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Tag: Muslim

  • Former Malaysian DPM Tun Musa Hitam Is Liberal And Proud Of It

    Former Malaysian DPM Tun Musa Hitam Is Liberal And Proud Of It

    KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 22 — Former Deputy Prime Minister Tun Musa Hitam has declared that he is a liberal and proud of it, joining a small but growing band of Malay Muslims speaking up in the face of Islamic fundamentalism that has crept into the country.

    In an interview with The Star daily published today, Musa, the first of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s four deputies, also pointed out that Umno was founded on the principles of moderation and liberalism because the Malay nationalist party wanted Malaysia to be one.

    “Only moderation and liberalism will allow us to survive,” Musa was quoted saying.

    “First let me say this emphatically and very firmly – I have always been a liberal and a moderate and am proud of it. My family, my parents, my elders brought me up that way, and in my more grown up days since I entered politics, my political party Umno adopted the stance of moderation from the early days that we gained independence. But I don’t know what’s happening there now,” he added.

    Musa’s declaration of his liberal beliefs comes after a group of 25 retired senior civil servants called for open debate of Islamic legislation in Malaysia and urged Putrajaya to assert the supremacy of the Federal Constitution over Shariah state laws.

    Malaysia’s religious authorities have long derided liberalism and pluralism, with Friday sermons nationwide claiming a conspiracy by “enemies of Islam” to manipulate Muslims through such philosophies and other ideologies like secularism, socialism, feminism and positivism.

    This has been repeated by Prime Minister and Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who in April said that Islam was being tested by new threats under the guise of humanism, secularism, liberalism and human rights.

    Musa told The Star that he was very happy to see the statement made by the 25 prominent Malays.

    “To me personally, that was a very good symbolic statement made by them in that they triggered thinking, arguments and conversations. Then there were the responses, which I compliment also because they are not calling names. They are not arguing based on irrationality but arguing on an almost point-by-point basis. This was absent before,” he said.

    The 80-year-old also noted that “many Malay leaders” were attempting to instil fear and a siege mentality among the Malays, but did not name anyone.

    “As a result, they are also instilling a very serious inferiority complex among the Malays. This is misplaced. So many Malays are capable, yet every day these groups are saying ‘You are inferior, you need protection’ and ‘Those superior people are attacking or threatening us’,” said Musa.

    He said Malays had no reason to fear as they were well-equipped to face such challenges and to be competitive.

    The former deputy prime minister and home minister, who served from 1981 to 1986, stressed that a democracy must have a high tolerance of criticism, amid a spate of investigations and prosecutions under the Sedition Act 1948 targeting mostly dissidents against the government.

    “So, what I am trying to do is appeal to both sides, don’t just arrest them and hassle them. Use rationale and reasoning,” he said.

    Musa also expressed concern about the use of racial and religious issues to gain political mileage, which he said hearkened back to the time leading up to the bloody May 13 race riots in 1969.

    “Very early on in my political career, I saw so many attempts for popular support using racial and religious issues. I hate to use this example but I have to – the May 13 incident was the result of it all.

    “But we were supposed to have learnt and corrected ourselves after that. Yet now, after so many years, we seem to be back to the old days. The basic ingredients are the same, the approach is the same, even the statements are the same in many respects. In the historical perspective, it brings a very eerie reminder of the bad old days,” he said.

     

    Source: www.themalaymailonline.com

  • Reverend Kang Ho Soon Preaches Inclusivity

    Reverend Kang Ho Soon Preaches Inclusivity

    For more than 40 years, Reverend Kang Ho Soon has preached the message of inclusiveness.

    He has welcomed homosexuals to his services, invited religious leaders from various faiths to speak to his Christian flock and reached out to prostitutes and migrant workers.

    The Methodist preacher, who retired this month at the age of 65, said: “I’ve been open to friendship with anyone in any station or walk of life, from all religions.”

    His retirement service at Paya Lebar Methodist Church on Nov 22 was testament to this.

    Among the 1,000-strong crowd were Catholic nuns, a Taoist priest, imams, Sikhs and a representative from atheist group the Humanist Society Singapore.

    Rev Kang, a 30-year member of the Inter-Religious Organisation Singapore (IRO), said he does not set out to change people but to “accept them for who they are and to be their friend”.

    At 23, in his first role serving the Methodist Church as chaplain of Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road) and pastor of the Barker Road Methodist Church, he gave his “full blessings” to a Muslim caretaker – known to him only as Madam Saminah – to hold Islamic classes in her living quarters at the church.

