I found it interesting looking at the array of local newspaper reports available today concerning the BBC interview with Anwar Ibrahim. What I found amazing was that the interview made the headlines on the front page of a Malay vernacular paper while in Star, an English tabloid, it only occupied a very small unnoticeable column on page 12.

The English version was straightforward while the Malay version had other motives. I guess it is a battle of the minds within the Malay Muslim community.

Even though Anwar meant well, the usual twists and turns in the mainstream media makes it look like he is promoting homosexuality and of course its activities, all unacceptable in Islam. It would be better if Anwar avoided these booby traps and got down to doing what needs to be done.

What I find equally amazing is that people who have plundered the country’s wealth, murdered etc, have yet to be tried justly and punished or may have been tried and given holiday sentences, have been viewed by the same community in general with indifference.

But yet when it comes to sodomy there is a hue a cry. Are not all kinds of offences treated with severity in Islam, but yet sodomy occupies the headlines!

When further reflecting on this issue, is it not archaic when we view the 20 year prison term in comparison to one year for plunder of the nation’s wealth? I definitely believe that such laws are outdated while those in practice truly a joke.

In concluding, it can be said that there is a need to look at justice with a conscience rather than to manipulate it to serve specific interest.