Saturday Politics : 21st Centuy Politics Is Often about Terrorism

It's Saturday Politics -- and this week "politics" is worldwide and often tied to terrorism. Let's take a look. ~~~~~ Northern Ireland's power-sharing government is falling apart. On Thursday, Northern Ireland's First Minister Peter Robinson resigned as the UK province headed toward the deepest crisis since a 1998 peace deal ended years of sectarian violence. The current political crisis began when a senior Sinn Fein figure was arrested in connection with the shooting of a former Irish Republican Army (IRA) gunman last month. Sinn Fein was the political wing of the IRA during 30 years of sectarian violence known as The Troubles, which was largely brought to an end by a peace deal in 1998. Sinn Fein, which wants Northern Ireland to become part of the Republic of Ireland, shares the governing of Northern Ireland with the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). The DUP is concerned that the murder of Kevin McGuigan in Belfast indicates that the IRA is still active, although Sinn Fein strongly denies this. On Thursday, Robinson said : "The DUP has made it clear it will not be involved in business as usual. If others want the assembly to function normally in spite of Sinn Fein's position, we will have reached the point where, as a last resort, we will take this final step." The crisis may trigger early elections. Sinn Fein's Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, long thought to be a former senior IRA leader, said the crisis was down to "inter-party rivalry" among unionist (i.e., pro-British) parties, adding that suspending the assembly would be a mistake. He told reporters : "I think it would send a very negative message and would be grist to the mill of those who in the past have tried to plunge us back to the past." Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said that there was a "limited opportunity" to avert the collapse of Northern Ireland's power-sharing administration, and if it fell, it could be a very long time before it resumed. During The Troubles before the peace accord of 1998, terrorism was the daily fare in Northern Ireland -- fed by IRA pipe bombs, smashed kneecaps and midnight murders of those who supported the DUP government. The IRA has been called terrorist since it was formed in the 1916 period to wage guerrilla war against British government in Ireland. ~~~~~ German Chancellor Angela Merkel is feeling political heat from the many Germans accusing Merkel's government of losing control of the refugee situation. Another record influx of asylum seekers is expected in Germany over the weekend. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that up to 40,000 migrants might arrive in Germany on Saturday and Sunday, twice as many as last weekend, when authorities in Bavaria warned they were barely coping. In a sign that the government itself is concerned, Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said she had put 4,000 troops on standby to help with the influx, a rare step in Germany that is usually reserved for natural disasters. The refugees are arriving from Syria, Iraq and other countries as far away as Bangladesh. They are Moslem and unregistered before knocking on the EU's door, and some EU leaders worry that jihadist terrorists may be imbedded with them. Austria followed Denmark's lead by closing the highway between Vienna and the Hungarian border as 8,000 refugees flooded into Austria on Thursday and a further 4,500 arrived overnight, Austrian police said. The rail link to Hungary also remains shut due to "massive overburdening" by the migrants. Denmark has refused to accept any more refugees. Hungary is racing to complete a fence along its border with Serbia by early October to help stem the refugee tide. It also plans to implement much tougher immigration rules beginnlng next week. Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a populist who has framed the crisis as a battle to preserve Europe's prosperity and "Christian identity," angrily criticized the behavior of the 100,000+ mostly Moslem migrants who have been filling up central Budapest and disrupting traffic along roads running westward to Austria. Orban told the media : "They seized railway stations, rejected giving fingerprints, failed to cooperate and are unwilling to go to places where they would get food, water, accommodation and medical care...They rebelled against Hungarian legal order." And news now circulatibg in Europe concerns the father of drowned Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi, whose dead body washed-up on a Turkey beach caused Merkel to open the German gates to refugees. Aylan's father, Abdullah Kurdi, was apparently working with people traffickers and driving the flimsy boat that capsized trying to reach Greece, according to other passengers on board the boat, who dispute the version Kurdi gave last week. One of them, Jawwad, was on the boat with his wife and they lost their 11-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son in the crossing. He told Reuters that Kurdi panicked and accelerated when a wave hit the boat, raising questions about his claim that somebody else was driving the boat. Jawwad said : "The story that (Aylan's father) told is untrue. I don't know what made him lie, maybe fear...He was the driver from the very beginning until the boat sank." Jawwad also said that the people traffickers told him that Kurdi had organized the boat crossing. Another passenger confirmed the account. The Kurdi story strengthens the position of EU opponents who believe that accepting Middle East Moslem migrants, some of whom may be terrorists and criminals not refugees, will destroy European Christian culture and create a Moslem Europe. ~~~~~ In a purely anti-terrorist action, Egyptian security forces killed 98 militants in Sinai during a recent military operation, the military said yesterday. Egypt is battling an insurgency that grew after the army overthrew President Mohamed Morsi of the Moslem Brotherhood Islamist movement in mid-2013 after mass protests against his rule. The insurgency, mounted by ISIS's Egyptian affiliate, has killed hundreds of soldiers and police and has started to attack Western targets. President al-Sisi describes Islamist militancy as an existential threat to Egypt, the most populous Arab state and a close US ally. ~~~~~ And in an African terrorist shooting at a camp that housed people who had fled Boko Haram and a suicide attack on a bus station, at least 12 people were killed in northeast Nigeria yesterday, officials said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombings. About 2.1 million people have been displaced and thousands killed in a six-year-old campaign by the jihadist Boko Haram to carve out an Islamist state. ~~~~~ So, dear readers, 21st century politics thus far is often about terrorism and the fear of terrorism. It is no longer something that happens in remote areas far from Europe or America. Terrorism is around us daily and if the IRA is an example, terrorists don't reform or abandon their twisted causes. They are always there waiting for the opportunity to attack us, our values, and our democratic political systems. The IRA attacks Protestants. ISIS attacks all Christians and Jews. Preparedness, vigilance and strong military and intelligence services are our armour. Our challenge is to remain true to our judeo-christian values without becoming doormats for those who would destroy us.