I read M Bakri Musa's 'Free market as an Islamic tradition' (Nov 26) with interest. If the writer were correct, the "Great Satan" - the US - being the bastion of free market and capitalism, will have values more akin to Islamic tradition than (by comparison) the Taliban of Afghanistan!

The point I am trying to make is as what Majnun Shah Mohamad Anuar said in "Different interpretations - a tool to fool people" (Nov 27)... "People selectively interpret passages from religious text and use power of suggestion and religious authority to influence others to follow their own inclinations or agendas, be they good or bad."

I am sure women liberationist can also selectively pick certain passages out of any religious text to argue with backing of authority why women should be equal and allowed to dress as they wish.

So, too, can Osama bin Laden or Misuari's followers - and just about every other militant group the world has ever seen - pick up certain passages from religious text to justify why they could carry out their activities viewed by others as 'terrorism'.

There is an old saying - the devil will cite scripture for his own cause.