LISTEN AND LEARN...AN ISSUE OF INTOLERANCE!

“We heard that you will speak about commonalities between Islam, Judaism and Christianity,” one officer said. “We don’t like that kind of stuff.”

A Proposal for Islam

Mustafa Akyol SEPT. 28, 2017

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CreditMuhammad Shahrizal/NurPhoto, via Getty Images 

I am writing this column from an airplane, on my way from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to my new home, Wellesley, Mass. I’m in a comfortable seat, and I’m looking forward to getting back to my family. About 12 hours ago, though, I was miserable, locked in a holding cell by Malaysia’s “religious police.”

The story began a few months ago, when the Islamic Renaissance Front, a reformist, progressive Muslim organization in Malaysia, invited me to give a series of lectures on Islam, reason and freedom. The group had hosted me three times before in the past five years for similar events and also published the Malay version of my book “Islam Without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty.” I was glad for the chance to visit Malaysia again.

I arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Sept. 22. The next day I gave my first lectureon the suppression of rational theology by dogmatists in early Islam, making the point that this “intellectual suicide” still haunts Muslim civilization.

The second talk was on a more controversial topic: apostasy from Islam. I argued that Muslims must uphold freedom of conscience, in line with the Quranic dictum “No compulsion in religion.” I said that apostasy should not be punished by death, as it is in Saudi Arabia, or with “rehabilitation,” as it is in Malaysia. The practice of Islam must be on the basis of freedom, not coercion, and governments shouldn’t police religion or morality.

It turns out all you have to do is speak of the police and they will appear.

At the end of my talk, a group of serious-looking men came into the lecture hall and showed me badges indicating that they were “religion enforcement officers.”

“We heard that you just gave an unauthorized talk on religion,” one of the men said. “And we got complaints about it.” They took me to another room, photographed me and asked questions about my speech.

When they were done with their questioning, they handed me a piece of paper with Malay writing on it and told me that I shouldn’t speak again without proper authorization. They also warned me away from my next planned talk, which was going to be about my most recent book, “The Islamic Jesus: How the King of the Jews Became a Prophet of the Muslims.”

“We heard that you will speak about commonalities between Islam, Judaism and Christianity,” one officer said. “We don’t like that kind of stuff.” Then they left.

After all this, I consulted with my hosts, and we decided to cancel the final lecture. I assumed that was the end of the matter and went shopping for gifts for my wife and children.

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Later in the day, I went to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport to begin the 30-hour trip back to Massachusetts. When I gave my passport to the border police, I realized that my experience with offending Malaysia’s Islamic sensibilities wasn’t over.

“You need to wait, sir,” said the woman who checked my passport. She called some police officers, who called other police officers, who took me to a room where my arrest order was read to me. Apparently the religious police, known as JAWI, wanted to interrogate me again for my “unauthorized” talk on religious freedom and had issued that arrest order to make sure I didn’t leave the country.

I was taken from the airport to a police station, then to another station. Finally, I was taken to the JAWI headquarters, where I was locked up.

To be fair, nobody was rude to me, let alone cruel. Still, I was distressed: I had been arrested in an alien country whose laws and language I did not understand. I had no idea what would happen to me — and, most painfully, when I would see my wife, Riada, our 2-year-old son, Levent, and our 2-month-old baby, Efe.

In the morning, I was taken to a Shariah court, which is used in Malaysia to adjudicate religious issues, where I was interrogated for two hours. At the end, to my surprise, I was let go. Soon I learned that this was greatly facilitated by the diplomatic efforts of my country, Turkey — and especially the contact made by a former Turkish president, Abdullah Gul, with Malaysian royalty.

This incident showed me once again that there is a major problem in Islam today: a passion to impose religion, rather than merely proposing it, a mind-set that most Christians left behind at the time of the Inquisition.

Luckily, there are antidotes within Islam to this problem. One of them is the Quranic verse that the JAWI officers repeatedly chided me for daring to recite: “No compulsion in religion.”

In fact, mainstream Muslim tradition, reflecting its illiberal context, never fully appreciated the freedom implied by this verse — and other ones with similar messages. “The ‘no compulsion’ verse was a problem to the earliest exegetes,” as Patricia Crone, a scholar of Islamic history, has noted. “And they reacted by interpreting it restrictively.” The verse was declared “abrogated,” or its scope was radically limited.

