Judging by the events of the past week, Umno’s perennial ploy of posing as the champion of Malays and protector of Islam in an attempt to sanctify its corruption and criminality appears to have blown up in its face.

Far from causing rifts between races and religions, the protests and fire-bombings that followed the Umno/BN regime’s failure or refusal to accept the court ruling in the ‘Allah’ controversy appear to have brought the faithful of all creeds closer together.