Tag: Islam

Masyarakat Melayu/Islam Singapura Perlu Pimpinan Agama Kuat, Berwibawa

KAHIRAH, MESIR: Masyarakat Melayu/Islam Singapura memerlukan kepimpinan keagamaan yang kuat dan berwibawa.

Ini sedang Singapura berdepan dengan cabaran-cabaran ekonomi baru. Malah, masyarakat Melayu/Islam juga perlu menyesuaikan diri dengan keadaan baru untuk terus berkembang.

Mutu dan nilai kepimpinan yang tulen jugalah yang akan memberi manfaat kepada masyarakat Melayu/Islam, di tengah-tengah sekitaran yang tidak menentu dan berubah-ubah.

Demikian ditegaskan Menteri Bertanggungjawab bagi Ehwal Masyarakat Islam, Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, kepada para pelajar Singapura yang baru tamat pengajian di Universiti Al-Azhar di Kahirah. Majlis konvokesyen (1 Nov) bagi 45 penuntut Singapura di ibu kota Mesir itu lebih istimewa, kerana buat pertama kalinya, diserikan dengan kehadiran Presiden Tony Tan Keng Yam, yang kini dalam rangka lawatan negara selama lima hari ke Mesir.

Presiden Tony Tan Keng Yam bersama graduan Singapura, Aufa Muhammad Sidqee di majlis konvokesyen di Universiti Al-Azhar. (Gambar: MUIS)

MANFAATKAN PEJABAT KERJAYA DAN KEBAJIKAN PELAJAR (SCWO)

Dr Yaacob yang juga merupakan Menteri Perhubungan dan Penerangan menekankan, semangat ingin tahu dan terus menerus belajar merupakan satu lagi kualiti penting kepimpinan. Lantaran itu, beliau mengajak para graduan supaya melihat majlis konvokesyen itu sebagai “hanya satu tahap dalam perjalanan panjang untuk mempertingkatkan diri anda”.

“Anda mesti secara konsisten mempertingkatkan diri anda dengan ilmu dan kemahiran-kemahiran yang relevan, untuk bergerak seiring dan berkembang maju dalam dunia yang sentiasa berubah,” ujar Dr Yaacob dalam ucapan tersebut.

Beliau kemudian memberitahu para graduan universiti ulung itu, bahawa mereka boleh memanfaatkan sumber-sumber dari Pejabat Kerjaya dan Kebajikan Pelajar (SCWO) yang baru ditubuhkan. SCWO menawarkan peluang-peluang latihan kepada mahasiswa dan siswazah dalam usaha mempersiapkan mereka untuk ekonomi baru. SCWO bekerjasama dengan agensi-agensi awam dan swasta.

FAHAMI KOMPLEKSITI MASYARAKAT & DAPATKAN ILMU DI LUAR DISIPLIN KEAGAMAAN

Menyentuh mengenai Skim Pengiktirafan Asatizah (ARS), Dr Yaacob berkata MUIS merancang untuk menjalankan lebih banyak lagi program untuk para graduan Singapura dari universiti Islam luar negara. Program-program tersebut merupakan “satu keperluan” sebelum mereka didaftarkan ke dalam ARS, kongsi Dr Yaacob.

Program tersebut, di mana para pesertanya didedahkan kepada pelbagai perspektif berhubung tradisi Islam dan konteksnya dengan kehidupan moden, “akan mempersiapkan anda untuk berjaya sebagai asatizah”, kata Dr Yaacob lagi.

(Gambar-gambar: MUIS)

Beliau yang juga Menteri Bertanggungjawab bagi Keselamatan Siber, menyeru para graduan Islam Singapura supaya “memahami kompleksiti masyarakat” dan mempunyai kemahiran berbeza-beza “di luar disiplin sains keagamaan”.

Dr Yaacob berharap mereka juga akan mendewasa dengan menjadi “satu suara yang berkeyakinan untuk masyarakat progresif kita, untuk membimbing masyarakat supaya istiqamah dengan agama kita, dan menyumbang kepada pembinaan sebuah negara yang harmoni”.