This is still evident in a parenthetical that is too frequently inserted into translations of the verse. “There shall be no compulsion in religion (in becoming a Muslim).” I’d known that Saudi translations added those extra words at the end. Now I have learned that the Malaysian authorities do, too. They append the extra phrase because while they agree with the Quran that no one should be forced to become a Muslim, they think that Muslims should be compelled to practice the religion — in the way that the authorities define. They also believe that if Muslims decide to abandon their religion, they must be punished for “apostasy.”

One of the officers at my Malaysian Shariah court trial proudly told me that all of this was being done to “protect religion.” But I have an important message for her (which I didn’t share at the time): By policing religion, the authorities are not really protecting it. They are only enfeebling their societies, raising hypocrites and causing many people to lose their faith in or respect for Islam.

I came to understand that while I was being held in the JAWI headquarters, listening to a loud Quranic recitation coming from the next room. I heard the Quran and for the first time in my life it sounded like the voice of an oppressor. But I did not give in to that impression. “I hear you and I trust in you, God,” I said as I prayed, “despite these bigots who act in your name.”

Mustafa Akyol, a contributing opinion writer, is a visiting fellow at the Freedom Project at Wellesley College.

Food for thought....

Ranendra Bhattacharyya

1 hr · 

Courtesy.....Anonymous Ex-Muslim on why he left religion.

"What really broke it was the morals. 

“....made me believe in things I did not want to believe. 

“I don't want the homosexual to be killed. 

“I don't want men to have concubines. 

“I don't think a woman's testimony is worth half of man. 

“I don't think the woman deserves half the inheritance of a man. 

“I don't want fornicators to be punished for simply following an innocent teenager instinct. 

“I don't think masturbation is wrong. 

“I don't want apostates to be killed or jailed. 

“I don't want court evidence to only rely on testimony. 

“I don't want a theocracy. 

“I want to have doubts about everything and not feel guilty about it.

“I decided to read another document of morals, the The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 

“It was so sublime, it was...beautiful...

“I cried when I read it for the first time. 

“Honestly, in terms of justice and equality,....... 

“Not only that, I realized that all the humanity in me already existed, even without religion."

Always....THINK!

Everyone...Muslims and Infidels...Listen and Learn.

....BUT....make your own conclusion!

comment by Kassim S.A.

 

Like most everyone else who start their morning with a freshly-brewed cup of coffee, I always endeavour to gain an insight into the background of the speaker before I listen to what she had to share. And this is what I gleaned about this speaker:
1. She was born in Lebanon to Christian parents. She was 10 when the civil war broke out in Lebanon. She was alleged to have lived a relatively normal life during the war
2. She was said to have over-simplified the conflict in South Lebanon as a Muslim war against the Christians, her account of experiences as "overdone" and her persona and campaign as a "con act".
3. Her pro-Israel and anti-Islam speeches made her a "recommended speaker" by the Hasbara Fellowship Speakers Bureau, a pro-Israeli advocacy group.

And what did I learn from her?
1. Not only was she bad in history, she was poor in arithmetic. She took an entire 16 minutes to summarise her 5-minute history of Islam
2. She appears to have no knowledge about the Koran and a little confused about what is Islam and who is a Muslim.

"irony" : A very religious Muslim man, from a very religiouis Islamic political party had to go to America (not a very Islamic country) to get medical treatment.

Less than two weeks ago that Tweet of an IGP announced that three people have been arrested for insulting Islam after Haron's Din death. 

One of them is ex-journalist,  Sidek Kamiso.  

Sidek was arrested at 4.30 AM at his house in Petaling Jaya without an arrest warrant. He was then taken to Johor Baru where the police request for remand was rejected..and he was free to go on bail.

On Thursday Sidek Kamiso received a call asking him to go to IPK Dang Wangi but he was unable to do so. The next day he did go to IPK Dang Wangi - accompanied by his Lawyers -  where  he was arrested

Let us recap : The police came to his house in Petaling Jaya last week at 4.30 AM without an arrest warrant, seized his phone and laptop and then took him to Johor Baru where their request to remand him was denied.

