Dr Farish A Noor's his assessment of Islam's view of the gay marginalised group is enlightening ('Reaching out - gays and Islam', July 9). On the other hand, I can't help noticing that he is also biased in his clarification of CNN's report.

When he mentioned Malaysia was cast, along with other Muslim countries, in the role of the 'bad guys' who were intolerant and repressive, he failed to emphasise that the support comes from numerous conservative groupings and therefore is not like the stand of the (not so liberal) United Statesgovernment where there is a clear separation between the state and religion.

The United States have learnt a good lesson from their British roots. But in the case of Malaysia, which embraces Islam as its official religion (and is the current chair of the OIC) it is easier for people to exploit the fact that whatever official stand our country makes is reflective of its religion as well.

By the way, as concluded by Farish, our country's official stand is not representative of the view of the people of Malaysia in general, even though we have political parties in this country who do not seem to learn from other people's lessons, but are still trying to move backward in history.