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.