Category: Agama

Sultan Johor To Malays: Stop Trying To Be Arabs

he Sultan of Johor has called on Malays not to discard their unique culture, saying he was disturbed by those who want to stop Muslims from the salam practice despite it being a traditional way of greeting each other.

Sultan Ibrahim Ibni Almarhum Sultan Iskandar said he was sticking to “my customs and traditions as a Malay because I’m born Malay.”

“If there are some of you who wish to be an Arab and practise Arab culture, and do not wish to follow our Malay customs and traditions, that is up to you.

“I also welcome you to live in Saudi Arabia.

“That is your right but I believe there are Malays who are proud of the Malay culture. At least I am real and not a hypocrite and the people of Johor know who their ruler is,” he said.

He said, for example, he preferred to use terms like Hari Raya instead of Eid al-Fitr, or buka puasa instead of iftar.

“I have been using these Malay terms since I was a child and speaking to my late father for the past 50 years.

“I have no intention of replacing these terms with Arabic,” he said.

His Royal Highness said religious faith was not based on external criteria such as clothing to display one’s relationship with God, saying “what is in the heart and mind is more important.”

He stressed that it was wrong to judge someone.

“God will judge you. If you want to advise someone, then call them to the side and whisper, do not embarrass them,” he added.

Sultan Ibrahim said that during his annual Kembara Mahkota, he shook the hands of thousands of people including women.

“Why must I change? You do not have to be fanatic. If they (women) are not sure, I ask if they want to shake my hands. If they do not want to shake my hands, there is no problem,” he added.

Asked to comment on the recent controversy where Crown Prince Tunku Ismail was criticised by those on social media for shaking hands with JDT player Mohd Safiq Rahim’s wife, Sultan Ibrahim said that she approached him.

“He only extended his hand out. Why criticise? I am sure this is the work of some sour grapes from other places who are jealous of JDT football team,” he added.

Sultan Ibrahim said that this was the Johor way and his message to those who did not want to shake his hands is to simply stay away.

Soon after the incident, Tunku Ismail posted a video on Facebook which showed him shaking hands, in a satirical way, with two women with an oversized glove.

Sultan Ibrahim also expressed his displeasure at the Batu Pahat Public Works Department (JKR) for recently putting up a notice reminding Muslim women about the sin of not covering their hair, which was mounted on a signboard along a road here.

“This is wrong. This is not their role. Since when is JKR involved in this?” he asked.

State Public Works, Rural and Regional Development committee chairman Datuk Hasni Mohammad later said the officer in charge of the matter was directed to take down the notice.

“Since when is JKR, whether at state or district level, being put in charge of religious matters? Their main job is to make sure the roads are properly maintained and not worry about women’s hair,” Sultan Ibrahim said.

The Sultan said he had confidence and faith in Malaysians because the majority of them were decent and religious people.

Likewise, he said that “it is not the business of government departments to worry about people’s dressing. Just do what you are paid to do and mind your own business”.

On a recent meeting with religious groups in UAE, Sultan Ibrahim said the Arabs were becoming more open nowadays.

“They are opening up. Previously women in Saudi Arabia were not allowed to drive but they are gradually allowing it. Some women are even joining politics,” he said, adding that the situation was also the same in Iran.

Source: www.thestar.com.my

March 27, 2017
Libya’s Ambassador To UAE: Southeast Asian Muslims Should Embrace Own Unique Cultural Traditions, Resist Arabisation And Still Be Good Muslims

Muslims in Southeast Asia should embrace their unique cultural traditions instead of adopting Arabic customs, according to Libya’s Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Dr Aref Ali Nayed.

“I think that it’s high time that Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei actually appreciated the traditions that have been taught in small schools and villages for several centuries now,” said Dr Nayed, who is also the founder and director of think-tank Kalam Research and Media.

“Why should a Malay give up his way of dressing, or his way of talking or his language in order to somehow prove that he’s more Islamic by borrowing some Arabic words?” he said during an interview with Channel NewsAsia’s Conversation With that aired on Mar 28.

Dr Nayed was in Singapore to deliver a seminar at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute on defeating Islamic State.

Dr Nayed, who has been ranked as one of the top 50 most influential Muslims in the world by Jordanian think-tank The Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, made his remarks as the “Arabisation” of Islam and cultural practices in Southeast Asia stir controversy.

In similar comments made recently in an interview with Malaysia’s The Star, the Sultan of Johor last week warned Malays to stick to their own culture instead of imitating Arab trends. The ruler was responding to the tendency for some Malaysian Malays to lean towards Arab culture amid growing conservatism.

