My letter in your March edition (PN 2567) was dashed off when paying my sub and I meant it to be private. The remark in it which you rightly criticise is not what I intended, quite wrong, and I withdraw it and apologise.
The muslim religion is a great one, and its learned clerics great for running many things in civil society. Some of them still want to form a theocratic government, making it difficult to accommodate, as equals, those of other religions and of none. It is this to which I intended to refer.
I shall be more careful in future, until I finally lose my marbles!
Thank you, John, for your response. We should clarify how your meant-to-be-private letter ended up in the paper. Because it contained an important comment on a key part of PN, its commitment to nonviolent revolution, we thought it should be on the letters page (and indeed it’s sparked an important reflection printed below). We rang up and read the entire letter out to you over the phone, and you kindly gave your permission for it to be printed. It’s the first time we’ve ever done this, and it is also the last. We will attach your letter in this issue to the online version of the previous letter. – eds