As a Muslim layman, I perceive Lina Joy to be not any much less a Christian and not any much more a Muslim. The Federal Court, true to its record, saw itself fit to only decide on labels, and only God knows the truth, huAllahullam.

But judicially-mandated labels impact on our worldly political existence, and so politically, as a born-Muslim in Malaysia , another of my worldly human rights, should I choose to change my personal faith, is passed over to a temporal court, which in that situation, I would no longer subscribe to. This is where the dichotomy lies. And it is for me and other Muslims in this country to deal with. Please allow us that space.

Ironically, other Malaysians are free to choose their faith. The court's verdict will make conversions to Islam that much more a deliberative act than just a ruse for marriage, right to polygamy or even career advancement. Whose loss is that?

Christian missionary organisations have to hold their horses. This is not the first time you are closed from a market, nor should you conveniently forget what you did in Spain after the fall of the Caliphates.

Undoubtedly the court's decision has broader implications beyond the Muslim citizenry. That debate, though inviting in its human rights and constitutional content, must invoke in both sides a broader perspective for consistency.

Thousands of Malaysians in these peaceful times have been deprived of their freedom and their right to trial under the ISA. Unlike Lina Joy's case, I know for sure that this is definitely un-Islamic and un-divine by any civilised religious philosophy.

I hope those who fight to deprive Lina of something that she wants or otherwise, are also those who feel for these thousands of victims of a Constitution that has Islam as the official religion. Myopic and selective advocacy is a human frailty, so let one be sure one is qualified to be identified with divine commands, lest one defiles a beautiful Presence through such frailties.

Lina Joy joins the millions of Muslims in Communist China and the USSR who once had no choice but to practise their religion clandestinely and with no labels. One wonders what kind of divine intervention befell these infidel lands that now allows its Muslims to be freer than Lina Joy.

I pray that we are blessed so.