Rilek1Corner

Tag: Malaysia

  • Malaysian Muslims Seem To Have Very Weak Faith

    Malaysian Muslims Seem To Have Very Weak Faith

    I have been fasting in full every Ramadan for many years now and I admit, I do feel hungry and thirsty during the day and it isn’t totally comfortable all of the time.

    But of course, like anything you do, if you put your mind to it and persevere, it eventually stops being a problem.

    You get used to fasting and it actually makes your body feel good. But I won’t be talking here about the benefits of fasting on your health and well being.

    What I do want to talk about is the fact that there are so many weak Muslims in Malaysia who can’t take fasting. I’m usually not one to judge, but well, this time I am going to!

    We have a teacher in a school who asks his non-Muslim students to go to the toilet to drink during Ramadan, just so Muslim students won’t see them drinking.

    It is ridiculous how some school canteens are instructed to close during the fasting month because it would mean non-Muslim students eating in view of Muslim students.

    This issue of non-Muslims having to go out of their way, in the name of being respectful to those who are fasting, crops up every time Ramadan comes around.

    I don’t understand how this is respect. All I can conclude from this is that some Malaysian Muslims are just too weak, and when they see someone drink water, their will to fast disappears.

    I have many non-Muslim friends and I accompany them for lunch or even just for a drink at the mamak, even when I’m fasting, just so we can hang out and have a chat.

    I see them eat and drink but I don’t get tempted. Sometimes, they tease me too and pretend to order for me a glass of teh ais and we all have a good laugh. But I still fast. No problems.

    This fasting month, although only a week has gone by, I’ve even been accompanying my wife for lunch at restaurants whenever we are out and about.

    She is in the final trimester of her second pregnancy and she needs the food and nutrition. So she doesn’t fast. We sit and chat as she has her meal and I still fast. No problems.

    I’m not trying to say that I’m a perfect Muslim here. No way. I am far from that. What I am trying to say is that some Malaysian Muslims need to take a step back and look at their faith.

    Fasting is an‘ibadah’and it is suppose to be challenging (although not torture!). And aren’t challenges suppose to make your faith and fast count for even more?

    So technically, Malaysian Muslims should welcome people to eat and drink in front of them, and then resist, so they can collect more‘pahala’, right? Funny, isn’t it?

    But no. Malaysian Muslims are just too weak. They fast but they can’t take it when they catch a glimpse of someone eating or drinking. Their faith starts to waver.

    They can’t even take it when when non-Muslims use the word ‘Allah’ because they start getting confused and all with their own faith. Malaysian Muslims. What a weak bunch they are.

     

    Source: http://english.astroawani.com

  • Dr Mahathir Slams Zeal To Impose Dress Code

    Dr Mahathir Slams Zeal To Impose Dress Code

    KUALA LUMPUR — The rift in Malaysian society over a spate of dress code enforcement actions by government agencies and public buildings on non-Muslim women has widened, with former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad saying that Malaysia is now sliding backwards and is acting like Saudi Arabia in its zeal to impose a dress code on the public.

    “We are now sliding backwards. Soon, not only shorts will be an issue. If a woman leaves a house without a burqa, it will be considered wrong,” he said yesterday, adding that dress codes in government buildings should only apply to its employees and not to visitors, especially those who are not Muslim.

    Earlier yesterday, Cuepacs, an umbrella group of 140 civil service unions, spoke up for civil servants who have been criticised for directing women to wear sarongs before entering government buildings.

    Many of the civil servants had used their own money to buy sarongs for visitors who were improperly dressed.

    “The aim of the dress code is get people to dress modestly, it is applicable to everyone. You cannot just go to someone’s house dressed however you want,” Cuepacs president Azih Muda told reporters yesterday.

    “But no one is to blame in these incidents. The personnel are not wrong for following the rules and the client (visitor) is also not wrong as they may have forgotten about the dress code.”

    “The people who are wrong are those who are posting comments (on social media) and sensationalising something that should not be sensationalised in the first place,” he said.

    Mr Azih said that Cuepacs would be sending out a certificate of appreciation to a People’s Volunteer Corps (Rela) officer who on June 16 generated controversy for stopping a woman wearing shorts and making her wrap a towel around her waist before allowing her into Sungei Buloh hospital.

    Meanwhile, an ethnic Chinese opposition lawmaker and a columnist engaged in a war of words after the latter labelled the lawmaker an “enemy” to her own race for donning a headscarf while in a mosque last week.

