I find Dr Rosli Yakop's assumption that Iraq was an Islamic state before the invasion of the US and coalition forces extremely disturbing. But I have no beef with his arguments against the neo-conservatives or the new imperialists.

Rosli writes for Harakah . This is where I think Dr Farish Noor's concern about PAS' reading of world events could be detrimental to their platform of standing up for the rule of democracy.

In his article Memikirkan semula pendekatan PAS which appeared in Harakah , Farish commented on the PAS support of the Taliban, a regime that many Muslims worldwide think represents extremist forces besides not being reflective of the kind of progressive and democratic Islam that many, including Malaysians, believe in.

Rosli may not represent the top leadership of PAS, but his assumption that the US is converting Iraq into a secular state is far from correct. Iraq is already secular. It is fundamentalist, authoritarian, despotically secular.

If Iraq called itself an Islamic state before (which Rosli assumes to be the case) then it was also fundamentalist, authoritarian and despotic under Muslim leader Saddam Hussein.

The adjective of 'secular' or 'Islamic' to his discussion, misleads and adds to the confusion (kekeliruan) of Harakah readers and PAS supporters.

I sincerely hope that the PAS professionals and the ulama get their act together to present a more politically viable party imbued with a progressive understanding of Islam for the sake of oppositional politics.