June 24: Myths and mantras fuel the divide between religions

BILL Carmichael (The Yorkshire Post, June 19) was right to nail a few myths about the 17-year old who blew himself up in Iraq but, while he is at it, why don’t we nail a few of our own beginning with recognising that none of this would have happened without the illegal Blair/Bush assault on Iraq?

There is a simple fact here and that is that we must try harder to understand each other. Well done to The Yorkshire Post for having the message from the Imam on the same page.

I run multi-cultural team learning in business schools and the winning team this year contains a woman from a Muslim background who has contributed more than could ever be imagined. Their team have a meal as a prize but the other five have agreed not have it until after Ramadan and Eid are finished.

This is the way forward, not repeating the mantras like the ones Mr Carmichael offers.

From: H Marjorie Gill, Menston.

PONDERING about the difficulty in preventing young Muslim people being indoctrinated, I wondered if there is anything I could do to help. Not a lot, but perhaps we could try another method of showing what these misguided Islamists really are.

The people who carry out appalling acts of cruelty are really childish cowards. If you consider it in childish terms, think how difficult it is to build a sandcastle on the beach, but how simple and easy to put the boot in and knock it down. There is another thing to consider: imagine how long it takes God or Allah to bring to life a family and how easy it is to use a body bomb and kill that family. Does anyone really believe that God or the Prophet Mohammed desired for people to be killed like that?

From: Barry Foster, High Stakesby, Whitby.

MY only hope is that the families of the women who have gone to Syria, and whose relatives have consulted solicitors about the treatment by the police are not doing this on legal aid. It has nothing to do with the police. These women were married and took their children all of their own free will.

They have acted in their own right in a free country, something they will not be allowed to do where they have gone. The police should not be blamed at all. It is high time this country stopped pussyfooting around if people want to go let them, but please don’t allow them to come back.

Eurozone is a time bomb

From: Thomas W. Jefferson, Batty Lane, Howden, Goole.

GERMANY’S Angela Merkel is on record as saying that if the euro fails the EU fails. Regardless of the fate of Greece, the euro has already failed because it has brought political and economic instability which threatens not only Europe, but also the rest of the world. This ticking time-bomb has become serious enough for President Obama to intervene to exhort Germany to find a way of keeping Greece in the eurozone, because he fears the unpredictable economic consequences of the euro splintering, and the possibility that Russia could re-gain influence in Eastern Europe via Greece.

But these problems are not some accident of fate. They are the consequence of an ill-conceived and badly executed plan to centralise power in the EU in furtherance of the stated objective of “ever closer union” which was driven by an elite who do not subject themselves to accountability at the ballot-box.

The EU needs root and branch reform, including greater democratic accountability, and David Cameron’s shopping-list of reforms, even if achieved, will be woefully inadequate in securing that end.

It is time to call it a day and, as the world’s sixth largest economy, self-confidently take control of our own fate.

Shut out of the debate

From: Dr Robert Heys, Ripponden, Sowerby Bridge.

EMAILS are disparaged as “only better than no mail at all” in your correspondence column (The Yorkshire Post, June 17) – an opinion which I share.

This paucity of informed email comment is fuelled by the fact that many elderly persons, such as octogenarians like myself, with hard-earned knowledge gained over the years nevertheless lack the “know how” and facilities necessary to contribute to debate via that medium, which many newspapers and magazines make a condition for consideration for publication nowadays.

This attitude denies many of the younger generation access to useful information, which their elders could impart through the medium of old-fashioned letters.

Hopefully The Yorkshire Post will reject such a policy.

Town Hall’s building saga

From: PA Thornton, Ilkley.

I WAS very interested in Peter Tuffrey’s bygones article about Cuthbert Broderick and the building of the Town Hall in Leeds. The contract for the building work was awarded to Samuel Atack, my great, great, great, great, great grandfather.

In the light of subsequent events, it proved to be a very unwise decision by the Town Council. It was supposed to be completed by January 1856. Sam had various excuses for the delays and overspend, but he finally ran out of money and was declared bankrupt in March 1858. The work was finished by other builders later in the year.