I am responding to Jamil Abdullah's muddled concepts of "democracy" in his letter 'Islamisation: This is, after all, a democracy'.

His prose is unclear, but he apparently states that there were not enough mosques and synagogues to accommodate all the Muslims and Jews in an unspecified American city of four million, "but that is democracy". I am not clear how this relates to the concept of political democracy in the United States. Organised religions in the US - and even unorganised ones - can build as many houses of worship as they like, as long as they can pay the brick and mortar contractors, and, of course, comply with local zoning laws.

Jamil Abdullah also claims that America is "proclaimed as a Christian nation". In fact, no ranking government official or politician would say such a thing, and neither do most educated people, because the US constitution clearly and unambiguously protects not only freedom of religion but also freedom from religion for those who so desire. And we take our constitution seriously.

For the record, democracy has several key components. Without all of these elements, it is not democracy:

1) Free and fair elections

2) Freedom of speech, of assembly, and of the press. That means freedom to say or write what you want, not just what some government minister or mullah decides is "responsible". And it certainly implies that it should not be necessary to obtain a licence to print or publish.

3) Along with No 2 above, libel laws that protect private citizens from slander but also clearly protect the private citizen from vengeful libel suits brought by public figures in order to stifle public comment and dissent

4) Effective and transparent accountability of public figures

5) Freedom of religion. (That includes, of course, the freedom to build a house of worship).