Rilek1Corner

Tag: Islam

  • Gaza: Where Have All The Activists Gone?

    Gaza: Where Have All The Activists Gone?

    I have always thought that those who resort to violence or those who go as far as exploding themselves are sick and inhuman. But now I know how it feels to have nothing to lose but your worthless life. I know how it feels to be so desperate that you literally cry from disappointment when you actually wake up in the morning, and to spend the night before asking God for a last favor … to take your life because you’re just too cowardly to take it yourself. #‎Gaza‬ is no longer a city or a territory. It is a disease. It is an unbearable pain, an un-treatable wound. Gaza is the opposite of life, but at the same time far beyond death.

    This is the Facebook post to which I woke up yesterday, written by Maisam Morr, one of the few Gazans who typically serve as my “rocks” – resilient spirits who never give up, and keep my hope alive that we can beat back the grinding, dehumanizing force that is the Israeli occupation. She is the one who dreamed up the Rubble Bucket Challenge (the Palestinian response to the ALS ice bucket), and who – in the midst of the unremitting “gray” of the destruction that is Gaza – asked for a pink laptop for her birthday. And yet now, she was succumbing.

    The breaking point for Maisam was the announcement Sunday that Israel had closed its two crossings into Gaza for all but the most critical humanitarian aid, in response to the firing of a single rocket fired.  No injuries or property damage resulted, and no groups in Gaza claimed responsibility or credit. According to Maisam, “almost all Gazans swear that it is some sort of a trick (a planned trap) to open another front with Israel.” F16s are now flying low over Gaza again, as if on cue.

    According to news reports, Israel had not decided how long the crossing would be closed. “It will depend on the security situation.” There’s that code phrase…”security situation” – a cover for just about any action Israel chooses to take, and which no one in the international community (in the West at least) is courageous enough to challenge. (Update: the crossings re-opened today, and Palestinian officials said 330 truckloads of goods, as well as one of cement, would be allowed in. Seriously? ONE truckload of cement? In a way, I think that’s how Israel uses closures – as a device to make Gazans happy for crumbs when they come.)

    Meanwhile, in the wake of the Oct. 24 attack on an army checkpoint in the northern Sinai that killed 31 soldiers, Egypt has emulated Israel. It declared a three-month lockdown in the area, including a dawn-to-dusk curfew, and indefinitely closed the Rafah crossing, Gaza’s only non-Israeli-controlled bridge to the outside world. Meanwhile, Egypt is demolishing an estimated 800 homes housing 10,000 residents to set up its own buffer zone along the border with Gaza (546 yards wide, 8 miles long). As with the Israeli rocket, no group claimed responsibility, yet the Egyptian government has been quick to implicate Hamas and other Gaza-based “terror groups.” In addition to slamming its doors shut to thousands of Palestinians seeking medical treatment or opportunities to study abroad, the Egyptian government canceled indefinitely the indirect talks between Israelis and Hamas on a long-term truce.

    “My dearest Egypt,” wrote Maisam on her blog. “You treat me like an infectious disease. You see me as a threat to your national security while all I ever wanted is to protect my life, my dignity and my very being. Forgive me for being so selfish and so blind for I simply cannot understand how come my call for freedom collides with your mighty security. Only few years ago, I thought we fought a shared enemy but it looks like that I AM the enemy.”

    Abu Marzouk, deputy chairman of Hamas’ political bureau and a member of the Palestinian reconciliation delegation, describes the closures as collective punishment, in contradiction of all understandings, agreements and international law, and adds that it will be impossible to sit idly by. And can you blame him? Since the ceasefire was announced on Aug. 26, two Palestinian rockets were shot by unknown parties. Israel, however, has violated it 19 times by shooting at fishermen and farmers, and opened the crossings on an extremely limited basis – far less than implied by the spirit of the ceasefire terms. (It doesn’t help that Israel wants the “civilian nature” of every project to be verified by Israeli and U.N. officials.) See my blog post for a complete listing of ceasefire violations and an overall status report.

