AS A Malaysian, it irks me when I read that UUM’s lecturer Kamarul Zaman Yusoff says stories and quotations from the Bible in Hannah Yeoh’s book could influence non-christians to convert to the religion. In his police report which was published in PAS official organ Harakahdaily, Kamarul felt the stories can influence readers, including himself to feel admiration for the greatness of Hannah Yeoh’s God. My first reaction is here we go again. Why are some Malaysians so weak that we become frightened of our own shadow as if everywhere we turn to we become a blub of jelly that is easily mouldable into some kind of defenceless soul. If I was UUM, I would be very worried about the lecturer’s paroc

The Muslim woman who spoke of Saudi-funded mosques and the spread of Wahhabi Islam in Thursday’s Question Time was spot on. What makes Wahhabism so damaging? We don’t have to look further than its ideologues, such as its founder Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab who is refered to in ISIS publications. His preaching was vehemently intolerant and violent. Anyone who disagreed with his narrow understating of Islam was considered an apostate and would be punishable by death. His preaching brought bloodshed to the Arabian Peninsula in the form of beheadings, executions, and amputations, much like what we have witnessed from ISIS. Bernard Haykel, a scholar at Princeton describes the ISIS’ ideology as “a

A movement to address the contextualization of Islamic teaching, dubbed Humanitarian Islam, has been inaugurated in Jombang, East Java. GP Ansor, the youth wing of Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia's largest Islamic organization, inaugurated the movement during an event attended by over 300 worldwide religious scholars. “Muslims should be able to identify problems within Islamic orthodox teaching,” GP Ansor chairman Yaqut Qoumas said in a press release made available on Monday. Included in a road map of the movement was a call for “a serious, long-term socio-cultural, political, religious and educational campaign to transform Muslims’ understanding of their religious obligations, and the very natur

After the Manchester massacre… yes, and after Nice and Paris, Mosul and Abu Ghraib and 7/7 and the Haditha massacre – remember those 28 civilians, including children, killed by US Marines, four more than Manchester but no minute’s silence for them? And of course 9/11… Counterbalancing cruelty is no response, of course. Just a reminder. As long as we bomb the Middle East instead of seeking justice there, we too will be attacked. But what we must concentrate upon, according to the monstrous Trump, is terror, terror, terror, terror, terror. And fear. And security. Which we will not have while we are promoting death in the Muslim world and selling weapons to its dictators. Believe in “terror” an

KUALA LUMPUR, May 23 — The High Court today dismissed Perkasa's attempt to assist it in a late deputy prime minister's son's lawsuit over a proposed Bill to increase the Shariah courts' sentencing powers. Lawyer Rosli Dahlan, who represented the late Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman's son Mohamed Tawfik Ismail, said the High Court here had dismissed Perkasa's application to be amicus curiae or friend of the court in the lawsuit over “non-compliance” with the court's instructions to file in a formal application. “They are supposed to send grounds to the Attorney-General's Chambers and the court, they didn't, they just filed a submission,” he told Malay Mail Online when contacted after hearing in ch

JOMBANG, East Java, Indonesia: The world’s largest Muslim youth organisation Gerakan Pemuda Ansor (GP Ansor) - the youth wing of Indonesia’s largest Muslim organisation Nadlatul Ulama (NU) - on Monday (May 22) called for a re-examination of Islamic text to adapt it to modern civilisation. The call is a bold move from NU and comes three weeks after the jailing of Jakarta’s first ethnic Chinese Christian governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, also known as Ahok. His conviction has raised concerns that extremists are gaining an upper hand in a country long known as the face of moderate Islam. NU claims to have 50 million followers. Its youth wing GP Ansor warned that failure to re-examine the text wi

PHOTOS of people covered head to toe in black celebrating Kaamatan “Islamik” in Papar on May 6, 2017 raised eyebrows and anger among the Kadazandusun community. Abrahamic religion has now encroached into a festival celebrated by Kadazandusun. From Facebook postings, it is believed that the alternative Kadazandusun harvest festival held in Papar was organised by Islamic organizations and the same will be held in Keningau, Ranau, and Kundasang Harvest Festivals are not unique to Sabah. It is celebrated all over the world by different ethnicities to gives thanks to the gods for a bountiful harvest and asking for more blessings in the years forward. In Sabah, it’s a two-day public holiday and fo

In a multi-racial society, the principle of accountability to the people should be the priority, says a Kelantan scholar. NIK Abdul Aziz Nik Hassan may be one of G25’s newest members, but he comes from a line of alim (“the wise”) and reformers from Kelantan which stretches back through the 19th century. Datuk Faridah Khalid, former deputy president of the National Council of Women’s Organisations, invited him to join the grouping of Malay Muslim professionals calling for a rational discussion of the role and position of Islam, in line with the Federal Constitution. Nik Abdul Aziz was asked to play a role as an Islamic scholar and give input, he explains, and he joined late last year since he

KUALA LUMPUR: All Malaysians must defend Malaysia as a secular country as inspired by the nation’s founding father Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Alhaj, said a former Court of Appeal judge. Datuk Seri Mohd Hishamudin Yunus (pic) said the proposed amendments to the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 (RUU355) was not suitable and would not be accepted by most Malaysians. The argument that the RUU355 will not affect non-Muslims also cannot be accepted, he said. Hishamudin said there were common cases such as orang asli wrongly registered as Muslims, non-Muslim children being converted to Islam by one parent and corpses seized by Islamic authorities claiming that the deceased was a Muslim

