Tag: Walid Jumblatt Abdullah

SG Muslims Don’t Hate LGBTQ

Sis Nurashikin Salim & Hubby

Bismilaahirrahmaanirraheem…

Assalamualaikum Wr. Wb.

Dear My Muslim LGBTQ Brothers and Sisters…

There’s something we need to confess to you. We, straight Muslims, do not hate you. In fact, we have never hated you. True, we may seem aggressive with our acts of eradicating LGBTQ from the society but it’s not because we hate you.

So my dear brothers and sisters, how can homosexuality ever be acceptable in Islam?

Allah’s wisdom is so great that nothing can surpass it. We’re always talking about hijab. That’s why we even need to hijab when we’re in the same room with the same gender. Both men’s and women’s aurah when in front of the same gender are from the navel to the knees (knees included). We cannot be naked in front of anyone, except for your halal wife/husband. That’s the beauty of marriage. MasyaAllah. How much details Allah SWT has put into the rules and guidelines for us to live our daily lives and not even a single loophole in Islam.

Allah SWT even forbid us from cross-dressing. A lady can’t dress like a guy and a guy can’t dress like a lady. Even if a guy wears the headscarf just for sake of fun, it is haram. SubhanAllah. How strict our Lord is when it comes to this.

Again my homosexual brothers and sisters, we’re not against you. We will never humiliate you. Those who humiliate you are not one of us. We are here to give constant reminders to you. It may be hurtful going through the process of purification. No doubt, it will be very very hard to contain those urges and desires. But just think of your parents, if not for them, you’ll not see the world. You need both mother’s and father’s love and attention. You know both of them play very different roles. Can you imagine yourself being brought up by same sex parents? And knowing that you’re either adopted or your birth isn’t normal? Not knowing who’s your real parents or who your dad is? If you can’t imagine, then please spare the emotional torture from your future child(ren). Plus, you know how important breastfeeding is to newborn. How can you have the heart depriving a newborn of the best nutrition?

Allah is great. He wants to protect us. Have we not read of the statistic that proportionally, more homosexuals are infected by HIV than heterosexuals? Can’t you see how much Allah SWT, the One who created you, loves you? He knows you more than you know yourself. He forbids homosexuality as He knows how much detrimental effects it will bring to you, to the community.

It’s not too late, my dear brothers and sister. You may have a very dark past. You may feel that your sin is too big for Allah SWT to forgive. But know that the only sin that Allah SWT won’t forgive is syirk (associating partners to Allah SWT). Allah SWT says in the Qur’an:

“Allah says: “O My servants who have transgressed against their souls, do not despair of Allah’s mercy, for Allah forgives all sins. It is He Who is the Forgiving, the Merciful.” (al-Quran 39:53)

Remember that whenever you wanna repent and there’s something inside you saying that you’re not deserving of Allah’s forgiveness, that’s not your voice. That’s syaitan who’s whispering into your ears. You’re better than syaitan and iblis. Know that while you’re struggling to stop loving the same gender, there’s also a straight person who’s struggling not to be in a haram relationship.

I know this post may not change you, but my only hope is that for you to keep seeking the truth. My only advise is that to not miss any prayers. I remembered at one point of time how far I was from Allah SWT, but I keep telling myself that I should never miss any prayers. How difficult it was to find the time or place to pray, I still struggled hard to stop making excuses for myself. At that moment, I didn’t know what actions will make Allah SWT happy, but I knew the things that Allah SWT hated. So I tried my best to refrain from doing things that brought pleasure to me, but hatred to Allah SWT.

If you always club, drink, smoke, have promiscuous sex, or any sinful acts, avoid it one by one. No one is asking you to change drastically. For drastic change will bear drastic impact. If you can handle the drastic impact, then Alhamdulillah for you. If not, then do it one at a time. What’s most important is that you have the intention to change, only for the One. Keep making do’a to the Lord of the universe. Know that if He can control the entire universe, controlling your heart is just a small matter. Just ask for it. He doesn’t need you to survive, you need Him to survive.

Life is just a challenge. Everyone has their own challenges. If you think your challenge is the biggest, know that there’s someone else in this world who’s struggling to live; no food, no place to sleep, no parents, don’t know if tomorrow a bullet gonna pierce through his/her head.

You can be the happiest person. You don’t need a human’s love to make you feel complete. All you need is Allah SWT’s and Rasulullah SAW’s love. To have your halal spouse to love you, is a bonus. You choose your own happiness.

“A happy person once said: “The beautiful day is the day on which we have control of our affairs and our affairs do not control us. It is the day on which we control our desires and we are not controlled by them like slaves.”” (extracted from the book ‘You Can Be The Happiest Women In The World’)

Last not but not least, be friends with those who love Allah SWT. Be in the environment that gives you the positive vibe. Know that if someone loves Allah SWT, it doesn’t only come from the heart. If someone truly and sincerely loves Him, from the heart it will automatically show through from one’s appearance and actions. Be with those who truly and sincerely love Him.

