Category: Agama

Pink Dot Supporters Should Look In The Mirror

Pink Dot supporters cite the event as one emphasising tolerance, respect and love.

Ironically, there was an intolerant, disrespectful call for governmental action against religious communities who disagree with it, in the letter “End the slurs on LGBT people and their allies” (June 22, online).

Conservatives who disagree with Pink Dot are labelled as hatemongers. Religious leaders are accused of using the pulpit to attack persons attracted to the same sex. People with religious convictions are to be barred from discourse in “secular” public spaces.

Of greatest concern, however, is the assumption that all persons attracted to the same sex support Pink Dot. There are many of them who disagree with its agenda, which is to “change society’s attitude”, whereby regulations “will naturally also change”.

When an agenda seeks to alter a country’s laws and moral norms, it is only natural that society examines the merit of the movement. To suggest then that religious communities be silenced, when the movement imposes on everyone, is incredulous.

Such uncivil attitudes and double standards have resulted in discrimination against conservative communities. For example, Focus on the Family was unfairly branded a sexist organisation (“Ministries studying feedback on relationship workshop”; Oct 9).

Ms Agatha Tan’s accusations against it were taken wholesale and spread by news platforms and the public, with little critical thinking applied to her arguments.

It did not take rocket science to reach the logical question one should have asked: Would the Education Ministry have approved a sexist programme promoting rape to be run for 17-year-olds?

Even when her schoolmates who had sat in the same lecture wrote to address her allegations, little effort was made by the media, the school or the ministry to redress the issue publicly.

The organisation and its staff have suffered real loss to their reputation and livelihood. Has integrity been compromised in a world that prizes tolerance over truth?

Bullying of persons attracted to the same sex must be addressed. But remarks by Pink Dot supporters, such as those of the letter writer, divide the society and attack Singapore’s conservative religious communities.

This article, written by Leo Hee Khian, was published on Voices, Today, on 1 Jul.

Source: www.todayonline.com

July 2, 2015
Did Prophet Muhammad Warn About IS?

In separate attacks last week, ISIS terrorists killed thirty-nine tourists at a beach resort in Tunisia, and close to thirty worshippers at a Shia Mosque in Kuwait. The onslaught came shortly after the group called on its militant Jihadi sympathizers to expand operations in the month of Ramadan.

ISIS has demonstrated an unflinching determination to take out anyone that dares to disagree with it. Its members have slaughtered Yazidis and Christians, but the vast majority of their victims have been Muslims who resist them and refuse to acknowledge their authority. They have even executed Sunni clerics who refused to swear allegiance to them, and Muslim women who did not submit to their worldview.

This feature is shared across all terrorist groups operating in the name of Islam. The vast majority of the victims of the Taliban, for instance, are also Muslims. Hundreds of Shia Muslims have been killed just in the last few years. And I have lost many close friends in similar attacks on the Ahmadi Muslims in Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and even in America.

So when some anti-Islam critics keep doggedly associating the faith of us Muslims with the acts of our tormentors, we call them out for their insensitivity.

I do not disagree that part of the motivation for religious extremism is rooted in perverted interpretation of scripture by radical extremists. However, it is dishonest to label the vast majority of Muslims who reject such interpretations as non-devout or ‘nominal.’

An honest study of the Quran shows that groups like ISIS act in complete defiance of the injunctions of Islam. The Quran, for instance, equates one murder to elimination of the whole human race (5:32), and considers persecution and disorder on earth as an even worse offense (2:217). It lays emphasis on peace, justice and human rights. It champions freedom of conscience and forbids worldly punishment for apostasy andblasphemy.

A study of the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad also demonstrates that he warned us of the rise of religious extremism in this age in astonishing detail.

1400 years ago, he had prophesized that a time would come when nothing would remain of Islam but its name, nothing of the Quran but its word, and that many “Mosques would be splendidly furnished but destitute of guidance” (Mishkatul Masabih). In these latter days, the true spiritual essence of Islam would be lost, and religion, for the most part, would be reduced to a ritualistic compulsion. He foretold that the clergy would be corrupt and be a source of strife during these times.

