I have been following the recent debate on the issue of apostasy and Islam here in malaysiakini with great interest. It is an indication of the maturity of the Muslims in this country to be able to express differing views in an informed and rational way.

Nevertheless, what prompted me to write was the letter of Ustazah to Umran Kadir entitled Average Muslims are not teachers .

For goodness sake, Umran Kadir was just sharing about what he had heard from a Muslim scholar and not making a religious treatise. I found the letter of Ustazah downright arrogant and condescending. It goes to show how religious knowledge does not necessarily help a person to be wiser and capable of dialoguing with others.

If Ustazah thought Umran Kadir had said anything wrong from a theological point of view, she should have just pointed it out and enlightened him. Instead she just harped on the theological qualification of Umran Kadir to speak out.

Does Islam forbid its followers to share anything about their faith even if they did not graduate with an Islamic degree or learnt Arabic? Are all Muslims required to refer every little detail of their lives to be decided by the ulama? If they need to, this is a manifestation that there is something wrong with the religious education impacted on the Muslims in this country.

I have a feeling that such attitude as manifested by Ustazah has contributed partly to the problem. I was intrigued when I read in the past that religious authorities were urged to come out with fatwa to determine whether things such as SMS contests or entertainment programmes were halal . I thought we would be able to make our judgement concerning such issues with common sense.

So my humble response to Ustazah is, please don't be intimidating and kill the keenness of Umran Kadir to learn more about his faith and share it. If he has said anything heretical, do correct him in a gentle and encouraging way.