I'm a Malaysian who misses home. But now I've lived in New York City for two years and have another four years to go as I study for my PhD. I'm reminded of home even more now when the 'Old Man' is in the eye of the storm. Domestically there are many things that he has done which I don't agree with.

But this time, the treatment of his speech by the West shouldn't just be an easy platform for disgruntled Malaysians to join. Our domestic issues have to be separated from international issues. Looking at Malaysia and the Muslim world from the outside, there is a lot that this part of the world is up against.

In New York alone, there is so much fear and resentment of Muslims. They are driven further underground just by virtue of their religious beliefs. So many of these people come here to the US without the perfect set of immigration papers. They're just desperate to carve out a living. But bullies like John Ashcroft won't leave them alone and he tries to hunt them down. This is an example of where the pot is calling the kettle black - US accusations against Malaysia can be reversed.

This widespread reaction to Dr M just goes to show how disturbingly relevant the subtext of his message is. To make it worse this criticism is based on abstracts of his speech. The big international media names are cherry picking his speech and doing Bush-and-his-16-contentious-words without letting the global public read the whole speech before making up their minds.

The critique of his speech shouldn't just be based on the simplistic "Muslims vs Jews" framework. It is far more complex. It is important that we engage in this debate and not merely pass this off as another of the 'old man's' rantings while we focus on cari makan and shopping at Mid Valley - that's apathy for you.

Believe it or not Malaysia is given high recognition on the western side of the world. We should take advantage of this to promote respect for the Muslim world. If not us, who? By the way, I am not bumiputera and I'm not Muslim. Yet I can feel the pain of how Islam has been beaten up.