YOURSAY 'A confident leader would take the high ground and behave like a leader, there is no need to roll in the mud. This is so low class and desperate.'

Propaganda comics colour Najib's Merdeka bash

Anonymous #58458950: Is the comic book distributed at the government Merdeka bash another public relations activity to help boost the support for BN? What a waste of taxpayers money!

A confident leader would take the high ground and behave like a leader, there is no need to roll in the mud. This is so low class and desperate.

Conmen: Such comic books are to brainwash the ‘kampung' simpletons and the ‘katak di bawah tempurung' types. It's an uphill task for Pakatan Rakyat, and yet those numbskulls are taking things for granted.

Not that we love Pakatan, it's that we hate Umno even more. It's now up to us to push and shove those people to pull their act together on the journey to Putrajaya.

Gerard Lourdesamy: This is a big joke. Even the Merdeka celebration is hijacked by Umno-BN. They must be bankrupt of ideas.

What is more disgusting is that this entire function was paid for by taxpayers and it was nothing but an exercise in self-praise and sycophantic adoration of PM Najib Razak and his wife, Rosmah Mansor.

Malaysians just love freebies especially when they have nothing better to do on a Friday night. This is not going to translate into votes and Najib should know better than to trust Information Minister Rais Yatim.

Anonymous #55961902: I was told that the schools have made it compulsory for all students to attend the Merdeka celebration, otherwise they will get demerit points.

The school children are given pocket money, which is taxpayers' money. It's sad that the government has to make use of school children for its political mileage.

Thetruth: Be grateful that Umno-BN is still stuck in the ‘syok sendiri' culture. As for Pakatan, they need to work hard because Umno-BN still has a lot of tricks at their disposal.

Cannon: Janji Ditepati ? Najib should tell that to the family of the late DAP aide Teoh Beng Hock. The head of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) interrogation team who tortured Teoh eventually earned himself a job promotion.

This regime of goons has nothing but contempt for the people. Take also the two latest court judgments favouring child rapists. The judgments reflect the climate of our times.

Women are shown scant respect and are treated as second-class citizens. In the August house of the land where the business of the nation is deliberated, we see MPs from Umno-BN poking fun at women and making vulgar jokes and sexual innuendos. It's as if these Neanderthals don't have grandmothers, mothers, wives, sisters and daughters.

It is time for the electorate to wake up. They should rise up and hold this immoral regime accountable for all the excesses committed against the people.

Attack on Ahmad Farouk Musa egregious

Playfair: Name-calling is a feature in Islamic discourse referred to as ‘takfir' and has been practised since the Abbasid caliphs. It usually begins when the respondents (like the two pseudo learned members) are unable to offer any constructive rebuttal to a discourse.

Their circular thinking that eventually claims divine origin is based on unadulterated faith and gives cause for considerable aggression towards the ‘other'. This 'other' is referred to as ‘hashwiyya' or the uneducated or rabble.

This is the typical attitude of these so-called learned Muslim intellectuals. And that is the intolerant road we are on. Moderate Islam has yet to arrive in Malaysia. Wassalam.

Lynn: Islamic Renaissance Front Dr Ahmad Farouk Musa is a man I would gladly vote for. His ability to think through and rationalise things is amazing. Even if I don't agree with all his views, his rationality and objectivity earn my respect.

Now on the other hand, these other so-called scholars and saints are like barking rabid dogs: irrational and cocky.

I know and have met many men like these, people who have so little ‘up there' that they feel the need to boast of their achievements and put others down to make themselves look good. They only end up looking stupid.

RA1: The notion of a secular state developed in Europe due to the clash between the pope and the Protestants who were against the pope.

The pope started the Inquisition against the ‘heretics' or the Protestants. This led to the rise of Napoleon who finally ‘caged' the pope in the Vatican. The first secular state in Europe was France under Napoleon.

There is no ‘pope' in Islam thus the development of a secular Islamic state is taking a gradual but relatively peaceful route. The Islamic state, like a secular state, will evolve with time. One cannot compare the Islamic state of the 7th century with a 21st century secular state.

DR.JAG#04496187: Writer Ahmad Farouk Musa has brought an understanding of Islam as an outside the box interpretation of orthodox Islam.

God is merciful: man murmurs this in agreement when in communion with God, and in the next breath terrorises, demonises and victimises people like Farouk who dares to think and express himself.

Anonymous_3f15 : Former law minister Zaid Ibrahim has correctly said that our country is a constitutional monarchy (secular). For those who want to argue otherwise, go and consult the rulers.

There is lot of ignorance out there; some here even think that the Muslims in Indonesia are not following the 'true' practice of Islam because Indonesia is a secular nation. They love the polemic of word.

Odin: When respondents resort to name calling, we not only know the author of the original paper has either exposed a glaring weakness, or has proposed something which could displace the entrenched, but also that the former are incapable of rebutting with a logical, factual, acceptable reply, are uncultured, and are puffed up with self-importance.

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