How true this is of the extremist clerics in parts of the Muslim world that abuse the pulpit to preach division and hate.

He also went on to describe terrorist groups such as ISIS that would try to hijack the Islamic faith. At this time of dissension, he said there would appear “a group of young people who would be immature in thought and foolish.” They would speak beautiful words but commit the most heinous of deeds. They would engage in so much prayer and fasting that the worship of the Muslims would appear insignificant in comparison. They would call people to the Quran but would have nothing to do with it in reality. The Quran would not go beyond their throats, meaning they wouldn’t understand its essence at all, merely regurgitating it selectively. The Prophet then went on to describe these people as “the worst of the creation.”

As if this outline wasn’t clear enough, another tradition in the book Kitaab Al Fitan reported by Caliph Ali, the fourth successor to Prophet Muhammad, describes these people as having long hair and bearing black flags. Their “hearts will be hard as iron,” and they would be the companions of a State (Ashab ul Dawla). Interestingly, ISIS refers to itself as the Islamic State or Dawla. The tradition further mentions that they will break their covenants, not speak the truth and have names that mention their cities. The ISIS caliph, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi comes to mind.

Prophet Muhammad furiously and painfully described these evildoers, and admonished Muslims to beware of their evil and fight it. “Whoever fights them is better to Allah than them,” he proclaimed.

Reflect on this critical point. Whenever ISIS kills in the name of Islam, claims to follow the Quran, or uses the Holy month of Ramadan to spread anarchy across the globe, know that Prophet Muhammad explicitly warned us of these imposters, and entrusted us to root them out.

The only people who refuse to reflect on this point are ISIS, ISIS sympathizers, and anti-Islam extremists who want the world to believe that ISIS is legitimate. Intelligent people, meanwhile, see Prophet Muhammad’s prophetic wisdom and thus remain united against both ignorance and extremism.

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

July 2, 2015
My Journey Inside IS

VICE News produced a world exclusive when filmmaker Medyan Dairieh spent three weeks embedded alone with the Islamic State in June 2014, gaining unprecedented access into the heart of the self-proclaimed caliphate. Here he describes what he learned.

The two armed men were surprised to see me. No journalists had come this way before. After days of waiting and one failed attempt, I had finally managed to reach the first checkpoint guarding territory controlled by the group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

By the time I left, about a fortnight later, its ruler, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had claimed for himself a title which brought with it a new religious and political authority — caliph. The so-called caliphate was declared a year ago, on June 29, while I was there. And from then ISIS became known as the Islamic State (IS).

While I had been waiting for the signal to cross the border, ISIS had seized Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city. Until then, the group was widely perceived to have been on the back foot, having withdrawn in the face of advances from other rebel groups in Syria.

But its surge into Iraq and the declaration of the “caliphate” re-established the group as a threat, not only to Iraq and Syria but also to the wider Middle East. But who are they? Where did they come from and what do they believe? I wanted to find out.

Back at the border, the two guards at the checkpoint summoned another, who seemed to have been expecting me. He spoke into his radio: “The guest has arrived, the guest has arrived.”

Dairieh and a young European fighter who works in the IS media center in Raqqa, Syria. Photo via Medyan Dairieh.

Abu Jindal al-Iraqi
It had been nearly 10 years since I first met Abu Jindal al-Iraqi during the Second Battle of Fallujah — six weeks of bloody urban combat at the end of 2004 that pitted Iraqi insurgents, including al Qaeda, against US Marines and their Iraqi and British allies.

Al-Iraqi was a commander in a makeshift artillery brigade that was fighting against the Americans, but not yet affiliated with al Qaeda. He was a former colonel in Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard, which was disbanded in 2003 in the wake of the US-led invasion of Iraq. He was then clean-shaven and not particularly religious.