How contradictory and hurtful it may sound, but know that those who support your sinful acts are actually the one who don’t love you. Those who stop and acknowledge you are the ones who truly love you. Life is temporary and we don’t want you to live “happily” only for a short period of time. We want you to be happy forever, now and till the Hereafter. InsyaAllah.

May Allah SWT guide us always and never make us go astray.

WallahuAlam.

Read the rest of the post here.

Authored by Nurashikin Salim

FOR MORE RELATED ARTICLES ON LGBT, PINKDOT SG & ISLAM, CLICK HERE

EDITOR’S NOTE

More and more Singaporeans are coming out to write about the LGBT issue.

Are you supporting the Freedom to Love or are you supporting the Traditional Values of Marriage and Family?

Which side are you on? Share your opinion with us at Rilek1Corner.

June 11, 2014
Clarification on New Islamic Independent Body and Wear White Movement

*READ THIS & THIS & THIS to KNOW WHAT HAPPENED EARLIER ON*

Ustaz Noor Deros

Suggestions By Ustaz Noor Deros:

In my discussions with many muslims about this issue I managed to gather some good suggestions, these are some of them :

– Organise an easy, simple, yet clear and easily viral event such as WEAR WHITE DAY ON THE FIRST OF RAMADAN.

Together with this, all/some of the mosque in Singapore – on the first of ramadan especially – should deliver a clear call to taubah, explaining the concept of fitrah, freedom & sexuality in Islam.

In my opinion, this is the most viable, I and my friends will take this on, you are invited to lend a hand. Please contact me if you are interested.

– Veterans and experienced Mega Maulid/Islamic Events organisers especially the lead and crowdpulling asatizahs should come together and organise a mega program on the first of ramadan, maybe a mega terawih session in a stadium. FOR THE LOVE OF THE PROPHET S.A.W. We will give our support.

– Short videos stating our stand on this issue as Muslims living in Singapore. (This is a must)

– Continuous series of talks and seminars on Islam and the LGBT. (Such programs have started, but we need more of it)

– Talks on Islamic Worldview/ Islamic View of Existence. (This is the most important)

Oh Muslims! Our amal ma’ruf nahi munkar is never and should never be restricted to only Muslims. If your non-muslim neighbour tries to kill an innocent life in front of you what do you do? Harm should not be restricted to physical, for we muslims strongly believe in the reality of spiritual harm.

Oh Muslims! We have been fighting about petty issues for too long, Isn’t it high time for us to come together for something that is common between us?

Come come! Let us all together make taubah!

Scholars should make taubah of their muteness and inaction!

Those who have fallen into the pit of LGBT lifestyle should make taubah of their transgression!

Those of us who think that we are clean and are guarenteed salvation because we are religious, should make the most istighfar! For that is the worse kind of delusion!

Welcome! Welcome oh ye month of Maghfirah!

June 6, 2014
Time for Muslim MPs To Take a Stand on Malay and Muslim Issues

Photo Credit: Yahoo SG

WP MP Faisal Manap raises some concerns of Muslims, as expressed in the Suara Musyawarah Report, in Parliament.

Instead of addressing the issue head-on, PAP Muslim MPs tries to corner Faisal into taking a stand on the issue (which he didn’t, and i think he should have). Later, the MPs were either silent on the issue or tried to skirt it, or even deny it.

Now i have a few questions for the Muslim MPs:

1) Is the Suara Musyawarah Report not commissioned by the government? If so, what is the follow-up?

2) What is the attitude of the Muslim MPs towards the report? Take what you like from it, and ignore what you don’t?

3) If the latter is the case, why have the report in the first place?

4) Even IF those things stated are not true, those are indeed the perceptions of many Muslims. Will you address those perceptions with facts and figures, and reasoned argumentation? Or will those just be dismissed or ignored?

I call upon them to take a stand on these issues/questions, in the name of constructive politics.

Authored by Walid Jumblatt Abdullah

Walid Jumblatt Abdullah, a public-spirited individual, is an ongoing Political Science student of the National University of Singapore (NUS). He is a three-times award recipient of the Graduate Student Teaching (GSTA) Award Honour Roll in 2012. In the recent NUS Commencement Week, he was also selected as the Valedictorian of his cohort.

EDITOR’S NOTE

Seems like both parties cranked up their engines harder this time round with fancy new measures and proposals. The announcement on setting up of WP Malay/Muslim committee to oversee concerns faced by the community should have been done way much earlier. Nevertheless, it’s better late than never. We applaud WP to help the community alongside PAP. Having two different approaches and perspectives to issues will definitely result in expedited progress, only if sole focus is on the community, and not about the respective parties and what’s important to them.

