David Dass: They revert to the old ways. The feelings of non-Muslims do not count. Harapan is just worried about pandering to the feelings of extremists. Zakir runs down other religions. Not in honest debate but in front of people who are ignorant of other religions. Bring converts to your faith by your example. Lead an exemplary life and cause others to be inspired by you. Ridiculing the beliefs of another as a way to win converts cannot be a good thing.

Vijay47: Statistics, logic, and syllogism have never been my strong suits (not that I have strong suits elsewhere). But meri dost (my friend) Zakir, Islamic scholar, master of comparative religion, font of philosophy, and general entertainer extraordinaire has been a source of much confusion, mystery, and frequent doses of amusement. Let me reduce my bewilderment to a simple roadmap. The last time I counted, India had a population of 1,368,737,513. Slightly more if I include Zakir himself.

Of this number, 79.8 percent is made up of Hindus, 15 percent Muslims, 2.3 percent Christians and the rest of other faiths. On the other hand, Malaysia has 29.7 million people, of which about 18.2 million are Muslim (61 percent). It is clear that going by Zakir’s spiritual measure, 85 percent of India is destined to languish in hell when they finally say “Goodbye, cruel world.”

That being the case, dear friend, why are you not in India, bringing salvation to close to 1.162 billion lost souls? Shouldn’t your responsibilities as a devout Muslim preacher compel you to remain where, as the Bible says, the harvest is plentiful? Why come to Malaysia with its potential catch a pitiful 11 million (39 percent)? I will hazard to guess that you had to flee from Dharavi, Borivali, Dadar, and Bandra because your religious antics there had made you a wanted man being a threat to your motherland.

Thus a somewhat extended stay in Delhi’s Tihar jail was not quite appealing. So you come to Malaysia, spout a few holy quotations and the whole bunch of local morons are in awe of this outlaw-cum-divine messenger. So much so that they grant you permanent residence status and two islands to boot. Heck, some are even inspired by you. Malaysia truly heaven!

Teh Tarik: Someone insults a religion in Sarawak and is sentenced to 10 years’ jail. Another insults non-Muslims and is not only given permanent resident status in Malaysia, but is even embraced by a Harapan minister. It looks like Harapan is even worse than BN when it comes to selective discrimination. After this debacle, I hope Harapan loses Rantau. Non-Muslims should boycott the by-election to send a message to the disrespectful Harapan confidence tricksters, who in many ways are worse than the previous BN government.