10 August 2006

Paul Dacre Esq.
The Editor,
Northcliffe House,
2 Derry Street ,
Kensington,
London , W8 5TT

Dear Mr Dacre,

We have been following the Daily Mail coverage of the Israeli-Lebanese conflict in recent weeks and would like to add our praise to the way in which the Daily Mail has shown the scope of human suffering particularly of women and children in this conflict which has taken an unprecedented toll of civilians.

However, many of our subscribers share with us the sense of despondency we feel after ready the article by Richard Littlejohn recently in which he selectively targets Arabic speakers or those with knowledge of Arabic as liars.  This a totally unacceptable accusation and it were meant to be funny it certainly fails miserably.

The Mail had given a very factual account of the conflict and this piece let down otherwise excellent reporting.

There are approximately half a million Arabs, including first generation British Arabs who find the negative media stereotyping of Arabs difficult enough to cope with without articles such as this, particularly at a time of tension within the UK because of  actual and perceived terror threats.

Yours sincerely

Dr Ismail Jalili
FRCS, DO, FRCOphth
Chairman of the National Association of British Arabs