The Justice Friends

Is this justice served? An 8-year-old girl is raped and dies due to excessive bleeding, while the defense attorney waffles on about mitigating circumstances “It could have been a momentary lapse on the part of Amrit Singh, seeing a lonely girl at a secluded place.” She was 8 years old, for crying out loud! The rapist is not charged with murder because the death was unpremeditated, and not because of any specific act on the part of the accused. And then this “The offence may look heinous, but under no circumstances can it be said to be a rarest of rare case.” Deeply disturbed.

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You go out of your way to build bridges with people of different views and beliefs and have quite a few religious friends. You believe in the essential goodness of people , which means you’re always looking for common ground even if that entails compromises. You would defend Salman Rushdie’s right to criticise Islam but you’re sorry he attacked it so viciously, just as you feel uncomfortable with some of the more outspoken and unkind views of religion in the pages of this magazine.


You prefer the inclusive approach of writers like Zadie Smith or the radical Christian values of Edward Said. Don’t fall into the same trap as super–naïve Lib Dem MP Jenny Tonge who declared it was okay for clerics like Yusuf al–Qaradawi to justify their monstrous prejudices as a legitimate interpretation of the Koran: a perfect example of how the will to understand can mean the sacrifice of fundamental principles. Sometimes, you just have to hold out for what you know is right even if it hurts someone’s feelings.

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