July 19 — If ever there is a way to insult Islam, it would surely be scamming the gullible with inferior goods by proclaiming its supposed Islamic quality. It seems the gullible are even more gullible during the blessed month of Ramadan.

Perhaps you have heard about the al-Khodafi “therapy water” being hawked by a man calling himself Ir. Fazli Azmi. Try Googling it, and you will find how people have mocked its over-the-top claims of magic.

Al-Khodafi is not mere mineral water. It has been treated using an obscure technology called “nano hydronium”, which sounds so scientific it must be true.

As if that is not enough, the water is also enriched with a fungi called “kulat susu harimau”, incense from the Islamic city of Mecca, zam-zam water, and water taken from rain that occurred on the 10th day in the Muharram month of the Islamic calendar.

I read that kulau susu harimau is being used by traditional medicine practitioners, who believe it has powers to cure cancer.

Meanwhile, Muharram 10 is supposed to be sacred day, celebrated by Sunnis as the day when Moses rescued the Israelites from the Pharaohs, while it is celebrated by Shiites as day of mourning for the martyrdom of one of their saints, Hussein the grandson of Muhammad — which is also known as the Day of Ashura.

In addition to all that, some Muslims also believe that the world will end on that date. What better way to celebrate it than to ... drink rainwater from that day?

It was also advertised, rather unashamedly, as containing “cendawan ajaib”. If magic mushrooms were involved, that would probably explain the inventor’s state of mind.

I guess the people selling mineral water labelled as water from the supposedly sacred well of zam-zam in Mecca have just got their arses handed to them.

The ultimate ingredient in the al-Khodafi, at least for me, is from a termite nest. Not just any termites, but termites which have eaten the Quran. Not the whole Quran — which has 30 parts called juz’ — but only 22 of them.

Did the termites choose which parts to eat? Were they fed the 22 parts? How were the parts chosen? Did the al-Khodafi people know that termite nests also contain termite’s spit and s**t?

These are the mysteries that perhaps only Ir. Fazli Azmi can answer.

Of course these scams do not stop there. Just days after, keen observers revealed another scam selling water that has allegedly been dipped with Prophet Muhammad’s hair.

The seller even conveniently left a disclaimer: “If you don’t love the Prophet, if you don’t feel amazed by the power of the Prophet’s hair, do not even bother to leave nonsensical comment.”

My point is, these are not a mere coincidence. Every minute there is a sucker duped into giving money to these charlatans who have half of their work done for them by invoking Islam. That is insulting.

Instead, Malay-Muslims choose to get worked up over a pair of non-Muslims who wished them “selamat berbuka” (happy breaking fast) accompanied by a photo of them posing with bak kut teh, a soup containing pork which Muslims cannot eat.

Bad taste? Probably. But set against overly-sensitive Muslims where they are the majority? Indeed a battle which will be hard to win.

Elsewhere, this would probably have been shrugged of, and the whole thing would have died down. Not in Malaysia, where every Ramadan in the past three years or so have seen Muslims waging personal crusade against even the littlest things that tick them off.

All over the excuse of “insulting Islam.”

How can you insult something that cannot feel insulted? Truthfully, it is Muslims who feel insulted, never Islam.

Islam is an idea, and ideas deserve to criticised, to be mocked, to be dissected. Blasphemy laws — where it is made illegal to mock religions — are unwise, because it would effectively shield religions from public criticism.

Since religions, especially Islam and its many interpretations, govern the daily lives of many people, we must be able to criticise aspects of it.

It has been said, “Offence can not be given, only taken”. With this much anger in the Malay-Muslim community over their sacred cow, it is unclear whether Islam can ever be objectively criticised instead of it being afforded special immunity over other ideas.

Yesterday, the “insulting” couple were charged and denied bail — under three different laws no less — for crimes which I am not sure they have committed.

How many of us will speak up? Not many, if any. We would forever be cowed from speaking against injustice and outright abuse against our fellow humans, just because the state has decided to partake in protecting sensitivities.

The Islamists have won a victory, which is what they have always wanted.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.