More atrocities will test the West’s resolve not to change its way of life
SIR – After every terrorist atrocity, some politician assures us: “They will never win, nor change our way of life.” How much more savagery can it take to produce a more pragmatic and honest response? Cameron Morice Reading, Berkshire SIR – After yet another Islamist terrorist atrocity, is it not time to examine carefully from where they are driven?
The Koran contains 109 verses exhorting Muslims to violence, many directly against Jews and Christians. The vast majority of peaceful Muslims reject this teaching, but those who do not are not “radicalised”, they are just following the Koran’s teachings.
It is time for a mature debate on what Islam teaches and stands for. Richard Scott-Watson Faringdon, Oxfordshire SIR – Recent events in France exposed us to a familiar media sequence. The top item on radio or television news reports a terrorist atrocity, then the ambulance sirens wail, shocked witnesses are interviewed, decent people leave their flowers, heads of state express their disgust. The terrorists get precisely what they want: maximum publicity (which they cannot distinguish from notoriety).
Must we go on playing their game? In a democracy such outrages must, I suppose, be reported, but should they be dramatised by such full treatment?
And shouldn’t public comment move quickly beyond expressions of disgust, on to discussing the futility of it all: not just the deaths and maimings, but the resultant threat to all those who can plausibly be identified with the terrorists, and the impossibility of winning support from any more than a tiny crazed minority for a cause which doesn’t even bother to justify such methods? Mere exclamations of shock and disgust surely do not now suffice. Brian Harrison London W2 SIR – It is vital that the horrific murder of Fr Jacques Hamel does not – as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant intends – divide Christians and Muslims. It is more important than ever that Christians and Muslims together affirm their trust in the unfailing mercy of the one God.
It would be good if more clergy invited an imam to speak in church and arranged social occasions, such as the annual Peace Walk in Oxford, where people meet and those afraid of racist abuse know they are supported. Marcus Braybrooke Joint-President, World Congress of Faiths Abingdon, Oxfordshire SIR – We visited the beautiful cathedral at Cologne in May. A young man came towards us wheeling a big suitcase. My husband made his concerns known to the guide, who told him that there was no problem with security in Germany.
If this continues, we feel that it can, unfortunately, only be a matter of time before tragedy strikes. Joan Gardiner Crowborough, East Sussex