Extremism must be tackled

■ The thought-provoking article ‘French take up fight against anti-Semitism’ by Rachel Alexander

(Irish Independent, April23)isa stark reminder that the scourge of anti-Semitic behaviour has still not been expunged some 73 years after World War II.

Indeed, the repeated obfuscation of the historical narrative surrounding the Nazis and their activities by various groups is an anathema to a Europe that aspires to a democratic society of equals.

The poisonous xenophobic continuum that is being pursued openly by violent Nazi movements, anti-Semitic and anti-Roma thugs, through to anti-immigrant, anti-Islamic groups, shows their determination to try to bring the whole European project down. They will not succeed. Ideologies that propagate intolerance are repugnant to the principles enunciated in the United Nations declaration on human rights and those who promulgate such policies and ideas demand to be pro-actively challenged by Europe and national governments.

Europe’s mainstream democratic parties must take that danger seriously and be prepared to confront these groups and individuals head on.

All it takes for fascism and its policies to survive is for good men and women to stay silent and do nothing. Remembrance day on November 11 is an annual reminder that righteous people gave their today for our and your tomorrow.

The tomorrow we now enjoy is universal human rights in a world made safe for democracy by the sacrifice of others. However, much more needs to be done to consolidate those advances.

The battlefields of Europe and throughout the world are littered with the dead of various conflicts who lost their lives fighting to preserve our freedoms from tyrannical regimes. The failure of democracies to reach peaceful outcomes to disputes affects men, women and children.

It is they who pay the ultimate price as casualties of war for the failure of governments to sort out differences peacefully. Europe and national parliaments must urgently address the rise of extremism from within and outside its borders, and sooner rather than later. Other governments need to follow the lead of President Macron of France.

Peter Mulvany Clontarf, Dublin 3