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Tag: Donald Trump

  • Muslim Netizens Up In Arms Over Irresponsible Islamophobic Comment

    Muslim Netizens Up In Arms Over Irresponsible Islamophobic Comment

    Some in the Malay-Muslim community are up-in-arms over a comment found in Ambassador-at-large, Bilahari Kausikan’s Facebook post. A Facebook user commenting on the ambassador’s sharing of Reuters article, ‘Trump says new order on refugees is not a Muslim ban’, said: “Who cares! Just kill all these scum with their filthy poisonous religion!”

    Several commenters responding to the user, Lee Chok Yew’s comments expressed strong objections to his remarks. Some felt that it called for genocide of a particular religious group, while the ambassador asked the commenter to “play nice”.

    Facebook user Nizam Ismail flagged Lee’s comment as “irresponsible and probably criminal in nature”, and suggested that he retracted it “with a large dose of contrition”.

    Sharing screengrabs of the conversation in the Facebook page ‘Suara Melayu’, Nizam said that his comments has crossed the line and that “someone is reporting this to the authorities.”

    “The sad truth is that Lee Chok Yew is probably not the only one with such vile thoughts,” he added.

    Some commenters responding to the post in the Facebook page felt that Bilahari’s response to Lee was “awful”.

    Facebook user Syed Alwi Ahmad said: “Bilahari should have been more stern in his response. This just goes to show that the veneer of niceties is just skin thick.”

    Nizam also shared screengrabs suggesting that the user is with Dennis Wee Realty Pte Ltd. He said that the matter has been escalated to the real estate company.

     

    Source: www.theindependent.sg

  • Alfian Sa’at: Donald Trump Wants To Keep America Safe, But Who Would Protect The World From Them?

    Alfian Sa’at: Donald Trump Wants To Keep America Safe, But Who Would Protect The World From Them?

    I remember making a joke when I was visiting New York last October: “It’s my last chance to visit the US before Trump becomes president and decides to ban Muslims.”

    That offhand joke is now a real nightmare, and laughter has turned to bile in the throat.

    I don’t intend to set foot on American soil again. The problem is that it’s easy to overlook the kinds of darkness that reside there because for a long time at least in a bipolar world, the US, compared to the Soviet Union, looked like the lesser of two evils. In addition there’s also something about soft power that throws a veil of gauze over sharp edges, that puts the horror into soft focus. America is in our earphones, in our cinemas, on our computer screens and smartphones, and all these help to domesticate its otherness. But alas that soft power is just a pretty collar on a dangerous animal and is not a leash.

    There is an America, ostensibly, of Disney and jazz and Instagram. But there is also that other America of unending gun violence, mass incarcerations, a militarised police, a broken healthcare system, white nationalism, a history of Native American genocide and African slavery; an America that exports weapons, that installs puppets and brutal dictators, that undermines popular sovereignty and stages coups, that lies to the world about Weapons of Mass Destruction and steals oil and turns entire neighbourhoods into rubble. How much hatred there must be towards this factory whose main manufacturing products are widows and orphans. And how convenient that those who are anti-American are seen as people who are ‘radicalised’ instead of people who refuse to accept the narrative churned out by the American propaganda machine.

    Trump has unmasked this other face of America, or at least made it more public than it ever was before. As a man voted in for being able ‘to say it like it is’, there is no better man for the job.

    On the other hand there is an Iran, of unsmiling black robed mullahs and Hezbollah and Ahmadinejad. But there is also another Iran, of rose gardens and fountains and nightingales, of the poets Hafez and Ferdowsi, of some of the greatest films ever made by the likes of Abbas Kiarostami, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Jafar Panahi and Asghar Farhadi. I remember once wanting to visit Iran but wondering whether it would in any way jeopardise any future entry into the US. What foolishness that was. It is both a gift and a curse to be reading and writing in this language. One has access to so much knowledge, but at the same time how susceptible one becomes to American imperialism, one of whose effects is to think of America’s enemies as our own. America fears what it cannot bend to its will. By sharing this fear we are also bending to America’s will.

