Religious intolerance plagues the world

I READ with great interest the article in the Derby Telegraph by your reporter Zena Hawley (“Asylum seeker who fled Iran wins place at Cambridge University”, September 25).

It is stated in the article that Amir Kadkhodaei was obliged to leave Iran with his mother and sister because of religious conversion to Christianity.

His story highlights the problem of religious intolerance which still plagues our world.

Hindus and Muslims, Jews and Muslims, Buddhists and Muslims and Catholics and Protestants are at each other’s throats.

In a Derby Telegraph Soapbox article of August 24, 2010, entitled “True religion unites and provides solutions to problems”, I wrote that those who still believe that only their brand of religion matters are doing religious faith a great disservice. It leads to religious bigotry and fanaticism with tragic consequences for everyone concerned.

In the final analysis the real relevance of religion in our world is whether it can provide lasting solutions to problems like poverty, mass hunger, homelessness, human exploitation and nuclear war.

Saros Kavina, Derby