It is quite obvious that Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad faces an uphill task to combat rising religious extremism in the country.

When it comes to religion that tugs at emotions, how could the PM fight when his own vanguard troops either cross over to the adversary's side or otherwise shoot him in the back instead of guarding his flanks?

As an example, even before the PM's recent condemnation of Terengganu Syariah Criminal Enactment Bill — also known as the hudud bill — as being unjust and "not Islamic law but the law of [Terengganu menteri besar] Abdul Hadi Awang's or PAS' law", his own Umno Youth religious bureau chief Shamsul Najmi Shamsudin had already expressed the position of Umno being "menyokong pelaksanaan hukum hudud" (supportive of the implementation of hudud) subject only to the qualification that hudud punishment "mestilah dilaksanakan secara sistematik, adil dan berhati-hati" (is implemented systematically and in a fair and just manner).

It is also sinister that PAS secretary-general Nasharuddin Mat Isa (PAS-Yan) told malaysiakini that the PM's "statement [yesterday] shows his true colours", and that in calling PAS deviants means "we can now consider taking action against him."(Read report in PAS challenges PM to show Umno's version of hudud bill).

Consider taking what action? Does PAS propose to use the weapon of religious fatwa (decrees) by the ulama (religious scholars)? If this is a threat of insurrection against the country's leader?

In embarking on an Islamisation programme of last two decades, the PM ought to know he has reared a tiger cub to a full-grown animal that he now rides on and cannot dismount.

This is yet another fruit he will reap from sowing the seed of Islamisation (Reaping the seeds Mahathir sows).

It was an observation of Mohd ZainYassin, a delegate from Bachok in Umno Youth general assembly debate, that a large number of government religious schools in Kelantan were becoming nesting grounds for anti-establishment training and propaganda activities, and that students completing their studies at such schools became Islamic teachers and carried out anti-establishment indoctrination (Pg 2 of The Star, June 20).

So it is and, it will be, that the PM has created the very infrastructure for the opposition PAS to effectively capitalise and turn against him and Umno.

I think the PM should take hard action now before things spin out of control. Perhaps he should take a leaf from the father of a modern Islamic nation like Turkey — Kamal Ataturk.

In these respects, I associate fully with the comments of Olifant (Religion is antithesis of democracy) when he argued for the necessity of separating government from religion and that the development of mature and stable democracy and industrialisation in Europe and later America is "the result of putting religion in its proper place — the home".