Category: Agama

Gay American Lecturer Jailed For Lying About HIV Status, Qualifications

He pretended to be a professor of child psychology and lied to the authorities about his HIV status to get jobs at local polytechnics.

He even used his lover’s blood for an HIV test so that it would test negative for the condition.

Over about eight years, American citizen Mikhy K. Farrera-Brochez, 32, committed offences including cheating, lying to a public servant, possessing drugs and using forged educational certificates.

Yesterday, he was sentenced to 28 months’ jail. He pleaded guilty to six charges, with 17 taken into consideration. Three other charges, which had been taken into consideration, were later stood down to be mentioned at a later date.

In 2008, Farrera-Brochez moved to Singapore, a year after he began a romantic relationship with a local doctor, general practitioner Ler Teck Siang, 35.

To apply for an Employment Pass (EP) to stay in the country with his lover, he submitted an HIV negative blood test result to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) in March that year.

However, Farrera-Brochez, who is HIV positive, had used Dr Ler’s blood for the test by visiting a clinic in Commonwealth where Ler was on duty.

Ler had drawn the blood from his arm that day and labelled the test tube holding his blood with Farrera-Brochez’s particulars.

MOM then issued Farrera-Brochez with an EP, and he later worked as polytechnic lecturer teaching psychology and early childhood education.

He similarly duped the authorities in 2013 when he tried to apply for a Personalised Employment Pass (PEP), which would let him change employers without applying for a new EP.

He was also found guilty of possession and consumption of ketamine and amphetamine in May last year. Investigations further revealed his educational certificates, including a doctorate degree in psychology and education from the University of Paris, were forged.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Suhas Malhotra said he had conspired with Ler to falsify the test results.

“His conduct evinces a blatant disregard for the authority of our laws,” he said

Ler, who is also facing charges, has not been dealt with.

Source: www.tnp.sg

March 2, 2017
Khairudin Aljunied: Do Not Fight Evil With Evil, Fight Evil With Good

The Imam and the Silly Convert

Once, there was a convert who was unhappy with what he heard from an Imam. So he went up to the Imam angrily and said:

Convert: Can you stop saying things that will hurt people?

Imam: I am sorry brother, but what did I say that might hurt anyone?

Convert: You said those things and you know it. It’s offensive! I’ve just shared a video of what you said.

Imam: I was speaking to Muslims in this small congregation but you, my brother, shared it to the world. Now everyone is offended. So was I wrong or you?

Convert: [already feeling stupid] But you said things that are offensive to others! I must expose you.

Imam: [gently putting his hand on the convert] Brother, I think you should stop being a Muslim for now.

Convert: What!!!

Imam: I read verses from the Quran and these verses have been read on the pulpit every Friday and during Eids since the time of the Prophet Muhammad till this day for over a thousand years. Muslims and non-Muslims lived peacefully even when these verses were read. Things change when you came.

#sillyconvertmakestheloudestnoise #shareatwill

The Imam and the Wised Up Convert Reloaded

And so the silly convert became even more angry by the Imam’s light-hearted comments. He reported the Imam to the authorities. The authorities checked and researched and found that what the Imam read was from the Quran. That all imams in the country read those verses and that imams all over the world do it too. So he decided to take matters in his hands and confront the imam again:

Imam: Assalamualaikum brother, you are back here again. So nice to see you.

Convert: Waalaikum Salam. I am here to tell you that I am sorry for what I did.

Imam: There is no need to apologize. We all commit errors. But I want you to do one thing for me.

Convert: Yes, I will.

Imam: Read and study the Quran daily. And learn the Sunnah as found in the books of Hadith. Follow the path of the great Imams and Ulama. Enjoin what is good, defend what is right and spread the message of peace among all mankind. Always remember and memorize the words of our beloved Prophet:

“Fear of Allah wherever you may be. Follow up an evil deed with a good one, so that the good one will wipe out the evil deed. And behave towards the people with a good behaviour.” (al-Tirmidhi)

Convert: May Allah assist me and us in this!

Imam: And may all of us enter into Islam wholeheartedly!

Source: Khairudin Aljunied

March 2, 2017
Indonesian Man Caned In Aceh For Khalwat Offence Collapsed

BANDA ACEH: An Indonesian man collapsed while being publicly caned Monday for spending time with a woman who is not his wife in contravention of strict Islamic laws in a staunchly Muslim part of the country.

