Tag: Muslim

Damanhuri Abas: Problems Of Malay-Muslim Isolationism And Foreign-Worker Terrorists Emblematic Of PAP’s Policy Failures

First the Minister made statements that essentially are tacit admission of the failures of the government’s policies towards the Malay Muslim community which has caused the ‘distancing and alienation’.

The more critical question for the Malay Muslim community to ask both the government and the Malay leadership appointed by the PAP is to explain these failures. Maybe it got to do with something called discrimination. Not so smart after all.

Then we hear another bad news, the arrest of foreign workers who are radicals or radicalized. Again, this are glaring examples of risk that the government sadly took at the expense of the safety and interest of Singaporeans by sticking to a policy of cheap labour to shore up declining GDP instead of biting the bullet and invest in our own people to allow for greater innovation to compensate for the shortage of manpower.

Singaporeans must begin to know that the policies of the government are shallow coming from this million-dollar paid brilliantairs and they still want to justify through another warp logic called natural aristocracy.

Wake up lah 70%!!!

Source: Damanhuri Abas

January 21, 2016
Mohd Khair: Singaporean Muslims Have Contributed To Singapore, Why Are We Still Viewed With Suspicion?

I DISAGREE with this view.

Muslims in Singapore have been very active in inter-religious dialogues and other related activities.

I must say that at times some quarters of our community even say that we are even “overdoing” those things because we seem to have to keep on proving to others that we are indeed Singaporeans.

It seems, time and again Muslims in Singapore must always prove themselves to be okay.

Muslims in Singapore have contributed so much in ensuring racial and religious harmony, over and above the contributions we’ve made in other aspects of nation building.

And yet now, we are being accused of having grown more distant.

Why must the authorities cast aspersions on Muslims in Singapore?

Source: Mohd Khair

January 21, 2016
Top 5 Non-Muslim Terrorist Groups In The World

Suffice to say, for the past few days, the spotlight has been on Muslims and Islam in Singapore and around the world. It began with Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam warning that isolationist religious tendencies will lead to a more fragmented and divided Singapore. We were told how greater religious conservatism, if left unchecked, could undermine the racial and religious harmony here.

Before the dust settled on the debate on K Shanmugam’s speech, we learnt yesterday about the repatriation of 27 Bangladeshi nationals. They had subscribed to violent, radical ideology espoused by extremists preachers like Anwar Al-Awlaki. They wanted to carry out armed jihad overseas, including in their own country, Bangladesh.

And so, the spotlight just gets brighter. Muslims just can’t catch a break, can we?

We cannot emphasise enough that Islam is a non-violent religion which preaches tolerance and respect of others. These “Muslims” who carry out violent jihad are also in the minority. There’s more than 1 BILLION of us but there’s less than 100,000 who are, in a word, terrorists. Do your math.

Sometimes, the world forgets that there are other terrorists enemies out there who are non-Muslims. We think it is time to remind the world that terrorist organisations comes in all shapes and sizes and religious beliefs.

We bring you the top 5 non-Musim terrorist groups in the world today:

1 Forcas Amardas Revolutcionarias da Colombia (FARC)

In English, FARC refers to The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. It is a guerilla movement believed to have been formed in 1964 a a result of the liberal-conservative conflict in the country. FARC based itself on communist ideology and sought to protect farmers against capitalist privatisation of their land and other natural resources in Colombia. These days however, FARC is more widely-known for its involvement in the illicit drug trade. Besides making money from narcotics, they also make money from extortion, kidnapping and illegal mining with its operational theatre spanning many countries South America. Needless to say, the members have eraned themselves a reputation as violent terrorists, with their use of paramilitary tactics, bombings, murders and assasinations, to protect and expand their interests.

2 The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA)

The Lord’s Resistance Army is a terrorist organization operating in parts of Uganda, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and parts of Southern Sudan. Not only is it classified as a terrorist organisation, the movement is also known as a cult led by its charismatic leader, Joseph Kenny. The group started out with noble objectives of creating a peaceful and prosperous Uganda. Now, they carry out murder, child sex slavery, abductions, mutilations, and the recruitment of child soldiers with impunity. During its reign, LRA is belived to have been responsible for about the death of 2,300 people, the abduction of thousands of others and the displacement of many in the central regions of Africa.

3 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)

No this is very different from the Workers’ Party that we have in Singapore. PKK was a student-led initiative; it was formed in 1978 and sought to achieve cultural and political rights and self-determination for the Kurds in Turkey. The group is now based in Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan while it operates in Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq. Guess what? PKK and the Kurds in general, are not fancied by IS.

4 Naxal / Naxalites

The Naxalites is a Maoist rebel group closely associated with the Communist Party Of India. Many states in the country have fallen to the expansionist ambitions of this group. Like the LRA and FARC, the Naxalites also began with the aim of protecting the rights of the workers. They even had support from Mao Zedong in China! The group began to grow rapidly; even university students were dropping out of school to join them. State action in the 1970s crippled the group’s activities but it remains a thorn in the side of the Indian government. They countinue to kill civilians and government security personnel. In recent times, Dr. Manmohan Singh, branded the group as the “biggest threat to national security” in India.

