Dear Editor,

I refer to Mr Alfred Bhulai's letter captioned "The amazing story of creation" (10/7/01) wherein he quotes the introduction he wrote to a book by Dr Duane Gish called "The Amazing Story of Creation." In that introduction, Mr Bhulai wrote: "It is also of interest to note that the creationist premises would be the same if the source were the Muslim scripture, the Holy Qur'an (i.e. from the same God as the Christians)."

Mr Bhulai is misrepresenting the facts and confusing his readers when he says the Muslim and Christian God is the same. Among Christians there are many contradictory concepts of God depending on the sect. In the Roman Catholic Church to which Mr Bhulai belongs, they have a triune God - the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Islam has nothing of the kind.

Further, in the Creed of that Church, they speak of "Holy Mary, Mother of God. "To Muslims, such a statement is blasphemous. Mary is deified. Jesus is also deified as being an incarnation (avatar) of God. In addition, in Mr Bhulai's church, they have a plethora of pictures, statues and other representations of God and Jesus and Saints and other divine personages. All of this is quite alien to Islam whose God it is quite impossible to depict. Almighty Allah has no equals or rivals.

Further, Mr Bhulai claims the scriptures of his religion are from God and equates these Christian scriptures to the Holy Quran. Muslims reject such an equation. The Christian scriptures were collected and written up in the 4th century of the Christian Era by Mr Bhulai's church and indeed a few Biblical books are rejected as having no authenticity. Two such books are Romans and Revelations.

The Muslim scriptures, that is, the Holy Quran, are the only scriptures in religious history which have been given by God Himself. God dictated the Holy Quran to the Prophet Muhammad Mustapha, on whom be Peace, unlike the Christian Bible. The Christian Bible is merely inspired writings and it makes no claim of being directly revealed by God. The only scriptures, therefore, that could claim to be God's word is the Holy Quran.

Mr Bhulai should amend his introduction accordingly.