Selain Presiden Tony Tan, majlis konvokesyen itu turut dihadiri Timbalan Imam Besar Al Azhar, Dr Abbas Shoman, Duta Singapura ke Mesir, Encik S Premjith dan Timbalan Ketua Eksekutif MUIS, Dr Albakri Ahmad.

Source: http://berita.mediacorp.sg

November 3, 2016
45 Singaporean Students Graduate From Al-Azhar University

CAIRO: As religious extremist groups increasingly turn to social media to entice youths to join their ranks, young Singaporeans who graduated from the prominent Al-Azhar University in Egypt on Tuesday (Nov 1) said they see themselves as having a unique position to address and refute these extremist views.

“As a graduate of Al-Azhar university, I feel that yes, I do have a role to play and in teaching, in educating the masses that Islam is not an extreme religion,” said class valedictorian Nur Diyana Zait, who said she planned to pursue a career in education after graduating, “to educate young children, to continue to inspire and also to empower women”.

“I dream to spread the true teachings of Islam and give the best idea of Islam, and to share whatever I have learnt here,” added 25-year-old Aufa Muhammad Sidqee, who studied philosophy and Islamic Creed, and also plans to go into teaching once he returns to Singapore.

Mr Aufa and Ms Diyana graduated on Tuesday night, in a ceremony where Singapore President Tony Tan Keng Yam, who is on a state visit to Egypt, was the guest of honour.

There are 45 Singapore students graduating from Al-Azhar University this year – one of the centres of Islamic learning in the world, and described by some as the “Oxford of Islamic studies” – with degrees in Islamic law, theology or Arabic language and literature.

Singaporean students at the graduation ceremony. (Photo: Kenneth Lim)

“You now represent the next generation of leaders for the Muslim community,” Dr Tan told the students at a reception after the ceremony, where he wished them continued success in their endeavours.

The President added that he was confident the students would “continue to promote racial and religious harmony in Singapore”, something he described as “precious and should be treasured.”

Many of Singapore’s Muslim leaders graduated from Al Azhar, including former and current Muftis. The university accredits the certificates of four madrasahs in Singapore, and has awarded scholarships to Singaporean students over the past decade. While most Singaporean Al-Azhar graduates become religious teachers in madrasahs, others have joined non-governmental organisations or worked as translators in foreign embassies.

“They (the graduating students) have an important role to play,” said Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Yaacob Ibrahim, who also attended the graduation ceremony. “They will be operating in Singapore (and) they command a certain respect in our community.

“They should use that respect wisely, to help guide the community towards the outcome that we want, which is a community that is inclusive and is well-integrated with the wider community.”

PRESIDENT TAN MEETS RELIGIOUS, POLITICAL LEADERS FROM EGYPT

On Monday, Dr Tan met the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmed Al Tayeb, one of the most prominent figures in Sunni Islam. The two leaders discussed ways to counter religious extremism and the importance of promoting inter-faith dialogue – key tenets of the institution’s philosophy.

The President also visited the Al-Azhar Observatory for Foreign Languages – which seeks to correct misconceptions of Islam that youths may have picked up online. The centre monitors extremist messages in nine languages, including English, Mandarin and Urdu, and refutes them using its own online platforms.

Ambassador Abdel Rahman Moussa, Al-Azhar’s chairman of the Department of International Student Affairs, said the school’s main concern was to “teach the real Islam”.

This, he said, would help explain to youths “the proper thoughts and proper ideas”, and how extremist ideologies are false and do not have any connection with Islam, Muslims and the Islamic cause.

On Tuesday, Dr Tan also met Egypt Prime Minister Sherif Ismail at the Office of the Cabinet of Ministers in Cairo. The Prime Minister briefed the President on Egypt’s economic development plans and reform programmes, and said he welcomed investments from Singapore from companies in various sectors such as port and logistics, water desalination, as well as urban solutions.

Dr Tan, who wraps up his state visit on Thursday, said during the meeting that there was scope to strengthen economic relations, as Singapore companies explore opportunities in Egypt.

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

November 3, 2016
Iraqi Forces Make First Push Into Mosul

Advancing Iraqi troops broke through Islamic State defenses in an eastern suburb of Mosul on Monday, taking the battle for the insurgents’ stronghold into the city limits for the first time, a force commander said.

