Tag: Islam

Mufti Mesir Gesa Agar Cari Huraian Yang Adil Dan Elak Gunakan Keganasan

Muslim yang berasa sedih dan terguris akibat penghinaan ke atas Nabi Muhammad saw menyusuli penerbitan karikatur di majalah Charlie Hebdo, diajak mencari huraian yang adil berdasarkan perundangan negara dan mengelak daripada menggunakan keganasan.

Reaksi terbaik bagi umat Islam menangani kejadian sedemikian ialah mencontohi amalan Nabi Muhammad yang membalas setiap keburukan dengan sifat kebaikan.

Demikian pesanan Mufti Besar Mesir Sheikh Dr Shawki Allam di Seminar Asatizah yang berlangsung di Hab Islam di Braddell Road semalam.

Seminar anjuran Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura (Muis) yang dihadiri sekitar 200 peserta itu membawa tajuk Penguasa Agama dan Pembentukan Sebuah Masyarakat Harmoni dalam Dunia Majmuk.

Antara yang hadir di acara itu ialah Ketua Eksekutif Muis, Haji Abdul Razak Hassan Maricar dan Mufti Dr Mohamed Fatris Bakaram.

Di seminar itu, Sheikh Dr Shawki diminta mengulas tentang isu penerbitan karikatur yang menghina Nabi Muhammad saw oleh majalah Charlie Hebdo di Paris dan serangan oleh sekumpulan lelaki bersenjata ke atas pejabat majalah itu yang mengakibatkan 17 nyawa terkorban.

“Kita rasa sedih dan terguris apabila kita mendengar atau melihat penghinaan ke atas Nabi Muhammad saw.

“Namun kita harus mencari huraian yang adil kepada semua menerusi perundangan atau sistem negara,” kata Sheikh Dr Shawki.

Sebagai anggota masyarakat yang bertanggungjawab, beliau menekankan individu tidak berhak menjatuhkan hukum dengan sewenang-wenangnya apabila berdepan dengan sesuatu yang tidak menyenangkan atau apabila menyaksikan sesuatu jenayah.

Cara yang lebih berhemah menurut beliau ialah mencontohi amalan Nabi Muhammad saw yang membalas setiap keburukan dengan kebaikan dan cara yang berakhlak.

Terdapat banyak contoh dalam riwayat Nabi yang mempamerkan sifat beliau yang berahlak.

Sheikh Dr Shawki menukil kisah seorang jiran yang selalu membuang najis dan kotoran di hadapan kediaman Nabi Muhammad saw.

“Suatu hari, Nabi Muhammad saw mendapati tiada kotoran yang dibuang di hadapan rumahnya dan beliau diberitahu jiran yang sering mengotori lamannya sedang sakit.

“Nabi Muhammad bersifat mulia dan menziarahi jiran berkenaan,” kata beliau.

Sheikh Dr Shawki berada di sini dalam rangka lawatan empat hari bermula kelmarin di bawah Program Pelawat Unggul (DVP) Muis.

Ini kali pertama ketua agama itu, yang dilantik menjadi Mufti ke-19 Mesir pada 2013, mengunjungi Singapura dan rantau ini.

Sheikh Dr Shawki seorang pemimpin Islam dan ulama yang dihormati dan dikenali kerana dedikasi dan usahanya ke arah keamanan menerusi pemahaman masyarakat yang pelbagai dan berbeza.

Semalam beliau menghadiri jamuan malam bersama pemimpin berbilang agama.

Hari ini beliau dijadualkan bertemu Presiden Tony Tan Keng Yam dan Perdana Menteri Lee Hsien Loong di Istana.

Selepas itu beliau akan mengunjungi Pusat Sumber dan Kaunseling, Kumpulan Pemulihan Keagamaan (RRG) di Masjid Khadijah.

Malam ini pula beliau akan menyampaikan Ceramah Muis di Hotel Orchard.

Source: http://beritaharian.sg

January 26, 2015
Arab-American Civil Rights Group Says Movie American Sniper Spurs Threats Against Muslims

CHICAGO (Reuters) – An Arab-American civil rights organization has asked “American Sniper” director Clint Eastwood and actor Bradley Cooper to denounce hateful language directed at U.S. Arabs and Muslims after the release of the film about a Navy marksman.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) said in a letter to Eastwood and Cooper that its members had become targets of “violent threats” since early last week, before “American Sniper” went into general release. The letter said Eastwood and Cooper, the film’s producer and star, could bolster the ADC’s message of tolerance.

“It is our opinion that you could play a significant role in assisting us in alleviating the danger we are facing,” said the letter, dated Jan. 21. Reuters was provided a copy on Saturday.

The film is a box office hit and has been nominated for six Academy Awards, including best picture.

The ADC said it was working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and police to assess the threats.

The film tells the story of Chris Kyle, a Navy SEAL sniper. His 160 kills in Iraq is considered the highest count in U.S. military history. Some critics have said the film glorifies war and sanitizes Kyle, who called Muslims “savages” in his memoir.

Kyle was killed by a disgruntled U.S. veteran at a Texas gun range in 2013.

