Sir, – Max McGuinness ("Isis struck at diversity and integration", Opinion & Analysis, November 18th) says that Victor Orbán and Marine Le Pen are the "mirror image" of Isis. It is morally obscene to equate European politicians, however conservative, even reactionary, with mass murderers. Neither Ms Le Pen nor Mr Orbán have ever called for violence or killed people. Mr Orbán was vilified for months for closing Hungary's borders to the mass influx of undocumented migrants, and yet now other countries are doing precisely the same, including that doyen of European progressiveness, Sweden. It is not helpful to demonise certain politicians simply because they do not all worship at the altar of political correctness. – Yours, etc,
Dr FRANK GILES,
Ballsbridge,
Dublin 4.
Sir, – Even after these last few days, Eamonn McCann finds it difficult to suppress his anti-religious bias ("Islamic State's actions are rooted in religion", November 19th). I found it particularly distasteful that in the aftermath of the atrocities in Paris he would attempt to make comparisons between a 3,000-year-old passage in the Old Testament and recent barbarisms committed by Islamic State against the Yazidis. Crimes committed by Islamic State have nothing to do with religion, rather they are committed by people completely lacking in empathy, and who are motivated by a warped ideology.
It seems that Eamonn McCann spends much of his time studying ancient Biblical texts. I am looking forward to a time when he progresses to the New Testament. Perhaps then he may gain a little more understanding about the true meaning of Christianity. – Yours, etc,
JOHN BELLEW,
Dunleer,
Co Louth.