NO NEED TO BE ARAB TO BE A GOOD MUSLIM

Dr Nayed – an Islamic studies scholar who has lectured on Islamic theology, logic, and spirituality at universities around the world – also warned against mindlessly accepting religious teachings from Arabic theologians.

He encouraged religious scholars in Southeast Asia to “not only appreciate what they have but to actually foster it and grow it with their own future generations”.

“There is no need to send off kids to some Arab countries. (They) actually teach a flattened version of Islam that is quite foreign to what Islam is actually about,” Dr Nayed added.

While Islamic studies scholars like Shaykh Abdallah bin Bayyah are doing good work in the UAE, according to Dr Nayed, the ambassador added: “Much of the literature coming off Arabic presses unfortunately has been highly politicised and the theologies have been reduced to a number of principles that are actually quite dangerous.”

When asked if local cultures are standing in the way of achieving the belief of a universality of Islam, Dr Nayed dismissed the idea.

To be a good Muslim, he said: “One has to first be a good Singaporean Muslim or a Malay Muslim or a good Indonesian Muslim.

“Only then can you be a representative of the universal Islam. So respecting your locality does not mean giving up on the universality.”

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

March 27, 2017
Terrorist Khalid Masood: A ‘Nice Guy’ Turned Extremist

The man who mowed down pedestrians and stabbed a policeman in Wednesday’s deadly assault outside Britain’s parliament has been identified by police as 52-year-old former convict Khalid Masood.

Known by “a number of aliases”, London’s Metropolitan Police said he had been convicted for a string of offences but none of them terror-related.

Born on Christmas Day 1964 in Kent in southeast England, Masood had been living in the West Midlands where armed police have staged several raids since the attack, storming properties in the city of Birmingham.

The police confirmed he was a British citizen.

He was brought up by a single parent in the town of Rye, on the southern English coast, according to The Times.

Over the course of two decades, Masood chalked up a range of convictions for assault, grievous bodily harm, possession of offensive weapons and public order offences, police said, with the incidents taking place between 1983 and 2003.

Prime Minister Theresa May said he was once investigated by the intelligence service MI5 “in relation to concerns about violent extremism”.

But Masood had never been convicted of terrorism offences and “was not the subject of any investigations,” the police said, noting there was “no prior intelligence about his intent to mount a terrorist attack”.

At 52, his age has been highlighted by commentators as unusual, with most Islamist extremists behind similar attacks far younger.

Although the police believe Masood acted alone, the Islamic State group claimed he was one of its “soldiers” acting on a call to target countries fighting the jihadists in Iraq and Syria.

‘A NICE GUY’

Masood rented the car used in the attack from the Solihull branch of Enterprise, on the outskirts of Birmingham, the company confirmed in a statement.

According to the BBC, he told the car rental company that he was a teacher.

A spokeswoman for Britain’s education ministry told AFP Masood was not a qualified teacher and had therefore not taught in any state schools.

The Sun tabloid said Masood stayed in a hotel on the outskirts of Brighton, a seaside city south of London, on the night before the attack.

London’s Metropolitan Police would not confirm the newspaper’s report that investigators went to the hotel following the attack after finding a receipt in the hire car.

British media described Masood as a Muslim convert, with one source telling Sky News he was a “very religious, well-spoken man”.

“You couldn’t go to his home in Birmingham on Friday because he would be at prayer,” said the source, who Sky said met Masood in a professional capacity.

“He was a nice guy. I used to see him outside doing his garden,” Iwona Romek, a former neighbour of his told the Birmingham Mail.

“He had a wife, a young Asian woman and a small child who went to school,” she said. Other media have reported that he was a married father-of-three.

Romek said the family had abruptly moved out of their house in Winson Green, a neighbourhood in western Birmingham, around Christmas without saying goodbye.

Romek said she could not imagine him carrying out an attack, adding: “Now I’m scared that someone like that was living close to me”.

More recently Masood may have been living in a flat next to a Persian restaurant and a pizza parlour in the upmarket Edgbaston neighbourhood, according to reports.

One neighbour at that address told The Telegraph newspaper they were fearful after the day’s events: “It’s left me so scared and I don’t know what to tell the children. He seemed like a normal calm and kind family man, always with a smile on his face.”

Following an armed raid on the property overnight, a man working in a shop nearby told the Press Association simply: “The man from London lived here”.

