Pira Exploiting Religion, Media and Democratic Processes.

Terrorists have exploited religion, the media and democratic processes in pursuit of their goals. This can be demonstrated by the tactics employed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) and its political front Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland. The British government and the Irish Republican Army (IRA) have been locked in a battle over Northern Ireland policy for many years. The presence of British troops and the rise of violence between Protestants and Catholics saw a split occur in the IRA in 1969 (Lutz 2004: 176). One side favored a peaceful approach to negotiating with the British the Official IRA, the other group chose a more violent confrontation seeking a separation of Northern Ireland from Britain the PIRA. Numerous terrorist activities performed by the PIRA will show how they helped raise their profile and globalize the conflict.

To obtain legitimacy in the public face, most terrorist causes require a political facility or front which can distance them from violent conflicts while trumpeting the common goals for a positive outcome in the conflict. A good example of this is the PIRA and Sinn Fein, whose ethnic, religious and geographical constituency found plenty of support (Richards 2001: 73) amongst the local Catholics.   The PIRA were providing the military conflict with the British occupancy, while the Sinn Fein, was the political party immersing itself in the democratic process to bring about reunification with the Republic of Ireland. As Richards (2001: 74) notes Sinn Fein and the IRA have been umbilically linked ever since 1949, when an IRA Army council member Patrick McLogan was elected to lead the political party. Although both sides never publicly admitted to being linked, they were united in a common cause. Family religion, especially in a cultural sense was instrumental in separating the Irish from the British in Northern Ireland (Lutz 2004: 183).     Recruitment for the PIRA and Sinn Fein came predominantly from the Catholic minorities... [continues]

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