LETTER : Racist pretext

Sir: Now again, we have Dr Kalim Siddiqui calling for the murder of an innocent British citizen - for legally exercising his British freedom of speech ("Rushdie death threat renewed", 30 March).

Has it never occurred to Dr Siddiqui that his own determination to exercise freedom of speech, coupled with his desire to destroy others' rights to such freedom, may well be a prime cause of anti-Islamic sentiment in Britain? All he has managed to do is to give racist thugs one of the best "excuses" they have yet had for terrorising innocent and decent Muslims?

Len Clarke

Uxbridge, Middlesex