10 MAY 2003, Page 29

From Mr John Jenkins Sir: I was struck by Boris

Johnson's account of comments made to him by Thomas, his translator in Iraq, to the effect that a country with a tyrant is better than one with no leader at all. Thomas attributed this apercu to Shakespeare.

The thought appears in the works of the Islamic jurist Ibn Taymiyya: 'Sixty years of an unjust leader is better than one night without a sultan.' The thought of Ibn Taymiyya has been a significant influence on contemporary extremist Islamic movements. Curious, then, that Mr Johnson should have an echo of it quoted back to him by someone he describes as a Christian Baathist.

John Jenkins London SW18