2012-05-12 15:32:27

Revealed: Al-Qaeda plan to recruit Irish Catholics


May 12, 2012: A US al-Qaeda official concluded that Irish Catholics were “fertile ground” for conversion, “particularly the increasing resentment against the mother church as a result of its scandals and policies refused by many of its public”.

American al-Qaeda spokesman Adam Gadahn wrote to Osama bin Laden in January 2011 and laid out reasons for reaching out to Catholics, particularly the Irish. He urged bin Laden to use public anger at the Church’s mishandling of clerical abuse to encourage Irish people to convert to Islam, according to newly declassified documents.

The letter was contained in files allegedly found at bin Laden’s Pakistan hideout after he was killed by US special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan, last May.

The Combating Terrorism Centre, a privately funded research base at the US Military Academy at West Point, posted a number of declassified documents belonging to bin Laden on its website on Friday.

The letter from Mr Gadahn particularly highlighted the reason for approaching the Irish, noting Ireland was not a participant in “Bush’s Crusade wars”.

It noted “the increasing anger in Ireland towards the Catholic Church after exposing a number of sex scandals and others” and speaks of the hunger of youths because of the economic downturn in Ireland.
Mr Gadahn wrote that Irish people, “who were the most religious of atheist Europe”, were moving toward secularism. “Why do not we face them with Islam?” he asked.







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