I caught Larry King interviewing prominent representatives from the Islamic, Judaic, Buddhist and Christian faiths on the question of whether the tsunami disaster was a punishment from God.

(You would wish that Malaysian TV stations too, would hold an interfaith dialogue of this nature, seeing that we often boast of ourselves as a multi-religious nation living in harmony. But that is wishful thinking.)

Speaking with one voice to a world-wide audience on CNN, all those learned clerics from different faiths denied that one could ever know divine intension sufficiently to make judgement about one's fellow human beings on matters of heaven and hell. The Muslim cleric was particularly emphatic about the spirit of Islam in showing compassion for people not of the Islamic faith in the event of such natural catastrophes.

Thank God we will always have sane voices like those religious clerics who will keep matters of faith open to interpretive discussion, rather than reducing them to mere dogmatic exclusivist pronunciation of divine truth on behalf of the Supreme Being.