A COMPARISON OF THE IRA AND AL-QAEDA

A Comparison of the IRA and Al-Qaeda

A Comparison of the IRA and Al-Qaeda

Introduction

The Irish Republican Army has announced it will lay down its arms and press forward with devolution - the political process of obtaining local governing rights within the United Kingdom. The timing of the IRA decision is curious, and one cannot help think the London attacks played some part in the decision by the IRA to end their thirty year campaign of terror. (Ricks, 2009, pp99)

Al-Qaeda and the Irish Republic Army or commonly called IRA are both militant organisations. Almost all the terrorist groups have many similarities and they are against the establishments. Though Al Qaeda and the Irish Republic Army have many similarities, they differ in many ways.

Discussion

The IRA was a genuine terrorist group, but it was listed as such by our government most of all because it was a sworn enemy of one of our closest allies. The record seems clear: terrorist groups that are useful to us or harmful to states we officially oppose are given a pass, while those that target us or our allies are condemned in the strongest terms. That's the nature of things in the real world, I suppose, but it is something that none of the reponses to the counterfactual seems to be taking into account. Had things gone very differently in the last century and London and Washington became enemies once more, it is very easy to imagine that the IRA or similar groups would have been made into anti-British proxies of the U.S. government. (Lesch, 2009, pp45)

Al Qaeda is militant organisation that funds and orchestrates the activities of Islamic militants the world over. Al qaeda was born out of Afghan war and it consisted of Afghan war heroes. Osama bin laden is credited with the formation of Al Qaeda and it was formed around 1988.

On the other hand, Irish Republic Army or IRA is the most active militant group in Northern Ireland. The IRA descended from Irish Volunteers, an organisation that staged the Easter Rising in 1916.

While the IRA raised funds through extortion and robbery, Al qaeda traded in drugs.

The main goal of Al qaeda is to establish a Muslim world with imposing the rule of Sharia. They are anti-western and consider America as their prime enemy. On the other hand, IRA's aim is to create an Irish republic. It also aims to weaken the British government's commitment to administer Northern Ireland.

While Al qaeda's activities are spread throughout the world, The IRA activities are restricted only to Ireland.

Al Qaeda is based on religion and the militants are very much obsessed with Quran. On the other hand, the Irish Republican Army are no religious. While the IRA has a clear agenda for freeing Ireland from British rules, the Al Qaeda does not have any fixed agenda. (Ricks, 2009, pp124)

Taliban and al qaeda, the two terrorist organisations born out of Islamic roots, seem to be almost one and the ...