In response to Arbibi Ashoy's Simplistic to berate Islam for polygamy practice , I have to point out that I did not berate Islam in anyway. I merely point out why separating religion and state power makes sense.

Ironically, Arbibi actually reaffirms my point that high ideals could easily be abused. He claims the benefits of polygamy without highlighting and explaining the high degree of abuse of polygamy. That is the crux of the problem. Not only will people find ways to abuse it, the ideals are often misinterpreted even by those with the best of intentions.

Again, my point is that ordinary people are not and can never be experts in Islam. It is often the case, and especially in Malaysia, that very few people are really Islamic experts and these include even the muftis and leaders of both PAS and Umno. They may be able to speak Arabic and recite the Quran but this do not make them the experts.

I can recite the Quran, Shakespeare, the bible, Chinese and Buddhist scripts, but does these capabilities make me an expert worthy of being given state power over people and how they live everyday?

The truth is man is weak and few have real wisdom and cannot be trusted with powerful high ideals. State power must be confined to practicalities only and at best a general reflection, not details, of our ideals. And that is why separation of religion and politics, i.e. state power, is the only sensible way.