COMMENT | The response to a gathering held by a local chapter of the Atheist Republic has been met with considerable vitriol.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Shahidan Kassim wants Muslims who participated in the gathering to be “hunted” down, so that they can be brought back to be “fixed”.

Rizal Mansor described atheists as a “plague of deviant thinking”. It is unclear in what capacity the special aide to the prime minister’s wife made these remarks.

“Atheists are part of the Freemason movement who want a free life. This is dangerous when living without religion or faith, (for) in the end (such practices) will bring human(s) to live a lawless life,” says Mahadi Awang, a representative of Yayasan Dakwah Islamiah Malaysia (Yadim).

Much like the rest of this article, perhaps I am preaching to the choir, but these statements do seem like a little bit of an overreaction, to say the least.

Mahadi’s critique is amusingly ironic, as mainstream Freemasonry actually requires that its members believe in a deity (such a requirement no longer exists in the breakaway Continental Freemasonry)....