OUR problem is that we do not know what our values are (News, Focus, News Review, Editorial and Comment, last week). We have lost the ability to understand anything sacred because we do not hold anything sacred. Respect for one’s religion for millions is simply indistinguishable from respect for oneself.
I suspect the two things that tip many Muslims over the edge in their views about us is our rampant sexualism and our lack of respect for families. Our culture will not win their respect while middle-class parents snort cocaine and put themselves before their kids, teenagers self-harm and use booze and drugs and sex is the standard of everything worthwhile.
I have reread John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty. He would not (if he could have prevented it) have allowed the cartoons to be published, on the grounds of general utility and an incitement to riot.
Terry Osborne
Welwyn, Hertfordshire
UNHEALTHY DIVIDE: The ghettoisation of parts of our cities (in the garb of promoting communal amity) has provided havens to these venomous perpetrators of violence. Separatist movements and terrorists of other countries have been allowed to make a home on British soil. Echoing Minette Marrin (Comment), respect comes not out of fear but by making a showcase of different values.
The political establishment should realise that their ostrich-like reaction to signs of danger has fanned this so-called “clash of civilisations”.
Dr Ayan Sen
Manchester
INTEGRATION: It is going to be through integration and awareness, not subordination and coercion that everyone will coexist in peace and harmony.
Nikky Oyekanmi
Eastbury, Middlesex
DOING TO OTHERS: When Muslims treat other religions in their own country like they are treated elsewhere then they can begin to criticise. Amir Taheri (We don’t do God, we do Palestine and Iraq) proves the point.
Martin Henderson
Knutsford Cheshire
STATUE OFFENCE: Your correspondent (Mubashar Ahmed) last week wrote that Muslims are offended when any prophet of God is mocked, be it “Muhammad, Jesus . . . or Buddha”. The Taliban destroyed the giant statues of Buddha in Afghanistan in May 2001. This act of intolerant barbarism caused a great deal of offence to Buddhists. I do not recall any protest marches. Many Muslims I know thought it was a blow against idolatry.
Colin Linder
Edgware, Middlesex
LET’S BE CONSIDERATE: I commend the British Muslim Council for the peaceful demonstration and the moderate tone of their placards.
But why did they feel it necessary to organise another demonstration about a few cartoons when there have been hundreds that show that the extreme face of Islam is more prominent than the moderate face that they tried to project? I have been offended for years (without demonstrating about it) by the Nazi-style cartoons depicting Jews in the Islamic press.
When Muslims give to others the consideration that they demand of others, the rest of us may start to take them seriously. Respect must be earned.
Jack Cohen
Netanya, Israel
TOLERANCE: I have lived in Malta, Aden and Cyprus (where I sympathised with the Turkish/Cypriot Muslim minority) and we respected the culture of the host country. How is it that we are dominated by an alien culture and religion, and even alter our laws to accommodate the practices of others?
Can it not be understood that we might also feel “offended” by veils worn in English schools and mosques and mullahs where once there were churches and vicars? Christianity represents tolerance, compassion, forgiveness and love. Virtues that appear to be missing among Muslims.
Patience Kornicka
Findon, West Sussex
A NEED FOR EQUALITY: The non-Muslim and secular societies are reaching the end of their tether being held to ransom by the threats of the Muslim world. Demands for respect while showing contempt for the religions and cultures of others has denied them any empathy for their perceived grievances.
History is littered with the debris of self-righteous, intolerant, xenophobic, rabble-rousing ideologies. If the Muslims wish to live in harmony and be treated as equals they must first realise that respect and trust are gifts that must be earned.
Bill Westsmith
Cobham, Surrey
CREEPING COMPULSION: Of the vast amount written on the Danish cartoons Andrew Sullivan’s phrase “creeping sharia” is most apt (Islamo-bullies get a free ride from the West).
Stephen White
Handsworth, Birmingham
CIVIL RIGHTS: I agree with Marrin that the adoption of moral relativism, coupled with fear of confronting the attitudes of the ethnic minorities in our midst, lies at the root of many of today’s problems. Yet to confront that which we believe to be wrong, whether it is domestic violence, arranged marriages or “honour killings”, isn’t racist or xenophobic, it is simply standing by the civil rights and principles of freedom that past generations have won for us: “For evil to succeed it is necessary only that good men do nothing.”
Alan Stedall
Birmingham
ABSURD: I’ve been amused by the reruns of the late Dave Allen’s shows on television. He pokes fun at Christianity in general and the Church of Rome in particular. Dare I hope that, some day, Muslims will poke fun at Islam which, no doubt, has its share of absurdities?
Peter Woodcock
Royston, Hertfordshire
MENTIONING THE WAR: Now that newspapers have discovered their respect for other peoples’ cultural sensitivities, can we look forward to reporting from the World Cup in Germany without any mention of the war or 1966?
Karsten Bücker
London W2