    In a Facebook post, Ms Lim Fang, who is a columnist with Sin Chew Daily and China Press criticised Selangor state Speaker Hannah Yeoh of the Democratic Action Party (DAP) for allegedly giving a chance for Malay government officials to impose dress codes on Chinese women.

    “If DAP’s Hannah Yeoh can assimilate into Malay society why should Chinese women be different from Malay society? The DAP should discipline the enemy within,” the columnist wrote on Wednesday.

    Ms Yeoh, who is ethnic Chinese, retorted on Facebook yesterday that “extreme views exist in every faith and race” and called on fellow Malaysians to reject such mindsets if they hoped to move the country forward.

    The appreciation letter signed off by Cuepacs follows a similar letter of appreciation issued by Rela to one of its security guards working at a Road Transport Department (RTD) office on Wednesday.

    The guard caused an uproar in Parliament and social media earlier this month by making a middle-aged ethnic Chinese women wear a sarong over her knee-length skirt before being allowed to access the Department.

    Rela had issued the letter despite Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai clarifying that there is no “sarong policy” at the RTD and the department issuing a public apology to the woman.

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com

  • We Are Malay-Muslims, We Are Entitled

    We Are Malay-Muslims, We Are Entitled

    So you are fasting. The sun is bearing down on you, your stomach is growling and your throat is parched. It is only 12.30 in the afternoon; you still have hours to go before you may break your fast. All of a sudden, a non-Muslim person appears before you, enjoying an icy cold can of your favourite cola. He looks like he is savouring the cola. You could imagine the sensation of that very same cola filling your throat with diabetes-inducing caffeine goodness. So you flare up. How dare this person drink in front of you? Does he have no respect for the holy month of Ramadhan, to be wantonly quenching his thirst in full view of Muslims? Does he not know that Muslims form the majority of this country and therefore must be respected?

    This is the basic premise prevalent amongst many Malay-Muslims in this country. Muslims form the majority and therefore they are entitled to be respected. Malay-Muslim sensitivities must not be offended; the Malay-Muslim public must be protected from harm, confusion and many other bad and insidious things that may threaten the ummah. In recent times, these deep rooted sentiments are brought to the fore by opportunistic politicians. Thus it appeared as if Malay-Muslims have become more and more intolerant of minorities.

    Malay-Muslims are entitled not to have a Hindu temple in the vicinity of their housing estate. Malay-Muslims are entitled to dictate what names others may use to invoke the Creator. Malay-Muslims are entitled to stop the sale of alcohol beverages and deny the establishment of a cinema in Malay majority areas.

    Every Friday, Malay-Muslims are entitled to abandon their civic consciousness and park all over the place as if the streets belong to them. Malays-Muslims are entitled to blare religiousceramahs to every corner of the neighbourhood and into the wee hours of the night.

    The prime minister must be Malay-Muslim, the civil service must be filled with Malay-Muslims and government bodies are seen as Malay institutions, tasked first and foremost to safeguard Malay and Muslim interests.

    This premise of entitlement has also been used to justify the persecution and discrimination against sexual and religious minorities, purportedly because Article 3 provides that Islam is the religion of the Federation. So we say that LBGTs do not enjoy protection of the Constitution because their sexual orientations are against Islam, although we conveniently forget that other things, like gambling, are also forbidden in Islam but are still legal in this country. Books are seized and banned and fatwas are made absolute. In a recent decision, the Federal Court went so far to say that the integrity of the religion needs to be safeguarded at all costs. Does ‘at all costs’ include the supremacy of the Federal Constitution as the highest law of the land?

    Make no mistake, this is not about Islam. It is about how we justify the discrimination, persecution and blatant disregard for fundamental liberties, all in the name of religion. It is how we view and treat others as inferior to us because we believe that we are entitled to do so. We permit transgressions because we labour under this presumption that Malay-Muslims, by virtue of being Malays and Muslims, are entitled to the best of the country as they occupy a higher standing than the rest of the rakyat out there.

    There is no legal or constitutional basis for this. Article 3 does not make Malaysia an Islamic state and Article 4 expressly provides that the Federal Constitution is the supreme law of the land.  Article 8 provides that every citizen is equal before the law and enjoys equal protection of the law. The oft quoted Article 153 does not make Malay-Muslims superior in law or fact, it only provides for the reservation of quotas for Malays and natives of Sabah and Sarawak in certain matters.