We are glad that more and more Muslims are speaking up for what’s good for their community. This is our country and in a significant way, we have the right to decide our future. As long that discussions are not baseless and no vulgarities involved, someday somehow someone will hear us.

May 30, 2014
Academic Freedom in Spotlight

Associate Professor Reuben Yik-Pern Wong

Walid Jumblatt Abdullah

THE recent controversy over a National University of Singapore professor’s Facebook posts on homosexuality has thrust the issue of academic freedom to the fore (“Protests over NUS don’s Facebook post”; last Saturday).

Academic freedom extends from the core peer-reviewed activities of research and teaching to include extramural domains of speech – where faculty members speak or write on larger political, social or religious matters outside their institutions.

While academics, who enjoy a privileged position in society, should be held to a high standard of accountability for what they say in or outside academia, society should not curtail them from expressing their ideas. Otherwise, social innovation, knowledge creation and creativity would be seriously hampered.

Clearly, these two imperatives need to be reconciled.

The term “academic freedom” emerged in German universities in the 19th century. The three basic principles were the freedom to teach, the freedom to learn, and the freedom to do research. These principles were adapted to different circumstances in higher education all over the world.

The 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is regularly cited in legal cases involving academic freedom.

An AAUP interpretive comment from the 1970 update of the 1940 statement noted that “controversy is at the heart of the free academic inquiry which the entire statement is designed to foster”.

Academics should be allowed, indeed encouraged, to express alternative or non-conformist opinions, however counter-intuitive these opinions may seem.

Of course, they should do so with tact and respect, and within society’s moral and legal limits. Academics must also protect the intellectual space they so cherish, by allowing others to voice opposing opinions.

How we respond to the latest incident is indicative of how we wish to move as a society. Do we value engaging people and dissonant ideas on a calm and intellectual basis, and respond to dissenting ideas respectfully and via reasoned argumentation?

In a civilised society, ideas should be discussed, debated, developed or demolished at the liberal marketplace of ideas, without fear of being accused of bigotry or thought crimes. Otherwise, we risk slipping into a culture of intolerance and self-censorship, a perpetual pressure to conform to the “politically correct” or “progressive” ideas of the day.

I hope that responses to contentious views can follow the dictum famously ascribed to the thinker Voltaire: “I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

Written by Walid Jumblatt Abdullah & Reuben Wong (Associate Professor)

Source: The Straits Times

March 8, 2014
A Short Response to DPM Teo and Minister Yaacob

The DPM’s statement is encouraging, as it shows that our cabinet has acknowledged the Muslim community’s concerns. We should strongly welcome his statement. Minister Yaacob’s post on how he met up with PM Lee is also another good sign.

In the spirit of calls by the government to engage in constructive engagement, i would like to respond briefly to the concerns raised.

1) DPM Teo mentions that the government needs to balance the different communities’ needs. This is more than a fair statement. The questions that should be asked though:

i) Does wearing the hijab (in schools or hospitals or elsewhere) impinge on other communities’ needs? If so, how?

ii) Are the other communities not fine with the hijab being worn in those places?

The second is an empirical question, that can easily be discovered. I urge the government, or the Institute of Policy Studies, or MUIS, or anyone else willing and able, to do a proper survey to establish the answer to this question, if this is a genuine question. I have been doing informal surveys on my own, and thus far i gather that non-Muslims are more than comfortable with their Muslim friends wearing the hijab. Of course, my informal surveys do not employ the statistical rigour required (random sampling etc), and hence a large organization might be better-placed to conduct such a survey.

2) Minister Yaacob says that we should try to work to find ‘practical solutions’. I call for the government to suggest what are some of these ‘practical solutions’ that they have in mind. These suggestions should then be discussed with the Muslim and non-Muslim communities.

On the Muslims’ part, i am sure we are more than willing to offer suggestions too.

3) DPM Teo says that social harmony is paramount. Muslims agree. Again, the question should be how does the hijab undermine social harmony? If anything, it will only increase levels of tolerance and understanding, especially if non-Muslims are exposed to this Muslim code of dressing since a young age.

4) Finally, it is hoped that the government will outline their concerns about the hijab, as thus far it has been unclear what those concerns actually are. For example, if social harmony is the worry, then they will need to explain how the hijab affects harmony. If the ‘secular space’ is the concern, then we need to define what is this imaginary space and how will it be affected.

To conclude, i call on the Muslim community to work closely with our non-Muslim friends, and solicit feedback on the hijab from them. We should encourage them to be as honest as possible with us, and can help clarify their doubts. I also hope that this issue will not be framed as ‘Muslims VS PAP’ or ‘us VS them’; rather it should be ‘Singaporeans (Muslims and non-Muslims) trying to convince a legitimately-elected government to reconsider their policy.’

Walid Jumblatt Abdullah

Source: http://www.facebook.com/notes/osman-sulaiman/is-pap-the-solution-or-the-problem/10151696941793372

January 14, 2014