ADC President Samer Khalaf said on Saturday that it did not make sense to call for a boycott given the film’s box office success.

“If we boycott it, it will only cause people to want to see it more,” he said.

The Washington-based ADC asked Arabs and Muslims to send them copies of threatening messages they had received. More than 100 have been collected, all from social media.

“Nice to see a movie where the Arabs are portrayed for who they really are – vermin scum intent on destroying us,” said one Twitter post collected by the ADC.

Jack Horner, a spokesman for Warner Bros., the studio releasing the film, said in a statement that the company, a unit of Time Warner Co, “denounces any violent, anti-Muslim rhetoric, including that which has been attributed to viewers” of the film.

He added, “Hate and bigotry have no place in the important dialogue that this picture has generated about the veteran experience.”

Spokesmen for Eastwood and Cooper had no immediate response to requests for comment.

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

January 26, 2015
Fighting Between Police And Muslim Rebel Groups in Philippines Results In Death Of At east 30

MANILA – At least 30 people were killed in heavy fighting between police and Muslim rebels in the Philippines on Sunday, military and local officials said, threatening a year-old peace agreement and shattering a ceasefire that held for three years.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the largest rebel group in the Philippine south, accepted an autonomy offer in March 2014 from the government, ending 45 years of conflict in which 120,000 people were killed and 2 million displaced.

Under the deal, brokered by Malaysia, the Moro rebels were to surrender their weapons and disband after the government had set up a new autonomous government in the south and granted the Muslim minority wider economic and political power.

But Sunday’s clashes, which lasted nearly 12 hours near Mamasapano town, Maguindanao, are likely to be a major setback in the implementation of the deal as Philippine Congress deliberates a new law on Muslim autonomy.

Army sources said police had entered a Muslim community where MILF and its rival faction, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, are believed to be operating. The Philippine National Police did not give any statement.

Zacaria Guma, a MILF commander, in a statement said the police did not coordinate with a joint government and rebel ceasefire panel.

Police had wanted to arrest Zulkifli bin Hir, a Malaysian bomb expert who has a $5 million bounty on his head from the U.S. State Department, an army spokesman said.

Local officials in Mamasapano said 27 police officers and five rebels were killed. Seven more police officers were unaccounted for and a further eight captured by Muslim rebels.

The death toll could reach 50 people, most of them from the police, the army sources said. Colonel Restituto Padilla said no army unit was involved but they were helping recover police casualties in the area. Nine had been retrieved.

Government and rebel peace panels are now holding informal talks to defuse tension and prevent the incident from escalating and spilling out and threaten the entire peace process.

The last time the MILF clashed with security force was in November 2011 when troops raided a supposed Islamist militants lair. The peace talks with MILF nearly collapsed then.

Source: www.todayonline.com

January 26, 2015
12 Dead After Violent Clashes Between Police And Islamist Protesters In Egypt

Authorities had tightened security in Cairo and other cities after Islamists called for protests against the government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former army chief who ousted his Islamist predecessor Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

Demonstrators, mostly Islamist backers of Morsi, clashed with police, leaving 12 protesters dead in Cairo and another in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, a health ministry official told AFP.

Officials said the protester in Alexandria was shot dead by police after he opened fire on them.

Hundreds of other protesters who denounced both Islamists and the government also clashed with police in central Cairo.

The interior ministry said protesters shot dead a police conscript in the clashes in two north Cairo neighbourhoods that are strongholds of Islamist protests. Three other officers were wounded.

At least 150 people were arrested across the country as police dispersed protests which saw many leftwing demonstrators also participating, security officials said.

In downtown Cairo, police fired shotguns and tear gas against hundreds of protesters who tried to march on the central Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the early 2011 revolt that ousted Mubarak.

Armoured vehicles were stationed around Tahrir, but despite extra security in the capital jihadists managed to set off a bomb in Cairo that wounded two policemen.

The interior ministry said the bomb exploded in eastern Cairo’s Alf Maskan neighbourhood, where a similar blast on Friday wounded four policemen and a civilian.

Jihadist group Ajnad Misr (Soldiers of Egypt) claimed both blasts.

Two suspected militants were also killed when they mistakenly blew themselves up in an attempt to sabotage an electricity tower in the Nile Delta province of Baheira, the interior ministry said.

Tensions had surged ahead of the anniversary, and a female demonstrator was killed in clashes with police during a rare leftwing protest in Cairo on Saturday.

Shaima al-Sabbagh, who friends said was 34 and the mother of a five-year-old boy, died of birdshot wounds, a health ministry spokesman said.

Fellow protesters said she was hit by birdshot when police fired to disperse the march. Prosecutors have launched a probe into her death.

An 18-year-old female protester was also killed on Friday in clashes in Alexandria.

Egypt has been gripped by political turmoil since Mubarak’s ouster, and by violent unrest since his successor Morsi was overthrown by then army chief Sisi.

Sisi toppled Morsi in July 2013 and has since led a crackdown on his supporters that has left hundreds dead.

Jihadist militants have in turn regularly targeted security forces, killing scores of policemen and soldiers.

