I would like to commend Dr Farish A Noor for his courage in writing the article about gays and Islam ('Reaching out - gays and Islam, July 9). I'm not gay and I'm not a Muslim. It seems to me that many (if not most) religious people are very dogmatic in their beliefs.

They see the world in black and white with no shades of grey in-between. I generally try my best not to get into any discussion involving religion (any religion) because in my experience, a sane sensible guy can suddenly become utterly unreasonable and dogmatically defend his basic beliefs.

Some wise person once said, "The difference between prejudice and conviction is that you can explain your convictions without getting angry". Many religious people are predisposed to anger when you disagree with them.

I was therefore not surprised when the writer revealed that he had received hate mail. I am (was?) a Roman Catholic. I attended a Catholic school and as a child, I was taught certain taboos by the 'brothers' (you know, those guys in white robes).

Homosexuality is still an abomination to many people. There are people that harbour very strong and negative feelings about their fellow human beings but I regard homosexuals as my fellow human beings.

A person's sexual (and religious) preferences are his or her own. I respect people's beliefs although I may not share them. There was a certain Malaysian politician who said that Aids is a punishment from God for gays. And he is a medical doctor.

Our society hasn't changed that much. You can never read an article on gays and Muslims in the so-called mainstream media.

I can only hope that there will come a time when we can discuss things like homosexuality and religion without the need to be courageous.