Madam, - Shahzad Ahmed assures us (March 18th) that the teachings of Islam and the Qur'an denounce all who kill in the name of Islam.
Surely it is time for an emergency meeting of mankind's main religious leaders to preach to all of us clearly what they practice - a world summit of Jewish, Christian, Muslim and other faiths.
Should they as one condemn all acts of terrorism to all their fervent followers it might, just might, give food for thought to all involved. People power sends messages. - Yours, etc.,
JOHN KIRWAN, Castleknock, Dublin 15.
Madam, - The very survival of democracy throughout the free world is surely threatened if brutal atrocities committed by faceless, murdering terrorists of whatever provenance are seen to influence the choice of government in a sovereign, democratic state visited by this indiscriminate savagery. - Yours, etc.,
Mrs D. BOURKE, Lee Road, Cork.
Madam, - Terrorism's influence on the popular mind is largely driven by headline media reports on atrocities which make the threat from terrorism seem pervasive. To contain unreasoning fears of terrorist threats, governments and the media should educate the public on the relatively small degree of risk involved. The public should view terrorist acts as just another risk in life.
To place the Madrid massacre in a risk perspective, take the car accident statistics in Spain in 1999: 5,319 deaths and 89,854 serious injuries. - Yours, etc.,
PATRICK J. SLATTERY, Belgrave Road, Dublin 6.
Madam- What, I wonder, does Kevin Myers propose that the world do now to deal with the unprecedented Islamic terrorist threat? More wars like the Iraq one? More trumped-up excuses to invade countries that were in no way connected to al-Qaeda? Here in Madrid the past few days have been almost unreal - more than 200 killed in a senseless slaughter, followed by an election in which a Bush-toadying government unexpectedly got its just electoral desserts.
That government liked to think it was strong on terrorism, and it was right to be so; but unfortunately it had no scruples about the thousands of Iraqi civilians killed a year ago.
I have no answer to this terrible threat we are now faced with. I just feel the Iraq war was not part of the solution, but part of the problem. - Yours, etc.,
SÉAMAS Ó MURCHÚ, Madrid, Spain.