    Yet, Nicole Ganz, spokeswoman for the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, says the Palestinian Authority has yet to file a complaint. And the international activist community? It sometimes seems it takes a war to mobilize us in mass numbers as well – which explains why we’re all focused on Syria and Iraq, with barely a mention or attempt to push back on the daily deteriorations in Gaza and the West Bank.

    “During the war, I was getting messages all the time from foreigners who wanted to help, who promised to help me get out for a bit after it was over,” recalls Maisam. “But now..nothing. Even during the war, I never felt like I wanted to die. This is new to me. I guess we’ll just keep breathing until we stop.”

     

    Source: http://mondoweiss.net

  • Picture of Hindu Deity Beside Halal Logo on Water Bottle Labels Creates a Stir in Malaysia

    Picture of Hindu Deity Beside Halal Logo on Water Bottle Labels Creates a Stir in Malaysia

    KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 5 — A mineral water company said today it will remove all bottles with labels featuring Hindu deity Lord Murugan near its “halal” logo, but urged for understanding that the slip-up was not meant to offend Muslims.

    Chuan Sin Sdn Bhd, the firm that bottles the Cactus Natural Mineral Water, explained in a statement here that the photograph was actually of Batu Caves and was selected as part of the company’s promotion of tourism hotspots in Malaysia in conjunction with Visit Malaysia Year 2014.

    Chuan Sin Sdn Bhd deputy general manager Chong Mee Yoong said as a “proudly” homegrown Malaysian brand, the company has been leveraging on Malaysian events through its packaging in order to establish a connection with its local consumers.

    “We have been promoting the wonders and attractions of Malaysia and have been working with Tourism Malaysia for this purpose for more than 20 years.

    “This year, Cactus has been proud to support Visit Malaysia Year 2014 by featuring a new series of well-known attractions in Malaysia on its bottle pack label,” Chong said.

    She said Batu Caves was chosen as it is an “awe-inspiring” landmark and a major tourism draw in Malaysia.

    “We would like to stress that it was never our intention to be disrespectful, cause unease or to offend anyone,” Chong said, before thanking members of the public for raising the issue to the firm’s attention.

    “We deeply value the relationship between Cactus Natural Mineral Water and Malaysians, and we take pride in ensuring our customers’ satisfaction,” she added.

    As added reassurance, Chong said all mineral water bottles featuring the Batu Caves photograph will be removed from the shelves.

    The firm will also cease production of bottle with that particular label, she said.

    “Moving forward, we will ensure that more viewpoints are consulted before producing a similar series to prevent such a misunderstanding from recurring,” Chong said.

    Yesterday, the Muslim Consumers Association of Malaysia (PPIM) accused Chuan Sin Sdn Bhd of offending Muslim sensitivities by placing the image of Lord Murugan, a Hindu deity, near the “halal” logo on the labels of its Cactus brand bottled water.

    Earlier today, both PPIM and another Muslim group, Pejuangan Warisan Islam Melayu Malaysia (PEWARIS), demanded that the police investigate the mineral water bottler for sedition, among others.

    “We want the police to investigate this matter and take the appropriate action, may it be the Sedition Act or any relevant act.

    “This matter is sensitive to the Muslims of the country,” said PPIM head of monitoring and financial services Sheikh Abdul Kareem after lodging a police report here today

  • Islam in Japan Before And After 9/11

    Islam in Japan Before And After 9/11

    Tokyo, Japan – Tokyo Camii, or the Tokyo Mosque, is a curious sight, both stunning and subtle. Despite the grand Turkish design, the mosque hides between apartment blocks in the quiet residential neighbourhood of Yoyogi Uehara.

    Construction of the current incarnation of the mosque was completed in 2000, but the mosque has a much longer history. It was in the 1930s when Japan first saw a significant resident Muslim population and the first mosques were established. The Nagoya Mosque was built in 1931 and the Kobe Mosque in 1935 by Indian-Muslim migrants.

    Tatar Muslim migrants escaping the Russian revolution made up the largest ethnic group in Japan by the 1930s and established the original Tokyo Mosque in 1938.

