Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Dr Abdullah Mohd Zin said that the circular by Mohd Fauzi Mustafar, head of Takaful Malaysia syariah department, directing his staff against extending Deepavali greetings to Hindus as being a 'narrow interpretation of Islam'.

That the circular was directed to all 2,000 staff of Takaful Nasional and taking an average family of five members per staff, it is well worth remembering that the directive would have easily poisoned the minds of no less than 10,000 Malaysians.

It must be also acknowledged that people like Fauzi are becoming not the exception but a force and a growing force in the ascendancy. Read the diatribe against the Jews and the Christians in Al-Islam's October edition and it is enough to confirm the rising of religious polarisation and bigotry.

It is becoming very clear now that the basic foundation of Malaysia as a secular, multi-cultural and multi-religious nation is increasingly becoming unacceptable to some and is being insidiously but effectively undermined.