I would like to respond to Matthew Barton's letter (Thursday 25th October) posted on your website:

Dear Matthew, I want to thank you for your kind words & your brave willingness to stand 'shoulder to shoulder' with British muslims at this critical time for human justice & tolerance. If you would like to enter into communication with others who are against this war in Afghanistan, please feel free to e-mail me at: abdulmuhsin@yahoo.com. I am part of a group (both muslim & non-muslim) who are meeting together regularly to discuss & share our feeligs about the current crisis.

Dear Sirs

I'm sure that very few people can be pleased at the current attacks on Afghanistan, I personally have grave misgivings, yet none of the voices I've heard protesting at the US-UK attacks has offered an alternative way of destroying a terrorist regime that represents a threat to world peace and order.

You suggest (9th October statement) that terrorism will cease with the removal of injustice. Perhaps this is true, but it is surely highly unrealistic to expect political situations that have taken many years to develop to find immediate resolution. I sincerely hope that the many injustices that afflict the region will be resolved, but as well as the issues you note in your statement, resolution will also require the Muslim nations of the area to look to their own culpability instead of seeking to blame the West for their problems.

salam brother/sister i am writing as a concerned Muslim briton about the event leading from Sept 11. these feeling are nothing new for Muslims worldwide. i feel rather than repressing the feelings of muslims, we should allow them to express what they feel. i wish that MCB would organise a march for all Muslims in britain. a march based around the slogan of anti war. I would appreciate it if you could give me feedback on this email

Jazakallah

Asalamualikum brother and sisters in islam, i am just writing to you to say that i agree with you when you condemed the terroist attack on america but i am worried that now thatafganistan is being terroised you are not doing much in public to condem the attacks that are taking place in afganistan, where innocent brothers and sisters are dieing, i think we should condem these attacks just as firmly as we condemened the attacks on america. i also think we should organise a peaceful demonstration to show our outmost condemenation.also we should make duah for our brothers and sisters who are suffering all over the world. jazak allah hum kair, your brother in Islam.

I have been monitoring this site and others, not I admit all 100+ pages. However I have yet to find one word from this site that could possibly be said to be sympathetic to the Sept 11 attack, and I think the condemnation of the attack on Christians in Pakistan was as full as any that words will allow. Of course action is now possible for Muslims to help that community and show their compassion there is an opportunity to do some good here. My knowledge of the Koran is not great, but I can find no reference to violence as being justified against anyone, perhaps if some one does know of it they could inform this site, if not a more considered approach to the condemnation of all Muslims would not go amiss. Yet there is a discrepancy between what I read on this site and what I see in the news and occasionally on the street, namely many young Muslims advocating violence;how can this be explained? There is perhaps within all of us this struggle to do the right thing, but it is so often too difficult to know what that is. Let us hope that peace will win in the end if not will we all not lose