well written Zurairi AR! your commentary honours you and is a much needed intellectual counter-point to the raving madness going on right now. hopefully you will be widely read, quoted, and understood, so that the world will become a better place, even if just by a little bit...

exactly right, sir. your response sums it up perfectly. that's abuse of power and selective justice.

for those who have forgotten - hitler started the second world war, invaded numerous countries, mowed down anyone who stood in his way inside his own country, as well as abroad, via mock-trials, summary executions, labour camps, and indefinite detention until death at specifically installed extermination camps, whose sole purpose was to eradicate the inmates, either through hard labour, or if that was too slow, through death marches and mass executions.

due to the german invasion, half a million people died in france, over 5 million poles, over 20 million soviets, half a million british nationals. he had 6 million european jews murdered by his forces. in total, the world war caused an estimated 60 million deaths worldwide, and he was instrumental in more than half of that number. he was a hate-mongering, racist, ruthless dictator, and anyone idolizing him or his actions must be out of their minds.

shame on bung mokhtar, and shame on umno and najib for failing to provide an appropriate response!

spot on analysis of the situation in malaysia! well done, MI.

exactly right.

integrity! a virtue shamefully absent from the minds of the malaysian elite, especially those serving as the acting government! 'serving' themselves only, i might add...

so he is complaining that they can no longer detain people indefinitely without a charge, lamenting that they actually have to provide incriminating evidence, and get a court of law involved in the proceedings, rather than just locking people up at their own discretion, for however long they please. and this guy is the deputy home minister? and he can say this publicly without getting axed? another sad day for justice in malaysia...

are you really confused about that? that's remarkably daft.

the west does not use the arabic language, hence using the word allah in a christian context does not make any sense. in the arabic speaking parts of the world however, arabic speaking christians refer to god by using the arabic word for god, which is allah, and it has been like that since before the advent of islam, and no conflict has arisen from it, and why should it? it is just a term that translates to god, nothing more. and guess what, even the qu'ran explicitly states that we're all praying to the same god anyway - jews, christians, and muslims. a god with no name, the one and only god, except they're all following god's teachings in varying degrees of completeness.

when christianity was introduced to borneo hundreds of years ago, for some reason, the local christians decided to borrow the arabic word for god and use it in their iban services and prayers as the word for god, in a christian context. again, this has been going on for hundreds of years, and no conflict has arisen from it.

until now, when suddenly people like you decide to feign ignorance, deciding to rewrite history by simply not acknowledging historic facts that are not to your liking, even though they don't even remotely affect you, and argue your case by making nonsensical statements to back up your oppressive stance. tell me, why would a dutch survey be relevant to the constitutional rights of non-muslims in malaysia? how is the opinion of 'one popular american preacher' significant to their plight here? and why would the latin-speaking vatican want to adopt the arabic word for god when they've been using latin for over a thousand years? on the same note, why would christians from borneo want to change the way they address their god in prayer after having addressed him as allah for hundreds of years? much less, because of a flimsy argument that some 'peninsular malay muslims might get confused...'? would you want to change the way you pray because some other people decide that they find it confusing? even though your people have been praying like that for centuries? think about that.

the arguments you bring forth are irrelevant to the discussion. the connection you draw between a muslim extremist group and the catholics here is ludicrous and only reflects poorly on your own intelligence, and claiming that they are threatening national peace and security after several hundred years of peaceful coexistence despite them having used the term all along smacks of sheer idiocy.

you may not want them to use the term out of ignorance, insecurity, and misguided piety, and that's your choice, heck, it is even your right to have opinions, whoever idiotic they may be, but at least be honest about your reasons. don't try to dress them up as something else.

well done home minister - acting once again as an apologist for people spewing physical threats, inciting hatred, and trampling on other people's religious rights and sensitivities. he even goes as far as declaring it an appropriate response to saying 'celaka umno'. as the home minister it is actually his duty to condemn this kind of transgression and act in the interest of all of this country's citizens, but no, the only allegiance he knows is to his perceived paymaster, umno, who incidentally pays all perks, salaries, and kick-backs using taxpayer's money, which zahid and the whole cabal conveniently overlook.

zahid is failing so miserably at his job, it is mind-blowing. and he still stays on - nobody in their right mind has the power to bring him down, and those who do have the power to bring him down, have no interest in doing so, because they probably not only condone his attitude, but more importantly they need him to protect the power imbalance that is keeping them rich, and powerful, and arrogant.

it is so unbelievably shameful and frustrating and the anything but umno suffix feels incredibly true today. so here it goes - ABU!

the article stated the webaddress of his blog as - zul4kulim.blogspot.com

everyone in here - copy/paste it and comment directly on his page. refute his absurd statements there and challenge him to a response. take him apart on his own blog with logic and morals, with quotes and statistics, and make him think hard before he spews this kind of hateful non-sense in the public sphere again, or else he'll get away with it.

in this forum, which he and his followers don't read, the criticism will not lead anywhere. but on his blog, it is another story. currently he has zero comments there. don't wait for the authorities to act, because experience has shown that they won't. the only way we can change the future of this country is by engaging these idiots directly, and disputing their uninformed, ignorant and self-righteous claims openly! he has a comments page - use it!

you are correct. and of course they never elaborate or bother to show proof. it remains an empty claim without merit.

and there is another blatant irony to this whole issue, which has escaped them altogether until now. islam actually explicitly states that christians pray to the same god as muslims, the only difference being that they failed to acknowledge muhammad as the last prophet and failed to recognize the quranic teachings as divine. but still, according to islam, they pray to the same god, except they're following an incomplete doctrine.

so if they're all praying to the same god anyway, what's the big fuss about them calling him by the same name? it is a step towards islam, if anything. yet in their inexplicable insecurity and boundless arrogance they feel entitled to hinder others in practising their faith freely anyway, claiming otherwise somebody might get confused. it's altogether ludicrous.