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Category: Agama

  • Gender Segregation Among Tighter Performance Guidelines Imposed By JAKIM

    Gender Segregation Among Tighter Performance Guidelines Imposed By JAKIM

    The Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) has posted new guidelines for artistes and entertainers looking to perform in the country on its website, with strict limitations imposed on their personality, dressing, behaviour and performances.

    Jakim is also imposing gender segregation for the audience at concerts and shows while also clamping down on music and lyrics that have elements of “worship”, which are considered sacred to believers of other religions.

    The rules were released by the department earlier this week after being approved by the 107th National Fatwa Committee Conference in February, and are available in a document linked to Jakim’s website. It states that this is the second edition of such rules.

    Artistes, Jakim said, must possess “noble and good character” and should not have any criminal record, whether in civil or Shariah cases.

    They must also be dressed modestly, without exposing their “aurat” or parts of the body that cannot be exposed according to Islam, and must not wear any clothes that can lead to “exploitation” by the audience.

    Dressing, accessories and hairstyles must not resemble that of a different gender of the artiste, Jakim said. Cross-dressing during any performance is also banned.

    The religious authority has also ruled that jokes made during performances must be appropriate and cannot lead to “excessive laughter”.

    Besides that, jokes cannot be made at the expense of a “serious matter” and on “issues that are mournful”.

    All performances must not go against the sensitivities of any religion and any race, while there also cannot be acts of worship of other beings or humans.

    Dance performances, meanwhile, must not cause slander or lust, Jakim said, adding that men and women cannot perform in the same routine.

    The music accompanying the performances must inject peace and positivity and cannot evoke negative emotions that are contradictory to Islam, the guidelines said.

    The guidelines replace the previous one, which were mainly for preventing elements of vice and idolatry in performances.

    “This guideline is to help those involved in the entertainment industry ensure that all events are carried out according to Shariah codes,” Jakim said, adding that it also hoped that organisers would inform authorities of any event.

    The guidelines are not considered to be law. Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom had said earlier this year that those giving approvals for any concert should always remind the organisers to adhere to Jakim’s guidelines.

    He had said this in January after a three-minute video uploaded online showed three tudung-clad Muslim fans being hugged and kissed by K-pop artistes B14A at a mini-concert at the Live Centre in Jalan Sultan Ismail, Kuala Lumpur.

    The video caused an uproar and religious authorities criticised the action of the girls and band members, saying they were overboard and against Islamic teachings, and had offended Muslim sensitivities.

     

    Source: www.themalaysianinsider.com

  • Madrasah Students No Longer Need To Pay Examination Fees For Religious Subjects

    Madrasah Students No Longer Need To Pay Examination Fees For Religious Subjects

    Madrasah students will no longer have to pay national examination fees for religious subjects.

    This was announced at the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore Workplan Seminar on Saturday (Apr 18), about a month after examination fees were waived for madrasah students’ academic subjects.

    The cost, expected to be S$25,000 annually, will be borne by the Madrasah Fund.

    The fund was set up in 1994 to raise the standards of full-time madrasahs. There are currently six full-time madrasahs in Singapore.

    The initiative, which starts this year, will benefit around 70 ‘A’ Level students and 350 ‘O’ Level students.

    The three religious subjects that will be funded are Islamic Religious Knowledge for ‘O’ Levels, and Islamic Jurisprudence and Islamic Theology for ‘A’ Levels.

    “Since the Government has promised to assist us to waive, for example, the fees for the national exams which involve only secular subjects, for madrasah students who also undergo examinations for religious subjects, we thought it’s best that we also equalise that as much as possible,” said Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs, and Communications and Information Minister.

     

    Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

  • Tudung Should Be A Celebrated Diversity, A Symbol To Unity

    Tudung Should Be A Celebrated Diversity, A Symbol To Unity

    Mr Dear Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong ;

    As we can have food that meet each of our religious requirements and still eat together..

    We can also have our clothing’s that meet each of our religious requirements and still live together.

    Let muslim ladies put on their “Tudung” and let us be proud as Singaporean, diverse yet united.

    Yours sincerely

    Muhammed Ibn Abd Latiff

    Please share with hash tag ‪#‎tudung‬

     

     

    Source: Muhammed Ibn Abdul Latiff

     

     

  • Lee Hsien Loong: Muslim Communities Need To Be Guided And Work Done To Prevent Perverted, Dangerous Ideas From Catching On

    Lee Hsien Loong: Muslim Communities Need To Be Guided And Work Done To Prevent Perverted, Dangerous Ideas From Catching On

    Since 2002, the authorities have released from detention 57 extremists who have been rehabilitated and were deemed no longer to pose a security threat. Of these, there was only one case of recidivism.

    Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong revealed this at the closing of the two-day East Asia Summit on Religious Rehabilitation and Social Integration on Friday (Apr 17).

    He attributed the “resounding success” to the work of the Religious Rehabilitation Group (RRG), formed in 2003, after a crackdown on the Jemaah Islamiyah terror network in Singapore. Mr Lee reiterated that security actions and operational capabilities are not enough to counter the terror threat. Just as important are rehabilitation and reintegration.

