I refer to the letter Non-halal: Tolerance should swing both ways and I am appalled to note a sentence which is reproduced below.

'If he is worried about tainting canteen utensils with non-halal food, the least he could do is to ask the canteen operator to wash them thoroughly with soap while wearing rubber gloves. At most, he can always buy two sets of canteen utensils and wash them separately.'

Definitely this so-called Concerned Malaysian is not as concerned as the/she claims to be. If the writer is even half as concerned, the writer might be aware that utensils tainted by non-halal items such as swine products cannot be cleansed the way the writer suggested.

There are three categories of uncleanliness in Islam and the swine products are categorised as 'the worst' i.e. the third category, 'mughalazzah'. The way to cleanse this dirt is by cleaning with water seven times and one of these cleaning cycles should also include cleaning with earth.

This is specifically prescribed by Islam as contained in the Hadith.

And on the hoo-ha triggered by the headmaster's directive , I guess malaysiakini's coverage has been very commendable. The directive is not new, as expressed by the headmaster.

Quote: 'Contacted today, the headmaster of the school for the past two years explained that the matter involves the Muslim canteen operator who had complained about students eating non-halal food in the canteen.

"'When I received the complaint, I checked the school's records and found that the previous headmaster had also issued a similar circular based on a directive from the Education Ministry," he said.'

On another note, tolerance starts at home. Why start dictating to other people a way of life when you would like to be free to lead your own way of life, whatever it might be. Bring your own utensils to school and take your own rubbish home.

Don't get me started on asking for the local government to start asking the dog owners to pick up and take their dogs' poo home as well.