Madam, - The President's denunciation of the publication of cartoons of the prophet Muhammad as abhorrent to the Irish people was out of place.
Many Irish people might well consider gratuitous insults to another person's religion as offensive and unacceptable (though many people in the part of the world whence the President hails most certainly do not); they might well draw the line at enacting laws that prohibit publication of offensive material out of respect for various European conventions which protect free speech and to which Ireland is a signatory; they might regard the right to free speech within a democracy, including the right to offend religion, as more important than protecting the sensibilities of people of a particular religious faith.
Then again, they might not - but any conclusion they might reach should occur after due debate and consideration.
In this case, this plainly has not taken place, and for the President to claim to denounce the cartoons' publication in the name of Ireland is high-handed in the extreme and a usurpation of the democratic process. Not only that, but the president's new sensitivity to giving offence sits oddly with her previous behaviour: her remarks comparing unionists to Nazis were appallingly offensive, and should have occasioned her resignation. - Yours, etc,
EOIN DILLON, Ceannt Fort, Mount Brown, Dublin 8.
Madam, - As an Irish citizen I would like to express my disgust at the President's behaviour in Saudi Arabia, where on behalf of the Irish people, she condemned the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, which have given rise to violent protests throughout the Islamic world. Firstly, President McAleese is not empowered to speak on behalf of the Irish people, and secondly I would hazard a guess that the majority of Irish people were far more disgusted by the over-reaction of Muslims to these cartoons than by the actual printing of them.
Whatever about the rights or wrongs of these cartoons, the frenzied reaction of the Muslim world has been frightening; in no way do they justify the violence and mass hysteria that has swept most of the Islamic world. The President should remember that is is the Government's job to speak on behalf of the Irish people. Following on from her ridiculous comments about the 1916 rising being the precursor to the Celtic Tiger, maybe it is time Bertie had a quiet word in her ear. - Yours, etc,
N. GILMARTIN, Kildare, Co Kildare.
Madam, - Assalamu alaikum. I would like to thank President McAleese for her words of wisdom and compassion on the issue of the cartoons which have caused so much hurt to millions of Muslims worldwide. Her words were both courageous and spiritually enlightened, words of humanity in the midst of an ugly spiralling violence on the one hand, and on the other pathetic excuses citing the right of free speech, in this instance to provoke and cause unnecessary hurt. - Yours, etc,
FELIM EGAN, Sandymount, Dublin 4.
Madam, - I wish to thank The Irish Times for its coverage of the Muslims' march on Friday, February 10th, which the Inter-Faith Roundtable helped to organise.
However, the reference to the Danish Embassy was somewhat misleading. There was never any intention for the march to stop or protest outside the Danish Embassy. Indeed most of the marchers were totally unaware that the march route from Clanbrassil Street to Stephen's Green would pass the Danish Embassy. That the march passed the Embassy was simply a coincidence of issues and geography.
The march was an opportunity for Muslims to:
(a) express their opposition to the publishing of the offending cartoons;
(b) express their opposition to similar cartoons being published on the Holocaust;
(c) express their opposition to the violence that followed the publishing of the cartoons;
(d) call for calm and an end to the violence;
(e) express gratitude to the Irish media for their restraint on the issue.
The Danish Government did not publish the offensive cartoons; a newspaper in Denmark did. No Western Government has published the cartoons, individual newspaper have. The lack of such a distinction has been used by extremists to generate enmity between Muslims and the "West". Moderate Muslims utterly repudiate such a conflict which can only benefit those whose agenda is served by a world in chaos. - Yours, etc,
Sheihh Dr SHAHEED SATARDIEN, for the Inter-Faith Roundtable, Glenville Way, Castleknock, Dublin 15.
Madam, - I wonder whether I am alone in questioning the wisdom of the publication in last Friday's edition of a photograph of a bloodstained Shia Muslim child, taking part in a religious ritual in Lebanon.
Surely such an image can only contribute further to a hardening of attitudes at an already highly charged and sensitive point in our history. At a time when the need for greater understanding and genuine dialogue between the different faith communities has never been more urgent, I feel that I must register my astonishment at what comes across to me, at any rate, as a disappointing and unhelpful lapse of judgment. - Yours, etc,
Rev VANESSA WYSE JACKSON, Effra Road, Rathmines, Dublin 6.