In this current polemic about the setting up of an Islamic state, both sides are missing the woods for the trees. An Islamic state is not an end in itself but only a means to an end which is the establishment of a society which places equity and justice above all.

This overriding principle is blown to smithereens in the crossfire between the syariah-centrics and the syariah-sceptics. While the former chant slogans like "Allah's law is supreme, nothing else matters", "the choice is yours: either shariah or eternal damnation!", etc. the latter are no less vociferous in their condemnation with hysterical outbursts as seen in the letters 'Moderate' Keadilan bared and Keadilan's biggest blunder in the making .

The concept of an Islamic state absolutely rests on the ideal of justice and that is justice for Muslims and non-Muslims alike. To be fair, the weariness and fear of non-Muslims toward the setting up of an Islamic state is in part compounded by the overzealous pronouncements of certain politicians for reasons best known to themselves.

Hence, Wan Azizah's latest statement is reassuring. I have no reason to doubt that Keadilan's understanding of an Islamic state rests on the conviction that the constitution of such a state must contain fundamental safeguards that guarantee all non-Muslims their complete physical security as well as complete freedom of religion, of culture and of social and economic development.

Anything less is not 'kosher'. After all, it is a historical fact acknowledged even by orientalists that Jews have always enjoyed these constitutional safeguards as citizens in Islamic states.

I call on both sides to focus on the real issues at hand: incarceration of reformist leaders while corrupt politicians are left to roam free and plunder the nation's coffers, muzzling of the opposition, electoral frauds, gerrymandering of the BN kind, emasculation of the judiciary, the list goes on ad nauseam .