Sir, – Joe Murray (September 20th) makes some obvious points regarding the reactions of different religions to insults to their faiths.
However, surely the whole issue is the force of such reactions to these affronts.
It is very difficult to envisage mass riots erupting in Europe or Israel arising out of Jesus or Moses being depicted in an offensive manner in some low-budget Egyptian movie. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Margaret Griffin declares the religion of Islam “a criminal organisation” because of some of its members’ “over-reaction” to the film insulting the prophet Muhammad (September 21st). Like Judaism and Christianity Islam is one of the monotheistic religions that proclaims the basic ethic of love of neighbour.
Like the members of all religions sometimes its members do not live up to the precepts it preaches. But declaring a religion with millions of members to be a criminal organisation is as over-the-top a reaction as that for which we are blaming members of Islam.
This at a time when members of our society defend some of its less functional members making and distributing films denigrating the beliefs of billions of fellow human beings with pornographic images and the making millions in the process.
We need to subject our own reactions to a bit more enquiry before accusing others of over-reacting and espousing criminal organisations. – Yours, etc,