A shudder went down my spine when I read "Guilty: first Scots Islamic terrorist facing 15 years" (The Herald, September 18). A guilty finding in the Scottish court must be accepted as a guilty finding in the mosques. It is unacceptable and offensive to me, as a Scot who happens to be Muslim, to dodge outright condemnation of any individual who is convicted of having terrorist intentions. Acceptance of this verdict demands a significant response from us all.
The response of some that Siddique was "seeking answers on the internet" or that the internet is the "big bad monster" just doesn't make sense to me. The new generation of Scots are stuck between two extremes: acceptance of all that is expected of them from so-called Muslim leaders, which is, by and large, a highly-politicised Islamic view, and, on the other side, total rejection, leaving them in an identity crisis and vulnerable from all avenues. What we need are Scots who are a happy medium between the two, spiritual and progressive. And so maybe we need fewer platitudes and more expressions of seeking the beautiful in Islam through the beautiful landscape, culture and promise of our dear Scotland. This begs the question: are our Muslim leaders and mosque imams up for this challenge?
Amanullah De Sondy, School of Divinity, University of Glasgow.
After some 17 months of painstaking police work it has now been shown that a young Scots man, 19 when arrested, is not a member of a terrorist organisation, was not directly involved in any terrorist plot, does not have a bomb or bomb-making equipment, has no gun and has harmed no-one. Oh, yes, and it cost us more than £1m of our money to prove this.
We have learned that this teenager spent lots of time on the internet, looked at some things many adults may not have approved of, and held some radical, possibly extreme, political opinions. That sounds rather like a lot of teenagers I have known who turned out to be well-adjusted adults. Apart from the internet, which wasn't around, I recognise myself, and my earlier political friends.
A young boy who hurt nobody but himself and his family has been found guilty of being a daft boy. The problem, for there is one, lies not with daft kids, the folk of Alva or Islam. It lies with us for allowing politicians to make laws that make immaturity illegal.
Archie Drummond, 16 Willison Crescent, Tillicoultry.
There is nothing Islamic about terrorism. The Muslim community is constantly asked to disavow these acts, and we are not helped when the language of a Scots Islamic terrorist is used, linking us right back to it. Siddique was not convicted of any crime of "Islamic terrorism", but offences related to terrorism. As Siddique's defence team highlighted, however, arguably only a Muslim would face the terrorism Acts for what he did.
Osama Saeed, 31 Arlington Street, Glasgow.
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