Sir – It is a plain fact that some religions and many cultures reject or actively abhor the West’s way of life even as their exponents seek refuge in the same countries whose values they repudiate. Not everything we do and stand for in the West is always wrong, a self-flagellating view perpetuated too often by too many in cosy liberal enclaves. We are also not always right, certainly not, but we have endeavoured over time to reach a consensus of freedom, equality and tolerance within our societies and it must be non-negotiable that those who seek to join us here are expected to accept and adopt those principles.
Obsequious tolerance of intolerable behaviour by simply ignoring or denying its reality is as inappropriate as it is dangerously disingenuous. It undermines the principle of tolerance itself.
It would be a truly tragic irony if, by inadvertently hoping the refugee and migrant crisis could help exorcise its historical guilt, Germany’s misjudgments become the unfortunate catalyst for a shift to the radical right across Europe. – Yours, etc,
PATRICIA MULKEEN,
Ballinfull,
Co Sligo.