5 The Irish Republican Army (IRA)

The Irish Republican Army was founded in 1913 to wage a war of indepence against the British. Like many of the other terroriss groups above, the IRA was very adept at guerilla warfare. The end of the war caused a divide in the IRA between the Irish National Army faction which supported the treaty, and the other members, who remain commited to to the ideology of the IRA. In the ensuing civil war, IRA suffered massive casualties and eventually lost the war. It has however continued to exist. It harbours ambitions to overthrow the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland, in order to establis an Irish Republic. It is not averse to carry out assasinations and car bombings, to strike fear and impose its political will on others.

So there you have it, the top 5 non-Muslim terrorist groups in the world. Terrorists really do come in all colours, creed and religious beliefs.

Give Muslims a break!

Sources: Perfect Insider, Listovative

January 21, 2016
Zulfikar Shariff: PAP Perpetuating Racism In Singapore

Inevitably, the discussion about PAP’s racist policies bring in those who defend these policies.

But what I noticed is that the divide is not between the different races.

These policies that discriminated against the Malays were not implemented by Chinese or Indians or Eurasians or any other race or nationality in Singapura.

It was created and implemented by the PAP.

Those who came to defend and seek to perpetuate this racism….appears to be mainly if not solely..

PAP members or supporters.

The Malays, Indians, Chinese, Jews, Armenians etc do not really have much of an issue with each other.

The racists who defend these policies do so because it implicates their party.

We can see how the different nations in Singapura, when left to their own, will support each other.

As can be seen during the Tradegy Natra (Maria Hertogh) in 1950, Chinese in Singapura, supported the Malays.

And they persuaded the British to help the Malay community.

According to Assoc Prof Khairudin:

“The largest Chinese daily newspaper, the Nanyang Siang Pao, urged the British to ‘think thrice’ before making a legal decision in the upcoming appeal trial. The move to restore Maria Hertogh to her foster mother and husband would be of no great loss to Britain’s diplomatic ally; the Dutch.

On the other hand, the Malays were an important and integral part of the British Empire. The British should therefore ensure the repatriation of Maria Hertogh back to Singapore to avoid the violation of the religious rights of the Muslims, which could potentially lead to further bloodshed and violence.

The Kuomintang newspaper, Sin Chew Jit Poh, called upon the British, the Dutch and the Muslims to allow Maria Hertogh to decide for herself whether she wished to reside in the Netherlands or Malaya.

The paper stressed that Dutch diplomatic relations with other Muslim countries, such as Indonesia and Pakistan, would most certainly be jeopardized if custody of Maria Hertogh were to be awarded to her natural parents.

Another observer who identified himself as a ‘Straits Chinese’ expressed his regrets that the ‘very good name of the Singapore Malays and Muslims, who are regarded as a most law-abiding community in the colony has been besmirched (Straits Times, 17 December 1950).”

If any such events are ever to happen again, I have no doubt the ordinary Chinese, Indian, Eurasian etc in Singapura will once again defend the Malays.

And I have no doubt…the PAP Internet Brigade will lead the charge against the Malays.

Reference:

Aljunied, Khairudin. Heng, “Beyond the Rhetoric of Communalism:
Violence and the Process of Reconciliation in 1950s Singapore” Derek Thiam Soon, and Syed Muhd Khairudin Aljunied, eds. Reframing Singapore: Memory, Identity, Trans-regionalism. Vol. 6. Amsterdam University Press, 2009. p. 73

Source: Zulfikar Shariff

January 18, 2016
Walid J. Abdullah: Stop Looking At Madrasahs And Students As Second-Class

It is wonderful indeed to see madrasah students – such as Nur Masyitah Borhan and Murshidah Albakri – performing so well in their O-Levels. Lest we forget, for many of these madrasah students, their O-levels are not their bread-and-butter, and we must not judge them by how well they do in it. Hence, for those who do brilliantly despite the fact that they have many other subjects to study for (yes, they do not stop reading other subjects just because it is O-level year), it is a phenomenal feat.

Unfortunately, I have met many people – even Muslims – who do not really know too much about the madrasahs, but somehow ‘know’ enough (usually from their ‘own experience’, which actually involves encountering one or two madrasah students) to believe that madrasah students/graduates are somehow less able than students/graduates of national schools. It is almost like modern-day orientalism.

From my own limited experience, I believe madrasah students are just like students of other schools: on average all of them are just as smart. Then you have some hardworking ones, and some less-hardworking ones. Some are naturally more gifted, others, less so. There is nothing ‘special’ or ‘inferior’ about their abilities.

Two things, however, I believe are different:

1) The workload of these students far outweigh their national schools counterparts, so naturally, the amount of work required is more as well.

2) On average, these students are far more well-behaved, and well-mannered. I can understand why many choose to dedicate their entire lives serving the madrasahs, because the students – more often than not – make it worth the sacrifices.

I am not at all saying that the madrasah system is perfect; no system is, after all. I am sure many could list some problems the madrasahs face, just as many could do the same for national schools. All i am saying is that we should always consider and reconsider our preconceived notions and possible biases before making sweeping statements about things that many consider integral to their communities, such as the madrasahs.

Source: Walid J.Abdullah

January 16, 2016