It should go without saying that when a British embassy settles in a state it should acquire enough knowledge of the culture, religion, politics and economics of that state. However this was not always the case.

Some British embassies still deal with the world as it is part of the British Empire. I can not blame the legislators setting in London hundreds if not thousands of miles away from some of these embassies, but embassies must take the blame.

A case in point is when a student from Libya applied for visa for his mother to accompany him which was instantly rejected although.

There could have been no reasonable justification of such rejection, especially when one see how neat and fulfilling her application was.

In the Islamic world and more especially in the Arab world when there is no one a mother could depend on her only child.

In this case the mother and the son have no other choice but either take her with him wherever he goes, or he would go nowhere. This would mean the young student would have to cancel his studies so as to please the British embassy.

Worse still the British embassy's justification for the refusal was even more resentful. Even his sponsor understood the situation of this student and granted him a letter directed to the British embassy saying that we will be taking care of our student as well as his mother who has no one to depend on but him.

The sponsor clearly expressed that they would be paying enough money to sustain the student and his mother throughout their stay in the UK. This is to say that neither the student nor his mother would be a burden on the British economy, a matter that has always been critical from a British embassy's point of view. But instead the British economy would be the beneficiary.

The British embassy indicated that had this visa application been for the student's wife or civil partner, they would have approved it.

But this is my mother and you are not the British embassy in Chicago to expect me having a civil partner prohibited by religion and civil law. You are in an Arab and Islamic country and you should be more decent and sensitive than you are now in dealing with this country's citizens.

Yes I am not calling for changing the lifestyle or the law in Britain, but you should not be able to affect such lifestyle and law in Libya and on Libyan citizens.

After all was this action by the British embassy justified by International Human Rights law? I doubt it.

In the UK, we often hear the term 'protecting our way of life'. Yet does Britain really care about others' way of life? If the UK is protecting only its own way of life then it is simply denying others the right to protect their own way of life.

I call upon British embassies to be proactive and respect the cultures that they are serving in. These embassies should all submit useful reports to their government in London.

I also call upon the Secretary of the Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation to take action and prevent foreign embassies from imposing their cultural values upon us.

K. Bashir