    In Singapore’s context, the Prime Minister said the country also needs to address the religious and social dimensions, as part of a broader approach to addressing the problem.

    “Muslim communities need to be guided and work has to be done to prevent perverted and dangerous ideas from catching on. We have to work to build an integrated, harmonious and multi-religious society. So that we avoid problems of marginalisation, religious enclaves, misperceptions and resentments, which can feed on themselves and generate religious extremism and terrorism,” said Mr Lee.

    Mr Lee said race and religion are natural fault lines in any multi-racial country and Singapore is especially vulnerable.

    He said: “In particular, in Singapore, we have a substantial minority of Muslims in our midst, living peacefully with other races and religions. So any terrorist attack invoking the name of Islam in vain will have grave consequences for us.

    “Not just that there will be physical casualties, people maimed or killed, but that it will create anger and mistrust between Muslims and non-Muslims, raise social tensions and quite possibly break apart our society.”

    Mr Lee said the harmony Singapore enjoys is a precious state of affairs – the result of a conscious and sustained effort to build trust and mutual understanding.

    He cited the policy of requiring public housing estates to be ethnically integrated, thereby mitigating the creation of ghettos.

    Another important reason the country has been able to achieve peace and harmony is because of support from Muslim leaders and the community in Singapore.

    He said: “This is an absolute requirement if we are to make any headway in the fight against terrorism. But it is not easy to achieve, because it depends on trust, already been established, and where the trust is not yet strong enough, it is hard to get into a virtuous circle and to start building it, especially when under stress.”

    Mr Lee thanked the Malay-Muslim community in Singapore for coming together and working hard to prevent radical ideology from taking root and spreading.

    Ustaz Ali Mohamed, co-chairman of the Religious Rehabilitation Group, said: “The Singapore’s terrorist rehabilitation approach shows that partnership between the Government, religious scholars, academics and community is crucial in responding to the current operational and ideological threat of terrorism.

    “Being part of this team, RRG believes religious rehabilitation does not just require religious knowledge, but it is a marriage to other great fields and knowledge such as psychology, geopolitics, sociology, and information technology and security studies.”

    LEARNING FROM SINGAPORE’S RRG

    Conference delegates were keen to learn from Singapore. Together with Mr Lee, they were given a tour of the RRG’s Resource and Counselling Centre.

    The centre, located at Khadijah Mosque, was opened about a year ago and it is an important addition to Singapore’s overall counter-terrorism efforts, by providing a one-stop resource centre to religious teachers, researchers and the community at large.

     

    Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

  • Mufti: Credibillity Of Religious Authority Need To Be Earned, Open And Engaging Discussions Necessary

    Mufti: Credibillity Of Religious Authority Need To Be Earned, Open And Engaging Discussions Necessary

    Counter-messaging must be a key weapon in the fight against terrorism, yet it can be a difficult one to wield due to the myriad of factors fuelling the rise of extremism today, said speakers at a symposium yesterday.

    Speaking on the second day of the East Asia Summit Symposium on Religious Rehabilitation and Social Integration, Singapore’s mufti, Dr Fatris Bakaram, questioned if acts of terror could simply be attributed to a misinterpretation of religious texts.

    He also asked if radicalisation could be caused by a sense of disenchantment with the state, a rejection of the secular culture or a political agenda.

    “One could certainly add on to the list of questions, and I suspect the reasons are as multi-various as they are interlinked,” he added.

    Retired General John Allen from the United States noted that the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is an “offshoot” of a series of socio-economic and political circumstances.

    “And unless we solve those underlying causes, Daesh (an acronym of ISIS’ Arabic name) will simply be … a symptom … ultimately, the coalition’s activity will not be cured,” said Gen Allen. He was appointed last September as the Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, a term by which the ISIS is also known.

    Gen Allen noted that the Internet has aided extremist operations in their global expansion, resulting in an “unprecedented generational challenge”, with young men and women able to fight for the cause from even their home countries.

    To fight terrorism, he said, we must “dominate the information environment” across different platforms and languages, with messages that contest ISIS’ “propaganda machine”.

    “(We must) take back the information sphere from Daesh and eliminate its pre-eminence.”

    Gen Allen added that a multi-pronged approach against terrorism must also involve efforts to clamp down on the movement of foreign fighters as well as the financial resources of extremist outfits.

    However, Dr Fatris stressed that messages must be crafted and conveyed by credible leaders, and noted that credibility had to be earned over time. “Our credibility as a religious authority is not a right … we (cannot) implicitly assume that people will listen to us … we are essentially partaking in a battle for the heart and soul of Islam.”

    He added that religious leaders cannot shy away from addressing “dark and difficult episodes of warfare and persecution”. Educating the young today is not simply about telling them what is right or wrong, he said. “It is engaging their learning process, hearing them … engaging them on ideas and letting them speak their minds.”

    Dr Rohan Gunaratna, head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said there were more than 10,000 terrorist-related Facebook accounts, 47,000 Twitter accounts and more than 9,800 websites. “We need a point-by-point rebuttal of (ISIS’) justifications for using violence … you specifically question, show me in the Koran that this is permitted,” he said.

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com