LETTERS
Muslim threats
Sir: We, the undersigned, would be grate- ful for space in your letters column, in order to advise those of your correspon- dents who might sympathise with the use of the more dramatic modes of Muslim pro- test against the publication of Salman Rushdie's book.
Many of these forms of protest have been totally inappropriate in our democra- tic society. They are ill-considered as approaches either to the British Govern- ment or to the British electorate. Indeed, such forms of protest, if persisted in, could well prove counter-productive. It is parti- cularly disturbing that Muslim protest has escalated from threats of violence to the actual placing of bombs on bookshop premises.
Such physical acts are now being parall- eled by political activism equally mis- guided. We refer to the Muslim harass- ment of those who defend Salman Rush- die's right, and the right of others, to the exercise of free speech within the law. A flagrant recent case was the arrest cont- rived in Bradford, West Yorkshire, of Frank Kelly, Secretary to the Yorkshire Monday Club, merely at the demand, accompanied by threats to riot, of 15 Asian youths. These youths objected to him doing nothing more than invite signatures to a petition in defence of free speech and Salman Rushdie. The West Yorkshire police have conceded that they will not be proceeding against Frank Kelly. The cir- cumstances of his arrest are now under investigation by the Police Disciplinary Authority.
Councils of mosques should seriously consider urging their congregations to more restraint in the exercise of political protest.
John Carlisle Tim Janman Alan Cobain James Molyneux Vera Dailey Anthony E. Murphy Antony Flew Peter Rost Jonathan B. Guinness Roger Scruton Ray Honeyford Martin Smyth Gerald Howarth
Yorkshire Monday Club, 34 Wellington Road, Wilsden, Bradford, West Yorkshire
Previous page
