Dispute it as they may, the ability of PAS, for example, to proceed with its religious-Islamism project - be it the creation of an Islamic state, hudud law or the road-show of the 'proper Muslim attire' for Muslim women - is due to secularism and human rights.

Secularism and human rights have also fostered support and dissent over the Islamic state issue, hudud law, rehabilitation laws, insult to Islam laws, religious freedom and other matters related to the plurality of religious beliefs and practices of Malaysians.

Islamist groups have increasingly utilised the rhetoric of human rights to further their particular agendas.

It is heartening to see PAS for example, resorting to human rights claims, more so after the sacking of former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim in September 1998, and to periodic arrests under the Internal Security Act (ISA).

Unhappily, there are some Islamist groups which gladly champion human rights, and yet deny to others the right of challenge to their own particular views or interpretations.