You can read an account of what happened at Norlin Wan Musa (Sidek's wife) FB here : https://www.facebook.com/norlin.wanmusa 


PDRM arrested Sidek Kamiso under section 298 (a) of the Penal Code which states:

298.  Uttering words, etc., with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person.

Whoever, with deliberate intention of wounding the religious feelings of any person,  utters any word or makes any sound in the hearing of that person, or makes any gesture in the sight of that person, or places any object in the sight of that person, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both.


And how was Sidek Kamiso wounding the religious feelings of a person? He is alleged to have tweeted the following :

I wonder what they would do to me if I should be within the grasp of this Tweet of an IGP who licks Najib's arse for a living for I have been known to not only call him a tweet but also have wrote worse things than that tweet that Sidek was alleged to have tweeted! 

...but this is what we all now know : 

Sidek Kamiso and anybody else who tweets anything like the above tweet that Sidek Kamiso is alleged to have tweeted....will have the PDRM invade their house at 4.30 AM while they, their spouse and children are sleeping, have their phone and laptop seized and be taken hundred of miles from Petaling Jaya to Johor Baru presumbly to be held in custody in a police lock up......and all done without an arrest warrant!

Then upon being release on bail because a Magistrate did not allow the police to remand him any longer...that person will be arrested a few days later for wounding the religious feelings of another person. 

Woi Najib, woi you tweet of an IGP...apa yang si Sidek ni buat to upset another Muslim? Ini bukan orang Cina or India yang hantar tweet ....ini orang Melayu! Orang Islam!  

Sidek did not step on or kick the head of a cow to offend the sensibilities of a Hindu.

Sidek did not vandalize any Hindu Temple Idols.

Sidek did not go around asking the Cina to balek tongsan.

What he did was to tweet : Someone who made his career out of selling air jampi for any illness succumbed to his illlness in a modern hospital in San Francisco.#irony. 

The # hashtag before the word "irony" tags the word automatically so that when people want to look for "irony" related topics, Sidek's post will come up. 

And what is the irony of Haron Din's death? 

It is simply this - a very religious Muslim man, from a very religiouis Islamic political party had to go to America (not a very Islamic country) to get medical treatment.

I do not expect that tweet of an IGP to understand what "irony " means....so I do not expect this Tweet of an IGP to undertsand what it is that I am trying to explain....but I am sure there must be some one in PDRM who does understand. 

Can that some one please tweet to that tweet of an IGP and explain why Sidek's tweet is simply an innocous tweet that made an observation about the irony of Haron Din's death in a modern hospital in San Francisco in a not too Islamic country.

Itu aja...dia bukan nak "wound the religious feelings of any other Muslim"....aisehman Khalid, steady sikit lah. Jangan lah terburu buru mengikut apa aja suruhan by the owner of the arse that you are licking! 

God help you when Najib is removed from office for you can be sure that the Rakyat and the incoming government certainly will not!

   

ISLAM is about how we TREAT Others

Saudi Gazette

Fahd Amer Al-AhmadiFahd Al-Ahmadi

 

I read the other day a study about countries that apply Islamic principles in most of their daily lives. The study, conducted by Prof. Hussain Askari of George Washington University entitled “How Islamic are the Islamic Countries,” showed that most of these countries that apply Islamic principles in most of their daily lives are not ones traditionally Muslim with New Zealand ranking first, Luxembourg second followed by Ireland, Iceland, Finland, Denmark and Canada. Malaysia ranked 38, Kuwait 48, Bahrain 64 and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 131.

The study, published in the Global Economy Journal, might be shocking to most of us but when we look around us and see the reality of the situation, we find that the results of the study are accurate and true. Muslims seem to care only about performing religious obligations (prayer, fasting etc.) and memorizing the Holy Qur’an and the Prophet’s sayings, but we never practice what we learn. We listen to religious lessons and sermons more than other people on the face of the earth but we are still not the best nation. In the last 60 years, we have listened to 3,000 Friday sermons.

A Chinese merchant once said: “Muslim merchants come to me and ask me to put fake international labels and brands on their goods. When I invite them to eat, they refuse because the food is not halal. So it is halal for them to sell fake goods?”

A Japanese Muslim said: “I traveled to the West and saw Islam in practice applied in the daily life of non-Muslims. I traveled to the East, I saw Islam but did not see any Muslims. I thank Allah I knew Islam before I knew how Muslims act.” Religion should not be reduced to prayer and fasting. It is a way of life and it is about how we treat others.

