Re: Gunman Discussed ‘ Killing All The Time,’ June 14; America’s Culture Of Violence, letter to the editor, June 15.

Letter writer Bilal Malik tells us Islam is a religion of peace. But any religion or political movement must be judged not by its words, but by its deeds.

The Communist and Nazi Party manifestos are full of fine words about brotherly love, yet both were responsible for misery and death worldwide. So, too, Islam. The Qur’an contain countless injunctions about peaceful behaviour, but the deeds of Islam tell a different story.

Unlike the other major religions, it was spread by military conquest and has exhibited brutal intolerance since its inception. Anyone disagreeing with its doctrines may be hunted down and killed with impunity, as evidenced by Salman Rushdie, who was mildly critical of Islam in his novel, The Satanic Verses, and was placed under a fatwa by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran as a result.

Islam is a fundamentally violent religion. Those who claim it to be a religion of peace are an aberration.

Roger Graves, North Gower, Ont.