    Hans Martin Kramer, a professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Heidelberg and an expert on religion in Japan, considers this to be the most prominent mosque in Japan, one that was “not only supported by the Japanese government, but also financed by Japanese companies, most notably Mitsubishi, and its opening ceremony was attended by dignitaries and diplomats from both Japan and the Islamic World”.

    While the Tokyo Camii does not have the same support and contacts with Japanese government and large conglomerates in contemporary times, the mosque was rebuilt using funds from the Turkish government and is both a religious venue and an ethno-cultural space hosting wedding ceremonies, fashion shows, plays, exhibitions and conferences.

    Marriage and conversion

    Away from the tourists, marble floors and ornate interiors in a small alley around the corner from Tokyo Camii is Dr Musa Omer at the Yuai International School. The school is loud, unpretentious, chaotic and teeming with children. It is a Saturday and the school has activities and classes from 10am until 8pm. While the leadership at the school is looking towards offering full-time education in the near-future, it is currently limited to offering Saturday classes ranging from Islamic studies and Arabic, to karate and calligraphy.

    The school is run by the Islamic Centre of Japan (ICJ), a post-WWII Muslim institution established in 1966. Omer – an advisor to the Saudi Ambassador and who has twice served as the Sudanese Ambassador to Japan – is its acting chairman.

    On this day, Omer is preparing to marry a young couple in his small office – a Saudi man and a Japanese woman. Omer works on the marriage certificate and answers questions simultaneously. Like the atmosphere in the school, the wedding is informal and relaxed with both the bride and groom dressed casually. She is converting to Islam and will move to Saudi Arabia soon.

    In a brief interlude, the woman is asked whether this is her first introduction to Islam, and she replies that it isn’t. Her relationship with the Saudi man started online two years ago and they decided to get married. Omer, with long-established links to the Saudi embassy, was contacted to assist the couple in arranging the wedding.

    As the Japanese bride converts, she joins a tiny group of Japanese Muslims. In the absence of official statistics on Muslims in Japan, demographic estimates range from between 70,000 to 120,000 Muslim residents with about 10 percent of that number being Japanese, in a country with an overall population of more than 127 million.

    According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the population of foreign workers in Japan has nearly doubled in the last 20 years, and reached more than two million at the end of 2011.

    Yoshio Sugimoto describes how the population of foreign workers, which includes Muslims from Pakistan and Bangladesh for example, increased in the late 1980s and early ’90s as visa waiver programmes were introduced by the Japanese government to address an ageing workforce and a shortage of labour.

    Monitoring mosques

    Omer, on the other hand, came to study architecture on a Japanese Embassy scholarship in 1970 after founding the Japan-Sudan Friendship Society in 1964 in Khartoum, Sudan. He speaks with pride at how Islam has grown and laid institutional foundations in Japan.

    “There were just two mosques in Tokyo when I came over in 1970,” he says. Now there are 200 mosques and musallahs, or temporary sites used to pray.

    Omer is an influential figure in the institutionalisation in post-WWII Japan with deep roots in the country, privileged position as a former diplomat, and contacts in the Gulf. He has helped various groups raise funds to establish mosques and institutions. Despite that, the Islamic Centre of Japan itself does not have a mosque of its own.

    Activities for children in the school, which was established in 2011, are far more important than a mosque, he says. “You can pray anywhere.”

    The ICJ has had to cut its annual spending by almost half since the early 1990s, and currently only employs one full-time staff member, down from 25, with its funds coming primarily from donations by individuals in the Gulf.

    Some researchers have highlighted negative stereotypes of Islam that Muslims have been confronted with in Japan since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

    Despite the Tokyo Metropolitan Police being absolved of any wrongdoing by the Tokyo District Court in January, the UN Human Rights Committee has expressed concerns in a recent report about the systematic surveillance of Muslims and mosques in Japan.

    “Police stationed agents at mosques, followed individuals to their homes, obtained their names and addresses from alien registration records, and compiled databases profiling more than 70,000 individuals,” according to an article in the Asia-Pacific Journal Japan Focus. “In some cases, the police actually installed surveillance cameras at mosques and other venues.”

