It appears that the Sun Journal is ignoring its own guidelines in publishing the March 21 letter regarding the Protocols. That letter is clearly “defamatory, abusive, obscene, racist, or otherwise hateful,” in referencing the Illuminati and in advancing malicious and demonstrably false information associated with the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” Those writings perpetuate lies directed against people of the Jewish faith.

With origins in the Russian secret service of the early 20th Century, the Protocols became a part of the Nazi propaganda effort to justify persecution of the Jews.

Today, radical Islamists promulgate these falsehoods in the popular media and in Saudi-financed madrassas throughout the Mideast.

Aside from the Arab world, the Protocols are now being popularized by far-right and other fringe groups. Despite being exposed as a forgery more than 90 years ago, the book continues, with the support of contemporary anti-Semitic literature, to strongly influence many people’s world view.

In the words of the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel, who suffered firsthand the consequences of anti-Semitism in a concentration camp: “If ever a piece of writing could produce mass hatred, it is this one . . . This book is about lies and slander.”

It is rather unfortunate that the Sun Journal allowed such bigotry to be published, when five minutes of research would have revealed it for what it is — hate speech.

Bo Yerxa, Waldoboro