I refer to the letter ‘Allah’ ban and The Joshua Project . As far as the use of the term 'Allah' is concerned, I believe there have been many excellent letters published to enlighten the ignorant that this term has been around long before Islam.

So I won't touch on that matter. These letters have comprehensively proven that 'Allah' is not exclusive to Islam and our Umno leaders look ridiculous by suggesting such a thing. But then again, that is not the only ridiculous comments we have heard from Umno.

As far as The Joshua Project is concerned, yes, Christians have the Joshua project and many other projects to evangelise. These evangelists live ‘by faith’, relying solely on God to supply all their needs.

They leave comfortable homes in their countries and go to war-torn zones such as Afghanistan and tsunami-hit areas such as Aceh to give aid. Do they evangelise here? Yes, because they know that the relief they can offer is only temporary but if these people come to know God, their help is forever assured.

No one in their right mind would risk death, disease or being beheaded unless God's love in them was so strong as to reach out to the lost without any thought for themselves. Mother Theresa was also hated because she was a Christian, evangelising. When asked what she thought of Hinduism, she said she loved all religions but was ‘in love’ with her own religion.

A Christian is only to use love when evangelising and never to retaliate with violence even when attacked. Suicide bombing and self-defence killing is not acceptable in Christianity. Pastor Graham Staines and his small children were burned alive in a car set fire by a Hindu mob in India. His widow continues to live with the poor in India till today and loves all of them, including Hindus, despite what happened to her husband and children.

There is nothing wrong in evangelising. Everyone should be allowed to explore any religion and choose for themselves what they want to believe in. In fact, people of all religions should evangelise. They should live with the poor and lepers like Mother Theresa and Francis Assisi, they should risk death by going to Darfur and Afghanistan and live in tents and eat porridge and clean people's wounds to show them that there is a God who cares.

There should be healthy, open and friendly discussion of religions and everyone should be free to choose their religion. There is no obstruction to any Christian to visiting a temple or mosque or reading the Quran. But Christian literature is forbidden to Muslims and oftentimes Christian literature or advertisements for Christian conferences have to carry the words: 'For non-Muslims Only'. What is the fear if one is properly grounded in his or her respective faith? Christians are free to attend any Buddhist, Hindu or Muslim conference.

Fathima Idris says: ‘The evangelists acknowledge that Muslims are the most difficult people to evangelise to’. This is only because Muslims who convert to Christianity are under severe persecution. The punishment for apostasy in many Muslim countries is death and even Lina Joy has had death threats and gone into hiding. There are many like Joy who are unable to acknowledge and practice their faith openly.

Joy, who fought for 12 long years for the right to openly practice the religion of her choice in the midst of severe persecution, surely cannot be said to have been coaxed, tricked or bullied into accepting Christianity.

Christians don't need to deceive or confuse anyone by using lame tricks such as a pun on words like 'Allah'. Christians don't force anyone to convert nor do they force those who convert to stay in Christianity. Nor do we force them to go to rehabilitation centres to change their minds the way poor M Revathi was.

If anyone chooses to criticise Christ calling it art such as the movie ‘The Da Vinci Code’, we pray for wisdom and don't burn down cinemas or cars. So if Fathima is accusing Christians of proselytising, she is wrong. They are evangelising which is showing people the way to God and to live their lives in reverence and in being accountable to God.

If that results in proselytising, then it is that individual's choice that should be respected and if not, then we hope that person will be a better Muslim, Buddhist or Hindu by the very fact that our actions and love have made them think deeply about God and His love.

But we definitely do not evangelise through confusing people with the term 'Allah'. Anyone who can get confused by this and 'accidentally' convert must have a very poor understanding of their own religion to begin with.