    America wants to be safe. But who will keep the world safe from America?

     

    Source: Alfian Sa’at

  • Terrorist Attack On Mosque – Canadian Prime Minister Courageous, Should Be Emulated By Other Leaders

    Terrorist Attack On Mosque – Canadian Prime Minister Courageous, Should Be Emulated By Other Leaders

    Canadian PM, Justin Trudeau, called the shootings on the Quebec mosque as a terrorist attack on Muslims. There have been many attacks on innocent and defenceless Muslims around the world but this is the first time that a PM of a country has actually publicly condemned the acts as acts of terror.

    It takes a lot of courage for a leader to do this because of the potential political backlash from the majority of their countries.

    But the Canadian PM was brave. What he has done is show that Muslims also suffer from terrorist attacks.

    Unlike Donald Trump who has chosen the easiest and misguided ways to combat crime and terrorism simply by isolating the US and marginalising minority and migrant communities, Justin Trudeau has taken the enlightened, inclusive route.

    The rest of the world should learn this lesson from Trudeau.

     

    Amirul

    Reader Contribution

  • 5 Killed In Gun Attack On Canada Mosque

    5 Killed In Gun Attack On Canada Mosque

    ive people have reportedly been killed and several injured in a gun attack at a mosque in Québec City, the mosque’s president has said.

    The shooting was carried out by three attackers and happened during evening prayers at about 8pm on Sunday, said witnesses.

    About 40 people were thought to be in the building – the Québec City Islamic cultural center on Sainte-Foy Street – at the time.

    Two arrests have been made, a police spokesman said, but did not release details of the death toll.

    A large security cordon has been set up around the site.

    Canada’s publics safety minister, Ralph Goodale, said he was “deeply saddened” by the deaths.

    In June, during the holy month of Ramadan, a pig’s head was left at the mosque, CBC reported.

     

    Source: www.theguardian.com

     

  • Muslims Must Find Allies Among Non-Muslims In Fight Against Islamophobia

    Muslims Must Find Allies Among Non-Muslims In Fight Against Islamophobia

    Possible lessons from the Linda Sarsour episode:

    (For those who are unaware, she is a Palestinian-American and a social activist who participated in the women’s march held a few days ago. She gave a rousing, inspiring speech. Unfortunately, but predictably, she was slammed by many people; those on the far-right, but also, some Muslims.)

    1) Some men just cannot stand strong women, who have loud voices and are not afraid to articulate their opinions. This is regrettably still true, and it is really futile to pretend that it is not.

    2) As long as Muslims do not conform to certain expectations held by others, there will be efforts to ‘reform’ Islam and ‘modernize’ it. Can’t help but feel there would be fewer criticisms if she had not donned the hijab, or if she was a self-styled Muslim ‘reformer’.

    3) We should always challenge terminologies that are put forth by others. When others use the term ‘moderate’, or ‘progressive’, or ‘conservative’, do not let that slide, or worse, embrace them uncritically. This is not a matter of being an ‘academic exercise’; rather, it could have real-life implications.

    In this case, the term ‘anti-Semite’ was bandied about casually. Is she anti-Semitic because she is Palestinian? Aren’t Arabs Semites in the first place???

    Do not let others define the terms of discourse for us.

    4) Muslims should be aware that many of those who are defending Linda are those from other/no faiths. Yes, in the Western world, there are plenty of Islamophobes who wish to see Islam disappear from the face of the earth, and/or want Islam to be changed wholesale.

    At the same time, there are many who are allies and potential allies, who have stood up and will continue to stand up for us. It is crucial to recognize this.

    Muslims hate it when people paint us with the same brush. We, of all people, should know not to do that with ‘people in the West’, ‘Jews’, ‘the right’, and the like.

     

    Source: Walid J. Abdullah