    Islam’s footprint

    Omer says he prefers to look at the environment in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks as one that “opened doors to speak to people” in Japan about his faith with heightened “interest” in Islam.

    While Islam may not have the same footprint in Japan as other religions such as Buddhism and Christianity, knowledge of it and the Prophet Muhammad here can be traced back to the 8th century.

    Serious and sustained engagement with the Muslim world began for Japan as a part of its global outreach in the early Meiji period (1868-1890), with trade and information gathering missions sailing towards the Ottoman Empire and the Middle East.

    Verifiable accounts of Muslims entering Japan can be placed in the same period with records of Indian merchants and Malay-Indian sailors working in ports in the Japanese cities of Yokohama and Kobe.

    The Tokyo Mosque, Omer, the Islamic Centre of Japan, and the children of the Islamic school are the contemporary chapter of this old and under-researched history of Islam and Japan.

     

    Source: www.aljazeera.com

  • The Islamic State Ultimatum

    The Islamic State Ultimatum

    You get three choices, pay the Islamic State tax, convert or die.

    Then the first choice is taken off the table. That makes it quite simple. Convert or die.

    On my first day here in Jordan I came face to face with Iraqi Christians who had less than an hour to flee the advancing Islamic State. Standing in the bustling refugee processing centre in Amman, an Iraqi family tell me their story.

    It was June in Mosul and many thought the Peshmerga forces would stop the murderous militants from swamping their city. They were wrong.

    Time was short, hundreds of Christian families grabbed a few belongings and jumped in their cars heading East towards Irbil. But swathes of people with the same idea meant a 1.5 hour drive turned into a 20 hour journey from hell.

    They made it, and thanks to Peshmerga forces Irbil provided a safe haven for a few months. But the escalating violence has destroyed any hope these Iraqis had of a future in their home country.

    In the last two weeks over 800 Iraqis have arrived in Jordan seeking resettlement, according the UNHCR. They are now living on church floors amongst the Amman and Zarqa Christian communities.

    While the Iraqi families consider their resettlement options, Jordan is being faced with it’s own Islamic State ultimatum. The rise of the brutal jihadis has forced countries like Jordan to choose between security and humanity.

    As we walk through hundreds of refugees at the UNHCR’s Amman processing centre, the organisation’s head Andrew Harper tells me that fear of Islamic State militants crossing the border has been a game changer here in Jordan and other neighbouring countries.

    “The humanitarian focus has now been surpassed by the security focus,” Andrew Harper goes on to explain that in the last month very few refugees have been allowed to cross the Syrian border in Jordan. October was the lowest intake in two years.

    That’s created a nightmare situation where vulnerable Syrian refugees fleeing the Islamic State are starting to pile up at the border.

    Andrew Harper tells me there are 5000 asylum seekers piled up at Jordan’s eastern border crossing with Syria.

    “Anyone who is stuck at a border and is not allowed in is a massive concern because it’s my job to make sure that people fleeing violence have access to safety.”

    It’s obviously a tricky balance. While Jordan has been incredibly generous in accepting over 600,000 refugees they are now part of the US led coalition at war with the Islamic State.

    If security concerns means thousands of refugees stuck at the border become sitting ducks for Islamic State militants it will take this three year long catastrophe to another level.

     

    Source: www.abc.net.au/triplej/hack

  • Forced Into Hijab (Part II)

    Forced Into Hijab (Part II)

    1) Modesty mustn’t simply be defined in terms of what you’re wearing, but more importantly, how you behave

    I don’t know, I don’t think modesty should be as simple as a piece of clothing. I’ve seen women who are truly modest, and they don’t require a Hijab to be so. At the same time, I’ve seen women who dress modestly lead a decadent life. That’s why I think modesty needs to be more than how you dress. It is an entire behaviour. And no amount of clothing could alter that.

