For those of you at Project Petaling Street who still work with your sense of curiosity and know a thing or two about our resident fundamentalist MENJ, it would seem that he has once again blocked Malaysian IP addresses as he did before. More to the point, he has "divorced" himself from PPS. His reason if you can't access his page would be:

I am divorcing my blog from the Malaysian blogosphere, starting from now. Please do not regard this blog as a Malaysian one, but as a Muslim one. I think my citizenship is posing a lot of problems for me, as some overtly-sensitive Christians don't seem to get the point of this article. If I can get away with writing even deeper stuff than that Op-Ed for a primarily American audience (which Bismika Allahuma currently enjoys), and yet get a band of Malaysian hooligans stampeding here and trampling on even my basest principles, I think there is certainly something wrong with the Malaysian public.

This is promptly followed by:

So here's the deal: I won't be pinging to PPS any longer, I don't need the attention and I certainly won't associate myself with the fraternity that is part of the Malaysian blogosphere. I think I have had enough of that. I need to expand my horizons. And indeed I will. I will talk about the world.

Welcome Americans. Welcome Britons. Get lost, Malaysians. So goodbye, PPS

Nice and mellowdramatic. The kind of thing you'd expect when you've felt like you've had your own principles thrown back at you. If there is a reason why he did this, it is because the majority of Malaysian people who have read what he wrote does not agree with him one bit. Not just from the non-muslims but from Muslims as well. For that we are labeled as "hooligans" and people with issues. I think the thing that disturbs me most in this final rebuttal in which relates to what I have been talking about in religion is the exact line where he says:

Please do not regard this blog as a Malaysian one, but as a Muslim one.

To call himself with ideals that even Muslims can't see eye to eye as a person that speaks out as a Muslim to western countries like the States or UK isn't what I call a precursor for good role model of Islam. If anything, my fears rests with what I've talked about before about ignorance and prejudice from one's devoted beliefs. My fears are that people such as himself will cause other countries with a different indoctrinated belief or an open mind to reinforce what western media has always portrayed Muslims to be – the stereotypical zealot who disregards everything save for what they believe themselves.

For those still knee deep in the Malaysian Blogosphere, you still have to understand that people out here in the world have a better long term memory than just two months. Things said before would still be taken into account if proved relevent given the chance to cross reference ideas and information. Given MENJ's track record for hypocrisy and double standards, do you really think that people will stand for that? As much as I don't approve of his ideals and practices, I'd like to give everyone the benefit of the doubt.

Where MENJ stands and how his blog will eventually fair in the end remains for time to tell. However given the trend for religious blogs to either be ignored by the general masses except for devoted believers or be the heated subject between two opposing ideals, how it eventually fairs depends on MENJ's ability to assimilate and modernise and update the western concept of what Islam is and not come off as a crackpot that changes the rules when things get too hot.

MENJ does still ping PPS with the other blogs he is a part off or owns, so his personal blog may be gone, perhaps not for good but his ideals will still be there for all to see unless he chooses to secede them from the PPS community as well, which again is cause to be seen. As for me in this matter between apostasy and my own beliefs, maybe it's time to shift gears and put on the breaks. That of course is another topic altogether.