While I respect Chandra Muzaffar for his bold stand against injustices - including anti-racialist thinking - during his days as Aliran president, I must say that I find his stand on Zionism (' Demonising the enemy ' ) contradictory.

Zionism is simply the aspiration of the Jewish people to return to their homeland as opposed to losing their Jewish identity in being assimilated by the countries they were dispersed to. This was realised with the resumption of Jewish sovereignty in Israel. Naturally, the Arabs see this as a threat on various grounds, including territorial, political and religious. But to deny the Jews their homeland is to deny history.

In the waning days of the Ottoman Empire, the European powers sought to end the discriminatory laws of the Jews and others living under Muslim Ottoman governance. In 1921 the British High Commissioner appointed Hajj Amin el-Husseini as mufti of Jerusalem, a title he held for life in accordance with Ottoman practice. This proved to be a mistake. For example, during a wartime broadcast from Berlin in 1944 Hajj Amin stated: "Kill the Jews wherever you find them. This pleases God, history, and religion." Interestingly, Yasser Arafat worked for this founder of the Palestinian national movement from the age of 16.

This is the other side of the coin that most of us Malaysians don't see. To the extent that we keep our blindfolds on, we will continue to demonise the Jews and remain biased and racist in our views. This is detrimental to our own interest as a people and a nation. We must focus on our Malaysian agenda, not the Arab agenda.

Abdullah Ahmad, the former editor-in-chief of the New Straits Times wrote in his Nov 12 column before his sacking, "Excess oil money coupled with the Wahhabi sect was bound to add up to a combustible mix. Some American analysts contend that the export of radical Islam was a deliberate ploy by the Saudi elite. Many moderate Muslims agree."

The Saudi government may be offended by this but I agree with Abdullah. No, I am not demonising Islam here; Wahhabi doctrines do exist and are taught in some places. But we must

hope and pray that moderate views will prevail in our land. This is achieved not by blindfolding ourselves and listening only to an extreme school of thought but by the free and open exchange of views.