    2) Religious decisions should never be forced upon anyone

    I always believe that spirituality is a very personal thing. It is something between you and god, and you and god alone. No one should ever, ever come into the picture to influence any of your spiritual and/or religious decisions. I always don’t understand why people see the need to police or ‘save’ other people. Impositions of your own religious beliefs are not only unnecessary, they distance someone else from the religion altogether because it is very off-putting to have someone tell you how to behave. It is also another problem entirely when people tell me to wear the Hijab because they don’t want to be dragged into hell by my sins (i.e my reluctance to wear the Hijab). If anything, what I learnt from my JC experience was that people are able to appreciate the religion even more when they learn it on their own accord. My JC friends are so happy to wear the Hijab because it was never forced upon them.

    3) The creation of a dichotomous identity

    The person I see wearing the Hijab and my true self – the one who is not defined according to her physical form cannot co-exist. I actually do feel a sense of dissonance and conflict when I have to repress myself in order to maintain the good image of the Hijab. I’ll be honest; by nature I’m quite a free-spirited person who is both sarcastic and enjoys dry humor. I particularly like to make jokes (and crude ones at that) which make many people feel uncomfortable because it’s very unbecoming for a tudung girl to be like that. Due to that I hide my true self and appear to be this seemingly modest person in front of others. And  it worked – people describe me as someone they deem ‘gentle’, ‘quiet’ and ‘shy‘. I can’t decide which is worse – being hypocritical by my wearing of the Hijab or simply to act as I like with no regard for it.

    4) People define you in terms of your tudung

    People being people, they judge you according to your appearance. When it comes to seeing a tudung girl, naturally, people will see a tudung girl first, and, say, a funny girl second. I do this too, because we always think that people who put on the tudung do so because they are motivated by goodness. As you can already tell, this idea doesn’t apply to me at all. Also I honestly feel sad when someone defines me according to my tudung; because I see myself as someone more than that, and I want to be acknowledged for being witty and funny and other things in which I pride myself for. Furthermore, people see you as ‘the other’ when you wear the tudung. They don’t ever see you or treat you as a regular person in society but as ‘the other’ or ‘the tudung girl’. Personally, I too, wish to be noticed (by the object of my affections) as someone who has a unique personality, but that unfortunately never happens because of how I look.

    5) People police your behaviour and they see the need to ‘protect you’

    This is an entirely problematic way of thinking which has existed since probably the dawn of time. This is linked to how someone has told me that they don’t want to be dragged into hell by my sins. I recall an incident in school whereby someone told me that my hair was showing and he made a deal out of it. He even jokingly asked – ‘You’re not wearing the inner part of the tudung right?‘ When you think about it rationally, how silly that must sound, because after all, it was simply two strands of hair. The world doesn’t stop when my hair shows, and neither will a hole appear before me and swallow me alive when my hair shows. It was then that I asked him why he felt it was such a problem to the point of accusing me of not wearing the inner tudung. He told me that he thought it would be a sin on his part to not tell me, which fairly reminded me of the kind of things other people tell me when they need to justify their policing of my behaviour or other religious decisions. Personally, I don’t believe that Islam, being the fair and merciful religion it is, would hold you accountable for the sins and the mistakes of others in which you do not consciously partake in. I believe that only the individual and the individual himself should be accountable for such, and not only that, it is an insult to the tudung-wearer to always be reminded that her body is a constant object of sin.

    6) Paranoia, awareness of social judgment, and objectification of the self

    A few months ago, I decided to do a project on the Hijab, where I challenged myself not to wear the Hijab to see how I would react, since I’ve always wanted to take it off anyway. I always thought it would be easy to take it off, being someone who’s always been reluctant to wear it. It was however, startling to see that it was extremely hard to do. When I didn’t have my tudung on I started feeling paranoid. I remembered taking it off in the toilet and having this intense urge to put it back on the moment I got out of the toilet. I feared someone would see me, someone would come to me and ask me why I am not wearing the tudung, and would then frown upon me. I also felt insecure showing a small part of my neck, and my hair, although the rest of my body was covered. I was experiencing a combination of confusion, insecurity and dissonance within myself. I thought I would feel liberated if I didn’t wear it but what ensued instead was only paranoia. It was amusing to see that when I wore the Hijab, my personality was at odds with my Hijab identity but when I took it off, my Hijab identity in turn was at odds with my personality. That was also when I discovered the idea of a dichotomous identity within myself, which could in no way, merge or be one with the other. Also, that whole experience taught me that objectification must be so prevalent in society when you out of all people, objectify yourself. I’ve always thought I was insecure of my features because I hid my hair, but after years of being conditioned to wear the Hijab, the reverse happened. I was now insecure of my features because I was used to hiding it. It doesn’t do anything for your self-esteem and doesn’t promote a healthy body image at all.

