Rilek1Corner

Tag: race

  • Islamic Renaissance Front: Deport Zakir Naik For The Sake Of Malaysians

    Islamic Renaissance Front: Deport Zakir Naik For The Sake Of Malaysians

    Malay-Muslim scholars and thinkers regrouped under the Islamic Renaissance Front (IRF) are not in favor of the presence of Islamic preacher Zakir Naik in Malaysia, and his involvement in local political matters.

    In a long article entitled “Zakir Naik’s Appeal and the Quagmire of Inter-Religious Relations in Malaysia“ published on June 17, 2016, by Singaporean based interfaith group Left Right and Center creator Mohamed Imran Mohamed Taib.

    In the article, Mohamed Imran explained the reasons why Zakir is diverting from the real issues of ‘comparative religion’ debates, into that of a politically charged engagement in Malaysia.

    He said Zakir’s presence in Malaysia may have bad fallout on the country’s religious harmony.

    He urged for the replacement of the ‘confrontational’ religious education with one that builds approaches, reconcile and create a sense of respect for each other, to accept diversity and difference. and the desire to jointly pursue the common good in a spirit of peace, justice and equality between religious and non-religious communities.

    This with the desire to jointly pursue the common good in a spirit of peace, justice and equality between religious and non-religious communities.

    “While politics can often derail this process, it is important to work towards building a community that can fight the tide effort to seed the dispute.

    He said these actions may not be carried out by outright prohibition, which would instantly make them martyrs in religion classes and strengthen the “conspiracy theory” against Islam.

    “In contrast is the strong effort to show that the relationship between religion will be harmed if Zakir Naik is left unchecked.

    Original article here: http://irfront.net/post/articles/articles-malay/rayuan-zakir-naik-dan-jerlus-hubungan-antara-agama-di-malaysia/

     

    Source: www.theindependent.sg

  • Sultanah Johor: Show Equal Respect To Non-Muslim

    Sultanah Johor: Show Equal Respect To Non-Muslim

    PETALING JAYA: Muslims must show the same respect to their fellow Malaysians of other faiths, as given to them, says Permaisuri of Johor Raja Zarith Sofia Almarhum Sultan Idris Shah.

    In a Facebook posting, she said Muslims in Malaysia are very lucky because they do not know what it is like to be part of a minority group.

    “Those of us who have studied or lived abroad know what it feels like to be a minority, and we learn to adapt. At the same time, we see the kindness and the acceptance of those who are Christians, Jews, or of other faiths, when we are in their countries.

    “I remember seeing photos of Zaharah Othman, the NST London correspondent, at a church, wearing her hijab. And she’s also told me how she was offered to perform her prayers in churches,” she said.

    She also shared how her eldest son Tunku Mahkota Tunku Ismail, when he was leaving India after ending his service with the Indian army, was taken to the army mosque by his fellow officers.

    “They were Hindus but they covered their heads with their handkerchiefs, and took their shoes off.

    “We Muslims must show the same respect to our fellow Malaysians,” she said.

     

    Source: www.thestar.com.my

  • Osman Wok Chose PAP, Angered UMNO, Branded As Infidel

    Osman Wok Chose PAP, Angered UMNO, Branded As Infidel

    Othman Wok suffered many an assassination on his character in his 18 years in politics, standing up for a multi-racial Singapore, where he was denounced by Malay supremacists as an “infidel” and “traitor to the Malay race”.

    He never wavered. But he was threatened repeatedly as an election candidate for the multiracial People’s Action Party (PAP) over the United Malays National Organisation (Umno).

    He received a flurry of death threats in the fractious months leading to independence. One such missive was from an anonymous Malay letter-writer using the nom de plume Anak Singapura in early July 1964: “At this time you are a traitor to the community and religion … if you persist in doing this to the Malays, we dare to sharpen the long parang that you’ve been asking for.”

    That same month, Umno leader Syed Jaafar Albar said in a July 12 speech in Pasir Panjang to thousands of Malays: “If there is unity, no force in this world can trample us down, no force can humiliate us, no force can belittle us… not one Lee Kuan Yew, a thousand Lee Kuan Yews… we finish them off… kill him, kill him. Othman Wok and Lee Kuan Yew.” Mr Albar’s words were, ironically, published in Utusan, the newspaper where Mr Othman had worked for 17 years.

    Pasir Panjang was Mr Othman’s ward, after he won the nationwide poll there in September 1963. He quit journalism shortly after, when Mr Lee appointed him Minister for Social Affairs, making him the only Malay in Cabinet then. He was, however, not Singapore’s first Malay Cabinet minister, as the late Ahmad Ibrahim had been Minister for Health, and then Labour, between 1959 and 1962.

