I refer to the letter We Muslims are only protecting Islam .

While I do agree with the writer that the Malaysian constitution enshrine's religious freedom, where I beg to differ is how that religious freedom is protected in actual practice under BN government policy and through the civil service which is dominated by one religious group.

It is impossible for a mono-ethnic (by extension mono-religious) government and civil service to guarantee equal treatment to adherents of different religions. Just as a Muslim in India cannot expect fair treatment by a government dominated by Hindus, how can a Hindu in Malaysia expect fair treatment by a civil service that consists of more than 93% Muslims?

Please do not give me that line about non-Muslims not wanting to join the civil service - there is sufficient evidence of a systematic policy of discrimination against non-Muslim employees in the civil service and government-linked agencies.

By the way religious freedom is not just limited to ‘a Muslim stopping any non-Muslim from performing their religious rites’. That is the narrowest possible interpretation and often used by the religious majority to trample the rights of minority religions. Religious freedom extends to:

a. Per capita funding of additional places of worship for non-Muslims from the taxpayers money which, to date, is used solely to fund the building of mosques (don't you see the contradiction in taking non-Muslim tax ringgit and channelling it to solely to fund mosques construction?)

b. allocating land to build temples and churches

c. allowing people to worship in a language (eg, restrictions on the use and distribution of the al-Kitab) and words (eg, restrictions on the word ‘Allah’) of their own choosing

d. freedom from discrimination due to religious beliefs (eg, there is no need for religion to be stated or declared in government documents including MyKad or IC unless it is going to be used to discriminate on the basis of religion)

e. freedom to proselytise (why are Muslims allowed to proselytise to non-Muslims and non- Muslim taxpayers money used to fund missionary ( dakwah ) activity but not vice-versa? I think most fair-minded non-Muslims are willing to give up the right to proselytise to Muslims provided that Muslims also give up their missionary activities.

But is that possible given that Islam is a proselytising religion (a least in so far as it is practised in Malaysia)?

f. freedom from religious harassment and persecution (eg, witness the ‘body-snatching’ debacle, khalwat squad harassment of American retirees making their second home in Langkawi, opportunistic Islamic conversions by non-Muslims wanting to retain custody of their children from a failed marriage, etc.)

g. and much more.

And I have a easy suggestion if we want to stop the debate on the creeping Islamisation of Malaysia - stop the creep of Islamisation. The tentacles of this policy has gone so far and wide that it is bumping up against the religious rights and freedoms of non-Muslims.

There was no Jabatan Agama Islam in the PM's Department during Tunku Abdul Rahman's, Tun Abdul Razak's or Hussein Onn's time. We never had ‘body-snatching’ issues and all these other issues during our first three prime minister's tenures. All this nonsense started with Dr M's policy of ‘Islamising’ the government.