JOHN GILMORE’S claim that Islamic terrorism is “entirely” the fault of the West is a slight exaggeration (HAS, March 3).
Mr Gilmore cites the Iraq invasion as a contributory cause. Certainly some Western interventions in the Middle East have been ham-fisted, but Hitler’s invasion of France didn’t give rise to “French terrorism” and Napoleon’s invasion of Russia didn’t cause “Russian terrorism”.
Second, Mr Gilmore cites Western arms sales to Saudi Arabia which Mr Gilmore refers to as “the most vile regime in the entire World”. It wasn’t the West that made it vile. All we did was sell arms.
Third, Mr Gilmore cites Afghanistan. He seems to have forgotten that Western intervention there was in response to an act of extreme Islamic terrorism, namely the killing of 3,000 innocents in New York on 9/11.
Ralph Musgrave, Durham.
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