The fighting came after two weeks of advances by U.S.-backed Iraqi forces who cleared surrounding areas of insurgents, in the early stages of the largest military operation in Iraq since the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Commanders have said the battle for the city, the hardline militants’ last big bastion in Iraq, could take months.

Troops of the Iraqi army’s Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) moved forward on Gogjali, an industrial zone on the eastern outskirts.

The commander of CTS forces east of the city, Lieutenant-General Abdul Ghani al-Assadi, told state television his forces had reached the edge of the Karama district inside the city.

A Reuters correspondent in the village of Bazwaia saw plumes of smoke rising from a built-up area a few kilometers away which a commander said was the result of clashes already under way inside Karama.

A Kurdish peshmerga intelligence source said he received a report saying seven Islamic State militants were killed in the Aden district, adjacent to Karama, and two of their vehicles destroyed.

Iraqi state television said there were also clashes inside the city between Islamic State fighters and residents rising up against the group.

The Kurdish intelligence source said such “resistance elements” had opened fire on an Islamic State police unit in Intisaar district, south of Karama, and armed fighters had spread out in streets across the city apparently fearing revolt.

Reuters could not independently verify the report. The government and its U.S. allies are hoping an uprising inside the city will help loosen the grip of the fighters, who seized it in 2014 and proclaimed a “caliphate” to rule over all Muslims.

The fighting ahead in a built-up city still home to 1.5 million people will be more complex than the recent capture of Christian and Sunni Muslim villages and towns outside the city, mostly emptied of their residents.

Mosul is many times larger than any other city Islamic State has held, and the United Nations has warned of a worst-case scenario of up to 1 million people being suddenly displaced, requiring the world’s largest humanitarian operation.

“SURRENDER OR DIE”

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, speaking at the Qayyara military airbase south of Mosul, said the Iraqi forces were trying to close off all escape routes for the several thousand Islamic State fighters inside Mosul.

“God willing, we will chop off the snake’s head,” Abadi, wearing military fatigues, told state television. “They have no escape, they either die or surrender.”

Iraqi security forces and Kurdish peshmerga fighters started the offensive against the hardline Sunni group on Oct. 17, with air and ground support from a U.S.-led coalition.

“They are making deliberate progress, they’re on their timeline,” British Major General Rupert Jones, deputy commander for strategy and support of the U.S.-led anti-Islamic State coalition, told Reuters.

The recapture of Mosul would mark the militants’ effective defeat in the Iraqi half of the territory they seized two years ago.

Ranged against them are some 50,000 Iraqi troops, policemen and Kurdish peshmerga, with air and ground support from the U.S.-led coalition. Thousands of battle-hardened Iran-backed Shi’ite militia fighters also joined the campaign west of the city two days ago.

Hadi al-Amiri, leader of the Badr Organisation, the largest of the Shi’ite militia groups, expressed hope that Mosul would not descend into a protracted and devastating conflict like the four-year-old battle for the Syrian city of Aleppo, where Shi’ite militias are also fighting.

“We are afraid that Mosul would be another Aleppo, but we hope that will not happen,” he told reporters in Zarqa, south of Mosul.

SCORCHED EARTH TACTICS

Islamic State militants have been fighting off the offensive with suicide car bombs, snipers and mortar fire.

Islamic State said on Monday it carried out a suicide operation against a joint convoy of the army and Shi’ite militias south of Mosul. It gave no casualty figures.

The militants have brought displaced thousands of civilians from villages toward Mosul, using them as “human shields” to cover their retreat, U.N. officials and villagers have said.

They have also set oil on fire to create smokescreens, choking the region in smoke.

“Scorched earth tactics employed by retreating ISIL members are having an immediate health impact on civilians, and risk long-term environmental and health consequences,” the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

The warring parties have given no casualty figures among their own ranks or civilians. Both say they have killed hundreds of their opponents.

