SIR - I am sorry for Mohammed Iqbal (T&A, September 19) that the Pope's quotation caused him offence.

It seems to me the reactions by some to such offence are so irrational one does wonder if such behaviour is compatible in the West.

I doubt this is the point Dr Iqbal thinks the Pope was looking to illustrate, but demanding beheadings and firebombing churches is not exactly the norm.

If such acts demonstrate the "conformity with and submission to the will of Allah" then where is the rationality that Dr Iqbal talks about?

Not for one minute do I think the Christian West, as Dr Iqbal calls it, is without fault. Nevertheless the governments of Europe have been fashioned over centuries from the principles of Christianity. In Europe, the stoning of adulterers, public flogging and execution are seen as medieval.

Dr Iqbal is fortunate in that, if he wishes, he can demonstrate outside Catholic churches carrying placards offensive to Catholics. He is also fortunate that he can practice his faith and build mosques in the West unlike the Filipino Catholics in Saudi Arabia.

Just maybe it is such things that make all tolerant people wonder if things like this practised by anybody regardless of faith have any place in a fair, tolerant and modern society.

John Whiteside, Grebe Close, Bradford