Dear Editor,

I refer to Mr Michael Lester Hackett’s letter captioned “Although religion and violence often occur together the former is not the real cause of the latter,” (07.10.09).

I am persuaded to accept Mr Hackett’s position that religions also teach love. In some cases this love is reserved for members of the believing group. In other cases, as in the Sermon on the Mount, there seems to be no boundary to the love that Jesus expounds.

Having said that, I have downloaded the Swami’s letter to which Mr. Hackett has responded and looking at the two side by side it is questionable to what extent his letter can be called an appropriate response. He has overlooked what I believe to be the Swami’s central point which is that religions in fact teach violence against people they consider non-believers. The Swami went to the source of the religions.

In addition, and finally, I would be happy if Mr Hackett could clarify this statement: “It is also a matter of historical record that other armies of the past – Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Hindus, etc – unleashed violence wherever they marched.” What “Hindu armies” is Mr Hackett referring to? Could he please provide us some historical references? The names of one or two scholarly works would suffice.

Yours faithfully,

Pratibha Abhaya