I am disappointed that Malaysiakini would publish such an ignorant and irresponsible statement like ‘ Muslim NGOs: Homosexuality is against all religions ’ without qualification. I doubt the Muslim NGOs that make this erroneous claim have any in depth knowledge of other religions, that they can make a sweeping statement like this, and your title does not help matters.

Only religions based on the biblical tradition claim to object to homosexuality, and even that point has been argued by many today and many are beginning to take a less extreme religious stand on the matter.

The fact is Eastern religions like Hinduism, Taosim and Buddhism among others do not make an issue of homosexuality. There is no prohibition in the sacred texts and homosexuals are not discriminated in Eastern religious practices.

There may be those of these religions who object to homosexuality but such are a result of social considerations, not religious (although some zealous ones may contrive to find something in the scriptures to back their biases - yet you will see that this is not prevalent in Eastern thought).

For example in Buddhism, the dharma is not concerned about whom one has sex with. It just teaches that sexual attraction (of any form between any persons) is an impediment to gaining enlightenment. A gay person is welcome to go to a Buddhist temple, indeed a Taoist or Hindu temple and make prayers and offerings.

No one in these religions tells that gays are sinners or would go to hell; that is reserved for those who steal, lie, cheat, commit murder etc, of which I am sure there are many in our political arena that our NGOs should be more concerned with.

Such ignorance about religion should not taken as fact, as people say, if you repeat a lie many times it becomes a truth.

As for detractors like Ibrahim Ali and other opportunistic organisations, I have this to say.

It is not surprising that Ibrahim Ali has not the mental capacity to understand concepts beyond four or five letters, such as ‘human rights convention’ or ‘sexuality issues’ or ‘federal constitution’. At best words he are familiar with are 'hate', 'bigot', 'frog', 'cheat', 'lie'.

It is people like him, and the people in politics and public service responsible for the tens, possibly hundreds, of millions, reported in the Auditor General’s 2010 report that are a threat to national security.

They are the ones bankrupting the country, allowing criminals to roam free, and bringing in foreigners in the millions to upset the balance within the country, that are the threat.

Stop shifting the limelight from all these problems to gays and Seksualiti Merdeka and Elton John.

If anything, both Seksualiti Merdeka and Elton John project values that are far nobler than that which Ibrahim Ali espouses. PAS complains that Elton John's marriage is a bad influence, but how can his openness about his sexuality, that is about courage, honesty, and commitment to his partner represent values that are bad?

Seksualiti Merdeka is about giving people self dignity, giving them a sense of community, and encouraging acceptance and love instead of polarisation and hate. It aims to empower gays with a sense of self worth, that helps them go through life without the kind of destructive self-loathing that for decades has been drilled into them. Again, how can these be bad?

Do people like Ibrahim Ali or the silly PAS Youth (especially Pahang and Wilayah) prefer people to practice deceit, lies, hate, discrimination and so on? What kind of Islamic values are those? Why object to community building initiatives that help gays heal themselves, to become useful contributors to society and the economy?

Gays around the world have achieved plenty. There was in the recent past at least one case of a transsexual in India who was elected to represent her constituency, while there are gay MPs in governments around the world. Many successful businessmen, artists, activists etc are gay. Any one of them deserves more respect than hypocrites and dirty politicians like Ibrahim Ali.

Since when did God give people like Ibrahim Ali and PAS Youth the license to be God's spokesman? In particular Ibrahim Ali, how can a person who once said "sh*t" on TV and who cheats his constituency by jumping ship, and who fraternises with corrupt and racist politicians, gangsters and murderers, claim to be a defender of Islam? God would shudder.

Likewise the hypocritical PAS Youth, who are just using religion to gain support. Shame on you. I am not convinced that any of you are truly worthy of telling others about morality and spirituality. Go and look after your own backyard first.

As for PAS, I hope you remember that gays are also voters. And they are likely to not support BN because of the government's perceived homophobia, so I would like to hear PAS tell gays their votes are not welcome. Go ahead. It is generally accepted that 10% of any community is gay, that makes millions of voters in Malaysia.

PAS should stop shoving religion in our faces. We support PAS for its apparent honesty and sincerity towards good governance, but it is time PAS respects the some 40% non Muslims in the country that are also tax payers and voters.

Why not protest all the horrible things that are going on in our country, instead of picking on gays for wanting to live a life of dignity instead of being oppressed into a life of shame and insecurity, that often leads to tragic circumstances, as the case of Aleesha recently has shown. Have you all not learnt the lessons?

Just because Islam is constitutionally the country's official religion, and that a large percent of Malaysia is Muslim, does not give PAS the right to treat the principles of other religions with indifference.

As a party that aspires to govern a multiracial country it has to start to respect the rights of non-Muslims within the framework of the constitution vis a vis the position of Islam.

As mentioned, not all religions see homosexuality the way PAS interprets Islam to see. Hindus, Buddhists and Taoists have no issue with it from a religious standpoint. Our views have also to be respected at national level.

And Ibrahim Ali, I want to remind you gays pay their taxes, probably more than you, and your MP salary comes from part of that. I suggest showing a little respect for your paymaster.