I don't know how many people this will reach, but I feel a great need to state my feelings - and those of most of the people I know. I speak as a white British woman and a Christian. I have the greatest respect for Islam and those who follow this faith. I had to teach year 8 pupils about it a few years ago, and the necessary research to mitigate my ignorance led me into a fascinating field. May all who try to follow the God of Abraham pray for peace, understanding, and a fairer sharing of the world's good things. And I pray too for and end to the bombing; I cannot believe that more pain and death can make anything better; that loss of further innocent life makes up for innocent lives already lost.

I read with interest the emails published on your website. I was nauseated by the racist and abusive comments, which should be treated with the same contempt as the rantings of Bin Laden's henchmen. I apologise for any offense my fellow citizens may have caused you this way.

I am glad that the media are slowly getting to grips with the idea that Bin Laden and crew may be less Islamic than they claim, and hope the majority view wins. To portray all Muslims as terrorists after September 11 makes as much sense as saying all Christians are terrorists after the Omagh bombing.

I would love to be a pacifist, and will make peace with any one who will make peace with me. The difficulty appears when my enemy won't make peace. In the Christian faith, forgiveness of even the most appalling sins (and hence reconciliation with God) is available through the death and resurrection of Jesus, but it is not automatic: it is received by repentance. Similarly, I really want to be at peace with Bin Laden (he looks like a cuddly grandfather), and as soon as he turns away from his violence that reconciliation will be available. But while he is deliberately killing civilians, I have to protect myself and defend my neighbours proactively.

It would be nice to have a civilised court of law, with a defense lawyer and all the evidence open to view, but I am not naive enough to believe he will make use of those facilities. He does not wait for evidence before killing, and as he has lived so will his end most likely be. In conclusion, I hope for the best, but expect the worst. I wish you well in your endeavours to represent British Muslims.

PS, can you use your influence, together with your experience of living as a minority, to bring about greater freedom for Christians in Muslim countries? Notwithstanding your moderate stance, many Christians in those countries suffer daily persecution, forced conversions, and martyrdom. Can you encourage your friends to grant us the same freedoms there that you enjoy here?

On Sunday, I watched possibly one of the most frightening TV programmes I have ever seen: the Panorama 'special' on BBC1 that interviewed a wide range of UK Muslims on their views regarding the recent events in our world's history. Sadly, many (especially the youth of Islam) indirectly defended the action ("show me proof that Bin Laden was to blame" or words to that effect).

Don't be fooled - at the heart of every Muslim is an allegiance to Islam, not the country in which they claim to be citizens and tt became clear to me from this porgramme that the Muslim community has but one aim - a global Islamic nation where Islam's tyrranical and outdated laws will be enforced. Although a defined strategy was not discussed, my feeling from this programme (and also what I see around me in my everyday life as the Muslim community grows and grows in my city) is that Muslims will do this in the following ways:

1. By force and terrorism (the hard-core, fundamentalist Bin Laden/Taliban way).....

2. By ingratiating themselves with the leaders of the West whilst (hypocritically) distancing themselves from Method 1 and......

3.By migrating to western countries ('claiming' to be oppressed asylum seekers) and over-breeding until their number amongst us is such that they can claim more real power (using Method 2) - they have done it in other countries and they can (and will) do it in the UK. When will the politically correct liberals of this (and other countries) wake up to this fact? Maybe only when we are all trampled under the heel of Islam.

I may sound like some British Nationalist Party nutter but I am not - far from it - just an ordinary bloke with no racial prejudice (I thought....) but I have a family and I am becoming more and more fearful of what the future holds for my beloved daughter if this (and subsequent) UK governments continue to cave in to political correctness in order to squeeze an extra vote out of whatever demographic they can lay their desperate hands on. The 'Muslim vote'' is important for them and this is how Islam will take control of all our lives.

As a Solicitor I do believe that we should adhere to the rule of law. Unfortunately the rules of evidence do not apply globally and neither does our rule of law. If it did maybe the world would be a better place and regimes like the Taleban would not exist.

However one matter that did grab my attention from the programme, was a point made by a young British Muslim who ironically pointed out that in the 1990s America had supported the Muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo (against nominally christian countries).

America has received lukewarm support from many muslim countries and attacked for its support of Israel from the more extreme countries such as Iran. This smacks of double standards. In many ways especially in the last 10 years I think the US policy in places other than Palestine has been more proactive and certainly not anti Muslim. I think that it is sad that this fact has been overlooked by mainstream Muslims who whilst condemning the September 11th bombings have taken a perceived anti US line both here and abroad.

Personally I doubt the bombings will achieve much but I do believe that for the safety of the world we need to root out the evil that Bin Laden represents and any associated with him. Many Muslims also died on September IIth and I believe that for the sake of humanity and peace his network must be destroyed. It is a great shame that he has not looked at the real facts regarding US policy towards Muslims.

In respect of the Palestine problem, the Jews have elected a mass murderer to represent them. Sharon must have been aware of the terrible massacres in the Palestinian camps in Lebanon and I support the Belgians who are trying to indict him for warcrimes. In that respect I feel that the US should not support Israel anymore until Sharon is handed over, he is no better than Milosevic or any other of the mass murderers to be tried at The Hague. Finally I would like to say to those people who have left insulting and abusive e mails that they themselves are evil.

Hi Very interesting and informative site. The MCB statements regarding the events of Sept 11th and subsequent actions are clearly laid out and interesting to read.

I would like to say that, as a fellow British person who is a Christian, I fully understand that true followers of Islam are good honest people - how could they be anything else than by following the words of our God.

I hope all God fearing people around the World are able to flush out those evil ones who planned the terrible crimes against other humans on Sept 11th and bring them to justice.

May peace and blessings be upon the Prophet and all People around the World