WHAT a depressing insight into a small mind we were given by Colin Drew's critique of the Southampton Art Gallerys "North+South" exhibition (Letters, August 20): "Islam (like Sikhism etc) is an alien religion/culture and I suspect that most Britons, like myself, hate Islam and all it stands for."

Well, Mr Drew, there was a time when Christianity was alien to these shores, and while you and your ilk may say, "that was many years ago", it was as late as 1428 that John Wycliffe's body was disinterred an burned for the heinous heresy of translating the Latin Bible into English, and even more recently, 1536 that William Tyndale was martyred by the Roman Catholic church for introducing an even more authentic, modern translation of the Bible. Both Wycliffe and Tyndale, in effect, were bringing unwanted and unpopular alien concepts to Britain in their time.

The exhibition in question may be something of a failure to anyone interested in religion or national identity (or art come to think of it), but it has sparked some interesting debate, and at least the artists concerned have had a go; and good luck to them.

As for Colin Drew and his co-religionists: if it was up to them we would still be following a Latin mass and be completely clueless as to who or what we were praying to or why, but we'd be terrified of dissenting.

But, then again, Christianity, like Islam, emanates from the Middle East, maybe Mr Drew would have us go back to sun worship, devotion to the Greek or Nordic pantheons or Druidism?

And less we forget, Isaac Watts, one of Southampton's greatest sons, was stigmatised in his home town for being a religious non-conformist.

DAVE JUSON, Freemantle, Southampton.