Alas, we are all in the same boat. If Farouq Omaro and Turnstile could only listen to the Friday 'khutbah' over the past few weeks at mosques around the Klang Valley, they would have been happily snoring away even before the imam finished the first sentence of the sermons.

While the majority of Muslims, including your truly, looks forward to sound advice on apostasy, Article 11 and all other ethnic-related issues at this weekly fix on Islam's current affairs, there is talk around town that Jawi, Jakim, Jais and all the other Islamic Affairs Departments have been directed not to touch on these issues when preparing the text for the sermons.

So mosque-goers all end up listening to half-hour monologues on how to cultivate the 'budaya membaca' (reading habit) among our children or on how Muslims should reduce consumption of sugar to avoid diabetes and all other mundane no-brainers if you know what I mean.

What could have been a perfect platform for the government to convey the message of tolerance and understanding is wasted just because they think that all these issues could be wished away by boring us to death.

Talk about running away from problems.