I read with dismay that each year 80 Thai Muslims will be sent to study at Egypt's al-Azhar University in Cairo. The university is known as a hotbed of Islamic radicalism. Professors who disagree with their fundamentalist teachings of Islam are fired and cannot work elsewhere in Egypt.

In 1980, the university employed as a lecturer Omar Abdel Rahman who is now in an American prison for being instrumental in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Centre. A former professor of Islamic history who challenged the fundamentalist beliefs of the university was denounced and fired and imprisoned. When he decided to convert to Christianity, his own family disowned him and on several occasions attempted to kill him. He has since fled to the US, changed his name, and written a book "Islam and terrorism". If it is the Thai government's goal to inculcate Thai Muslims in intolerant, fundamentalist beliefs, sending them to al-Azhar University is a wonderful idea.

Dean Barrett

Bangkok

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Source of Thaksin's funds casts shadow on club deal

Re: "Man City funds are legal: banker," News, January 25.

So, it appears our former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra will be allowed to buy Manchester City Football Club. What a shame. He is more suited to be the poster boy of all that is wrong with Thailand - corruption, nepotism, bribery and deceit, rather than the owner of a professional sports team. That he doesn't know the first thing about football must irk Manchester City fans.

I am sure Thaksin is seeking the sympathy of the international community, playing his "I was elected democratically and fairly" card. Trouble is, he is alleged to have bribed most voters with hard-earned taxpayers' money. I wonder if he includes that when he is explaining how he won the elections and why he was ousted.

I am not against tycoons buying professional sports clubs to satiate their egos. There is nothing wrong with spending money on making yourself feel important. What is wrong is how he obtained the money. If he had worked hard to make an honest buck, then I'd be applauding his new acquisition. As it stands now, I denounce him for disgracing Thailand and for making a mockery of the fragile true democracy emerging in this country.

Outraged Taxpayer

Bangkok

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Productivity hurt by lack of practical know-how

Re: "The 1997 meltdown: a hard lesson learned by the banks", Business, June 26.

I laud your report on the thoughts of our low-key economic tsar, Industry Ministry Kosit Panpiemras, as so readable and meaningful for all readers at any level. I consider Kosit one of the five Thai economists whose comments I pay close attention to. He is another natural economist who just simply loves the subject and always talks in layman's terms, as do the other four top economists I follow. For the first time I understand the necessary linkages within each professional community to spur productivity. He exemplified the natural-flow model of the medical community right from becoming a medical student to the day the student turns into a doctor treating patients in the hospitals. In other professions such as engineering, law and accounting, once graduates enter into a business or industry they have to restart from day one by differentiating the theory they have learned for four years and the practical way of doings on the factory floor or in offices. Yes, our tsar has pinpointed our weaknesses where too many crave for doctorate degrees rather than give thought to its eventual usefulness in society. It is more sustainable and with less wastage.

The other four economists who have enlightened me many times are Ammar Siamwalla, Olarn Chaipravat, Supavud Saicheua, and Chalongphob Sussangkarn. May I hear more from them than those who tend to confuse and mislead me.

Songdej Praditsmanont

Bangkok

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Public will not accept isolationist rhetoric

General Sonthi, the military leader of the September 2006 coup, succinctly summarised Thailand's current morass when he stated on television: "We don't need to listen to outsiders who criticise our human rights and democracy." Many Thai powerbrokers and the military in particular have a fondness for isolation. Without global interference and criticism, these "elites" can best harness the power to mould the country to conform to their economic wants and thickly line their pockets and fill numbered bank accounts with ill-gotten gains.

The coup leader expresses the same sentiment expressed by dictators, coup leaders, and nefarious power grabbing politicians since time immemorial. US Vice President Dick Cheney is currently expanding on the same theme with convoluted logic and words. He will not succeed. Nor will success grace the table of the current Thai leaders. Although the tentacles of the military are reaching into everyday Thai life, success in completely isolating Thailand in a flat world wired to the Internet will fail.

The Thai people's instinct for freedom and an evolving hunger for knowledge will prevail. A few more hiccups in the guise of coups and constitutions will be followed by a rapid movement to freedom and representative government.

Tom Fin

Bangkok

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'Smelly foreigner' jibe smacked of racism

Re: "Thai kids are all right and polite, too", Letters, June 26.

From time to time foreigners weigh in with their opinions on matters in Thailand. When that happens you can almost expect, like the changing cycles of the moon, for Sunida to chime in and make what can only be termed a racist comment.

Her latest was in response to Richard Sproat's letter in which he bemoaned some faults in the Thai educational system. This is something that numerous Thais have done in the past and continue to do today. My Thai friends back in my home country have often said that they left Thailand because of these problems, for the sake of their children's education.

If you don't believe me, a foreigner, then take as your evidence the number of "road-maps to education reform" that have been drafted. Take the number of people who held the education minister's post under Thaksin! Something is deeply at fault here, that much is obvious, but when a foreigner has his say - and, although I don't know Sproat, he did say he was speaking from his experience in the Thai education system - Sunida not only dismisses the opinion but punctuates that dismissal with racism.

She wrote: "... but we all retch when we have to stand next to a sweaty know-it-all in the BTS. We are too polite to show it."

Where I come from this is the way racists show their disdain for foreigners too. Saying that "foreigners smell funny" is a convenient way to dehumanise them. I do not think that Sproat's comments were mean-spirited, they were pointing out faults and if these were to be fixed it would be for the vast benefit of all Thais, however I think Sunida's comments were mean-spirited, the latest in a series of such racist comments that portray foreigners as abusive, smelly drunkards.

BF

Bangkok

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Attacking Iran would set disastrous scenario afoot

Re: "Deal with Iran now or pay the price later", Letters, June 25.

Bill Cymbalsky is evidently not prepared to consider that allowing Iran to have nuclear weapons might work as a stabilising-force rather than the reverse. The political reality since the Second World War has been that nuclear weapons only work if they are not used - it's called deterrence. Were the Iranians to possess nuclear weapons, how easily could they use them without fear of retaliation, and who would use them on Iran for fear of the same?

Destroying Iran to prevent their possessing weapons as suggested by Mr Bill is infinitely worse than almost any conceivable outcome that might occur as a result of Iran possessing them. How many nukes have Pakistani jihadis detonated recently, and how many might they be emboldened to try and use if America and Israel unleash a nuclear strike on their Muslim neighbours? There can be absolutely no pretence of moral high ground were the US and allies to make the first nuclear strike.

Of course there are no guarantees that things won't go wrong if Iran were to obtain nuclear devices, and of course proliferation of nuclear weapons is something to be discouraged, if only because it is such a waste of human resources. However, the kind of thinking espoused by Bill leads to crimes against humanity. It is the kind of thinking that has driven the US to create a hell in Iraq to match any in human history - Nazi Germany included.

That Mr Bill should propose the use of total terror to destroy an entire country and its civilisation to protect against only a distant possibility of the use of nuclear weapons in an act of terror makes me wonder whether he has ever loved a child.

North Watch

Bangkok