Herizal bin Yunus, 27, fainted after being caned eight times in front of a crowd in Aceh, the only province of the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country that imposes sharia law.

Officials carried him off stage after he collapsed during the punishment outside a mosque in the provincial capital Banda Aceh, which was carried out by a religious official dressed in an all-encompassing, hooded cloak.

But once he came to, a doctor examined him and said he was in good health, and he was taken back up on stage to be flogged another 14 times. A local religious court had sentenced him to be caned a total of 22 times.

The man had broken Islamic laws that forbid people in Aceh from spending time in close proximity with members of the opposite sex who are not their husband or wife.

Source: www.freemalaysiatoday.com

March 1, 2017
New Trump Travel Ban Order Will Exclude Iraq And Current Visa Holders, US Officials Say

President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban order will exclude Iraq, but continue to impose restrictions on the other six Muslim-majority nations that were included in the original order, US officials said.

The new executive order is expected to be signed on Wednesday (1 March) that will temporarily prohibit people travelling from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the US.

Four officials reportedly told the Associated Press on Tuesday (28 March) that the change was made following pressure from the Pentagon and State Department, who urged the White House to consider Iraq’s leading role in fighting Isis and rethink their decision on imposing travel restrictions on the ally.

The revised travel ban order will replace the earlier version that was blocked by a federal court on multiple legal grounds. The new order was reportedly drafted to eliminate the legal hitches.

The initial order that came at the end of January led to mass protests in the country and abroad after many people were left stranded at airports waiting to reunite with family members. In the initial days of implementation of the order, even the green card holders and visa holders from the seven nations were barred from entering the country.

According to the Washington Post, which cited “people familiar with the matter”, the new version will exempt current visa holders from the travel ban and remove an exception to the refugee prohibition for religious minorities.

Justice Department lawyers reportedly hope the new version was more likely to pass legal hurdles and will also not leave any travellers detained at US airports. The paper also wrote that learning from the previous experience, the White House administration could implement the order at a date later than the signing date.

Meanwhile, CNN’s White House reporter tweeted that Trump may not sign the revised executive order on Wednesday as was being expected. The signing has been pushed to next week following positive reviews of Trump’s address to the joint Congress session on Tuesday.

Amid positive reviews of speech, WH officials have scrapped plans for Trump to sign new travel ban EO tomorrow, per a senior admin official.

Source: IBTimes

March 1, 2017
ISIS Militants Being Killed At Level They Cannot Sustain, Says British General

The US-led coalition effort against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is killing the group’s fighters more quickly than it can replace them, a senior British general said on Tuesday (Feb 28), with more than 45,000 killed by coalition air strikes up to August last year.

On Tuesday, US-backed Iraqi forces continued their offensive in Mosul, where several thousand ISIS militants, including many who travelled from Western countries to join up, are believed to be based.

“We are killing Daesh at a rate that they simply can’t sustain,” said Major-General Rupert Jones, deputy commander for the Combined Joint Task Force coalition, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS.

“The enemy cannot sustain the attrition that they are suffering and therefore they lose terrain, they lose battles.”

The top American commander in Iraq said earlier this month he believed US-backed forces would recapture ISIS’ two major strongholds – Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq – within the next six months.

Jones said that while the battle would not be over with the fall of Mosul or Raqqa, it would be the beginning of the end.

“The inevitability of their destruction just becomes really a matter of time,” he said, adding that the group’s leadership was now focussed on little more than survival.

‘BRUTAL REGIME’

The coalition estimates that the number of ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria is at its lowest level in more than 2.5 years, with the group having lost 62 per cent of the territory it once controlled in Iraq and 30 per cent in Syria.

Jones said the number of foreign fighters travelling to join ISIS had dropped by between 75 and 90 per cent, both due to it being harder to get in and out of Iraq and Syria and because the reality of doing so had been exposed as unappealing.

“The big idea that Daesh were putting out there, the kind of glamour… has been exposed for what it is, it is a lie,” he said. “They recognise that what you are actually signing yourself up to is going to live under a brutal regime.”

He said ISIS had refocused its attention on radicalising people outside Iraq and Syria to carry out attacks locally, so the coalition still had work to do on countering the group’s ideology.

The coalition estimates that ISIS activity on Twitter has fallen by 45 per cent since 2014, with 360,000 of the group’s Twitter accounts suspended, and the lifespan of an ISIS-linked social media account reduced to less than two days.

Source: ST

March 1, 2017