Your day will come, Jihadi

Open letter to an Islamic extremist from an Irish republican on the week of the attack on Westminster Palace and the death of Martin McGuinness. March 2017:
Yesterday they were brave security officers, putting their lives in danger to protect our community in Westminster. Tomorrow they will be heavily-armed state-sponsored executioners using excessive force. Their actions will require investigation and public trial. Photo: Victoria Jones/PA WireYesterday they were brave security officers, putting their lives in danger to protect our community in Westminster. Tomorrow they will be heavily-armed state-sponsored executioners using excessive force. Their actions will require investigation and public trial. Photo: Victoria Jones/PA Wire
Yesterday they were brave security officers, putting their lives in danger to protect our community in Westminster. Tomorrow they will be heavily-armed state-sponsored executioners using excessive force. Their actions will require investigation and public trial. Photo: Victoria Jones/PA Wire

Dear Jihadi,

Things may not look good after yesterday’s attack at Westminster Palace but take heart.

Yesterday’s heroes will be tomorrow’s villains. Yesterday they were brave security officers, putting their lives in danger to protect our community.

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Tomorrow they will be heavily-armed state-sponsored executioners using excessive force. Their actions will require investigation and public trial.

Yesterday’s assailant, however, will be tomorrow’s saint. Yesterday’s violent perpetrator was an ideologue, radicalised, and made to pay for his actions. Tomorrow he will be a victim.

He will be a victim of his very own radicalism, his upbringing and circumstance. He will require ‘parity of esteem’ and compensation alongside those he attempted to murder.

Yesterday your apologists refused to be recognised. They operate behind a mask but in front of the camera. Rest assured that tomorrow those same apologists will be behind a microphone but in front of the government – yes, at the heart of government in the very state they refuse to recognise.

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Take my advice. Engage now in ‘back-channel’ talks while continuing to terrorise. Collude with clerics and sympathetic ministers in neighbouring governments.

Draft position statements and declarations. Compromise on nothing. Push for the caliphate and expect your largest concession to be a public handshake or two.

Believe me. Your day will come.

Irish Republican, (As imagined by David McCabe, Dromore, Co Down)

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