Related: The Islamic State Is Here to Stay

Overnight, thousands of men like al-Iraqi lost their income and their status. Many of them took their military training — and in many cases their weapons — and joined the resistance.

When I met him again, inside the border in June 2014, he was wearing a full beard and was in every aspect of his appearance a committed Islamist. In the decade since we met, his militia first had merged into the Islamic State in Iraq, al Qaeda’s local franchise, which then went on to found ISIS. He is now a senior IS commander.

Al-Iraqi’s story is a common one. Internal IS documents obtained by Der Spiegel show not only that the core leadership of the group is made up of former Baathist officers, but that the organization is also run along the lines developed by Iraqi military intelligence.

A former al Qaeda fighter, who became a member of ISIS, shows off his al Qaeda inscribed gun in Aleppo. Photo by Medyan Dairieh.

The Birth of IS
IS’s force is composed of three primary groups: Islamic State in Iraq (based around former Iraqi military men), elements of al Qaeda from the Afghanistan school, and forces from Chechnya and the Caucuses, led by Abu Omar al-Shishani.

On an earlier visit to Syria, in 2013, I met with Al-Shishani. He was extremely busy and distracted, trying to negotiate between ISIS and the Nusra Front. At that time, tensions were coming to a head.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, then the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, sent one of his most trusted lieutenants, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani to Syria in 2011 as mass protests against the Assad regime spread. His task was to form the Nusra Front, the Syrian affiliate of al Qaeda.

Al-Jolani and al-Baghdadi later fell out over the direction of the Nusra Front. Al-Baghdadi wanted Nusra to be an extension of the Islamic State in Iraq, and to fall under his command. Al-Jolani wanted to focus on fighting the regime, work with less radical groups, and win hearts and minds. The two men apparently held talks in Aleppo.

Aleppo in 2012. This was one of the first times that this ISIS badge (on the right) and this flag (associated with the group) were seen in Syria. Photo by Medyan Dairieh.

Al-Jolani won the support of al Qaeda’s leadership, thought to be based in the borderlands between Afghanistan and Pakistan. I heard that IS tried to send a Libyan member to talk to al Qaeda’s leadership in Afghanistan. The man had difficulties in getting there, however, making me realize that IS’s contacts with al Qaeda leadership were very weak.

When the split occurred, foreign fighters — including al-Shishani’s Chechens and an experienced group of Libyans fighting as the al-Battar battalion — overwhelmingly pledged their allegiance to IS. Later, when I went to Libya, I met members of the al-Battar battalion who had returned to fight there.

I believe the muhajireen, as the foreign fighters are known, did not really come to Syria to resist Assad. They came because they saw themselves as soldiers of Islam, and believed it was their religious destiny to build the caliphate.

Related: Exclusive Video Shows Cocaine Allegedly Found at Home of Islamic State Leader

Nusra worked with the other rebel groups, participating in joint charity organizations and fighting alongside them. ISIS worked only through its own organizations.

On 22 February 2014, ISIS assassinated Sheikh Abu Khaled al-Suri, a leader of Ahrar al-Sham, a Salafist militia allied to Nusra. The Nusra Front then declared war on ISIS.

In the wider Middle East, however, it is IS that has attracted the most new support, including militants from Egypt, Yemen, Libya, not to mention many other parts of the world.

In Raqqa
I arrived in Raqqa, the IS capital, shortly after crossing the border. There was a military parade on, which I learned had been timed to coincide with my arrival.

Before the war, the town was liberal, with a large Christian population. People would go out in the evening to drink and smoke. There’s no music on the street now and even the pictures are covered — it has completely changed.

There are people from more than 80 nationalities living in Raqqa. Children under 15 go to religious instruction classes. After the age of 16, they go to the military camps for training. After 16 they can join the fighters.

