Rilek1Corner

Tag: Mosque

  • A Lawyer’s Explanation To Why CHC Sentences Lesser Than Man Who Stole From Mosque

    A Lawyer’s Explanation To Why CHC Sentences Lesser Than Man Who Stole From Mosque

    When the High Court halved the sentences of City Harvest Church leaders in its recent judgement, Singapore’s social media exploded with anger and disbelief.

    Many netizens felt that the court was being too lenient to founding pastor Kong Hee and his management team, who embezzled over $50 million in church funds to fund his wife’s lavish pop star lifestyle in the United States.

    A lawyer from IRB Law LLP explains that the reason behind the reduced sentences is related to whether the judges sees Kong Hee and the other leaders as “agents” under section 409 of the Penal Code. Section 409 of the Penal Code is an aggravated form of Criminal Breach of Trust.

    He wrote: “The offence of Criminal Breach of Trust (‘CBT’) exists in various forms. There are different maximum sentences for: Simple CBT (Maximum imprisonment term of 7 years); CBT by a carrier (Maximum jail term of 15 years); CBT by a clerk or servant (Maximum jail term of 15 years); CBT by a public servant, banker, merchant or agent (Maximum jail term of life imprisonment or 20 years).”

    “To convict the CHC members under the most aggravated form of CBT, the prosecution would have had to prove not only that the CHC members were guilty of criminal breach of trust, but also that they were in fact agents. The purpose of this article, it is best not to delve into what constitutes an ‘agent’ as that probably deserves an entire article on its own, but it would suffice to say that in agency relationships, there is a very high level of trust vested in the agent.”

    “To put it simply, the High Court agreed that the CHC members were guilty of CBT but did not find that the relationship between the offenders and the church to be one that involved agency.”

    On why the court sentenced a man who stole $1,900 from a Mosque more harshly than it sentenced Kong Hee and the others, IRB had this to say: “The individual who was convicted of stealing $1,900.00 was not charged with theft, but with the offence of ‘house-breaking by night’ to commit theft. This is an aggravated form of house-breaking, and the section under which he was convicted imposes a mandatory minimum sentence of 2 years imprisonment. Furthermore, this individual had committed the act of housebreaking by night 12 times on different occasions, and it appears that he was convicted of four charges of housebreaking by night to commit theft.”

    What do you think?

     

    Rilek1Corner

    Source: https://www.allsingaporestuff.com

  • Man Who Stole $1.9k From Mosque Over Three Weeks Given 4½ Years Jail

    Man Who Stole $1.9k From Mosque Over Three Weeks Given 4½ Years Jail

    A thief made a contraption out of a coat hanger and sticky tape so that he could fish cash out of a donation box, a court heard yesterday.

    Harmudin Bahar, 54, broke into the Masjid Al-Iman mosque 12 times in three weeks to steal a total of $1,900 using the improvised device.

    He was jailed for 4 ½ years after pleading guilty to four out of 12 charges of housebreaking at night to commit theft.

    Harmudin, who was previously jailed for housebreaking in 1987 and 2011, was also given an additional eight weeks’ jail in lieu of caning.

    A district court heard that Harmudin and an accomplice, Azhar Musa, 48, would go to the mosque at 10 Bukit Panjang Ring Road between 1am and 3am.

    Harmudin would enter by unlatching the rear gate, while Azhar kept a lookout outside the mosque. If Azhar saw anyone else entering the mosque, he would call Harmudin on his mobile phone.

    After stealing from the mosque, the duo would leave together. Harmudin would give Azhar between $40 to $65 each time for his help.

    At about 2.30am on March 17, Harmudin used his device to retrieve cash notes inside a donation box placed outside the mosque’s main prayer hall.

    He spent a few hours fishing out money from the box and made off with an estimated $160.

    The donation money would have gone towards the mosque’s operations and maintenance.

    Harmudin and Azhar returned to steal from the mosque several times.

    On April 1, at about 1am, Harmudin climbed through the window of an office to take an envelope containing $200 in cash, and a petty box containing two keys and 30 booklets of stamps valued at $45 in total.