– ‘Funeral of the revolution’ –

Ahead of the anniversary, police had warned they would “decisively” confront protests. Morsi’s supporters often hold small rallies that police quickly disperse.

Cairo’s streets were largely deserted, although a few Sisi supporters gathered outside Tahrir waving Egyptian flags and chanting “Long Live Egypt!”

Plainclothes police checked identity cards and stopped people from heading to the square.

Security was beefed up elsewhere in the capital, with machinegun-wielding police deployed on key streets.

“This is the funeral of the (2011) revolution,” Mamdouh Hamza, a prominent figure from the anti-Mubarak uprising, told an AFP correspondent in central Cairo.

“The murderer kills, and then joins the funeral procession. Nothing has improved or changed since Sisi took over.”

Activists, including those who spearheaded the anti-Mubarak revolt, have accused Sisi of reviving much of Mubarak’s autocratic rule.

Sisi and his supporters deny such allegations, pointing to his widespread popularity and support in Egypt for a firm hand in dealing with protests, which are seen as threatening economic recovery.

The revolt against Mubarak erupted on January 25, 2011, with hundreds of thousands of protesters taking to the streets across Egypt for 18 days until he stepped down.

The anti-Mubarak revolt was fuelled by police abuses and the corruption of the strongman’s three-decade rule, but the police have since regained popularity amid widespread yearning for stability.

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

January 26, 2015
Japan PM Speechless After IS Released Video Indicating One Japanese Hostage Killed

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s prime minister said Sunday he was “speechless” after an online video purportedly showed that one of two Japanese hostages of the extremist Islamic State group had been killed, and he demanded the release of the other.

Shinzo Abe told Japanese broadcaster NHK that the video was likely authentic, though he said the government is still reviewing it. Abe offered condolences to the family and friends of Haruna Yukawa, a 42-year-old adventurer taken hostage in Syria last year.

He declined to comment on the message in the latest video, which demanded a prisoner exchange for the other hostage, journalist Kenji Goto. He said only that the government was still working on the situation, and reiterated that Japan condemns terrorism.

“I am left speechless,” he said, stressing he wants Goto released unharmed. “We strongly and totally criticize such acts.”

Yukawa’s father, Shoichi, said he hoped “deep in his heart” that the news of his son’s killing was not true.

“If I am ever reunited with him, I just want to give him a big hug,” he told a small group of journalists invited into his house.

President Barack Obama condemned what he called “the brutal murder” of Yukawa, saying in a statement that the United States stands by Japan and calling for Goto’s release.

The Associated Press could not verify the contents of the message, which varied greatly from previous videos released by the Islamic State group, which now holds a third of both Syria and Iraq.

The Islamic State group had threatened on Tuesday to behead the men within 72 hours unless it received a $200 million ransom. Kyodo News agency reported that Saturday’s video was emailed to Goto’s wife.

Patrick Ventrell, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said U.S. intelligence officials were also working to confirm whether it was authentic.

Abe said after a Cabinet meeting late Saturday that the government of Japan will not succumb to terrorism and will continue to cooperate with the international community in the fight against terrorism.

Japanese diplomats left Syria as the civil war there escalated, compounding the difficulty of reaching the militants holding the hostages.

Abe spoke by phone with Jordanian King Abdullah II on Saturday, the state-run Petra news agency reported, without elaborating on what they discussed. He also called the two hostages’ families.

Goto’s mother, Junko Ishido, told NHK that in the purported message her son “seemed to be taking seriously what may be happening to him as well.”

“I’m petrified,” Ishido said. “He has children. I’m praying he will return soon, and that’s all I want.”

But Ishido also was skeptical about the voice claiming to be Goto. “Kenji’s English is very good. He should sound more fluent,” she said.

Japanese government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said the audio was still being studied, but there was no reason to deny the authenticity of the video.

One militant on the Islamic State-affiliated website warned that Saturday’s new message was fake, while another said that the message was intended only to go to the Japanese journalist’s family.

A third militant on the website noted that the video was not issued by al-Furqan, which is one of the media arms of the Islamic State group and has issued past videos involving hostages and beheadings. Saturday’s message did not bear al-Furqan’s logo.

The militants on the website post comments using pseudonyms, so their identities could not be independently confirmed by the AP. However, their confusion over the video matched that of Japanese officials and outside observers.

Japanese officials have not directly said whether they are considering paying any ransom. Japan has joined other major industrial nations in opposing ransom payments. U.S. and British officials said they advised against paying.

Nobuo Kimoto, a business adviser to Yukawa, told NHK: “I was hoping he would be released, or at least that his life would not be taken.”

“I wish this was some kind of a mistake,” he said.

Yukawa was captured last summer, and Goto is thought to have been seized in late October after going to Syria to try to rescue him.

___

Associated Press writers Maamoun Youssef in Cairo, Mari Yamaguchi, Ken Moritsugu, Kaori Hitomi and Elaine Kurtenbach in Tokyo, and White House Correspondent Julie Pace at Ramstein Air Base, Germany contributed to this report.

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

January 26, 2015