To tackle extremism, we are going to have to ask some difficult questions

Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

A terror attack at Parsons Green tube station has left many questioning the motive (AP)

As a spate of terror attacks continue to batter the UK this year, it is deeply concerning if not ironic that the real pressing questions with respect to extremist organisations are not being asked. Serious question marks linger over the source of terrorist funding and choking their supply lines, but no constructive discourse has occurred on this issue in our media outlets.

It goes without saying that the actions of Isis, which claimed responsibility for the explosion at Parsons Green, are entirely antithetical to Islam. Today’s act came on a Friday, not the first time the group has acted on the day, carrying out the deadly Paris attacks on a Friday in November 2015. Paradoxically, Friday is the holiest day of the week for Muslims, being commanded to spend the day in supplication. To take one life is akin to killing the whole of mankind, the Quran says; to kill indiscriminately on a Friday then is to add insult to injury.

The growing frequency of terrorism and the failure to address its root causes is unfortunate and threatens the cohesion of the diverse structure of British society. Alongside condemning extremism in unequivocal terms, fundamental issues with respect to its existence must be tackled by both sides of the political spectra before the menace of extremism is eradicated.

Ayesha Malik
Hindhead

American readers are perfectly capable of understanding what a wine gum is

I appreciate that The Independent is being marketed to a wider readership than its original UK base. But does that really make it necessary to pander to that readership linguistically to quite the extent you are? I note, for instance, that Kate Winslet’s reference to “Maynards wine gums” is explained for non-UK readers as a type of “gum-drop-like candy”. Can we not assume that anyone interested in reading a news publication from a country other than their own will be sufficiently intelligent and cosmopolitan not to require such patronising translations, and that they’re capable of Googling anything that’s outside their personal experience?

I’ve managed for many years to read American texts without needing a translation for Hershey’s Kisses, Graham Crackers etc, despite those items not being generally available in the UK. And why the perceived need to translate the English word “sweets” into the American “candy”? What assumptions are you making about your readership that you consider that necessary?

Perhaps some of your American readers could comment? Is not part of the delight in reading The Independent the opportunity it affords you to be exposed to a wider set of ideas and concepts than you’d encounter at home, described in different linguistic terms?

Kathryn Robertson
Newton Longville

The Buddhist ‘leaders’ remain silent on the treatment of the Rohingya

To most people in the Western world, Buddhism is usually looked upon as a religion practised by peaceful people. Rightly or wrongly, horrendous acts of terrorism perpetuated by various Muslim groups around the world for so long, causes Islam to be viewed as anything but peaceful in many Westerner’s eyes.

Yet, in predominantly Buddhist Burma the exact opposite seems to be occurring, with terrible violence and aggression being waged against the Rohingya Muslim minority. Some of their ancestors lived in an enclave of Burma for centuries, but were never granted citizenship; they remain stateless, never having been accepted nor integrated due to religious differences. Tensions escalated in 2016 with Rohingya homes and villages being torched; hundreds of thousands of men women and children forced to flee for their lives to Bangladesh, their ethnic homeland. Although the United Nations have issued pleas for tolerance to the Burmese government, the expulsions continue with increasing brutality, causing global news agencies to finally take notice.

The country’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has done nothing to stop the violent ethnic cleansing, even claiming last week that all reports are fake news, while the world’s most prominent Buddhist Monk, Tenzin Gyatso – better known as the 14th Dalai Lama – has been silent.

Ironically, both these world-renowned personalities received Nobel Peace Prizes for life-long struggles against tyrannical regimes, in 1991 and 1989 respectively, and with great fanfare became only the third and fourth recipients of honorary Canadian citizenship. There have been many more international honours and recognitions heaped upon the heads of these two Buddhists, but when they should now be leading by peaceful example in a bloody and terrifying religious conflict, the watching world is deafened by their silence and lack of moral leadership.

Bernie Smith
Canada

Britain is for sale

Pinch me, I must be dreaming! James Murdoch has finally said something I’m pleased to hear. Mr Murdoch has been kind enough to point out exactly what the rest of the world thinks of Brexit and Theresa May’s claim that Britain will be “open for business” after leaving the EU.

It’s clear that “open for business” means “for sale”.

I doubt that he’s alone in thinking this since, it’s well-known that US healthcare corporations very much want to get their hands on the NHS. The fall in the value of the pound has now made all successful companies and services in the UK more attractive to buyout and the Tories desire to remove the “red tape” of EU standards and single market rules will add to that attractiveness. With hard Brexiteers such as Liam Fox negotiating free trade deals it seems more probable that nothing of Britain will be off the table and no limits will be placed on foreign buyouts.

I’m sure that such a sad outcome was not what most Brexiteers really wanted.

Nick Haward
Havant

Universal credit must be reviewed

The answer to the problem of benefit recipients being pushed into debt, poverty and homelessness by the delay in initial payment of the wretched and often inadequate universal credit is simple – existing benefits should be continued until such time as the first payment has actually been made, or any appeal against rejection or reduction completed.

Likewise new claimants should be given an initial advance payment to cover their immediate needs which could then be recovered later if found to be unnecessary.

Mike Margetts
Kilsby

We are guilty of vandalism

Am I the only one who thinks that the destruction of Spacecraft Cassini in the clouds of Saturn was an act of vandalism? Having entered an alien space, we leave it by causing destruction. I thought we were to send a message of peace and friendship when we visit other planets.

Nitin Mehta
Croydon