“Modern fanaticism thrives in proportion to the quantity of contradictions and nonsense it pours down the throats of the gaping multitude, and the jargon and mysticism it offers to their wonder and credulity.”

― William Hazlitt

COMMENT | As someone who has led men and women of various faiths, I have to tell you, nobody has ever come up to me and said that they fear they are going to hell because they were led by a Hindu. I do not know what the situation is like now.

Has anyone from the state security apparatus came up to Abdul Hadi Awang and confided that they fear going to hell because they were led by non-Muslims? What is the position of the friends of PAS camp?

Some people consider Hadi a joke. I am not one of those people. Ever since May 9, there has been a consistent move by religious extremists, the crypto Islamists within Harapan, the Malay far right and the religious bureaucracy to undermine the secular values in this country.

The call for mosque activities to move beyond the environs of the mosque, extremists preachers like Zakir Naik allowed to roam our countryside, and various “nanny state” policies intended to hoodwink a gullible public point to a renewed process of Islamisation...