    Later that day, the mosque’s facilities coordinator made a police report after discovering the items missing.

    Harmudin and Azhar went back to the mosque again on April 3, 4 and 6. Harmudin filched about $160 on each of the days, while Azhar kept a lookout.

    Harmudin was arrested on April 7.

    The punishment for housebreaking at night in order to commit theft is between two and 14 years’ jail. Repeat offenders below age 50 are also liable to caning.

    Azhar’s case is pending.

     

    Source: http://www.straitstimes.com

  • Malaysian Celebrity Criticises Racist Stereotyping Question In Moral Examination

    Malaysian Celebrity Criticises Racist Stereotyping Question In Moral Examination

    A primary school was today criticised by a celebrity over its decision to typecast the country’s ethnicities in a moral examination question.

    In a post on the Instagram photo-sharing service, actress Sarah Lian shared a picture of a moral test paper apparently from a national school in Petaling Jaya that asked students to associate names to different houses of worship.

    The names were Devi, Hock Lee, Kamal, and Steve. Students were required to write the appropriate name under pictures of a church, a Hindu temple, a Chinese temple, and a mosque.

    In the photograph, the student — a daughter of Lian’s friend — linked Devi to the church, Steve to the Hindu temple, Kamal to the Chinese temple, and Hock Lee to the mosque.

    The examiner marked all four answers as wrong.

    “My friend’s 7yr old daughter apparently scored badly. And you wonder who makes kids racist and stereotypical???

    “Well, here’s your answer! A horrible approach to stereotyping people into names races and religions. I’m so furious at this form of racism. How archaic and racist! This is so sad! #shame,” Lian wrote on her Instagram post.

    Malaysian naming conventions, particularly the patronymic system used for Malay names, are regularly used to infer a person’s religious identity.

    Such assumptions have led to problems, particularly in East Malaysia, where non-Muslim natives who use “bin” and “binti” are sometimes wrongly documented as Muslims by authorities.

     

    Source: www.themalaymailonline.com

  • Imam At Masjid Jami’ Chulia Allegedly Cursed At Christians And Jews During Friday Prayers

    Imam At Masjid Jami’ Chulia Allegedly Cursed At Christians And Jews During Friday Prayers

    This is a video, from the 6th January 2017, of the imam at Jami’ Chulia Mosque cursing Christians and Jews. This was during the Friday khuthbah. He did it again today.

    In summary, he said, “God Grant us victory over the disbelievers, God Grant us victory over the polytheists, God Grant us victory over the hypocrites and the people of envy, God Grant us victory over the Jews and the Christians, God Grant us victory over the Jews and the Christians …” The last part was repeated twice as an emphasis.

    This is 2017, and we still have unlettered people leading prayers in the mosque and supplicating as if we are all living in the Crusades and there is a huge religious war. How is this acceptable in the context of Singapore? It is only because he said it in Arabic that most people in the congregation likely did not realise.

    Islam is not at war with people of other faiths, particularly the Ahl al-Kitab, People of Scripture. This is an unbecoming relic of a different age. We should not encourage this sort of thiking or condone this sort of supplication

    ====

    Mr Terence Hekiaon Nunis, the contributor of the video confirmed in an online interview that this was not the only time he heard such supplications made in the mosque and reaffirmed that everything he wrote was factual.

    “It should be noted, also, that this was not a solitary occurrence. It was first noted on the 17th January and then again, on the day I posted this.

    Some people went there for Friday prayers. At the end of the sermon, this is what was recited as a supplication. The first few lines are innocuous and paraphrased from the Qur’anic supplication. The last part about overcoming the Jews and Christians is his own, or likely, taken from some similar supplication elsewhere, and is not from Scripture.

    The word used is “fanswurna” which I have translated as “grant victory over”, but more accurately means, “to overcome”. Translating from Arabic to English is not always easy because there are words which have no direct translation without losing the flavour of the meaning.

    In this case, the flavour is far from benign and the implicit meaning is more than just being better than them, the Christians and Jews, but to dominate them.”

     

    A Muslim Convert Once More

     

    Source: www.allsingaporestuff.com

  • 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