Category: Agama

Religious Fundamentalism In Malaysia Edging Muslims Out Of The Country

It was 3am when a 30-year-old female Malay financial researcher was woken up by her flatmate in a middle class suburb in Kuala Lumpur early this year.

Six to seven men from the Selangor State Islamic Department (Jais) had entered her apartment in a “morality” raid.

An anonymous phone call to the religious department alleging a man was seen entering her flat was all it took for the religious officials to descend on her home.

“The men were not accompanied by any woman. They searched all our bedrooms, closets and even looked under the bed as they thought a man could be hiding there,” said the researcher who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The incident left her angry and helpless and helped compel her to make plans to leave Malaysia in two years.

The researcher is one of an increasing number of Malay Muslims aspiring to leave this country of 30 million.

In the past, it was the country’s ethnic Chinese and Indians who left Malaysia in large numbers for better opportunities that would be based on meritocracy and not race.

The World Bank estimated in 2011 there were 1 million Malaysians who migrated overseas and the real number could be much larger.

As the majority in the country who enjoys special privileges in education and employment under decades-old affirmative action programmes, it makes their aspiration to migrate more compelling and highlights the growing extremism creeping into modern and moderate Malaysia.

“I don’t feel safe in this country anymore,” the researcher said. “It’s like you are guilty until proven innocent. Anyone can make a phone call to accuse another person out of malice or vengeance and, without proof or investigation, the religious authorities will come to your place.”

The researcher, who has been living in the apartment for two years, shares the flat with three other women.

“They found cigarette butts on the balcony and said that showed a man was in the house. We told them all of us in the flat smoke,” she said. “Then they saw two pairs of boxer shorts which belonged to me and said that must belong to a man. I told them they were mine.”

Former law minister Zaid Ibrahim said Malays would soon join the Chinese in emigrating from Malaysia to escape the growing religious fundamentalism and authoritarianism where a Muslim can be easily persecuted for anything that is perceived as “insulting Islam”.

“The rising extremism affects Muslims more than anyone else in the country. This fear of extremism drives Malays out of the country,” Zaid said.

“We (Muslims) are having more and more laws. In the state of Kelantan, a person can be arrested and jailed if he fails to attend Friday prayers three times in a row,” said Zaid, adding that a lot of moral issues have been criminalised.

“Before, they (religious authorities) tell you gambling is sinful. Now you can be arrested for buying a four-digit lottery.”

Under the constitution, if a person is born Malay, speaks the Malay language and practises the Malay culture, he or she must be Muslim.

The country’s religious authorities’ power has grown significantly in recent years with an expanded government budget for their departments where they answer to no one, he said.

“The politicians do not rein them in as they do not want to lose votes,” Zaid said.

“Malaysia has become a Saudi Arabia but with the Twin Towers,” he added referring to the iconic Petronas Towers in the capital, Kuala Lumpur.

“The only difference is, the women here are allowed to drive.”

Source: www.scmp.com

December 19, 2014
Facilitating Interfaith Marriages in Britain

Christian pastors and Muslim imams have come together to draw up guidelines detailing advice on how to deal with inter-faith marriages.

Although marrying between faiths is entirely legal in Britain, couples often face resistance and hostility, both from family members and religious leaders. Occasionally both Muslims and Christians feel pressure to convert to another’s faith in order to avoid fallouts and ostracism.

The new guidelines by the Christian-Muslim forum reinforce the need for religious leaders to accept inter-faith marriages and warn that no one should ever feel forced to convert. The publication of the document, which will receive a high-profile launch at Westminster Abbey today, is significant because those supporting it include imams from the more orthodox Islamic schools of thought and evangelical Christians.

Among those who have signed up to the document include Sheikh Ibrahim Mogra, a prominent Leicester-based imam from the conservative Deobandi school, the Right Rev Paul Hendricks, associate bishop of Southwark Catholic Archdiocese, and Amra Bone, one of the only women in the country to sit in a Sharia court.

Estimating the number of people in mixed-faith marriages is difficult. The 2001 census suggests 21,000 but demographers believe the figure is considerably higher.

The document, called When Two Faiths Meet, is the product of months of painstaking negotiations between Christian and Muslim leaders and emphasises the need for tolerance and acceptance of mixed-faith marriages.

Among the recommendations are speaking out against forced conversions, recognising the legality of inter-faith marriages in British law, non-judgemental pastoral care and a complete rejection of any violence.

“It might sound a little like we are stating the obvious but it does need to be said,” Sheikh Ibrahim told The Independent. “In reality Christian and Muslim couples often face very challenging scenarios where there is not enough tolerance or the right pastoral care and that can lead to a very damaging and negative experience for them.”

