Letter to the Star on its Nov. 20 piece on Martin Amis

Martin Amis is of the view that feminism 'lost its nerve' and accepted second-class status to 'multiculturalism'. He claims the 'race question mutes everything else', and 911 provided a soul-rattling shock that he suggests was seismic, and to which he believes rational debate has been intimidated by the supposed race question. He further opines that it's 'self-evident that it's horrible the way they (Islamists) treat women.'

The article mentions Amis has been called a racist, misogynist, and hate-mongerer. What emanates with crystal clarity from the Star article is how ignorant Amis is, and how poor his judgment is. Yes 911 shook America up. But as world-shaking events go, it has been greatly exaggerated. The most significant aspect of it was simply that a serious attack took place on American soil, something which had never occurred before. And that civilian airliners were hijacked to destroy civilian buildings. Aside from that it was a relatively small event. Less than 3000 people died. The use of civilian airliners is a matter of means and ends. If Al-Qaeda had a military airforce, conceivably that is what they would have used. But weapons of mass-destruction are controlled by the powers that be, and denied to those deemed undesirable, regardless of the merit of their claim to them.

In World War II, not just buildings but entire cities were flattened. Horrific bombings killing hundreds of thousands of civilians or more were also carried out in the Korean and Vietnam wars. Amis seems oblivious to these far more catastrophic events, in comparison to which 911 was but a drop in the ocean of Terror by Western countries. He seems equally ignorant of the real conflict, which is not the much-hyped but misleading 'Clash of Civilizations', but a battle over resources (principally oil) which belong to Muslim countries and which the US and UK in particular have coveted and robbed with overwhelming force, interfering in democratic processes such as the ouster of Mossadegh in Iran in 1953.

Debate on these matters is suppressed, not by the 'race question', but by massive American and British propaganda, such as the lies used to justify the post-911 destruction and occupation of a helpless Iraq, where upto a million people have been killed and several times as many turned into refugees. The number of Afghan victims is not known but may safely be presumed to be in the tens of thousands at the least.

911 was arguably provoked by far worse crimes by the West, and has been avenged a thousand times over with the attacks on Afghanistan and the rape of Iraq. (As for the great American 'sorrow' over 'Ground Zero' - they can stuff it where the sun doesn't shine. They have created a thousand Ground Zero's in a hundred different locations around the globe.....)

On the gender question, Amis is equally misinformed. Perhaps he ought to consider the plight of men in the West, who are routinely 'raped' by a system which has sold them out to feminist ideology. Any woman can have her spouse or boyfriend ejected from the home and charged criminally with the barest of allegations, proven or not. The presumption of innocence has been replaced with one of guilt as lives of men are casually destroyed upon female allegations which may not be true.

Mr. Amis should stick to writing fiction. As far as political and social realities go, he seems to be an utter fool.