I refer to the letter by Helmy Haja Mydin .

The writer was absolutely right when he pointed out that wearing a tudung doesn't indicate anything regarding a person's godliness. Wearing a tudung or not wearing a tudung, wearing a turban or not wearing a turban, has got nothing to do with one's piety .

Most people who wear these things do it to show the world that they are God-fearing and pious. But any kind of compulsion in religion, any religion, is not the way to uphold the principles of that religion.

As Helmy rightly pointed out, God has given us a brain and a conscience to guide us along the way. The inner voice that cautions us every time we do an act, which is doubtful in quality, is the voice of God.

Most of the time it is overruled and slowly but surely that voice fades away for good. That is when, man becomes an animal and rapes and murders for his own perverted gratification. And this is the fault of man, and not the woman.

The Holy Prophet Mohammad said: 'The most excellent 'jihad' (holy war) is that for the conquest of the self'.

If man cannot conquer his own 'nafsu' then why try to change the world by compulsion for as the Holy Prophet said 'action will be judged by its intention' hence no amount of compulsion is going to take you to Heaven.

It should come from within an individual and that is called enlightenment. Most of us have a long way to go before that. So let us not judge, lest we be judged.