In her letter to the New Straits Times (Aug 11), Germaine Goh did not reflect her understanding of Malaysia's multi-cultural heritage, especially the Islamic culture.

PAS acting president Abdul Hadi Awang, is a religious scholar, menteri besar and member of Parliament; has the right to express his view on women based on his interpretation of the Hadith and al-Quran.

He has the religious and moral obligation to tell the general public about the truth rather than giving false impression of any hidden agenda.

The appointment of Dr Lo' Lo' Ghazali as PAS central committee member reflected the bona fide practice of Islam by PAS without ignoring the voice of women. Islam also never denies women their rights.

The first believer of Islam is Siti Khatijah, the wife of Prophet Mohammad and she is one of the most successful businesswoman of her era and the prophet never stopped her from her career advancement in the business. She even contributed her assets to the propagation of Islam.

Islam does not deny the rights of women. Muslim men have the divine obligation to protect and comfort their female counterparts.

The non-Muslims outside Kelantan have been very conservative when it comes to Islam. The paradigm of Islam is already being doctrinated by the Western media and its values.

Many non-Muslims, especially of Chinese origin are passive towards Islamic values; many view the Chinese converts as 'masuk Melayu' rather than embracing Islamic. The paradigm towards Christianity is different from that of a 'Muslim convert'.

Many fail to understand and refuse to accept the fact that Islam is a 'universal religion' rather than the ' Malay religion'. This has lead to many misunderstandings among ethnic Chinese, who fail to recognise that Islam and Christianity had taken root in China many years before Chin Dynasty

What Hadi revealed was just the truth of the secular world; the war of sexism is not a new issue since the civilisation of mankind.

There are many universal facts that women cannot deny or ignore such as their privilege of child bearing and their role as mother in the universal society regardless of race and religion.

Motherhood is the beginning of the family that forms the basic unit of society, ethnic community and nation; None of the teachings in Islam deny the important role of the mother.

They are more protected than their male counterparts in a more delicate manner as women are the physically weaker sex.

What Hadi said could be a bitter pill to swallow, but it heals the illness of society. It is the fact and reality of life for generations.

Germaine Goh briefly mentioned about the problems faced by modern societies where women are more resilient in fighting prejudices and manage to hold the family together. It is true, I believe Hadi also agrees to this.

Islam never denied this aspect of life either, Islam protects the women even more. Syariah law looks into the welfare of divorced wives and their children without being manipulated by the civil law structure.

No one should ignore the role of women and their contribution to society; but we should also be realistic and wise about the civilisation created by God.

There is nothing to be afraid of Islam, It is only to be understood. Once you open your mind to evaluate Islamic values, then you will be able to evaluate the statement made by Hadi Awang (or Dr Mahathir or any other Islamic scholar) without fears or prejudice.