Islamic State and the aftermath of empire

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/19/islamic-state-aftermath-empire

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I’m appalled David Cameron has tried to put the blame for radicalisation on local Islamic communities (Report, 19 June). It is no more individual Muslim communities’ responsibility to actively fight extreme ideology than it is my responsibility to directly challenge rightwing extremists such as the EDL. In blaming Islamic communities, Cameron is simply perpetuating the idea that Muslims are a separate, alien group from most Britons, who somehow have a different set of values and a different burden of responsibility to the rest of us. This will only increase Islamophobia.

If Mr Cameron wants to talk about those who stand idly by, then he should consider that he himself fails to intervene while government welfare policies cause child poverty, widespread food-bank use, discrimination against the disabled and suicides among those who have unfairly had their benefits stopped.Tim MatthewsLuton, Bedfordshire

Living according to religious 'leaps of faith' leads us into holy quagmires of intolerance and brutality

• Few of us would disagree with Jenny McCartney that Islamic State is not very nice (Opinion, 17 June). But what are the factors that produce such a group and persuade a small number of British people to support them? Could it possibly be the example of western imperialism in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and, going back a bit, Vietnam, India – and maybe Jenny’s native Ireland too? In all those places tremendous cruelty was employed to assert western capitalist rightness.

Take Ireland. Invasion, robbery, genocidal war – those were the methods that enabled Britain to assert its power. The famine wiped out half the population; Irish culture was trashed. Intolerance and brutality won the day for a long time and persisted into the new Northern Ireland state. “Blameless Catholics” indeed – there is no other kind, as the root of Ireland’s troubles stems directly from that history of state terrorism. The Shankill Road attack and the loyalist vengeance attacks were a product of the state’s methods of divide and rule backed by force. Maybe the horrors of Isis could help us confront our own dreadful treatment of the Irish and other peoples in our history. Then at least we might have a moral leg to stand on.John McMillanBridgwater, Somerset

• With each new account of young British people apparently deciding to join violent extremists in Syria or Iraq, the government response is to fall back on promoting its Prevent strategy. This may comfort insular, conservatively minded shire-folk that at least something is being done to tackle violent extremism. However, the level of disaffection, alienation and ostracism experienced by those contemplating involvement with Islamic State is not going to be successfully “contested” by a strategy that is as unbending in its self-belief and self-righteousness as those behind Isis. Engagement is key and engagement necessitates humility, humanity and willingness. For example, every time a politician talks about “their” community, they miss the fact that these are “our” young British people we are concerned about. If such people do not feel included in our society, this is “our” problem, not someone else’s.Mick GoughStoke-on-Trent

• David Cameron is increasing the rhetoric against Muslim radicalisation, but he and others still pay lip service to “true” Islam as the religion of love. Just look, though, at scriptures and the behaviour of the religious – Muslim and Christian. Intermingled with some kindly recommendations is a vast array of threats, violence and deaths divinely commanded, culminating, many believe, in eternal damnation for millions. Living according to religious “leaps of faith” leads us into holy quagmires of intolerance and brutality, blinding us to fellow feeling and the liberty to “live and let live”. Religion is the danger, not just its radicalisation.Peter CaveLondon