    Their friendship blossomed and he would visit her and her family every Hari Raya. Her grown-up daughters were present at his retirement service.

    Instead of pursuing an engineering degree, Rev Kang studied theology at Singapore Bible College and Trinity Theological College.

    He spent a decade at Paya Lebar Methodist Church, five years at Wesley Church and 17 years at Kampong Kapor in Little India – his longest term. There he reached out to prostitutes and migrant workers in the community.

    He said: “Everyone, regardless of sexual orientation, sex trade workers and migrant workers were welcome to attend our services at Kampong Kapor. If we don’t reach out to them, we end up neglecting them.”

    He credits his openness to having spent his youth growing up in a kampung on the southern isle of Pulau Bukom.

    There, he learnt Jawi, an Arabic alphabet for writing Malay. It was something his late father, a labourer from China, encouraged him to pick up so he could interact with his Malay peers.

    Rev Kang is married to former St Andrew’s Junior College teacher Kang Yeok Lung, 65, and brought up his three children in the same way.

    His elder son, 35, a deputy public prosecutor, has four children of his own. Rev Kang also has a 29-year-old son who works in the communications field and a 26-year-old daughter who is an officer at the Economic Development Board.

    Another friend, Imam Habib Hassan of the Ba-Alwie Mosque, an IRO member, said Singapore needs more open-minded leaders like Rev Kang.

    “One time he wasn’t well in hospital, I went to see him. He asked me to pray for him,” said Imam Habib. “We pray for each other… This is the spirit of inter-faith relations that he has been building up.”

    Bishop Wee Boon Hup of the Methodist Church Singapore said Rev Kang’s approach to reach out to those who might have a “less favourable view of the Church” has been well received.

    “It is difficult to move forward in inter-faith relations unless someone first starts to reach out to another,” he said.

    “Ho Soon is one of those who reach out… He makes friends with people from all walks of life, engages in conversation with them and, in the process of hearing them share their faith journey, he is also able to let them hear of his faith.”

    Rev Kang, who admitted that his approach has not been “fully accepted” in some Christian circles, believes it is time for the Church “to speak more words of love, hope and peace to marginalised communities, instead of words of condemnation and judgment”.

    While he has retired from the Methodist Church, Rev Kang said he will be a pastor till the day he dies.

    He said he will devote his time to people, rather than institutional or organisational concerns.

    He aims to be a “listening ear” and counsellor to people from all walks of life, including pastors, people of all faiths or no faith, and people of all sexual orientations.

    “We’re a conservative society, but everyone can have a place and equal standing,” he said. “We look to try to understand and accept one another, with no agenda to convert.”


    Source: www.straitstimes.com

  • MIC Wanita Chief: Tudung Ban Unnecessary

    MIC Wanita Chief: Tudung Ban Unnecessary

    A woman has a right to wear what she wants and a person’s attire should not restrict her from being employed.

    In stating so, MIC Wanita chief Mohana Muniandy said denying a woman a job due to her choice of attire was “really bad”, especially when it was worn for religious purposes.

    “Malaysia is moving forward with moderation and this requirement is extremist and unnecessary. It is just not logical,” she told The Rakyat Post when contacted.

    Mohana was commenting on a tweet by actor Datuk Rosyam Nor who alleged that a toy store had allegedly requested his daughter to remove her tudung as a requirement for employment, last Thursday.

    She also wondered why a toy store would enforce such a requirement when tudung-clad women are a normal sight in Malaysia.

    Yesterday, Puteri Umno chief Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin slammed the toy shop, arguing that the action was against the rights of Muslims.

    She also said that it showed that there were still people who were narrow-minded about tudung-clad women and demanded that the outlet apologise.

    Meanwhile, the management of the toy shop, Hamleys Malaysia, had posted an official apology to the public on Facebook yesterday regarding the matter.

    The statement added that it did not have such a policy and welcomed any applicant, regardless of race and religion.

     

    Source: www.therakyatpost.com

  • Students Slaughtered In Peshawar Attack

    Students Slaughtered In Peshawar Attack

    It was the murder of children on an unprecedented scale by terrorists and the world is still reeling from it.

    Pakistan woke up to 3 days of mourning on Wednesday after Taliban militants killed 132 students at an army school in the city of Peshawar in a grisly attack which shocked the world and put pressure on the government to do more to tackle the insurgency.

