Helen Ang devoted five paragraphs in her letter rebutting to my column on the use of Internet search. I'm quite surprised that she assumed I did not know, or felt the need to explain as to why the phrases 'female terrorists' (14,300 Google hits) and 'male terrorists' (2,260 Google hits) registered those hits respectively. She's in fact arguing those points that I was making, very succinctly, that googling is no way to assert a truth.

She makes a very good point in that facts or data are not stand-alones. The exact set of facts can easily be used to prove a certain theory, depending on which perspective you're coming from.

One can use that set of data to create further animosity amongst people by using existing stereotypes.

Or you can look at the survey (the Merdeka Centre survey) and realise that while there appears to be a growing conservatism in Malaysian Muslims, the survey results does show a diversity of opinions with 83.8% responded that Muslims could participate in interfaith dialogue.

Dr Patricia Martinez, who did the survey commented that, "The results also discredit some of the assumptions and generalisations in public discourse about Malaysian Muslims. As such, claims about who Muslims in Malaysia are and what they want, feel and need, are sometimes exaggerations if not generalisations... The results are mixed, neither confirming only moderation nor indicating overwhelming orthodoxy." There is a lot more diversity in opinions among Muslims than we think.

I would rather look at that set of data and observe that a heavy percentage are moderates. And I would engage with this big majority in a dialogue, rather than antagonise more with notions of Muslims = terrorists.

So what exactly is Ang's agenda?