Malaysia's multicultural society is a rich source of humour in entertainment, some discerning, others not so. Most of us are sporting enough to accept the lampooning of our usual stereotypes - the small-time Chinese contractor with his Malaysian English, the argumentative Indian worker, the slow Malay civil servant, and our inept politicians.

Occasionally, and without intended malice, boundaries are crossed and sensitivities wounded. I think this has been the case in the Instant Caf Theatre's The 2nd First Annual Bolehwood Awards: The Director's Cut that prompted the letter of complaint in Utusan Malaysia and a comment by Hashim Poirot in a letter to malaysiakini .

In this case the ICT has failed to draw the line between the lampooning of political personalities who seek to project themselves to the Malay-Muslim voters as more Islamic than their opponents, and the lampooning of an aspect of Islam itself.

Muslims in general, regardless of their political persuasion, feel deeply hurt when their religion is publicly insulted. The complaint seemed to have centred around the spoofing of hudud.

While a large part of the syariah is practised in multicultural Malaysia with not much problem (ie those pertaining to personal moral code and family law), hudud, the aspect of the syariah that deals with serious offences, is much more controversial and sensitive.

While a significant proportion of Muslims do not share a certain political party's vision of the Islamic State and its zeal for the implementation of hudud, given its sensitivity and the more urgent need to address social justice and good governance, nevertheless the hurt and humiliation is no less profound when hudud becomes the subject of a comedy spoof.

It goes without saying that responsibility goes hand in hand with freedom of expression. Entertainment for the liberal elite in the name of artistic freedom and freedom of expression should not be at the expense of causing hurt and humiliation to a large segment of society.

That the show was professionally-staged and highly-entertaining as Hashim Poirot contended does not grant the performers the licence to hurt the sensitivities of Muslims.

The automatic cultural Muslims (those born into Muslim families) may not be offended by this, but many an educated muslim, after much conscious study and reflection, elects to accept the syariah together with Islamic theology, philosophy and spirituality as integral to Islam.

It is the balance between punitive laws on the one hand, and education, kind words and forgiveness on the other that Muslim societies need to seek, and this is where human fallibility comes in. Sometimes, in lampooning this human fallibility in the name of art, the boundaries of good taste are breached.

The measures DBKL slapped on ICT may have been a little excessive, but I am sure exercising restraint and observing the boundaries of cultural sensitivities in plural Malaysia would not stifle the creative energies of the truly talented, intelligent artist. After all, artists in the more liberal west have always practised self-censorship against the slightest hint of anti-Semitism.