Harakahdaily.net carried a story on Jan 22 'Nurul: Pemuda PAS tidak akan tarik balik kenyataan' in which Dewan Pemuda PAS Pusat (DPP) continues to insist that Nurul Huda Abdul Ghani's rape and murder was God's punishment, "bala dan bencana", for the failure of Muslim Malaysians to fully implement Islamic law.

The ad hoc ulamas in DPP are in effect saying that God is meting out punishment on Muslims here by having their children raped and murdered - "sebagai pengajaran dan peringatan," (a lesson and reminder) they claim.

Wonderful. I suppose this is a Malay thing. No plague of locusts, famine, or even 'mere' total destruction for us. No sir, those things don't quite "mengajar dan mengingat" (teach and remind), does it?

Nope, the only thing that will bring us Malays (especially Umno Malays) back in line is to have our daughters raped and murdered ... heck, even sodomised to boot. That way, we will truly feel and understand the wrath of God. And quickly repent too, for if we don't, He might sic 'em on our mothers next.

Let me ask the presumably learned ulamas in DPP this: what kind of divine punishment is it that falls not on the perpetrators of the transgression, but on those who do not even understand yet the meaning of sin?

The general rule is that no person shall bear the burden of another (remember?), much less a child. Did they think Nurul was having the time of her life?

But let us assume the argument is valid. Since the Quran is replete with examples of whole communities in ancient times paying the ultimate price - usually death and destruction - for their transgressions, could we not then claim PAS members and sympathisers also bear the burden of the local Muslim community's collective sin of not implementing the syariah fully?

In the name of the Most Holy, what sort of a Supreme Being does DPP make God to be?