Letter: Images of Islam

Sir: Robert Fisk is going too far when he compares the anti-Semitism of the Nazi regime with the anti-Islamism of today ("The West's fear of Islam is no excuse for racism", 3 November ).

The difference is that the Jews of the 1930s were a dispersed minority, albeit a significant one in terms of influence and power in some places. The Islamic peoples today are very powerful; they control many governments in the Middle and Far East.

It matters not whether we consider the treatment of foreigners or of women, repression and tyranny are the rule in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Sudan, Iran and Iraq amongst others. Islamic governments all fall a long way short of our Western liberal humanitarian ideals. (And so does the state of Israel, but that is another story.)

It may be that the labelling of Islam is racist but, if so, it is racism directed against a powerful religious group, well able to protect itself, not against a weak minority. Does Robert Fisk believe that the anti-Islam posturing of the media may lead to another Holocaust, or perhaps another crusade?

PETER JANIKOUN

Maidenhead, Berkshire