Letters: Jihadist porn addicts are no joke for women

These letters appear in the February 2 edition of The Independent

Boris Johnson has mocked would-be jihadis and extreme Islamists, claiming that MI5 monitoring of their internet use reveals they access pornography as well as extremist sites. He suggests they are “sexually frustrated”.

Johnson is in error. Young men of this kind watch pornography, not because they can’t get access to women’s bodies (often they can and in the most appalling ways), but because they follow an ideology which holds females in contempt, considering them flawed and subordinate beings.

Sexual exploitation and extreme violence towards girls and women, especially those seeking work, independence or an education, are centrally important to the operation of IS, Boko Haram, Taliban and al-Qaeda.

Just as extremist websites promote hatred and violence towards the Shia, Jews, apostates, Yazidis and Christians, secular on-line pornography reinforces sexual contempt and violence towards women.

Any British male who admires, or has fought alongside, organisations such as this, which assassinate educated females, torture, stone and behead women and sell young girls in their thousands into sexual slavery, must pose a real and continuing risk to the females around them, here in the UK, no less than abroad.

Jean Calder
Brighton

Jokes could be made but there is a serious point to be made about Boris Johnson’s “wankers” comment in respect of people associated with violence around various kinds of Islamic fundamentalism.

Masturbation is a healthy, normal, safe and hopefully enjoyable thing to do and not something that should feature as a term of political abuse.

Keith Flett
London N17

Isis will stand firm as long as its enemies fail to find a common plan, says Patrick Cockburn (29 January), without suggesting what that plan might be.

If an organisation like Isis threatened to gain any ground in the UK the British Army would be sent out to eradicate it immediately. The Syrian army should be doing the same job in their own country.

They cannot do so because, in addition to fighting Isis they are fighting a deadly proxy war with America and its regional allies, in which the death toll of the Syrian army may be approaching 100,000 by now.

More people seem to be coming round to the idea that the overthrow of the Assad regime is no longer a realistic policy (never mind the morality of it). America should give up the idea of deposing Assad and cut off support for all rebel groups.

In tandem with that, it should work with Russia to bring heavy pressure to bear on Assad to ensure that human rights abuses are brought to an end. Then the Syrian army, with help if necessary, can quickly eradicate Isis from Syria, making them much easier to deal with in Iraq.

Is there any other way?

Brendan O’Brien
London N21

Little has changed since Churchill

Churchill’s death and funeral took place in 1965, during a decade of great social change, so they say (I was there). Remember the barricades in Paris in 1968? The creativity in music? Some of the great clothing styles?

But what has changed? The ruling elite are still from the same class and educational background. The Establishment still protects itself by any means possible. Access to health care is hugely variable by social class, and some illnesses are still more prevalent in social classes four and five. Money still equals influence. Depressing, really.

And look at the current choices we have politically: Cameron or Miliband to “lead” us. Such charisma, such leadership qualities, such depth of character. Jeez!

R Kimble
Leeds

Exactly half a century ago, I was in the crowd at the Vetch Field in Swansea for an FA Cup 4th round tie between Swansea Town (as they were then called) and Huddersfield.

The minute’s silence for Winston Churchill was punctuated by a local fan shouting “Murderer! Remember Tonypandy!” at the top of his voice. It was a reference to the still unproven allegation that Churchill as Home Secretary ordered troops to fire on striking Rhondda coal miners. The scandalised “hushing” noise from 99 per cent of the rest of us had to be heard to be believed.

Now, with the distance of 50 years, I cannot help admiring that lone voice for his bravery. How he got out of that stadium alive is still a mystery to me.

Dai Woosnam
Grimsby

I have become concerned that the British in general and the media in particular are so obsessed with the past, specially the 20th-century European wars and their consequences.

Dwelling on the past is unhealthy, it hampers the future and leads to isolationism. The Second World War ended 70 years ago! The past belongs in the history books.

D Sawtell
Tydd St Giles, Cambridgeshire

End the Long injustice of Diego Garcia

On 31 January The Independent rightly gave prominence to reports that Diego Garcia, a British territory, was used as part of the notorious CIA “rendition” programme. The true extent of the Diego Garcia’s role in rendition may never be entirely known. We do, however, know that the original inhabitants of Diego Garcia, and the other Chagos Islands, have suffered 40 years of disgusting human rights abuse at the hands of British and American governments.

The Chagossian people were expelled from their homes in the early 1970s so that the US could construct the now infamous military base on Diego Garcia. They were abandoned on the docks of Mauritius and the Seychelles with no support. As a result, many fell into cycles of debt and poverty.

The agreement which allows the US to use Diego Garcia expires in 2016 and is being renegotiated. When the original agreement was signed, the UK got a secret £11m (worth around £200m today) discount on the Polaris nuclear weapons. Any extension is also likely to have a financial element, and this could support the rebuilding of Chagossian society on the islands.

Meanwhile, a draft version of a Government-commissioned feasibility report into Chagossian return indicates resettlement could be successful in environmental, economic, social and legal terms. The Government has pledged to make a final decision before the election.

To end human rights abuse in what is officially called the British Indian Ocean Territory, we need to tell Parliament to seize this unique opportunity and support Chagossians’ long campaign for justice.

Stefan Donnelly
Chairperson, UK Chagos Support Association Committee
London SE16

Spectacular scenery, tardy trains

Simon Calder tells us that Scotland’s railways, particularly those in the Highlands, have been voted the nation’s best (28 January).

That is in contrast to Scotland’s trains, happily no longer to be run by First Group, which according to the Friends of the Far North Line now enjoy slower journeys and more delays and cancellations than in 2006, which itself was worse than 2000.

True, the scenery you enjoy from the window of your slow-moving or stationary train from Wick to Inverness is second to none. So too the delightful stations, the friendly staff and one or two of the fares selected carefully from the Byzantine choice available.

Much of this is blamed on poor signalling, lack of passing loops and various infrastructure shortcomings, all of which could be put right at a stroke for a fraction of the money being spent in London. But with fares and overcrowding so bad in the suburbs of Westminster, it is difficult to see that changing any time soon.

Sam Kendon
Bristol

A party for the workers

A leaflet through the door tells me that a Labour government would aim for “a recovery that works for working people” and “a recovery that puts working people first”.

To target just one section of the voting public is an unusual tactic. Who speaks now for the unemployed and the pensioner?

Gyles Cooper
London N10

So, 100 days till polling day. The choices to form a government are austerity, austerity lite, or a coalition of either. What a stark choice – no wonder the polls show the voter has no idea what is worse.

Paul Raybould
Torquay

The chicken and pineapple diet

John Walsh (“I’m not sure I fancy any meal that’s been cooked up by a computer”, 29 January) should look up “chicken and pineapple” online and see how many recipes there are before dismissing it out of hand.

Chris Elvidge
Oldham