In the aftermath of the atrocities in London, I hope and pray people will not take revenge on Muslims - if the bombers are subsequently found to have carried out the attacks in the name of Islam.

Extremism and fanaticism exists in many spheres and, doubtless, the perpetrators of heinous crimes often truly believe they do the will of God.

In the 13th Century, the Crusaders were granted an indulgence of all punishment due to their sins, with a direct entry to heaven granted by the Pope. They went to the Holy Land and massacred Muslims.

In the name of Christ, torture was used on "heretics" during the Spanish Inquisition.

Nearer our own times, the Serbian Church was allegedly complicit in the murder of Muslims in the former Yugoslavia and the Croatians behaved just as aggressively to the Serbians during the Second World War.

You recently published a letter I wrote about the torture of an eight-year-old girl by a Christian church because it condemned her for being a witch (Letters, June 9).

If the London bombings were exacted in the name of Islam, then the terrorists have not interpreted the theology correctly.

Suicide and the murder of innocent people is forbidden. The Koran, the Muslim equivalent of the Christian Bible, says that to kill one person is to kill the whole world.

After 9/11, a restaurant owned by a Muslim was attacked in Brighton and women wearing the hijab were frightened to go out.

If people of all faiths could come together in a venue, such as St Peters Church, to pray and see each other as human beings, some good might be wrenched out of this evil.

-Carole Ivrine, Saltdean