    The slaughter of innocents made the cover pages of many newspapers all over the world.

    Pictures of the students have been shared on social media as people try to comprehend the scale of the attack, which Taliban deemed as revenge on soldiers for attacks on their camps.

    The scene at the hospitals was captured in this tweet on the list of victims.

    There were heart-breaking pictures of families griefing.

    The Pakistan cricket team which is in New Zealand.playing a series of matches was shattered by the news.

    “Every player in the team is very disturbed and shattered over the killing of innocent children but for me it is my home province and these children are like my own children. It is heart breaking.” – Senior batsman Younis Khan, who hails from Mardan, which is in the troubled Khyber Pakhtunkhawa province where the attack took place.

    Nobel peace laureate Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by the Taliban in 2012, said she was “heartbroken” by “the senseless and cold blooded” killing.

    In a video message, she said: “I condemn these atrocious and cowardly acts and stand united with the government and armed forces of Pakistan whose efforts so far to address this horrific event are commendable.”

    Schools all over neighbouring India held 2 minutes of silence in memory of the victims.

    People from around the world felt the grief.

    Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong conveyed his condolences.

    This tweet captured the heart of it:

     

    R.I.P.

     

    Source: www.tnp.sg

  • Religious Fundamentalism In Malaysia Edging Muslims Out Of The Country

    Religious Fundamentalism In Malaysia Edging Muslims Out Of The Country

    It was 3am when a 30-year-old female Malay financial researcher was woken up by her flatmate in a middle class suburb in Kuala Lumpur early this year.

    Six to seven men from the Selangor State Islamic Department (Jais) had entered her apartment in a “morality” raid.

    An anonymous phone call to the religious department alleging a man was seen entering her flat was all it took for the religious officials to descend on her home.

    “The men were not accompanied by any woman. They searched all our bedrooms, closets and even looked under the bed as they thought a man could be hiding there,” said the researcher who spoke on condition of anonymity.

    The incident left her angry and helpless and helped compel her to make plans to leave Malaysia in two years.

    The researcher is one of an increasing number of Malay Muslims aspiring to leave this country of 30 million.

    In the past, it was the country’s ethnic Chinese and Indians who left Malaysia in large numbers for better opportunities that would be based on meritocracy and not race.

    The World Bank estimated in 2011 there were 1 million Malaysians who migrated overseas and the real number could be much larger.

    As the majority in the country who enjoys special privileges in education and employment under decades-old affirmative action programmes, it makes their aspiration to migrate more compelling and highlights the growing extremism creeping into modern and moderate Malaysia.

    “I don’t feel safe in this country anymore,” the researcher said. “It’s like you are guilty until proven innocent. Anyone can make a phone call to accuse another person out of malice or vengeance and, without proof or investigation, the religious authorities will come to your place.”

    The researcher, who has been living in the apartment for two years, shares the flat with three other women.

    “They found cigarette butts on the balcony and said that showed a man was in the house. We told them all of us in the flat smoke,” she said. “Then they saw two pairs of boxer shorts which belonged to me and said that must belong to a man. I told them they were mine.”

    Former law minister Zaid Ibrahim said Malays would soon join the Chinese in emigrating from Malaysia to escape the growing religious fundamentalism and authoritarianism where a Muslim can be easily persecuted for anything that is perceived as “insulting Islam”.

    “The rising extremism affects Muslims more than anyone else in the country. This fear of extremism drives Malays out of the country,” Zaid said.

    “We (Muslims) are having more and more laws. In the state of Kelantan, a person can be arrested and jailed if he fails to attend Friday prayers three times in a row,” said Zaid, adding that a lot of moral issues have been criminalised.

    “Before, they (religious authorities) tell you gambling is sinful. Now you can be arrested for buying a four-digit lottery.”

    Under the constitution, if a person is born Malay, speaks the Malay language and practises the Malay culture, he or she must be Muslim.

    The country’s religious authorities’ power has grown significantly in recent years with an expanded government budget for their departments where they answer to no one, he said.

    “The politicians do not rein them in as they do not want to lose votes,” Zaid said.

    “Malaysia has become a Saudi Arabia but with the Twin Towers,” he added referring to the iconic Petronas Towers in the capital, Kuala Lumpur.

    “The only difference is, the women here are allowed to drive.”

     

    Source: www.scmp.com