I refer to the letter Practical answer to 'abandoned convert' issue .

While I agree with most of the points in the writer’s letter, I take great exception to his statement, ‘May I remind them that the syariah courts in Malaysia still maintain the respect and trust of the Muslim population of Malaysia. None can equate them with the corrupted judiciary of the Malaysian civil courts where judges are up for sale for the highest bidder’.

Here the writer equates the alleged corruption of certain office-holders in the civil courts to the corruption of the entire civil judicial system. That's no better than some ‘Western’ commentators suggesting that because several international terrorists are Muslims, therefore Islam must be a religion of terror.

Now, most of us would immediately reject such an outlandish claim as being ignorant and an insult to Islam. Likewise, in his great enthusiasm for defending the syariah system, the writer has made the same grave error of tarring an entire civil judicial system with the same black brush.

Another thing to bear in mind is that just because there hasn't been any prominent cases of miscarriage of justice under the syariah system, it does not mean there are no bad apples in the system. They just haven't shown up yet.

Bear in mind that the syariah system is a relatively recent addition to the judicial system in post- colonial Malaysia. And it hasn't had to deal with Machiavellian politicians trying to re-register their defunct political party which was ruled as null and void by some of the bravest civil judges in the Commonwealth whose subsequent dismissal by the government of the day has now been acknowledged as a great injustice.

Like the purest gold, a legal system is only truly tested and purified under fire. So I would urge a bigger perspective and a little more objectivity.