10 JUNE 1989, Page 25

Martyrs

Sir: Your Portrait of the week (3 June) says that during the Muslim march in London on 27 May 'scuffles broke out between more militant elements of the crowd . . . and the police'. There were plenty of other scuffles. A counter-demonstration by Women Against Fundamentalism would have been violently attacked if it hadn't been protected by the police. And another counter-demonstration by representatives of the British Freethought Movement wasn't so lucky. Barbara Smoker of the National Secular Society and I displayed banners for Free Speech and were violently attacked by a mob of young fanatics.

Nicolas Walter Rationalist Press Association, 88 Islington High Street, London N1