The Leicester-based imam said clerics were motivated to come up with the guidelines because they were seeing increasing numbers of inter-faith marriages over the years.

“It’s clearly already an issue and something that will become more and more common,” he said. “It makes sense for pastors and imams to be ready for such situations rather than be left without help of guidelines when they get approached by couples seeking their advice.”

Those with experience of inter-faith marriages say couples often face a variety of difficulties. In Islam, men are allowed to marry “people of the book”, Christians and Jews. But Muslim women are not allowed to marry outside their faith. Many of the more conservative or evangelical Christian denominations, meanwhile, insist spouses convert or promise to bring their children up as Christians.

Heather al-Yousef, a counsellor with Relate who married a Shia Muslim man, was one of those asked by the Christian Muslim Forum to give advice for the guidelines.

“There are, of course, a whole range of Muslims and Christians. Some groups are liberal about mixed marriages, others much more proprietorial. The good news is that Christians and Muslims are increasingly recognising the need to talk about these things. The very fact we’ve got so many people talking is in itself a success.”

‘We were shocked by how much we were judged’ harshly and told off’

Happily married for five years this couple (the man is Catholic and the wife Muslim) struggled to find support

While we came from different faiths, we approached them in similar ways. Although I was in my 30s and well educated, I was treated as though I was a silly little girl who had got herself into an irresponsible situation which could only be solved by my fiancé converting.

It was also assumed that although my fiancé was Catholic, his religion was less important and that he likely did not believe in it to the same degree Muslims believed in their religion. We were not asked what drew us together, how we met, how we managed differences. Instead we were judged harshly and told off. We had discussed the option of one of us converting but decided this was not for us.

We were shocked by how divisive and underhanded some Muslim clerics were. Ultimately, we found a Muslim cleric who saw things the way we did. The counsel he gave us was excellent, focusing as we did on what made us similar.

Source: www.independent.co.uk

December 19, 2014
Redefining The Moderate Contemporary Muslim

Muslim religious elites have repeatedly been told to categorically condemn the Sunni militant group Islamic State, with Pope Francis being the latest to make such a call. During a three-day visit to Turkey, he told Prime Minister Recep Erdogan that Muslim politicians, ulama (religious scholars) and academics should repudiate violence. He expressed his concern after an escalation of attacks on minority Christians living in Iraq.

The Pope’s concern is valid. However, it raises several questions. First, has Muslims’ condemnation of the Islamic State so far been insufficient? Sheikh Ahmad Tayyeb, the rector of Al-Azhar University, a world-renowned institute for Islamic studies, has openly condemned the militant group. He was joined by the Egyptian grand mufti, Shawqi Allam, and Al-Azhar graduate students who also expressed their disapproval towards the terrorist group. King Abdullah Hussein of Jordan has even compared fighting the Islamic State to battling in World War III.

Similarly, Australian Muslim ulama’s condemnation of the recent Sydney Lindt Chocolate Cafe hostage crisis was immediate, while the event was unfolding. The hostage-taker, Man Haron Monis, had forced two hostages to press a black flag — similar to the Islamic State’s — against the cafe’s window. This shows that for many ulama, any form of association with the militant group is deplorable.

Second, will repeated condemnation of Islamic State militants change the situation for the better? On the one hand, Muslim ulama’s condemnation has so far fallen on the militants’ deaf ears. On the other hand, they are “deafening” to Muslims who have repeatedly opposed the group.

How many times do Muslims have to say the Islamic State does not represent Islam, the Quran and Islamic traditions before they are believed? Moreover, condemning the group alone does not generate a better understanding of its emergence if the social, political and economic conditions that gave rise to its struggle are neglected. As Sheikh Ahmad Tayyed correctly points out: “The emergence of the Islamic State is a natural result of political marginalisation in Iraq.”

Asking Muslims to keep condemning the group also neglects the many commendable efforts to tackle extremism on the ground, including in South-east Asia.

The region’s Muslim leaders who attended the recent MABIMS meeting — an annual meeting of Islamic religious ministers from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei —criticised the Islamic State’s use of the faith to recruit Muslims to its cause.

To be sure, South-east Asia has been a hotbed of terrorist activity as much as the Middle East. Some South-east Asian Muslim youth have also joined the group’s struggle, thinking it is a form of “jihad” or holy war. At least 40 Malaysians have been linked to the Islamic State struggle and, most recently, the government suspected some of the country’s military men to be sympathetic to the group. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak recently tabled a White Paper in Parliament recommending a new terrorism law to be passed to tackle the Islamic State issue.

The Singapore Muslim community has also stepped up efforts to prevent Muslims from being enticed into the group. The Religious Rehabilitation Group (RRG), which counselled Jemaah Islamiyah terrorists, has reminded Singaporean Muslims not to sympathise with the group’s struggle. Recently, it distributed leaflets entitled The Fallacies Of ISIS Islamic Caliphate as part of its ongoing efforts to develop better understanding of Islam.