During my time in Raqqa, I was accompanied at all times by a media team.Although IS has been praised for the quality of their video productions, there are actually very few skilled media workers among them. There were a few who’d worked for TV channels, however, and some foreigners with their own expertise. From what I saw, their equipment was mostly basic and the internet very slow, but they worked long hours, sleeping between three and five hours a night, and keeping a seven-day schedule.

I learned that support from abroad, especially from Libya, was greatly important in publishing material online. One of the media team also told me that a young woman in the UK had also been helping them with this for a few months.

Related: Everywhere Around Is the Islamic State on the Road in Iraq With YPG Fighters

They also use more basic means of propaganda, such as publishing texts online, distributing CDs with films, and driving trucks around blaring out speeches by al-Baghdadi and Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, an official IS spokesman.

IS was initially hostile to international media coverage, but as its members started to notice the world’s huge interest in them, they decided to establish a number of media departments, including most prominently Al-Furqan. They also set up a media office in every province of their “state,” with each department linked to the local preacher’s office.

Watch the VICE News documentary, The Islamic State here:

At around 2am on July 4, I awoke to the sound of gunfire and explosions. Those with me from the media department strapped on their explosive belts, grabbed their rifles and rushed out without uttering a word. Everything was dark, as if there was a blackout.

A few hours later, I learned that US special forces had assaulted a IS camp outside Raqqa. They had apparently hoped to rescue a number of Western hostages who were later killed by IS. The hostages weren’t there, and the troops withdrew empty handed after killing eight IS members — including, I was told, trainee leaders from Tunisia and Saudi Arabia.

IS also believed that Jordanian troops also took part in the assault and showed me a bloodied scrap of a military uniform bearing Jordanian insignia.

IS Military Doctrine
IS has proved adept at fighting and unconventional war, combining tactics from the Taliban, handed down through al-Zarqawi, with the expertise of former Iraqi military officers.

It has tried to expand the battlefront to exhaust air support, using short-range rockets and missiles, for which officers from the former Iraqi army helped set up inexpensive, hand-made mobile launchers.

In an attack, the remnants of al Qaeda and suicide groups will be the first troops to mobilize, to strike the advancing forces with suicide operations. The leaders of the former Iraqi Republican Guard will direct other groups to guard their positions and ensure rocket and missile bombing operations are carried out.

IS has also adopted a three-pronged Taliban military doctrine, Firstly, it strikes the enemy to confuse them, wear them out, and weaken them. Secondly, it obtains supplies such as weapons, money, and food supplies. Thirdly, it claims a media victory to grow the organization’s popularity.

Related: Meet the PKK Terrorists Battling the Islamic State on the Frontlines of Iraq

The success of this approach was evident last summer. In the blink of an eye IS built a state the size of Jordan. It seized large quantities of weapons, including heavy weaponry and all kinds of other sophisticated equipment, and a significant amount of money. IS was able to claim that they broke the 100-year-old Sykes-Picot Agreement, a colonial-era agreement which defined the frontier between Syria and Iraq, by opening up the borders. This gesture sent a message to zealous Islamist youth that IS is leading a global jihad.

The group does face challenges. They have difficulty obtaining spare parts and supplies to maintain their heavy weapons, and problems manufacturing enough of the car bombs whose en masse deployments have been the prelude to many devastating assaults, including the capture of Ramadi in May. They are forced to fight on multiple fronts: against the Iraqi army, against the Kurds, and against Syrian rebels — as well sometimes against the Syrian regime.

German and Finnish IS fighters. Photo by Medyan Dairieh.

But IS realizes it is now engaged now in a crucial battle and not simply sharpening its talons. For this reason, it will try to prolong the battle, and open numerous fronts and lines of fighting in regions that are far from one another. It will do this in order to disperse enemy forces, to be able to attack them far from their reinforcements, and to be able to attack their supply convoys, which are generally on the defensive.

IS believe it is their destiny to face their most powerful enemy, America, on the field of battle. An IS military commander, an officer from Hussein’s former Republican Guard, told me that IS preparing for an attack, not for defense.

