Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

ISLAMIC AMAL • 295multiparty talks were held in St. Andrews, Scotland, in which the DUPagreed to the formation of a coalition government with Sinn Fein inreturn for Sinn Fein agreeing to endorse the Police Service of NorthernIreland. The issue of IRA sincerity in its efforts to decommission itsarms and to rein in the criminal activities of some of its members hadalso been resolved by the 4 October 2006 declaration by the IndependentMonitoring Commission that the IRA had fulfilled these obligations. Asfurther incentives to bring the opposing parties together, Chancellor ofthe Exchequer Gordon Brown promised continued British economicaid for Northern Ireland should the parties form a government, whileSecretary of State for Northern Ireland Peter Hain threatened to cut offthe salaries of the elected members of the Northern Ireland Assembly ifthey did not resolve to form a functioning government by April 2007.On 28 January 2007 a Sinn Fein special conference endorsed the PSNI.Gerry Adams urged victims of crime to cooperate with the officialpolice and also encouraged republicans to seek employment in thenew police service. In the 7 March 2007 Northern Ireland Assemblyelection, the DUP won 36 seats to the Ulster Unionist Party’s 18 seats,while Sinn Fein won 28 seats to the Social Democratic Labour Party’s16 seats. On 26 March 2007 Gerry Adams met with Ian Paisley to workout the details of a new Northern Ireland Executive with Paisley as firstminister and Martin McGuinness, a former IRA commander, as deputyfirst minister. On 8 May 2007 Paisley and McGuinness were sworn inas first minister and deputy first minister, respectively, restoring effectiveself-rule in Northern Ireland and apparently ending IRA and Ulsterparamilitary involvement in terrorism. On 31 May 2008, Ian Paisleyyielded leadership of the Democratic Unionist Party to Peter Robinson,who then replaced Paisley as first minister on 5 June 2008.ISLAMIC AMAL. Islamic Amal was an Islamic fundamentalist splintergroup that broke away from the Lebanese Shi’ite Amal militia in1982. Islamic Amal was a nonstate group of more-militant Amal militiamenwho hearkened to Iran’s call for Islamic revolution throughoutthe Middle East. They had grown disillusioned with the more secularand nationalistic leadership of Nabih Berri, who had succeeded ImamMusa Sadr following the latter’s disappearance in 1978.In 1982 Hussein Musawi, a high school teacher and member ofthe Amal Command Council, accused Berri of implicit collaborationwith Israel during its invasion of Lebanon that summer. Musawi quit,