‘Tolerance is way forward’ was the headline in Ed Deedigan’s column in the Gazette last week, which I agree with but I question the analysis that followed.

He poses the question as to why the shocking attacks happened in France recently and cites “neglect suffered by countless generations of French Algerians”. Actually the perpetrators told us why they were committing these atrocities in their pronouncements from the street and a video made by the attacker of the kosher grocery store – they aligned themselves with the Jihadist movement seeking a global Caliphate and they were seeking to enforce an Islamic punishment for blasphemy, ie death.

The rest of the article then listed many “cause celebres” (racism, violence perpetrated by Western governments) as being contributory factors to the attacks and goes on to say “if people believe that their own life is not valued, why would they value the lives of others?”. This analysis is wrong. Violent Jihadists believe that martyrdom for Jihad gives them a fast ticket to heaven. In their irrational thinking they see the loss of life as necessary.

The article ends with the idea that we must now be more afraid of the backlash against these violent atrocities than the atrocities themselves. This makes little sense to me. We must all be tolerant of one another for sure, but with one important exception. We must not appease actions and ideas that seek to remove the freedoms that underpin our democracy. History teaches us that this does not work.

Where I agree with “tolerance is way forward” is we should promote tolerance between people of all faiths and those of none who wish to live in a free democratic society. This is especially true of those of Muslim faith, the vast majority of whom do not support the extreme views of the violent Jihadists.

J Seymour , via email.