Your words (After this horror, France will wake up in trauma, 14 November) struck a chord with many like me. But this is not the first time that such atrocities have claimed the lives of innocent people in the name of a religion. People across the world cannot find any more new words to condemn. Nations went to war to stop the terrorism. The result is quite clear: the “horror” returns.
While no one else but the people who carry out such atrocities are responsible for these acts, the question is raised about the moral obligations of the people of the religion in the name of which such evil acts are committed. If people of different religions stand up against misguided teachings of hatred at home, or in their religious schools, and if nations are sincere in reconsidering their policies to look at their fairness, rather than just making alliances, when it comes to conflicts, then there is a hope that such terrorist acts would be stopped. But do they do that?
Dr Radhamanohar Macherla
Hornchurch, Essex
• The response of the authorities to the terrible slaughter in Paris will be predictable. More oppression, more policing, more spying, more infringements on our hard won civil liberties, more drone attacks which kill multitudes of innocents for every suspected terrorist they remove. This kneejerk reaction is understandable, but it is not the answer. Every doctor knows that an infection of the body will not heal until the splinter causing it is removed. The splinters are in the bodies of two great religions: Judaism and Islam.
As a Jew, I continually ask myself whether our interpretation of the scriptures, and our fear that the dreadful wrong of the Holocaust will be repeated, entitles us to a “Jewish state” with all the consequences of privilege that this gives rise to. Is this really the divine will? Is this how Israel will become “a light unto the nations”? If it was surely there would now be peace. What would Elijah or Isaiah say if they travelled across Israel today?
And Muslims? What do they think of this cult of death which preaches that the way to paradise is to kill yourself and as many other innocents as possible? What do they think of the ever widening hostility between Shia and Sunni?
Of the many lives the perpetuation of an ancient quarrel has cost? Is this the will of Allah? It is in these competing interpretations of ancient narratives that the answers to our malaise must be found, or else our pleasant societies may die.
Jeremy Solnick
Walberswick, Suffolk
• We are right to tighten security after the atrocity in Paris (Over 150 dead in Paris carnage, 14 November), but must do more prevent further attacks. The time is long overdue for a national and international initiative. Its aims would be to uproot religious prejudice and hatred, and promote peace and respect of one race for another, and one human being for another. Justin Welby, archbishop of Canterbury, could lead discussions with the Muslim Council of Britain, which condemns the attacks in Paris.
Leaders of Muslim, Christian and secular groups could appoint men and women to organise public lectures to expound Muslim beliefs and attitudes. Imams could visit schools, colleges and universities to present facts, distinguish them from dangerous lies, and answer questions. Parents and teachers should look out for young people at risk of being brainwashed and lured into destroying their own and other people’s lives, deluding themselves that Allah will reward them. What confronts us is a toxic mixture of evil and muddled thinking.
Penelope Maclachlan
Hanwell, Middlesex
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