Letter: Islam's extremists show their true face

Sir: Thank you for allowing Kalim Siddiqui to air his views (Letters, 8 July). Now I know that, yes, he really does regard the distillation of two centuries' worth of bigotry, intolerance and self-willed superstitious ignorance as 'a modern global movement' led by such 'intellectual giants' as Ayatollah Khomeini and, by implication, himself.

Thank you for letting him tell me that he regards the results of the campaign of terrorism, murder, arson, and intimidation of secularists and progressive Muslims currently under way in Egypt and Turkey as 'spectacular gains'. Now I know what constitutes his brand of active political correctness.

Thank you especially for not deleting his highly offensive final paragraph, in which he offers 'enlightenment' to Salman Rushdie in exchange for the address of the author's 'bunker in SW10'.

Thanks to you, I now have a 'true and more profound understanding' of the would-be murderer of one of my fellow citizens.

Yours,

DAVID MILSTED

Gillingham, Dorset

8 July