The reason why Westerners and Europeans are so wary of theocratic forms of government, in any religion, Christian or non-Christian, and instead have a very secular and liberal approach to government lies in the knowledge of their own history.

All of Europe used to be very greatly influenced by clerics and religious institutions that directly controlled powerful states and huge armies.

Anyone who knows anything about the history of Europe will tell you that it used to be an extremely illiberal and intolerant place as recently as 500 years ago. In those days, saying something that was deemed by some cleric to be heretical or blasphemous would cost you your life, and death would typically have been arranged in the most horrific ways imaginable.

Any visitors to the recent Tortura exhibition in Malaysia that displayed medieval European instruments of death and torture will have a stomach-churning idea of exactly what I mean.

Religious wars between Catholics and Protestants were the most blood-thirsty and horrific in recorded human or world history. Wars, atrocities, cruelty, slaughter, pillage and torture were committed in the name of religion against innocent civilians for merely having a different interpretation of the same religion.

Holy warriors would fight and kill for the purity and sanctity of their beliefs and religion. The result was bloody mayhem, and Europe was plunged into an interminable phase of destruction and backwardness for centuries.

Therefore it is not as if Europeans have no conception of religious fundamentalism, religious intolerance or religious authoritarianism. They know it only too well.

It is not as if the ideals of secularism emerged at the whim and fancy of a few atheists in European history. Secularism solved a very pressing problem in Europe. It ensured peace for both Catholics and Protestants. It stopped the sickening killing and massacres in the name of religion.

Even the most religious and devout Christian Westerner and European will not advocate a theocratic form of government for himself or for anyone else.

Unlike devout Muslim clerics who point repeatedly to the past glories of the Caliphates, and understandably seek to recreate it in the present, devout Christian academics and historians study the mistakes, failures and atrocities committed in the name of religion in the past to ensure that these tragedies never recur in future.

I hope PAS supporters can understand that opposition to the idea of a theocratic state in Malaysia does not necessarily stem from a lack of religiosity or mere ignorance, prejudice and unthinking fear on the part of non-Muslims.

I have nothing but respect for the humanitarian instincts and religious impulses of Tok Guru and his supporters. I believe they have set a new and improved standard of behaviour for public officials and politicians in Malaysia, and for that, I am truly grateful.

Nevertheless my views on the subject of a theocratic state is that we would still be better off with a secular form of government.