Hear All Sides

WAR AGAINST TERRORISM

HUGH Pender's rhetoric (HAS, Oct 25) makes an irrelevant appeal to history and shows a dislike of America.

The seeds of hate that he talks of are those created by theocratic despotic regimes in the Muslim world, who have terrorised many of their own people for years and who wish to keep their people in the past.

Anyone who talks of a liberal society is assassinated or jailed. Anwar Ibrahim, a former deputy prime minister of Malaysia, is now serving 15 years in jail for daring to speak against a despotic regime. He claims state terrorism is a Muslim problem.

Most terrorist incidents occur in the Muslim world.

In Pakistan terrorist violence is endemic; in Egypt militants of Islamic Jihad have killed many of their own people.

In Lebanon in 1983, Shi'ite armed militants prevented United Nations aid from entering Palestinian refugee camps at Chetila and Bourj-el-Barajneh. As many as 35,000 Palestinians were on the verge of starvation. Many Palestinians died and it took the Syrians five months to clear the way for the aid to reach the camps.

If this evil is not stopped, it won't be long before Mr Pender and his letters to the Echo are a figment in his mind - that's if he is still around to write them. The only way we can beat terrorism is to play it at its own game. - John Young, Crook.

AFTER the appalling events of September 11 and the subsequent retaliatory actions, I feel an increasingly urgent need to speak out.

Teachings that treat the existence of an all-powerful god and of heaven as literally true have been responsible for seducing idealists into wicked and inhuman deeds of cruelty.

The young men who destroyed nearly 6,000 lives in the attacks on the US are but the latest in a long line of those who believed that they were carrying out the will of an all-powerful god and assuring themselves of a place in paradise. So too did the Christian crusaders. So too did Cromwell. So too did Patrick Pearse with his talk of reviving Ireland by shedding blood on her holy soil

For the sake of us all, these teachings have to be given up.

This world is the only place we have to live in and this life is the only one that we are certain of having. If we can let go of the fatally attractive delusion of the other world then we can see the world's religions as a huge library of stories. There we may find words that speak to our condition. There we may find words to help us live together in a world that suddenly seems darker and more dangerous. - Michael Turnbull, Darlington.

DISABILITY CODE

THE Disability Rights Commission (DRC) is urging teachers, lecturers and disabled pupils and students to give their views on how best to implement new rights for disabled people which come into force next year.

The consultation on a Code of Practice for the new Special Educational Needs in Education Act comes to an end on October 31, and readers should get their views to us as soon as possible.

The Code will give practical guidance on how to avoid discrimination against disabled pupils and students. The law comes into force in September 2002.

The DRC wants to hear from teachers and lecturers on how the Code of Practice will work in the classroom and lecture theatre. We want to learn from their knowledge and experience. You can respond to the DRC's draft Code of Practice by logging onto our website at www.drc-gb.org or by calling the DRC's helpline on 08457 622633 for a copy of the Code. - Bert Massie, Chairman, Disability Rights Commission.

MARGARET THATCHER

I READ with interest the pieces by Mike Amos about the black Frosterley marble altar (Echo, Oct 4 and 11), the subject of a dispute which I have no intention of entering.

But I wonder whether your columnist asked Basil Noble how he squared his praise of Margaret Thatcher's intellectuality (okay, let's concede her beauty) with her support for arming Saddam Hussein for his war against Iran in the 1980s.

As for the Rev John Stephenson's imputation of unChristian beliefs, Mrs T did fill the rich with good things and send the poor empty away - which is the exact opposite of the Magnificat song of Mary the mother of Jesus, who declared God's work to be "filling the hungry with good things and sending the rich empty away". - Frank McManus, Reader Emeritus, St Mary's Church of England, Todmorden, Lancs.

WILLIAM BEGGS

YOU have to congratulate British justice: whether too lenient, or too severe, it always manages to get it wrong.

William Beggs, a man described as "a serial killer in the making", was set free on a specious technicality by the appeal judges (Echo, Oct 16). The predictable outcome, in all its unspeakable detail, we are now trying to come to terms with following the "limbs in the loch" trial.

We can all think of repeat rapists who, after several convictions and releases, eventually go for extra kicks by strangling as well as raping their victims.

I don't know if any of this makes sense to the other readers but it sure as hell makes none to me. - T Kelly, Crook.

DARLINGTON FC

I CANNOT see Darlington Football Club getting promotion in the near future, with the present set up.

Maybe we will see new owners when the new stadium is finished. - N Tate, Darlington.

SUMMERTIME

IT WOULD be nice to have less to worry about than vandals and burglars in the dark nights to come, but we won't, will we?

There's terrorists to concern us, more darkness for their dirty tricks to come.

In the Second World War we had double summertime to maximise light evenings, less time for bombers to hide.

Perhaps now would be convenient for the clocks to be altered as late as possible, say the end of November and February. - F. Atkinson, Shincliffe.

MONARCHY

NEWSPAPERS always promote the monarchy. Why can't we have a republican daily for a change?

It would give Britain's anti-royalists, who surely number thousands, a far more democratic say. - AP Jones,

Bridlington.