Letters

Tomb Raiders
Your story "Spirited Away" described how art thieves are stripping Asia's cultural sites of valuable artwork and smuggling it abroad for sale [Oct. 27]. A nation's cultural heritage represents its glory and growth. Looking at the art of the past helps us to take a break from the harshness of present-day life and travel back in time. Anyone who tries to downplay the theft or destruction of cultural artifacts is seriously misguided. Those who are involved in this heinous business must be severely punished.
ARVIND K. PANDEY
Allahabad, India

Iranian Nobelist
The morning Iranian human-rights activist Shirin Ebadi won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize [Oct. 20], the Iranian government greeted her award with conspicuous silence. Big mistake. Many Iranians surely read about it right away on the Internet and were surprised that Ebadi wasn't mentioned on Iranian TV until hours had passed. Now they know for sure that their religious leadership withholds things from them and doesn't always tell them the truth.
MERCEDES PEREZ
Lima

Ebadi said there is "absolutely nothing incompatible or contradictory about Islam, democracy and political freedom." The people in the West have heard these wise words and will, I hope, remember them. Understanding them is a big step toward peaceful coexistence between Islam and Christianity.
AHMED MAHMOUD NAMFULLAH
Faisalabad, Pakistan

Mahathir Misses the Target
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's anti-Semitic comments deserve scrutiny [Oct. 27]. He said, "Today the Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them." If his comments weren't so pathetic, we should thank Mahathir for revealing precisely the mentality of the Islamic leaders he was addressing. Even if the Prime Minister's assertions were true, they largely missed the point. If so many Jews were in influential positions, it would show the ability of Jewish communities to adapt to their environment and grasp what modernity is about. Constrained by a difficult history, Jews have had little choice but to find ways to integrate into host societies. Just as anti-Semites in Europe did in the past, Mahathir is mistaking a consequence for a cause. He misses the real target, the modern world in which Muslim society has been marginalized. Modernity wasn't created by the Jews. As Mahathir said, the Muslim world will yield far more global influence if it fights terrorism and opens up its economies.
DAVID GINEDAPE
Brussels