PETE WINSTANLEY (HAS, Sept 29) rightly highlights the extent to which both Donald Trump in the USA and the Daily Mail in the UK have been responsible for gross perversions of the truth.

The effectiveness of these lies in brainwashing an unsuspecting population was brought home to me in a conversation I had last week with an American tourist over breakfast at a hotel in Iceland.

His opening gambit was an assertion to the effect that in the UK the entire Muslim population were subject to Sharia law.

(This was presumably a variation on Donald Trump’s campaign claim that the city of Birmingham has become a “no go area for non-Muslims”).

While handing him the marmalade I attempted to introduce some balance into the discussion. I assured him that the large majority of Muslims in the UK did not subscribe to Sharia law, and instead subscribed to a moderate version of Islam.

I also mentioned the extent to which most of the Muslim population were integrating into British society.

To illustrate this I mentioned the example of a Syrian refugee family here in Durham, whom we had entertained in our house very recently.

I mentioned how their three older girls were attending local schools and learning English at a rapid rate.

In response he growled: “You don’t mean to say that they allow their women-folk to be educated?”

I am afraid at this stage I gave up!

Dr Nigel Speight, Durham