 Bashir Maan writes that as a Muslim he must believe in the virgin birth because it is confirmed by the Koran (Letters, January 9). However, the sources of the doctrine   the story of the annunciation in Luke 1:26-38 and the mention in Matthew 1:18 of Mary s pregnancy  from the Holy Spirit    appear to be late additions to the text. In the two genealogies in Matthew 1 and Luke 3 it is the ancestry of Joseph that is traced, which implies that Joseph had originally been regarded by Christians as the actual and not merely the supposed father of Jesus.  a second objection is that the Koran contains not only biblical paraphrases and allusions but extra-biblical legends about a number of patriarchs from adam to Solomon and beyond, and episodes from writings excluded from the New Testament on account of their late date and unreliability. Indeed, two such episodes concerning the miraculous provision of dates and water to Mary in the desert when the birth of her child was imminent, and a speech made by Jesus as a newborn infant   almost immediately follow the passage quoted in part by Bashir Maan.  a Muslim who believes the Koran to be divinely inspired in the fullest sense must necessarily accept the veracity of all these materials. a more rational stance would be to regard it as a purely human creation incorporating traditions which came to Mohammed from his pious contemporaries.  Paul Fletcher  Glasgow  Bashir Maan describes the virgin birth as  the most important doctrine of Christianity , yet two of the gospels fail to tell of it, and Paul also manages to write his letters without referring to it. What is central is the incarnation the belief that Jesus is  the visible likeness of the invisible God , as Paul says. The virgin birth is a marvellous, poetic story embodying this belief. It is a pity that our literal, scientific mentality seems incapable of distinguishing  truth  from  fact .  It is beyond belief that Mr Maan should be surprised by a former minister of the Christian church questioning belief in the literal understanding of the virgin birth. Thoughtful people   believers as well as unbelievers   have been doing so for a very long time, not least David Jenkins, the former Bishop of Durham, who hit the headlines repeatedly with his views on this very subject.  Far be it from me to say how Muslims ought to interpret the Koran, but I do hope that they, like Christians, can see that there are different ways of expressing truth.  (Rev) Jim MacEwan.  Nethy Bridge  Your editorial about the juror who posted jury room deliberations from the Sheridan trial on Facebook is an instance of the atmosphere of parochialism which permeates Scots and English law (The consequences of social media, Leader, January 9). Our laws which are the result of social evolution in one country are held up to be the revelations of universal natural law. In, for example, the USa, jurors are entirely free to talk about what has gone on in the jury room. The american justiciary does not appear to think that this  undermines justice for all .  The British rule of juror silence is just one way of  doing  justice. The problem that our courts face is that any juror can now send an encprypted message to anywhere in the world. It can then be published on a server in a jurisdiction which the British courts cannot influence. In fact, I propose such a system; let s call it  WikiCourts .  The juror who posted about the Sheridan trial may be prosecuted, but if the authorities are hoping that a successful prosecution will be a successful deterrent, they are deluded. It is they, not us, who, in the words of the Sunday Herald leader writer, have had a  wake-up call .  Ronnie Somerville  Lenzie  I totally agree with Iain Macwhirter (Who runs Britain? The Bankers, Comment, January 9). Sadly, the reason why the banks get away with it is because their existence is guaranteed. Having recently started a small business, I had no choice but to grovel and beg the bankers to open a company bank account, since this is a legal requirement.  Bankers get away with pay rises and bonuses because we cannot work or do business without them, unless we step into the black market. The position of bankers is absolutely assured.  Dr Malcolm Sutherland  Skelmorlie  Colin Donald shines yet more light on the  success  hyperbole of the Scotch whisky industry (Report finds Scotch on the rocks in its homeland, Business, January 2). The SWa may be technically correct in claiming a  2% rise in sales between 2009-2010 in the UK . That, however, needs to be set against a rise in UK inflation of 4.6% during the same period.  The discovery that the global sales volume of Scotch whisky has been flatlining for the last 30 years is put into sharp relief by other global macro-economic indicators which show annual increases in the range of 1.5%-3%. This is the basis of my claim that the near-static performance of the industry has cost 50,000 jobs during these years.  Instead of coming to grips with the long-term failure of Scotland s only truly unique and iconic industry it appears we would prefer to bet the public purse on new tech 