    Nine days after Mr Albar’s invective, at around 4.30pm on July 21, 1964, Singapore’s worst racial riots erupted. Mr Othman was then leading a PAP contingent in a procession from the Padang to Lorong 12 Geylang, to celebrate the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday. When Chinese and Malays began hurling bottles at one another and punching policemen, Mr Othman led his group to safety within the old Kallang Airport building – and called his comrades in Cabinet to impose a curfew. A total of 23 people were killed, and 454 others injured.

    A week later, a former Utusan colleague admitted to him that he had known the riots would break out – a good two hours before they happened. In Mr Othman’s 2000 biography Never In My Wildest Dreams, he recalled his colleague telling him thus: “We knew beforehand. We have our sources, you know.”

    Mr Othman mused later in Men In White, the 2010 book on the history of the PAP: “I believe the riot was planned; it did not start spontaneously. They were very smart to choose a religious procession so that if we had stopped it, we would be called anti-Muslim. The inflammatory communal and racial speeches made by Malaysian Umno leaders worked up Malay sentiments in Singapore.”

    In the aftermath of the riots, Mr Lee relied heavily on Mr Othman, his old unionist friend whom he found “capable, dedicated and with integrity”, to defuse tensions among all the races here.

     

    Source: www.straitstime.com

  • Family Remebers Othman Wok As Humble, Kind And Loving

    Family Remebers Othman Wok As Humble, Kind And Loving

    Pioneer Cabinet Minster Mr Othman had been warded at SGH since April 6 for a chest infection and stomach complications.

    Madam Lily, 60, said she usually does the night duty in caring for him.

    “I will read some prayers for him and pat him to sleep before I go off,” she recounted his final hours to The Straits Times on Monday (April 17), after Mr Othman died just after noon. He was 92.

    “We hope that he will always be remembered as part of the Singapore Old Guard and a contributor to the harmony of Singapore,” she added.

    “We tried our best to take care of him to the best of our ability, but I think God knows better, and you know we are quite happy to let him go. He passed away…peacefully, so we are happy with that,” Madam Lily told reporters during the wake for Mr Othman outside the family home in Kew Avenue in Bedok.

    Madam Lily, a housewife, described him as a kind and loving father who was also devoted to his work when he was MP for Pasir Panjang constituency from 1963 to 1981.

    “We know that we are more or less like his second family compared to his political work. We totally got it and we appreciated that as well,” she said with a laugh.

    But he always made time for the family, especially when he returned from his overseas trips as Singapore’s first Minister for Social Affairs, a post he held from 1963 to 1977.

    “Whenever he (came) back from his travels, he (spent) at least one night with us, sharing his overseas stories, souvenirs,” she said.

    One lesson he often drummed into them was the importance of racial harmony as he lived through the 1964 race riots. He also emphasised humility, she said. “You could be the president’s daughter or the king’s daughter, but humility should be your middle name,” she recalled him saying.

    Mr Othman had been in and out of hospital since last November, and his last message to his children was to live peacefully with each other and maintain good relationships with one another, she said.

     

     

    Source: www.straitstimes.com

  • Yusof Ishak Mosque Is Key For Muslim Community

    Yusof Ishak Mosque Is Key For Muslim Community

    The Yusof Ishak Mosque is a key institution for the Muslim community and also the wider Singapore family, Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Yaacob Ibrahim said yesterday at the opening ceremony of the new mosque named after Singapore’s first president.

    Through its interactions with the community, the mosque will play an important part in promoting the ethos of multiculturalism and multiracialism, he added, noting that these were values Mr Yusof embodied as head of state.

    Dr Yaacob was speaking to reporters yesterday after Mr Yusof’s widow, Puan Noor Aishah, 84, opened the mosque in a ceremony witnessed by 100 guests, including Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

    Mr Yusof’s three children, Madam Orchid Kamariah, 68; Dr Imran Yusof, 67; and Datin Zuriana Yusof, 64, and other family members and friends were also present.

    Mr Yusof served as Yang di-Pertuan Negara (head of state) after Singapore gained self-government in 1959, and as presideont in 1965. He died in office in 1970.

    Yesterday was the first time the mosque – located in Woodlands and built at a cost of $18 million – opened its doors to worshippers after the prayer hall was consecrated by Mufti Mohamed Fatris Bakaram, Singapore’s highest Islamic authority. More than 5,000 people turned up for the prayer session.

     

    Source: www.tnp.sg