Source: TODAY Online

November 2, 2016
Mufti Keluar Fatwa Senaman Zumba Adalah Haram

Mufti Sabah tampil kembali memberi peringatan kepada umat Islam khususnya, bahawa aktiviti tarian dan senamrobik yang diiringi muzik rancak atau lebih dikenali sebagai senaman zumba adalah haram.

Peringatan itu dikeluarkan dalam satu kenyataan bersurat khas yang dikeluarkan bertarikh 19 Julai lalu.

Tindakan surat peringatan itu dibuat berikutan senaman zumba kini semakin popular dan disertai umat Islam khususnya di Sabah.

Dalam surat pekeliling itu, Datuk Bungsu @ Aziz Jaafar menggesa umat Islam menjauhi senaman tersebut kerana terdapatnya unsur-unsur yang bertentangan syariat dan akhlak Islam.

“Antaranya seperti percampuran lelaki dan perempuan bukan mahram, pakaian menjolok mata, pendedahan aurat, elemen erotik dalam tarian dan persembahan muzik yang keterlaluan,” katanya

Pada April 2014, Mufti Sabah pernah mengeluarkan fatwa rasmi bahawa senaman zumba itu adalah haram.

Source: Bin Usrah

November 2, 2016
Can’t Blame Non-Muslim Businesses For Own Ignorance: Islamic Scholars In Malaysia

Muslims have the obligation to know the halal status of the food they want to consume and cannot blame non-Muslim businesses for their own ignorance, Islamic scholars in Malaysia said.

Former Terengganu Mufti Datuk Ismail Yahya and member of PKR’S Islamic Council Wan Ji Wan Hussein believe if non-Muslim outlets have made it clear that their food is non-halal, they should not be held responsible if Muslim consumers failed to observe the notice.

“Both parties must be responsible. The shop must make it clear that it is not halal,” Mr Ismail, now a legal adviser for progressive Islamic NGO Sisters in Islam, told Malay Mail online.

“And if the outlets have (put a notice of its non-halal status), it is the responsibility of Muslims themselves to know not to eat there,” he added.

Mr Wan Ji, on the other hand, said non-Muslim businesses have the right to sell whatever product without having to placate Muslim consumers.

The young independent preacher added Muslim themselves must educate themselves about the choices they make, and cannot accuse non-Muslim businesses of attempting to confuse Islam’s followers if the non-halal status of their products were made clear.

“Non-Muslims have the right to sell whatever product they want and say a Muslim entered the premise and mistakenly consumed a food that make up the core product of the company then you can’t blame the company can you?”

Controversy struck fast food outlet Ninja Joe following complaints over its decision to name one of its burgers “P. Ramly”, a move that drew accusations by some Muslim consumers of attempt to confuse.

Ninja Joe is known as a non-halal fast food chain company that specialises in pork burgers, even among Muslims.

But Mr Ismail also said that the company was inviting trouble by choosing a Muslim’s name for a pork burger.

While stressing that Muslims should have already known that the outlet sells pork burgers, naming a product with a Muslim name would definitely draw controversy.

“If the company had made it clear they sell pork burgers then Muslims should have known not to enter..but maybe the company could have avoided (controversy) if they didn’t name something non-halal with a known Muslim’s name,” he said.

Ninja Joe said it named the burger “P Ramly” as a homage to popular local burger makers Ramly Burger, a product it said was iconic to the Malaysian identity.

But Mr Wan Ji noted some revered Islamic scholars, including the esteemed Yusuf Qaradawi, had deemed it permissible for Muslims to consume food offered by non-Muslims if they were unaware that the food are not halal.

“In fiqh, cited even by Yusuf Qaradawi, Muslims are not obliged to decline food offered if their eyes did not see how the food was prepared.

“Even during the Prophet’s (Muhammad) time, he did not question how the food that were offered to him by the Christians and Jews were prepared,” the PKR leader said.

Ninja Joe could face action after the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) and its Negri Sembilan counterpart, JHEAINS, opened investigations against the company for what they alleged to be an attempt at confusing Muslims, in addition to confiscating several items from its store.

The Domestic Trade, Cooperative and Consumer Affairs Ministry has since said that it will take action against Ninja Joe if any wrongdoing is found.

Source: TODAY Online

November 2, 2016