“We will defend our project,” he said, “and this will only be achieved when America feels the necessity to confront us on the ground — this is what we want and what America fears.”

Departure
The time eventually came for me to leave IS territory.

They took me to a place near the border. Every night we would go to the border, and look out over a dark, empty space. We would wait for the right time to cross, to avoid the army’s patrols.

We sat, waiting for the all clear. Although they had strong systems to monitor the situation at night, the crossing was nonetheless difficult and dangerous.

One night, at 2.30am as I was sleeping, they woke me up at told me it was time to cross. I left my big rucksack with them as it was bulky and I couldn’t carry it with me.

They walked with me and when I asked why they told me that I was their guest and that they would look after my safety, in spite of the danger to themselves, until I reached a safe place on the other side.

Source: https://news.vice.com

July 2, 2015
Why One Cannot Be Gay And Muslim

“Can one be gay and Muslim?” is one of those loaded questions that I am certainly not fond of. I believe that it is a meaningless question except in the vulgar context of efforts to alter traditional attitudes towards homosexuality and recast it as acceptable both morally and legally.

The very posing of such a question imposes on the one being asked the assumption that, at the very least, homosexuality or the notion of “gayness” is morally and legally neutral. Otherwise, asking the question would itself be objectionable.

The fact that most who publicly pose this question (like journalists and activists) are fully aware that Islamic teachings censure and reprimand people to varying extents for homosexual inclinations and activities gives it an insidious, manipulative character.

Indeed, given the tacit moral approval of homosexuality implicit in “Can one be gay and Muslim?”, it is in fact the very moral integrity of the religion and its adherents that is being questioned. I therefore maintain that those who pose this question to Muslims out of other than genuine ignorance do so as actors who are part of a wider context and agenda.

And that wider context that surrounds the discourse of which this question is part is dominated by the imposing presence of powerful special interest groups and organizations (including those in the third world directly and indirectly funded by agencies of the U.N and the governments of select industrialized nations). Those groups, through sustained public awareness campaigns; popular entertainment; legal and political activism; and the like, have brought the matter of homosexuality and traditional attitudes towards it conspicuously into the center stage of public discourses virtually everywhere in the globalized world.

This heavily influenced and charged discourse simply cannot be ignored when addressing this question.

Now that discourse is characterized by themes and indeed its related activism is propelled to a great extent by incidents of illegal violence, discrimination, and other forms of morally reprehensible conduct directed at real or perceived homosexuals.

I believe it is of the utmost importance for Muslims to make it clear that illegal abuse; violence; and discrimination against innocent parties are all repugnant and unacceptable and should not be condoned.

Yet we must also point out that deliberately conflating those matters with the matter of the legality and morality of homosexuality itself in order to foster societal acceptance of it is likewise repugnant and objectionable.

While violence, discrimination and so forth merit their own consideration, using them (along with “Science”) as rhetorical and emotional tools to effect pro-homosexual social engineering is shameful and manipulative conduct where the suffering of individuals is used for the furtherance of socio-political goals. I view any group or movement that is guilty of such as being morally challenged.

To be specific, it is to the LGBT movement that I thereby refer. That movement is made up of establishments that market themselves as human rights or anti-discrimination advocacy groups. In reality they exist in order to further their widely acknowledged goal of “Gayism” that entails the “full acceptance of LGBT people in society” which is just a clever, personable way of saying that they want to change society such that homosexuality is no longer regarded as evil but is accepted as neutral or good. Their daily work concerns pursuing the political, legal, and moral steps necessary to effect that goal.

With that in mind, I maintain that the question, “Can one be gay and Muslim?” is part of an effort to perpetuate a, what I would regard as unhealthy, discussion about the legal and moral status of homosexuality in society. That discussion, which seeks to legitimize homosexuality and has its roots in post French Revolution anti-religion sentiment, is being brought now to the shores of Islam and Muslim minds.

