Fight by law, not war
Sir: Spending the last weeks in Geneva (which is not that city’s name in any of the languages of Switzerland) I have been untroubled by mumbled Mumbais. Bombay is there still known by its correct name in European tongues, which also seems favoured by most of those, like Rani Singh (Diary, 6 December), who come from there. The Spectator might ask itself why it treats Indians, and their cities, differently to the Swiss. Few are so racially discriminatory as the anti-racists themselves.
Geneva was the riparian scene of a previous murderous terrorist publicity stunt, the assassination of Empress Elisabeth of Austria in the 1890s. Then terrorists professed anarchy, since it has been Socialism, now it may be Islam. The supposed creed changes, the parteducated juveniles involved do not.
You fight the eternal terrorist by due process of law, not undue practice of war. And there Islam may be our ally, as Aidan Hartley (‘What the Somali pirates told me’, 6 December) but never Stephen Schwartz (‘Mumbai and us’, 6 December) reminds your readers. Bombing women and children — along with the occasional terrorist — in the Afghan–Pakistani border area in no way demonstrates the superiority of Western culture, and neither does it stem the flow of would-be terrorists.
Even the terrorists will mostly grow up and repent, as the case of Maria Gatland demonstrates, and as did the imprisoned Geneva assassin.
P.G. Urben
Via email
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