Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, mother of two young children, was taken to prison to be subjected to six strokes of the rotan, much to the approval of religious authorities around her.

Little do they know that this exercise in Islamising the Malays have caught the attention of the international press, in a negative way.

The UK-based Independent newspaper, known for its left of centre views, reported this as evidence of brutality of Malaysian syariah law. The Wall Street Journal opined that this is a consequence of the Umno-PAS spat.

Not that the above will register on the radar of those who believed that they are right by doing God's work and that alone should qualify their action. I beg to differ on four counts, for the sake of my fellow Muslims and my religion's reputation.

Firstly, private morality should not be confused with public moralising, especially when justice in its implementation cannot be universal. Those who received the rotan sentence - all were overturned on appeal except for Kartika who did not appeal - were those at the less influential end of the society.

At the same time, any well-heeled Malay-Muslim can walk into a club or a five star hotel in Kuala Lumpur and consume alcoholic drinks, no questions asked. This gives off the impression that if you are poor, or have no connections you will get caught and punished for doing things that your more influential co-religionists can get away with. What does that say about Islam in Malaysia? Is Islam a plaything for those who want up their religious credentials at the expense of the ordinary people?

Secondly, and along the same vein, such 'crime and punishment' does not encourage self-control nor does it encourage self reflection. The logic of caning people for drinking beer (and not even getting drunk) is that don't do so because if we catch you, you will be publicly humiliated (behaviour change with reference to another person's values); not because of the belief that drinking alcohol is religiously wrong or the knowledge that excessive drinking is bad for your health (behaviour governed by rational thoughts and concrete evidence).

Such crime and punishment also infantilises the Malay-Muslims: we cannot self-regulate our fluid intake therefore it must be made statute and law-breakers punished.

This, in multi-religious Malaysia, where Buddhists, Hindus and Christians adhere to the demands of their religions without being policed by the state.

Thirdly, this is a thin end of the wedge. Under Malaysian Penal Code, no woman is ever to be subjected to corporal punishment. Under our syariah code, anything goes it seems (although there is no punishment for drinking alcohol in the Quran, nor was there such a hang up about it in the glory days of Islam - read Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and poems of Arab Andalusia).

Where does one draw the line? What will be the fate of homosexual men caught in compromising positions? Kartika asked for the punishment to be made public and proponents of this have rejoiced in the blogospheres.

Fourthly, isn't Islam about understanding and compassion? Where is the compassion for Kartika? In past 22 months she has lost her full time hospital job as she had to go back and forth to the courthouse, she has been fined RM5,000 which is a huge sum of money for her and she had to endure public humiliation of being named and shamed by the religious authorities; all for three glassed of beer with the husband.

What about this verse of the Quran: (16:125) ‘You shall invite to the path of God with wisdom and compassionate enlightenment, and debate with them in the best possible manner. Your Lord knows best who is deviating from His path, and He knows best who are guided.

Kartika's punishment is another chapter in the religious bigotry of Malaysia. The perniciousness of these religious zealots can only erode the private lives of Malaysians even deeper in days to come.