Letter: Muslim fears

Sir: With reference to Becky Johns's comments (letter, 7 February), I have met very, very few people who have denied the Holocaust ever occurred, but numerous people have tried to legitimise it and put it into the context of the Second World War.

It is also important to remember that now more than ever, Muslims have a siege mentality which has hardened following the atrocities in Bosnia and Chechnya, where we saw an apparent acceptance of persecution of large number of Muslims and entertained sophisticated political arguments mitigating the absence of force (military or political) to prevent this - remarkably similar to the arguments put forward by those who try to legitimise the Holocaust.

Liberal Muslims are finding it progressively harder to convince the more orthodox that there is no "conspiracy against Muslims" in this world. Criminalisation of Holocaust denial while accepting Muslim genocide as a tragic consequence of war is ultimately dangerous.

SHAHID HAQ

Barnet, Hertfordshire