    So what if Muslims are the majority? We have such a flawed understanding of democracy; as if in a democracy, the rights of minorities are inferior to the rights of the majority. That is why we have a Constitution, which protects and guarantees the fundamental liberties of citizens from the tyranny of the majority.

    We find ourselves up in arms at the fate of Muslims minorities in other countries like Thailand, Philippines, Myanmar and China.  We invoke freedom of religion when we hear of minarets being banned in Switzerland or burqas being banned in France. But if the rights of Muslim minorities should be protected in the face of the majority, why is it that we do not have the same vigour to protect the rights our non-Muslim minorities? Why must the rights of others here only be exercised if we deem those rights as exercisable?

    So before you take offence at someone who is drinking in front of you while you are fasting, take a step back and think of your religion. Put aside your sense of entitlement and think; just because you are fasting, does it mean that everyone else around you must stow away their food and drinks?

    Remember what Islam has instilled in you, not what Muslims have told you.

     

    Source: http://www.loyarburok.com

  • Abang Maut Selepas Menegur Adik Yang Tak Puasa

    Abang Maut Selepas Menegur Adik Yang Tak Puasa

    KUALA LANGAT: Seorang lelaki maut akibat cedera parah di leher selepas dilibas dengan pisau oleh adik lelakinya dalam kejadian di Jalan Orkid, Batu 8 Sijangkang, Telok Panglima Garang di sini, petang Rabu.

    Ketua Polis Daerah Kuala Langat Superintendan Zailan Tasir berkata, dalam kejadian kira-kira 6 petang itu, mangsa yang berusia 32 tahun dikatakan bertengkar dengan suspek dalam rumah mereka.

    “Kejadian bermula apabila mangsa bertengkar dengan adiknya yang berusia 26 tahun disebabkan suspek tidak berpuasa.

    “Berikutan itu berlaku pergaduhan antara kedua mereka apabila mangsa  bertindak agresif dengan mengambil besi panjang di bahagian dapur dan suspek turut ke dapur mengambil pisau,” katanya kepada pemberita di lokasi kejadian.

    Zailan berkata, ketika pergaduhan, suspek menyerang abangnya dengan melibas pisau menyebabkan mangsa mengalami kecederaan parah di leher kiri.

    “Suspek berhenti menyerang mangsa apabila melihat darah mengalir banyak di bahagian leher si mati.

    “Akibat kecederaan itu, mangsa keluar dari rumah bersama seorang rakan lelaki menggunakan Proton Wira milik suspek ke Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah (HTAR), Klang,” katanya.

    Zailan berkata, mangsa, bagaimanapun disahkan meninggal dunia ketika dalam perjalanan ke hospital.

    Berikutan kejadian itu, beliau berkata, polis menahan suspek untuk siasatan lanjut dan kes itu disiasat mengikut Seksyen 302 Kanun Keseksaan.

     

    Source: www.mstar.com.my

  • Harith Iskander: I Will Take Active Steps To Stop Child Pornography

    Harith Iskander: I Will Take Active Steps To Stop Child Pornography

    Google Alert brought to my attention the fact that pictures of my son (and of me cradling my son) as well as numerous pictures of other children appear in a local pornographic site alongside graphic porn images.

    I say “local”, cause the text is in Bahasa Malaysia. It’s both disgusting and incredibly disturbing and needless to say I am in the process of contacting MCMC to find out what action can be taken.

    I am NOT naming the site here. If anyone has any experience in cases of this nature please let me know what’s the best way to handle this.

    Update: the pictures of my son (and other children) have been taken down off the pornographic website (which originates from outside Malaysia). Thank you SKMM/MCMC for their swift response and assistance in making this happen. Thank you also to family, friends and everyone in the online community who showed concern and were as outraged as my wife and I were by the discovery. Thank you to the Internet-savvy individuals who had advised me about the correct avenues and steps to take in investigating this matter. Thank you to all the press and media who brought attention to this case.

    Pedophilia and Child Porn are real issues which I feel are not taken seriously by some Malaysians and we should all work together to help eradicate this disease from our society.

    This is not the last you will hear from me on this matter – it has spurred me to take active steps into doing whatever I can do to tackle this issue. Children are a blessing from The Almighty and should never EVER be exposed to abuse.

    Have a Blessed Ramadhan everyone and Selamat Berbuka Puasa.

     

    Source: Harith Iskander