Tag: Muslims

  • Pasangan Suami Isteri Antara Tujuh Yang Didakwa Di Malaysia

    Pasangan Suami Isteri Antara Tujuh Yang Didakwa Di Malaysia

    KUALA LUMPUR: Sepasang suami isteri adalah antara tujuh warga Malaysia yang dikaitkan dengan militan Negara Islam (IS) di Syria, yang dihadapkan ke mahkamah atas dakwaan mencari dana dan memberikan sokongan kepada kumpulan itu.

    Mereka didakwa terbabit dalam kegiatan dan usaha mengumpul dana serta berniat menyertai kumpulan militan IS di Syria.

    Pasangan suami isteri itu – Amir Azlan Zainuddin, 48 tahun, dan isteri, Nazhatulshima Sahak, 44 tahun – dituduh di Mahkamah Majistret Shah Alam kelmarin bersama pembantu kedai makanan, Muhammad Fadhil Ibrahim serta Muhammad Na’eem Apandi, kedua-duanya berusia 24 tahun, cuba memberi sokongan kepada kumpulan IS.

    Nazhatulshima, pengusaha taska, didakwa bersama Muhammad Fadhil cuba memberi sokongan kepada pengganas IS dengan cara membeli tiket penerbangan pesawat Emirates bagi perjalanan dari Lapangan Terbang Antarabangsa Kuala Lumpur (KLIA) ke Istanbul, Turkey.

    Mereka didakwa mahu memasuki Syria melalui Istanbul.

    Sementara itu, pekerja kedai kek, Mohammad Na’im Abd Rashid, 26 tahun, didakwa di Mahkamah Sesyen Sepang atas tuduhan memberi sokongan dengan berada di Syria.

    Mohammad Na’im didakwa memberi sokongan dengan memasuki Syria melalui Istanbul menggunakan penerbangan antarabangsa Qatar Airways.

    Mohammad Na’im, dari Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang, ditahan oleh anggota Bahagian Counter Terrorism, Cawangan Khas Ibu Pejabat Polis Bukit Aman sejurus sebelum meninggalkan Malaysia.

    Tertuduh, yang telah berkahwin, pernah berada di Syria untuk tempoh tertentu dan ditahan ketika cuba berlepas ke negara tersebut kali kedua.

    Seorang perunding kewangan, Rohaimi Abd Rahim, 37 tahun, pula didakwa di Mahkamah Majistret atas pertuduhan mencari dana bagi manfaat kumpulan militan IS melalui blog Revolusi Islam.com sejak Mac lepas.

    Rohaimi didakwa melakukan perbuatan itu di No. 5B, Jalan Raja Ali, Kampung Baru di sini antara 29 Mac hingga 13 Oktober lepas.

    Seorang lagi tertuduh, penjual kereta, Muhamad Fauzi Misrak, 34 tahun, didakwa bersubahat bersama Rohaimi atas tuduhan sama dengan membenarkan akaun Maybank miliknya digunakan dalam blog Revolusi Islam sebagai medium mencari dana bagi manfaat IS pada masa dan tempat sama.

    Tiada pengakuan direkodkan daripada ketujuh-tujuh tertuduh.

    Kesemua mereka juga tidak dibenarkan diikat jamin kerana ditahan mengikut Akta Kesalahan Keselamatan (Langkah-Langkah Khas) 2012 yang melarang jaminan diberikan. – BHM, Utusan Malaysia.

     

    Source: http://beritaharian.sg

  • Sisters In Islam:  Malaysia Not A Theocratic Dictatorship

    Sisters In Islam: Malaysia Not A Theocratic Dictatorship

    KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 10 — Women’s advocacy group Sisters in Islam (SIS) has told minister Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom that Malaysia is a democracy and not a theocratic dictatorship.

    The Muslim women’s rights NGO also said shariah laws are man-made and therefore not infallible, pointing out that the recent court challenges by SIS against a fatwa and by a group of Muslim transgender men against a state shariah law prohibiting cross-dressing were challenges to the “unjust and inefficient” Islamic legal system in Malaysia.

    “We would like to remind the minister that Malaysia is a democratic country, not a theocratic dictatorship,” Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir, a member of SIS’ board of directors, told Malay Mail Online.

    “Our Federal Constitution guarantees the fundamental liberties of every citizen including Muslims. The rule of law applies to everyone, and everyone has a right to seek redress in the courts if they feel they have been unfairly treated,” she added.

    SIS also expressed alarm at the call by Jamil Khir, who is the minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of Islamic affairs, for all Muslims to defend their faith from liberal ideologies “by any method”.

    “Does this mean he is giving the go-ahead for anyone to take vigilante action against those the minister deems un-Islamic, including violence? Does this mean that should anyone physically attack such persons, the state will take no action against them?” Marina asked.

    Jamil Khir said yesterday that in a “new wave” of assault, Muslim transgenders and SIS are colluding with Islam’s enemies to put its religious institutions on trial in a secular court.

    The minister was responding to two recent court challenges where state Islamic authorities were cast into a defensive role, with one initiated by SIS at the High Court here against a Selangor religious edict, or fatwa, declaring their organisation and its members “deviants”.

    The other was a separate case mounted by a group of transgender men who were convicted of cross-dressing under the Negri Sembilan state shariah law, which they won at the Court of Appeal Friday.

    A three-judge panel at the Court of Appeal had unanimously ruled Section 66 of the Negri Sembilan Syariah Criminal Enactment 1992 to be unconstitutional as it violated the three Muslim men’s right to freedom of expression.

    Jamil Khir said Islamic institutions like the state Islamic councils must work together to face “this new wave against Islam”, claiming that there is an “agenda” outside the country’s predominant religion aiming to twist the faith of Muslims.

    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 ideas like secularism, socialism, feminism and positivism, in addition to the two.

     

    Source: www.themalaymailonline.com

  • 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

  • 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

  • SMRT Extends Train and Bus Service Hours for Eve of Hari Raya Haji 2014

    SMRT Extends Train and Bus Service Hours for Eve of Hari Raya Haji 2014

    SMRT train services (North-South, East-West, Circle Lines and Bukit Panjang LRT) and selected bus services will be extended for the eve of Hari Raya Haji on 4 October 2014, Saturday.

    North-South East-West Lines

    The last trains toward Jurong East, Marina Bay, Pasir Ris and Joo Koon stations will depart City Hall at 12.30am.

    Circle Line

    The last train towards HarbourFront MRT station will depart Dhoby Ghaut MRT station at 11.55pm. The last train towards Dhoby Ghaut MRT station will depart HarbourFront MRT station at 11.30pm.

    Bukit Panjang LRT

    Passengers on the last northbound train can connect to the last Bukit Panjang LRT train at 1.31am.

    Last bus timings

    The following bus feeder services will depart from the interchanges at the timings below:

    Interchange Feeder bus service Last bus timings
    Bukit Batok 173, 189, 941, 945, 947 1.40am
    Choa Chu Kang 300, 302, 307 1.35am
    Sembawang 859 1.30am
    Woodlands 901, 911, 912, 913 1.20am
    Yishun 804, 812 1.30am

    Passengers may contact SMRT Customer Relations Centre at 1800-336-8900 from 7.30am to 6.30pm on weekdays or visit www.smrt.com.sg for more information.