Madam, - The leaders of the Protestant community in Northern Ireland need to take an active and courageous stand against the appalling racist attacks which currently afflict our society. A recent article in the Guardian called Belfast the "race-hate capital of Europe". As the bulk of such attacks seem to be occurring in Loyalist areas it is surely incumbent on all politicians, church-leaders and community activists in these districts to rise to the moral challenge of putting a stop to such evil.
Sadly, modern-day Ireland is no stranger to racism and it has been particularly painful to witness attacks on refugees and asylum-seekers in the Irish Republic, which once prided itself on a tradition of hospitality to the stranger. However, it is also sad to witness Irishmen who pride themselves on their Britishness disfiguring their ideals by hate-crimes which go against every possible norm of contemporary, multicultural Britishness.
We in the New Ireland Group call on unionist leaders to take responsibility for addressing the racism amongst their constituents. They must issue regular condemnations of racial hate-crime, educate their voters about the need for tolerance and try to offer a protective and welcoming hand to ethnic minorities.
Above all else they must incorporate into their political philosophy notions of citizenship that are inclusive and not tied to a single religious or cultural affiliation. Otherwise they will become part of the problem rather than a solution. If a political philosophy is not capable of such a transition then it has no place in either the UK or the Irish Republic.
We would especially request church-leaders to exercise the self-sacrificial love espoused by their Messiah, proving themselves worthy to be called his disciples by placing their own bodies in the way of the insults and missiles being hurled by Ulster's racists at Ulster's victims. Otherwise their Christianity is a self-serving, ethnically compromised fraud.
In the 20th century, those societies, such as Nazi Germany, which tried to base themselves on racial exclusivity and ethnic purity soon found that national strength could not be built on such foundations. Societies which prided themselves on ethnic diversity, such as the US flourished as economic and political powers.
The only future for an "ethnically cleansed" Northern Ireland is one of steep decline and international notoriety. - Yours, etc.,
PHILIP ORR, Chairman, New Ireland Group, Killyleagh, Co Down.