Azly Rahman's writings, in his Mickey-Mousing Malaysia article, have attained legendary new levels of spurious drivel. It is interesting that Azly, who despises the Western notion of government that protects citizens from theocratic oppression, has obtained his higher education in the US, and now actually lives and works in that evil society of godless airheads.

It is even more astounding that in his haste to drop name every philosopher in Wikipedia, he stooped to quote, in an earlier article , my favourite Founding Father of the United States, Thomas Jefferson who said, 'Dissent is the highest form of patriotism'.

Jefferson, you see, was the great Renaissance man who, in the 18th century, penned the famous first item on the Bill of Rights guaranteeing freedom of speech, assembly and religion - not only of religion, but from religion. Why do I claim the First Amendment means freedom 'from' religion in addition to freedom 'of' religion?

Because Jefferson said so in other writings. He proclaimed that its purpose was to place a wall between government and religion, so that the government cannot impose any religion on us or support religion in any way. Such a right had never been codified before, and I am so grateful it was. It is perhaps the US' greatest political contribution to the world. After all, 220 years later, the Bill of Rights still guarantees anyone the right to worship as they wish, but forbids government to get involved.

It also does not allow people to be punished for changing their religion, regardless of what religion they were born into. That's called individual freedom, something that horrifies people like Azly, though ironically he personally benefits from the free exchange of ideas in the American higher education system.

I wonder if Azly would approve of every Malaysian being US-educated. Or is that only for the learned elite such as Azly, who, unlike the common people, possesses an intellect and character strong enough to recoil from the evil temptations of a free society?

And I wonder why Azly would deign to quote such an early proponent of secular humanism as Jefferson. Perhaps he didn't know, for example, that Jefferson, in founding the University of Virginia in 1801, deliberately placed the impressive library building at the head of the campus, rather than a church or a cathedral. Jefferson did this to make a strong statement that at his university, reason was to prevail over religious dictatorship.

Azly should not fight Disneyland. Instead, he might try placing a competing bid for a theme park of his own making: There could be Ayatollah Khomeini rides, mock prisons with secular humanists inside, Saudi religious police rounding up decadent western sluts who fail to cover their arms, wax displays of village elders peering menacingly into others' bedrooms - a rousing good time guaranteed for all, and all, one hopes, preserving the sanctity of local culture - oops, I mean culture exported from Arabia.