Source: www.todayonline.com

March 24, 2017
Pansexual Local Teen To Christian Parents: Watching Movie With Gay Characters Won’t Make One Gay

Twitter user @bxbyqueen shared a conversation she and her mother had on a private Whatsapp group. In the conversation, the mother referred to a Straits Times reportt on the National Council of Churches of Singapore’s (NCCS) letter to churches which urged pastors to “alert” their congregation about the homosexual content in Disney’s remake of the movie Beauty and the Beast. The mother suggested that it is an attempt by Disney to influence young minds that gay relationships are normal.

@bxbyqueen who describes herself as pansexual in Twitter replied to her mother that watching a movie with gay characters in it won’t make the person gay. And that by the parents’ logic, Jesus would love gay people the most.

The user said that her parents are hardcore Christians and that they were going to get very upset with her for making public their private conversation, but that she could not ignore it. The teens tweet has gone viral with over 3.1K retweets.

Source: www.theindependent.sg

March 24, 2017
Malays Most Racially Discriminated Group In Malaysia, Says Former Minister

Contrary to what some may believe, Malays are the most discriminated race in Malaysia, Mr Zaid Ibrahim said on Tuesday (March 21).

The former law minister said that while all ethnic groups in the country are prejudiced racially, none compare to the discrimination faced by Malays, especially on issues like khalwat or close proximity among men and women who are not married to each other or have no family relations.

“Non-Malays are not only the victims. I think the Malays are discriminated too. You think khalwat laws are not discriminating against the Malays.

“Most of the victims of discrimination in this country are Malays. Malays however unfortunately have low grade leaders leading them. They are taught false teachings or understandings,” Mr Zaid said during a forum on racial discrimination here.

The DAP member however added that many Malays fail to see this as they are disillusioned by the current crop of leaders.

“Discrimination happens to all of us. When a policy discriminates one, we have to take ownership

“My greatest fear for this county is Malays being given a false sense of power, ownership of the country. They will not be able to see for themselves. The Malays will be left out,” Mr Zaid said.

Ms Noor Farida Ariffin of the G25 civil group started by prominent Malay government pensioners who was also present, said that there were government institutions that undermined Putrajaya’s other efforts to promote racial harmony.

She named the National Civics Bureau, popularly known by its Malay abbreviation, as an example.

“Not only there is minor racism but there are institutions in government that covertly promoting racism.

“BTN’s course is supposed to promote national unity but instead is promoting Malay supremacy,” she said during the forum.

The former diplomat also said the National Economic Policy (NEP) was supposed to help the poor of all races, but instead was “hijacked” to promote a Malay agenda.

“The NEP has been hijacked. It is supposed to eradicate poverty but it has only concentrated on the Malay agenda,” Noor Farida said.

She added that though the Barisan Nasional coalition had formed a multiracial government, its component parties still played the racial card to garner voter support.

“Racial politics are entrenched in the country. Political parties are raced based. The government is making efforts to stamp out racism and promote unity, but the main partner in the ruling coalition is promoting racism, day in day out,” Ms Noor Farida said.

On Tuesday, a report was also released which found that discrimination based on the colour of one’s skin seems to be on the rise in Malaysia despite the government’s efforts to promote moderation and racial harmony.

The Racial Discrimination Report 2016 by non-profit social outfit Pusat Komas found that strained ethnic relations are growing although the National Unity Consultative Council has been working to bolster ties.

“Recent incidents of racial discrimination, racism and stained ethnic relations within the Malaysian society have increasingly surfaced over the years despite the Prime Minister’s numerous assurances and claims at home and abroad that the government promotes moderation in the country,” the report presented by programme coordinator Ryan Chua read.

The report added that the growth of social media has also made the racial divide further with more room for such negative sentiments to be propagated.

“The emergence of the Internet and social media platforms has provided more open spaces and platforms for widespread expression of racial sentiments and hate speech,” it read.

The report was based on news reports on racial discrimination in 2015 and 2016. It also found that many Malaysians were critical of the authorities for their “lack of enforcement and actions towards overt and public declarations of racial sentiments” by groups perceived as racial supremacist.

Among several recommendations, Pusat Komas urged the government to immediately sign and ratify the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination under the United Nations to promote equality among Malaysians.

It also recommended harsher punishments for individuals, especially politicians, who make racially inciting statements.

“The government must be willing to impose heavy legal and formal sanctions on any government Minister’s, senior officers, elected representatives, organisations and groups, individuals… who exhibit racist and discriminatory tendencies and in speech and action,” the report read.

The report highlighted various cases of racial discrimination which happened over the past year which includes statements made by political figures like Umno grassroots leader Jamal Yunos and Perkasa president Ibrahim Ali.

Source: Today

March 23, 2017