    7) Having to compensate

    I don’t think wearing the Hijab necessarily equates to a modest way of living. Initially, one of the reasons why the Hijab was so ideal was because it was supposed to shift the emphasis away from how you looked so you could focus on other more important things, like faith, the religion, and ultimately, God. However, if you look at the way things are presently, the Hijab no longer functions that way. It was also supposed to steer the emphasis away from materialism and consumerism, which, as we now know, is simply an ideal. The Hijab market is definitely on the rise now, as we see fashion shows dedicated to not only Hijab and clothing for veiled women but also fashion shows for theTelekung, which is a prayer gown. It is ridiculous to think that a modest piece of fabric that was once supposed to allow women to lead a modest lifestyle now becomes an industry in which people profit from. Furthermore, sometimes, as women wearing the Hijab, we feel the need to compensate, or to make up for what we lack through various means. I’m not saying this is true for everyone but at the very least it is true for myself. I find myself having to dress up more because I want to present myself better because I wear the tudung. Although I know it defeats the purpose of the tudung, I can’t help but to do what I do – because honestly, who doesn’t want others to see the best version of themselves? Dressing up is not about impressing other people but more about making yourself feel better. And this whole process of having to compensate – because I wear the tudung, does take its toll on me. I constantly think that if I don’t wear the tudung, I wouldn’t have to go through so much trouble — because with the tudung, you constantly have to be creative in the way you put your clothes together and you have to work around many things. After you get used to it, it is not much of a hassle, but it definitely isn’t the best way to live, and it definitely isn’t the best attitude to have when you wear the Hijab.

    8) No good intentions

    I find myself to be, quite frankly, a rather horrible person and because of that, I don’t think I deserve to or am ready to wear something like the Hijab which is a symbol of goodness in society’s eyes. Also, a person such as myself should not be wearing the tudung simply because I don’t believe in it and don’t have any strong convictions to wear it. Furthermore, I don’t think the Hijab or any other religious practice should be done when you’re not sincere about it. Although I wear the tudung everyday, every time I start putting it on the only thing I can think about is how much I dislike wearing it and how I wish I don’t have to. Because of this, my wearing of the tudung is no longer a kind of service to God but is reduced to a pointless ritual which benefits neither myself nor my relationship to God. It is also not of any justice to god, and it defeats the purpose entirely. At this point someone will ask “Why don’t you take it off then“, to which my answer would be – ‘I just can’t‘, as I’ve explained earlier on.

    9) Endless questioning

    Whether you wear the Tudung or not, as a Muslim woman, you will constantly be subjected to questions your entire life.

    What initially drove me to write about this was because of my deep yearning to have my hair seen, after watching the television yesterday and observing the way this lady’s haircut perfectly framed and somehow enhanced her face. It was the kind of yearning that made me feel pathetic, knowing that having your hair shown is such a natural thing in which many people take for granted. I always wondered what life would be like if my hair could be seen. I always envisioned it to be a much better life, because it seems like I will be free from the many responsibilities, expectations, judgments, hypocrisy and confusion which I have now.

    I would like to renounce it, if I could, but that is definitely not within my power.

    I would like to say that these experiences are not just my own, but that I am very certain that many of us who have tried wearing the Hijab, or any Muslim woman for that matter, has felt similar sentiments.

    To be honest, I am uncertain of where my life will head after I’m done publishing this and if small changes will slowly happen in my life, but I have this sinking feeling that nothing will change – I will forever don the Hijab because I don’t know how to live my life otherwise.

     

    Source: http://beyondhijabsg.wordpress.com