I would like to respond to an article by Dr Ismail Ibrahim in his Sunday column in Mingguan Malaysia , on Sept 5 entitled Agama bukan mainan di media (Religion is not a game to be debated in the mass media).

According to him, an Internet online newspaper is abusing freedom of the press by opening a religious debate on various sensitive inter-religious issues and publishing cynical remarks. He therefore concluded that this media was playing with fire and setting off a possible time bomb.

He then went on to appeal for a spirit of religious tolerance among Malaysians and to create a united Malaysia in celebrating our recent 47th Merdeka day.

I am assuming that Ismail is referring to malaysiakini when he says Internet online newspaper. If this is the case, I don't remember malaysiakini ever starting a religious debate. It was malaysiakini's readership that raised some of these issues which they encountered in their daily lives as Malaysians living in our multi-religious society.

This resulted in various viewpoints and explanations being exchanged in their letters to the editor. The different positions taken by malaysiakini readers reflect their understanding and knowledge (or lack of it) about our various religious and cultural heritages.

It is also a reflection of the vast and varied background of malaysiakini wide readership. Basically, readers' letters published by malaysiakini reflected uninhibited Malaysians communicating with one aother in a forum that is free and open to all Malaysians, with the world as their audience.

This discussion on religion reflects the gap among Malaysians on each other's religious and cultural heritage. It documents the failure of our educational system as well as institutions such as the Institute Kefahaman Islam Malaysia (Malaysian Institute for Islamic Understanding) which was once headed by Ismail himself.

On this score, we must admit that we have a lot more to learn and understand about each other in order to become better Malaysians.

As someone who would do everything possible for the well-being of our country and people, I don't believe that we should refrain from engaging openly with one another whenever we fail to understand each other's religious and cultural differences.

Allah never asked us to exercise religious tolerance by just tolerating and not discussing anything because it is 'sensitive'. Indeed, this would be a time bomb of sorts with ignorance building up ready to explode.

For this reason, Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali (1058-1128 AD), the celebrated philosopher and theologian of Islam, had always believed in engaging differences with depth of knowledge and profundity of understanding.

He strongly encouraged the study of comparative religion and in the realm of philosophy, he willingly engaged western philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle in their own domain - without saying 'it is too sensitive to debate'.

Better known in the West as Algazel, he is famous for his magnum opus 'Ihya al-'Ulum al-Islamia' (The Revival of the Religious Sciences) and 'Tuhafut al-Falasifa' (The Incoherence of Philosophers), Al-Gazali inspired great classical Christian theologians such as St Thomas Aquinas (1227-1274 AD), renowned for his magnum opus 'Summa theologica'.

God created variations among us in order that we appreciate each other's differences. This indeed is part of His compassion and divine grace. Appreciation and tolerance in the actual meaning of the words imply that they are grounded on understanding and knowledge and not on ignorance and taboo.

Ismail hasn't the slightest idea of malaysiakini's readership. On this, I would be kind towards him as there are many like him.

After following most of the discussions via letters written to malaysiakini over the past three years, I must say that they come from a good cross section of the net-surfing members of the Malaysian community, both within Malaysia and overseas.

They are above average in terms of education and almost all of them are quite young and well read; keen observers of global happenings. They are by and large very mature and seasoned when engaging each other.

This has made malaysiakini unique in that it is the most meaningful forum of its kind anywhere. I think Ismail need not worry that malaysiakini readers would tend to be riot-happy people.

Modern Malaysians demand that they be engaged openly and frankly in any encounter. While they may be well-educated, they may not necessarily be well-grounded in their own religious and cultural traditions, let alone that of their fellow Malaysians.

Let us enter this 47th anniversary of our independence with more hope and promise for our nation by not being afraid and emotional about our differences, least of all by creating a social and political taboo around it.

We must never harbour ignorance or make it sacred.

In light of this, I suggest malaysiakini's letters forum continue to be open to religious issues after suitable editing to vet personal cynicism and sacrilegious remarks.