KUALA KANGSAR, 20 Mei (Bernama) -- Agenda pembangunan insan wajib mendahului agenda pembangunan lain kerana terdapat kajian menunjukkan peradaban sesuatu bangsa boleh hancur jika institusi keluarga, pendidikan dan keteladanan tokoh serta ulama hancur. Sultan Perak Sultan Nazrin Shah bertitah institusi keluarga akan hancur apabila ibu bapa memilih untuk menyerah dan mempertanggungjawabkan sepenuhnya urusan mendidik anak kepada pembantu rumah dan guru di sekolah. Sementara itu, baginda bertitah pendidikan boleh dihancurkan jika peranan guru tidak diberi pengiktirafan sewajarnya dan golongan itu dibebani dengan tugas-tugas yang menyebabkan mereka terabai daripada tugas asasi mengajar serta

It is most unfortunate that it always takes a tragedy — the tragic death of a child, in this case — to shake the nation and jolt the authorities into action. The untimely death of Mohd Thakif Amin Mohd Gaddafi should serve as a lesson to all concerned that cruelty can happen at any school, even those that are supposed to bring one closer to God. His demise has opened a can of worms for many agencies involved in overseeing learning institutions. It affects issues such as punitive measures, regulations, monitoring and enforcement. In the establishment and administration of a learning institution, what are the responsibilities of the relevant ministries and government/state agencies? Who should

WHEN PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang says Malaysians can learn from Sabah and Sarawak, where the two states’ diverse peoples have lived in harmony for so long, it’s a recognition of our long-standing culture and tradition of respecting diversity in our state. PAS, he said, recognised the advantages of a multi-cultural and multi-racial society, and that there were lessons to be learnt from the diverse peoples of Sabah and Sarawak on managing relations. Abdul Hadi also spoke of the need to maintain harmony in Malaysia and hit out at political parties that were competing to go against efforts to strengthen Islamic principles. This is where we will have to depart from Abdul Hadi’s nice

G25 notes with increasing concern the tolerance shown by Malaysian authorities on the extreme statements made by Dr Zakir Naik in his preachings. We believe in free speech but when it is allowed in favour of a certain person and denied to others who have different views - that is not a healthy kind of freedom for our multi-cultural society. While we respect Zakir Naik’s democratic rights to express his views on Islam and compare it with other religions by quoting from various scriptures to illustrate such views, he has often created anger among Muslims and non-Muslims alike by his frequent mocking of other religious doctrines and practices. He is also inextricably linked to extremist views a

Demokrasi berparlimen di negara kita telah dicabuli dengan cara yang angkuh sekali apabila ahli-ahli Parlimen terpaksa bersengkang mata sehingga jam 5 pagi pada 6 April 2017 untuk menyelesaikan rang undang-undang (RUU) kerajaan semata-mata untuk memberi peluang kepada Ahli Parlimen Marang, Dato’s Seri Hadi Awang untuk membentangkan rang undang-undang persendiriannya untuk meminda Akta Mahkamah Syariah (Bidang Kuasa Jenayah) 1965 (Akta 355) (RUU355) pada jam 12 tengah hari, 6 April yang juga merupakan hari terakhir persidangan Parlimen. Walaupun Speaker telah menghentikan debat selepas ucapan oleh Hadi Awang dan rakannya dari Kota Baru, RUU355 masih belum gagal sepenuhnya. Hadi Awang akan ter

Malays have often poured scorn over Islamophobia in the West. But in Malaysia we have the reverse Islamophobia where a Malay official in a chess tournament can rule that the short skirt worn by a 12-year old competitor was too tempting for others, while in a similarly bizarre comment, a PAS ulama said the main reason his party pulled out of PKR is because of a foreign singer Selena Gomez being allowed by the Selangor government to perform to the public here. Girls, clothes and music in Malaysia are often the target for religious bigotry, which is like the religious dictatorship of the few over the majority. This is far worse than the racial and religious profiling in the West. There in the W

PETALING JAYA: Moderate Malaysians must stand firm against the move to amend the Syariah Court (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 as it will alter the secular nature of Malaysia, said a member of the G25 eminent Malays’ group. Datuk Noor Farida Ariffin (pic) said it was vital to uphold Malaysia’s secular Constitution, which is the social contract agreed upon by the country’s founding fathers. Negotiated among members of the Alliance, Sultans and the British, she said, it was never intended to be an Islamic Constitution. “It was intended to be a secular Constitution and Malaysia was intended to be a secular country,” Noor Farida said in an interview with Mariam Mokhtar, the columnist of an onli

We, members of G25, wholeheartedly applaud the recent courageous and innovative judgment of the Federal Court in the case of Semenyih Jaya Sdn Bhd v Pentadbir Tanah Daerah Hulu Langat (and another appeal) that restores the judicial power of the Judiciary and affirms the doctrine of the Separation of Powers. In so ruling, the Federal Court has propounded two important principles of constitutional law, namely, (1) that the Independence of the Judiciary and the doctrine of the Separation of Powers are basic features of the Federal Constitution; and (2) that Parliament has no power to amend the Federal Constitution with the view to remove these two basic features. Our heartiest congratulations t

The Monsoons Book Club invited Noor Farida Ariffin, the former Ambassador to The Netherlands and the spokesman for the G25 group of eminent Malaysians to give her views on the latest developments in Malaysia. In the video below, Noor Farida offers her frank assessment on a wide range of topical subjects. Her discussion starts with the Amendment to Act 355, in which she urges Malaysians to oppose PAS president, Hadi Awang’s Hudud Bill, in particular the residents of both Sabah and Sarawak. Other topics range from the Opposition struggles to the offensive remarks made by the Tasek Gelugor MP, Shabudin Yahya about rape, and her views about the Malay psyche are particularly revealing, as are her