By James Rougvie

The Moderator of the General Assembly has mounted a powerful—and provocative—plea to First Minister Jack McConnell to pressurise the Westminster government to intervene in the case of the Iranian hunger strikers in order to avert national disgrace.

But the Right Rev Professor Iain Torrance, visiting Dundee’s Al-Maktoum Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies yesterday, also condemned the asylum seekers for attempting to manipulate public compassion with a death threat which he compared to the actions of suicide bombers.

The three men stitched up their mouths and embarked on their hunger strike protest in Glasgow over plans to send them home.

Mr McConnell has already washed his hands of the affair by saying it is a matter for the Home Office and that the Scottish Executive has no jurisdiction in that area.

The Moderator appealed to the First Minister to use his influence to bring moral pressure to bear on Westminster adding, “We will be deeply ashamed and I can’t believe this is beyond the powers of the Executive.

“If people are in danger of death, and it is said by the Scottish Executive that it is beyond their powers, one is risking a personal tragedy and a national disgrace.”

But he criticised the three, Kurds from Iran, saying there was a legal process and if people threatened suicide, that was an activity which manipulated public compassion.

“They have made their point, and I appeal to them to stop. Other figures, myself included, are appealing for urgent action on their behalf but I am saying to the three that this is no way to set about this.”

“Let us agree utterly to discourage the threat of suicide as a device to subvert a legal process.

“We gladly give shelter to those in distress, but the threat of suicide is a cousin to violent martyrdom, which so defames the name of faith in the world today.”

Professor Torrance praised the work of the institute, and said Christians had to understand that other faiths were not failed answers to which Christianity was the only solution.

Other faiths provided as fundamental answers to different but similar questions.

“As a Christian, I understand my own faith better by understanding something of yours.

“Acknowledgement of others lessens the threat of blindness and I am deeply grateful for your aims and contributions to society.”

The principle of the institute, Professor Abd al-Fattah El-Awaisi, called for a minute’s silence from the assembled guests, to honour those dead and injured in the Madrid bomb blasts.

He said that post September 11 and post Iraq there was an urgent need for good research and good teaching to break down the barriers of ignorance and intolerance.