed eight women and injured seven including a 10-year old girl according to a report in the Irish Times (17 Sept.).
It is crimes like these that are the real cause of anger in the Muslim world.
The US Government and its apologists should truthfully confront the justified anger of Muslims. The memory of US Ambassador Chris Stevens, of the eight dead women in Afghanistan and of all the victims of a flawed US foreign policy deserves no less.
Yours etc.
JIM ROCHE,
PRO Steering Committee,
Irish Anti War Movement,
PO Box 9260,
Dublin 1.
Tel. 087 6472737
