The demolition of the famed Sky Kingdom and the rooting out of alleged deviants is testimony of our intolerance of the other.

Islam in Malaysia is an intolerant Islam as practiced by some of its adherents, including the mob-agent provocateurs cum arsonists who torched property and endangered lives of the villagers. The intolerant Muslims include those with the local authority and the police who failed to protect the human rights of the villagers and instead became part of the aggressors as they stood by while the Sky Kingdom was demolished on July 31.

Ayah Pin was found a deviant by a state syariah court which applied a Terengganu state fatwa issued in 1997. He has been convicted and he has served his sentence. He is free to believe in what he wants to believe.

I have in a number of previous columns explored the alternative interpretive views on apostasy as a crime. Whatever the juristic opinions that were selected in local state legislation for the offences of deviancy and apostasy, and rehabilitation for recantation, these opinions cannot recommend continued harassment.