Madam, - I read in your edition of February 13th President McAleese's public statement in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, that "Ireland abhors" the recent publication of cartoons of Muhammad in various European newspapers.
I wish to inform President McAleese that I, an Irish and EU citizen, do not abhor the publication of the cartoons.
I do, however, abhor the blatant manipulation of the cartoons by Muslim rabble-rousers, the gross intolerance and threats of mass murder of Europeans displayed by at Muslim protests in London, and the wanton destruction by arson of European embassies in several Middle Eastern countries.
Perhaps President McAleese could represent my feelings - and indeed of other Irish citizens who might share my view on this matter - during any further state engagements in Saudi Arabia. - Yours, etc,
MARK COSTELLO, Strand Road, Baldoyle, Dublin 13.
Madam, - I refer to the President's reported comments criticising the printing of the cartoons in the Danish and other papers.
I have not seen these cartoons, but if they are disparaging of the Muslim religion they should not have been printed. I applaud the President's comments if the said cartoons are disparaging of Islam.
I wonder when she is going to issue a condemnation of the racist cartoons that have appeared in papers in Saudi Arabia, Syria and other Islamic countries that portray Jewish people dressed in Nazi paraphernalia, or that have portrayed the Pope in a derogatory manner. Is she going to condemn Gerry Springer the Opera, which deeply offends Christians as its content is considered to be blasphemous?
It will be interesting to see if she has any comments to make on these matters when she returns to Ireland. - Yours, etc,
MICHAEL LENNON, Castleknock, Dublin 15.
Madam, - What Patsy McGarry calls a "religious sensibility", and is evoked wonderfully in Wordsworth's poetry, is a deep sense of the connectedness and beauty of the natural world, which can be appreciated with or without reference to "God" (Rite and Reason, February 13th).
The larger issue of respect for religious belief deserves comment. While people of all religious persuasions are entitled to respect as human beings, their beliefs and practices are rightly open to criticism, including parody, and do not deserve respect simply by virtue of being "religious".
I cannot respect the belief that I deserve to go to hell for being an unbeliever, that homosexuals deserve a similar fate, nor that Genesis is literally true, nor the practice of teaching such things to children, nor that criticism such as this is improper. - Yours, etc,
DAVID O'CALLAGHAN Parkgate Place, Parkgate Street, Dublin 8.