I feel saddened by the voluntary retraction of Dr Amina Wadud's paper from the recent HIV/AIDS conference. I regretfully do not know the full text of her paper, and my information, therefore, is limited to the reporting done by the mass media.

Whatever the content may be, I firmly believe that her paper should be incorporated into the proceedings of the conference. As with any other conference that invites opinions from various sectors, I believe it is not the objective of this conference to include only mainstream ideas and exclude views that may not be readily understood by some of the participants.

Of all groups, HIV/AIDS organisations should be more aware of the situation of marginalised groups or individuals. I have deep respect for Dr Amina in the name of advancing the cause of people with HIV/AIDS, she gracefully and honourably volunteered to retract her paper.

However, by succumbing to the demands of a few, and by not insisting on the inclusion of Dr Amina's paper, the organisers have failed to take on the challenge of fighting the bigger cause the fight against marginalisation.

If nothing else, Dr Amina's paper should stand as documentation of a Muslim person's voice, which I suspect represents many other Muslims' as well, in conveying the frustration of the Muslim world's failure in tackling the issue of HIV/AIDS.

The uphill battle faced by persons with HIV/AIDS becomes simply all too clear when even the organisation that 'represents' them fails to address the stigmatisation of marginalised individuals or groups by cowering to the narrow-mindedness of a few. The irony, of course, is that the incident provided a great opportunity to highlight such concerns.