Obviously the question is not intended at face value. It is not asking the obvious: is it physically possible for a person who self identifies as gay to also self identify as Muslim. Rather, what is really being asked is this: can homosexuality become legally and morally acceptable to Muslims given Islamic teachings regarding it?

The answer to that question is simply no.

The only way homosexuality can become legally and morally acceptable to Muslims is if they depart, in a grossly unprincipled manner, from both the letter and spirit of the teachings of the prophet Muhammad and indeed all other prophets (peace be upon them all) regarding it.

Those teachings are clear and definitive. The fact that homosexuality in general and sodomy in particular are deemed vile, morally abhorrent, and legally criminal in the corpus of Islamic teachings is evident and is among the things necessarily known of the religion. As a matter of scholarship, to deny that fact betrays a thorough disregard for demonstrable historical and anthropological truth that could only be the result of a lack of scholarly integrity or competence.

As a matter of faith, Muslim theology and law are unambiguous: denial, in principle, of anything that is necessarily known of the religion is disbelief (kufr) – it being effectively the same as denying or opposing a direct instruction of the Prophet of God (peace be upon him). Failing to abide by something necessarily known in action (without denying it in principle) is deprivation and corruption of the highest order though not outright disbelief.

Thus to attempt to legitimize homosexuality morally and legally among Muslim believers despite the foregoing is profoundly unprincipled and disingenuous to say the very least. And yes, it could entail apostasy depending on the particulars. For there is no definition of integrity or uprightness, let alone faith, that permits one to simply deny in principle undeniable realities of one’s professed belief system while insisting on being nevertheless ascribed to that system.

It being the case that matters of faith, integrity, and morality are at stake here, talking about whether, for example, scientific research establishes that homosexuality is genetic or chosen, or even about the types of criminal abuse faced by those perceived as being homosexual represents something of a distraction.

I say that because the fact is that LGBT groups are insidiously advocating the right to choose to engage in homosexual, bisexual, or transgender activity and forms of expression on a whim and with “pride” regardless of factors related the scientific data, or whether abuse or discrimination are present or not.

If I am mistaken on that point I would love to be corrected but that is what the conduct and results of the activity of groups attached to the LGBT movement suggest to me.

The libertine position advocated by such groups is not based fundamentally on the espoused high ideals of justice and equality, rather it is based simply on those activists’ belief, contrary to every revealed scripture, that homosexuality and Gayism with their various attending moral deprivations are perfectly acceptable. It is only after that premise is accepted that justice and equality take on their relevance.

Now it is that type of advocacy, grounded, as was mentioned, in post French Revolution rejection of faith, that should be brought to the forefront of the discussion by Muslims. And it is that kind of wicked ungodly activism that should be untangled from the emotional web of legitimate grievances such as illegal violence and abuse. It should then be exposed and opposed, not through violence; boorishness; and raw uninformed emotion, but by all lawful, intelligent and upright means.

That is the Sunna and that is what those without a moral compass need to see from the Muslims in this and indeed all other matters.

Source: http://muslimvillage.com

July 2, 2015
Man In Knee-Length Shorts Told To Cover Up At KLIA

A Malaysian businessman wearing knee-length shorts was told to cover up at Kuala Lumpur International Airport’s Baggage Services Lost and Found section.

Mr Wilson Ng was forced to put on black trousers and swap his sandals for black shoes in order to retrieve his bag.

The incident took place on May 7, but Mr Ng only wrote about it on his blog placesandfoods.com on Thursday (June 25) after reading numerous reports on such incidents.

Mr Ng said an officer told him that his attire did not comply with the dress code and asked him to return home to change.

He was later given trousers and shoes to put on.

Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd said on Friday (June 26) that the incident was due to “miscommunication”.

It told Malay Mail Online: “First and foremost, the dress code applies for public requesting for visitor passes to enter the terminal for any official visits or work purposes. However, the dress code does not apply to passengers passing through our airports.”

Source: www.tnp.sg

June 27, 2015