Letter: Closed minds

Pastor Terry Jones is a bigot and a religious extremist, but the decision by the UK government to bar him from the country is an attack on free speech and a capitulation to Islamic threats and intimidation.

Freedom of speech is the inviolable principle that our democracy is built upon. It sometimes means you have to hear ideas which turn the stomach. Nonetheless, in a democratic society, these people have the right to say as they wish even if it upsets the feelings of Muslims.

Islam seems incapable of being able to understand this simple principle, judging by the reaction of its followers to the drawing of a cartoon or the burning of a book, although they themselves were quick to burn copies of Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses when they took offence.

The hypocrisy of the government is extraordinary. It had no problem feting the visit of the Bishop of Rome to Britain last year. He is a religious extremist whose church has done far more damage than Terry Jones.

Alan Hinnrichs

Gillespie Terrace

Dundee