Unlike the other Muslim countries caught in the eye of the storm, Malaysia is free of the hegemonic consequences of big powers that are experienced by Afghanistan and Iraq for example.

It's back to square one. I don't think the situation is getting better.

But equating Islam and Muslims with violence and terror is not new. It has been going on for a long time.

The nation wants him to act. We cannot sweep these things under the carpet. These issues are complex and they seem to be the consequence of a certain mindset prevalent within the religious bureaucracy.

This would be against the grain with the way Islam is practiced in this region. I think Malaysian Muslims, like Indonesian Muslims and elsewhere in Southeast Asia, are not comfortable with this sort of very rigid, dogmatic approach to religion.

I feel sorry for Anwar, but I feel even sorrier for the country. I feel sad for the system of justice for this country, what it has come to,