Resilient European nations can absorb new cultures

When John McGrath presses the panic button and suggests European cultures will be swept aside by Muslims “who embrace a doctrine that denies freedom of conscience and freedom of speech” (Irish Examiner, Letters, September 10), he not alone underestimates the resilience of host nations, but also denigrates the principal of refuge.

Perhaps the words of Mahatma Ghandi will put into perspective the scare-mongering of people on the richest continent on the planet who reject the weak and vulnerable: “You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty”.

Dr Kevin McCarthy