Dr Patricia Martinez was defamed and wanted, as you or I would, the crime investigated ('Get back to the real issue', Jan 5). Someone cognizant of her credentials and clearly wanting to discredit her, deliberately wrote an article antithetical to her area of expertise and then used her name against the article.

Why anyone would want to discredit her in this manner is really open for speculation, but the fact remains, she is a victim of a crime of defamation.

So she attempted to get some form of redress. Instead, not only did she get shunted around in her attempts to lodge a police report, we then get the likes of Yamin Cheng who attempt to 'explain' the problem, by offering his/her presumptions and guesses and essentially 'blaming the victim' for what is a crime perpetrated against her ('Of Islamic studies and Islamic state', Jan 4).

Yamin in his/her letter, opines that "the professional and scholarly approach is not to blasphemise [sic] someone and put that person to shame or discredit that person's reputation" but yet has no qualms about dissecting and minimising Martinez's credentials.

Yamin makes oblique presumptions and even has to hazard a guess as to Martinez's area of research, thereby showing himself/herself up as nothing short of unprofessional and unscholarly.

But then again, Yamin's comments only reflect the prevailing attitude towards the discourse on Islam in this country. Although there is no monopoly on understanding and approaching Islam, there is, however, a sense in this country that somehow only a select few are 'allowed' to talk about Islam.

It intrigues me that self-proclaimed religious leaders have no problems being validated even when they clearly aren't able to articulate, for example, what constitutes an Islamic state, what verses exist or don't exist in the Quran, whether or not a hadith is sahih or daif.

Their 'credentials' aren't scrutinised to bits and even their use of the titles 'ustaz' and 'ustazah', among others, are not debated.

Yet, when Muslim scholars who study alternative approaches to Islam or non-Muslims who have clearly done their research in Islam lay out their arguments or formulate thinking on the issue, all too often there is this knee-jerk ad hominem attack (attacking the person instead of the argument) from certain quarters, that reeks of insecurity.

I myself am proud and humbled that there are non-Muslims who are doing what each and every Muslim ought to do, to study and understand Islam. I am secure enough in my beliefs that I welcome the opportunity to debate and discuss.

What embarrasses me, though, is this insecurity that some people shamefully display in the face of these much-needed discussions.

In the case of Martinez, clearly her expertise in her field has awakened some sleepy lizards who feel threatened by her ability but are unable to have a well-thought out discussion and have had to therefore resort to undermining her reputation.

As for Martinez's waltz with the police, the Bahagian Tatatertib (disciplinary section) of the police should surely be interested to investigate why it was so difficult for her to make a police report.

It would be unfortunate if our police officers failed to inform her of her right, as is the right of any person in the country, to make a police report anywhere in the country.