It is with quiet amusement and great sadness that I read the report, 'Gov't denies harbouring terrorists' (Sept 24). As if being an Islamic country at this time is not bad enough, Malaysia is now being branded a terrorist haven.

The fact that a minister even has to issue a statement that there is no reason for US to attack us is worrying enough. How safe are we from overzealous Americans raining Tomahawk missiles on us? How did the situation even come to this stage? It seems ridiculous yet incredibly real.

Is it because all Americans are stupid xenophobes who can't tell the difference between a peace-loving secular Islamic nation and a fanatical one? After all, their citizens have murdered an innocent Sikh, mistaking him for an Afghan. Or is it because of, ironically, our government's own posturing?

For the past few months, the government has been playing up in the local media reports of growing Islamic fundamentalists and radicalism in Malaysia. For example, the Malaysian who was caught in Indonesia for terrorist activities was said to be a member of Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia aka Kumpulan Militan Malaysia or KMM- an organisation that he said he had never even heard of until then.

Another example: the Al-Ma'unah and their daring escapades. The local media milked these incidents for all their worth (isolated as they were) and associated them somehow to PAS (invariably to scare the public from voting for PAS).

After weeks of successfully convincing half the Malaysian public that there are militant Islamic fundamentalists in Malaysia, how is the government going to reverse this and convince the western governments that... er... actually ah, we were just hyping it up?

Though I can't excuse their stupidity, I wouldn't blame foreign journalists who are doing a piece on the growing Islamic fundamentalism and militancy in the world for including Malaysia in the list of such distinguished company such as Yemen, Afghanistan and Chechnya.

But what is sad is that it is the government's hyperbole which landed us into this embarrassing association in the first place. It will take a long while and a lot of convincing to get us out of the international black book.