I refer to the letters Slavery's past: Still not too late for Obama and Obama's America is black and white .

These letters regarding race relations in the US only confirm to me that these two propagandists have likely never spent any time in the US, or if they did, they kept their blinders on.

In shrill terms, if not from the outright lunatic fringe of hate-mongering, Abraham essentially describes modern America as a Nazi state. I would remind him that

a. There is a large and ever-increasing black middle class in the US.

b. Nine percent of the US House of Representatives are African-American. How many people of colour are represented in the European, Asian and Middle Eastern governments? (Yes, there are many black African Muslims in the Gulf Middle East.)

c. The dominant social culture among young men in the ghettos is that education and work are beneath their dignity as tough and powerful young men. Many distinguished black leaders have mentioned this and reminded the poorer black community that they also share some responsibility of lifting themselves out of the ghetto.

Not every tough break that comes their way is due to ‘evil white racist conspiracies’. Abraham should know better if he is an Oxford Ph.D. I wonder whether Oxford doctoral programmes promote the dispassionate search for truth or if the institution now churns out people who merely fantasise whatever makes them feel good.

d. Slavery was restricted to the southern states. New England, where I happen to come from, was always against slavery, as was most of the North.

e. Europe, including the UK, has its own, deep racial problems. It is hypocritical to try to belittle the accomplishment of electing a black president in the US by bringing up slavery in the US, which ended almost 150 years ago.

It is especially hypocritical for someone named Abraham to bring this up when one is reminded that slavery in the Gulf Middle East was not abolished until around 1965. Charles Jacobs, president of the American Anti-Slavery Group, writes:

‘According to conservative estimates, twenty-seven million people today are living in human bondage around the globe. By definition, these slaves are made to work for little or no money by means of force or the threat of force. In the worst case, that of chattel-slavery, people are the owned property of others and are bred and passed on through their masters.

‘In Mauritania and Sudan, one finds, respectively, the most ignored and the worst cases of slavery. In Mauritania, the centuries-old institution of slavery has never ended. Slave raids ceased long ago; for generations, those who are slaves constitute a caste that continues from one generation to another.

‘Precisely because it is so much a part of the scenery, slavery in Mauritania attracts little attention; it appears to be part of the eternal order of things. But it should not be; and the fact that one generation after another is born into servitude is unacceptable.

‘The sixteen-year long war in Sudan is a jihad (sacred war) waged by northerners against the Muslims, Christians, and Animists in the south. It is primarily prosecuted by the National Islamic Front, the fundamentalist Muslim party that took power ten years ago (but which has been pushed aside in recent weeks).

'The jihad includes such atrocities as militias armed by the government of Khartoum engaging in pogrom-like raids on villages. The village men are shot, women and children are taken captive, then enslaved, branded, bred, and forcibly converted to Islam. Women chosen as concubines are genitally mutilated.

‘The war in Sudan has claimed over two million lives - more than the conflicts in Kosovo, Bosnia, Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia, and Chechnya combined. Despite this calamity, the south Sudanese have been abandoned by the West.’

Again, how hypocritical and childish to be obsessed with the 19 ^th century conditions of southern American states. And how mean-spirited to try to belittle our new president-elect before he has taken office.

As for Mansor Puteh's letter, it is not worth much comment other than to mention that when I was a graduate student back in the early 1980s, black/white couples on campus were very common.

And by the way, paraplegic students were also quite common; it appeared to be up to 5% of the students were in wheelchairs. I would say honestly that socially, the US even then was far ahead of Europe and Asia. The Middle East doesn't even count, socially backward as it is.

Aside from the US where I was educated, I have spent 15 years all over Europe, 13 years in the Gulf Middle East, four years in Japan, and two years in Malaysia and have traveled elsewhere extensively. I must say, minorities in all these countries obviously have fewer rights than in the US.

To what extent do minorities have access to government representation and to higher education in Japan, Malaysia, France, Germany, etc? From first-hand observation and from simply following the news, I can say ‘obviously not much.’

Hence the Muslim youth riots in France and disillusionment of minorities throughout Europe. Indeed, Muslim immigrants, for example, are able to assimilate into US society ie, higher education and jobs much more readily than in Europe.

We're all entitled to our opinions, but some are sillier than others. And I would suggest we put our own houses in order first.