The RRG also indicated the militant group has misrepresented Islam, indicating the group’s struggle to establish an Islamic state is misleading and serves only as an excuse to attract others to its cause. The RRG will receive S$250,000 over the next five years from the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore to support its de-radicalisation of terrorists.

MODERATES IN A MODERN WORLD

Nevertheless, having Muslims condemning the militant group alone does not make them moderate. It is easy to find some using Quranic verses or Prophetic traditions to denounce the group, but it is difficult to alter how they approach religious texts in other aspects, especially when they continue to harbour distrust towards the modern world.

This group seeks to replace the existing world order with what they perceive to be an Islamic one. The call for alternative Islamic order can manifest in violent and non-violent means. Today, we hear some Muslims pushing Islamic development, Islamic currency, Islamic cars and Islamic environmentalism, and the more extreme ones calling for an Islamic state and Islamic Caliphate.

Moderate Islam is not linked to only condemnation of the Islamic State. I see a moderate as one who seeks to live universal Islamic values in line with modern-day realities. One cannot be a moderate if one is calling for institutions that are not in sync with contemporary realities.

For example, the call for an Islamic Caliphate does not resonate in a world where empires have collapsed. Muslims now live in post-Westphalian states, which do not differentiate citizens based on religion, ethnicity or culture, making the Islamic state versus non-Islamic state dichotomy irrelevant. All citizens are equal in the eyes of the law and cannot live under a separate, exclusive system.

The challenge for Muslims now is to live in contemporary, multicultural societies as good, law-abiding citizens, who remain committed to Islamic values of justice, equality, freedom of expression and the right to privacy.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Norshahril Saat is a PhD candidate at the Department of Political and Social Change, Australian National University. He researches on Indonesian and Malaysian politics.

Source: www.todayonline.com

December 19, 2014
Soldier And Firefighter Among Latest Malaysian IS Recruits

KUALA LUMPUR: A SOLDIER and a firefighter are among the latest Malaysian recruits to join the Islamic State (IS) movement in Syria.

Sources revealed that the soldier, who was supposed to attend an 11-month course at the Sungai Besi Army Music Training Centre from April 7, had gone missing on Oct 14.

Investigations showed that the soldier had applied for an international passport on July 31 at Terengganu Immigration Department before leaving the country on Oct 25 via Bangkok on a 6.05am flight.

The 27-year-old corporal attached to the 7th battalion Royal Malay Regiment had allegedly taken a flight from Kota Baru, Kelantan, to Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 the day before.

The New Straits Times learnt that the corporal, who goes by the name Al-Azhar Malize, is with other Malaysians who have established themselves as senior IS fighters.

What made him stand out among other Malaysians fighting in Syria is that he is always seen in pictures on Syrian battlefields clad in Malaysian military fatigues.

Investigations also revealed that his brother, a soldier at the Seberang Takir, Terengganu camp, received a WhatsApp message from him saying he had left to join IS in Syria.

Sources told the NST that ongoing probes were centred on how he was recruited and who his contacts were.

“The military’s Defence Staff Intelligence Division is monitoring the status of the corporal and identifying parties who are bent on recruiting more fighters, including military personnel, to join IS,” the sources said.

Sources said they were establishing the background of the fireman said to be posted at the Shah Alam fire station.

Meanwhile, the NST was made aware of a Malaysian family of six, including two toddlers, that had made its way to Syria recently.

“Like other families that have left their home countries in pursuit of martyrdom in Syria, the man will be sent out to the battlefields. The woman will be given specific tasks, and the children will be taken care of,” the sources said.

Source: https://sg.news.yahoo.com

December 18, 2014
Palestinians Afraid Of Criticising Mahmoud Abbas

RAMALLAH — Two-thirds of Palestinians say they are afraid to criticise Mr Mahmoud Abbas, according to a poll, and some of the Palestinian president’s recent actions only seem to confirm claims that dissent comes at a price.

Last month, Mr Abbas outlawed the West Bank’s largest labour union and briefly jailed its two leaders for organising strikes. Security agents routinely monitor social media and send threats or complaints to some of those criticising Abbas. Meanwhile, the Palestinian leader’s Fatah movement continues to purge supporters of an exiled rival.

Critics say that after a decade in power, Mr Abbas is overseeing a largely authoritarian system with shrinking room for dissent — a claim denied by Mr Abbas supporters who say Palestinians enjoy more political freedoms than most in the Arab world.

Complaints of heavy-handedness come at a time of paralysis on all fronts. Mr Abbas’ strategy of setting up a Palestinian state through negotiations with Israel has hit a dead end, while the bitter rivalry between Fatah and the Islamic militant group Hamas continues to fester.

