SIR HAROLD EVANS STRIKES BACK

Sir Harold Evans, former editor of The Sunday Times and The London Times, writes in The Guardian another fearless and powerful column:

A sample:

"It is understandable that the leaders of the Muslim community are sensitive to a stereotype of Muslims as terrorists.

Everyone knows the vast majority are decent, law-abiding citizens who deserve our sympathy and respect.

But everyone knows, too, that the crimes are committed by Muslims in the name of Islam, and not by Christians, Jews, Buddhists.

The anti-terror laws that draw protest do not discriminate, so why protest them?

As for too much of the media, the attitude is that typified in a 52-page document from the International Federation of Journalists - 52 alarm bells - where FIEJ describes the response of government to terrorism as "a devastating challenge to the global culture of human rights established almost 60 years ago ... we are sleepwalking into a surveillance society."

A devastating challenge to the global culture of human rights?

Speaking personally of challenges to human rights, I'd rather be photographed by a hidden surveillance camera than travel on a train or bus with killers carrying bombs in their backpacks.

Speaking personally, I'd regard being blowing to bits on the street as more of an intrusion on my privacy than having an identity card.

I have only one identity; the terrorists hide behind multiple identities that require time to unravel.

Speaking personally, I'd rather have my phone subject to monitoring than know that terror plotting is going undetected.

There can be no security without freedom - but no freedom without security."

Harold Evans and Oriana Fallaci are becoming unique voices in this worlwide debate where many prefer the comfort of the silence.