With his approval rate down to 35 per cent, Mr Abbas lashes out against those he views as a political threat, such as former aide Mohammed Dahlan, now based in the United Arab Emirates, and ex-Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

In 10 years in office, the 79-year-old has avoided grooming a successor.

Mr Abbas defenders say Israel and Hamas are largely to blame for the gridlock: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu adopted harder negotiating positions than his predecessors, while Hamas seized Gaza in 2007 and set up a mini-state there.

The Hamas-Fatah split was largely responsible for eroding political institutions, such as parliament, and blocking presidential and parliamentary elections, now five years overdue, analysts said. This has opened the door for Mr Abbas to consolidate power, they said.

“We face an autocratic regime that doesn’t believe in any freedoms, in freedom of unions or freedom of speech,” said Mr Jihad Harb, a writer and Fatah member. “The people are now terrified. They don’t speak up, fearing reprisal.”

Mr Ahmed Assaf, a Fatah spokesman, said criticism is permitted — provided it does not cross a line by accusing Mr Abbas or members of his government of being traitors or infidels.

“If you look around and see what is going on in the Arab world, you realise how much freedom we enjoy here,” Mr Assaf said.

Most Palestinians in the West Bank appear to disagree, according to a poll published last week by the independent Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research. Sixty-six per cent said they believe they cannot criticise Mr Abbas without fear, according to the survey among 1,270 respondents, with an error margin of 3 percentage points.

One recent controversy centred on the largest Palestinian union, which represents about 40,000 employees of the Palestinian Authority.

Last month, Mr Abbas outlawed the union and had two top officials jailed for a week. The decision followed strikes by the union demanding more benefits.

Critics said Mr Abbas and Fatah had used the union in the past as a tool against rivals. They said Mr Abbas went after the union last month because it was causing problems for his hand-picked prime minister, Mr Rami Hamdallah.

Mr Bassam Zakarneh, one of the union leaders who was briefly jailed by Mr Abbas, said the union is being targeted because “they don’t want anyone to stand up to the government”.

Mr Abbas’ aide Nimer Hamad said the union was never registered and that strikes “caused huge damage to the interests of the people”.

Meanwhile, others defending the union also got in trouble.

Senior Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmed, who criticised the decision to ban the union, found himself accused by Mr Hamdallah of nepotism for pushing his sister-in-law for the post of education minister — a rare “outing” of one member of the ruling elite by another.

The incident played out on a talk show earlier this month on government-run Palestine TV. Asked about his sister-in-law, Mr al-Ahmed denied he used his influence to get her the Cabinet job. Mr Hamdallah called the show, contradicting Mr al-Ahmed’s version on the air.

The episode confirmed a perception — held by more than 80 per cent of Palestinians, according to last week’s poll — that Palestinian Authority institutions are tainted by corruption, with nepotism cited as a major problem.

Some speculated the showdown over the union could also be linked to internal power struggles in Fatah ahead of a party convention next month.

Regardless of intentions, the crackdown on the union is unpopular, with two-thirds of the public opposed, said pollster Khalil Shikaki.

Mr Abbas’ approval rating has dropped to 35 per cent, from 50 per cent last summer. “There is no doubt that the crackdown on freedoms and liberties, particularly unions, is certainly one of those factors that are pushing in that direction,” said Mr Shikaki, who conducted last week’s poll.

Mr Abbas also continues to engage in battles with perceived foes, even though they have not declared themselves as challengers.

Earlier this year, he began purging supporters of former Gaza strongman Dahlan from the ranks of Fatah. He has warned others they would be expelled if they maintain ties with Mr Dahlan, some in Fatah said.

Beyond curbs on expression in the self-rule areas, Palestinians face multiple restrictions — including those on movement imposed by Israel, which retains overall control in the West Bank.

In this environment, many use social media as an outlet for their views, but that’s also fraught with risk.

Mr Ahmed Zaki, the news director of Palestine TV, said he was recently demoted after a Facebook post in which he criticised the choice of a talk show guest on his station — an Egyptian commentator who supported Israeli attacks against Hamas targets in Gaza.

After that post, Mr Zaki said he received a call from Mr Abbas’ office and was told he would no longer serve in his job, though he remains on the station’s payroll.

Ms Tami Rafidi, a 35-year-old Fatah activist in Ramallah, said she has been admonished for Facebook posts critical of Mr Abbas and told by party members and security officials to tone down her comments. She said she has not been threatened because of her role in Fatah.

“But I am aware of others who were pressured or threatened to stop criticism,” she said. “The margin of freedom in the social media is narrow in the Palestinian territories.” AP

Source: www.todayonline.com

December 18, 2014