Performing a religious obligation is up to you and it is something between you and Allah. However, good ethics is something between you and other people. In other words, if we do not put Islamic ethics into action and practice, corruption will become rampant.

We should not judge a person based on how he performs religious obligations for he might be a hypocrite. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: “Verily, the bankrupt of my nation are those who come on the Day of Resurrection with prayers, fasting and charity, but also with insults, slander, consuming wealth, shedding and beating others.”

Isalm is About Peace.

Hussein Abdul Hamid shared Fauzi Abdulrahman's post.

Let me say what needs to be said...I believe that the money DID NOT GO TO A BODY IN THE PHILIPPINES WHICH ASSIST IN AN ISLAMIC STRUGGLE" as claimed by the DPM. Some went into the DPM's pocket, some into PDRM's pockets, some to "intermediateries" in Malaysia and in the Philippines and, in one way or another, some went to Abu Sayaff...and then, maybe, what was left over did finally go to that "Islamic body in the Philippines which assisted in the the Islamic Struggle"

Lias My

Philippine is a sovereign country. Why do we need to give money to their religious organisation? We are not their religious saviour, we ourselves need money whether for religious purposes or for general purposes. We are not a rich country anymore. Even Saudi Arabia has gone poor.

Comments

Mohamad Abdul Karim I'm really trying to digest DPM's statement.

Mohamad Abdul Karim Problem is we cannot go on giving donations for the next kidnapping. So what is the next pretext??

Wan Shukri Of course not, but hopefully Malaysians will now know the danger and avoid being in the area. The next time around the govt may just ignore these ransom demands by giving excuses, if it happens after the elections of course.

Adnan Abdullah Its not the govt's money lah. Its collected from the kidnap victim's families and they are asking for some to be returned to them.

Dato Lokman Awang If you are a sinner you propagate sins and sinning becomes your leit motif

steadyaku47 comment : As expected, after a night of sleeping on the happenings of yesterday over what our DPM has done with the RM12millon handed over to PDRM to go towards any ransom demand by the Abu Sayyaf, we all wanted to have our say on the matter. 

The above is, but just a sampling of what I encountered...and like all issues that have made us questioned the deeds of this Umno led BN government....it is a question of "TRUST". 

We no longer trust the words of this Umno led BN government because "cakap bukan serupa bikin" and vested political and personal interests trumps everything else.

The RM12million handed over to PDRM to pay the ransom demanded by Abu Sayaff is a case in point. That RM12million was raised from public donations and assets sales (by the hostages families.....since when has the government decided that money raised this way is to be handed over to an Islamic entity/Charity Organizartion in a foreign land?

So far this is what this DPM of ours have narrated to us as to what has happened with the RM$12million:

• No ransom money was paid to Abu Sayyaf.
• The money was given to Charity.
• The Money was given to an Islamic entity.

Let me say what needs to be said...I believe that the money DID NOT GO TO A BODY IN THE PHILIPPINES WHICH ASSIST IN AN ISLAMIC STRUGGLE"  as claimed by the DPM. Some went into the DPM's pocket, some into PDRM's pockets, some to "intermediateries" in Malaysia and in the Philippines and, in one way or another, some went to Abu Sayaff...and then, maybe, what was left over did finally go to that "Islamic body in the Philippines which assisted in the the Islamic Struggle".

I am certain that the majority of that RM12million collected came from non-Muslims - were they consulted about the money going to an "Islamic Body which assist in an Islamic Struggle?" 

DId the DPM think about reimbursing the money to those who have sold their assets (cars and houses?) BEFORE he so generously donated the RM12million to that Islamic body that assisted in an Islamic Struggle? It is not his or the government money to donate!

Like that RM2.6 billion donation to Najib and 1MDB, so many of those who gained financially in those many dubious transactions and outright scams, have remained nameless and their identities clouded under such description as "Saudi Royalty" and what have you.

This RM12million caper seems destined to head the same way....same SOP ...same modus operandi...."national security" issues...."the government knows best" arguments and of course that most convincing of mantra...."do not politicize this issue".

In these coming days more questions will be asked and more "details" will emerged from the DPM, from the BN governments side, from Abu Sayyaf, from the Islamic Body involved, from the Philippines Government and from all walks of life that may or may not have any connection or knowledge of where that RM$12million went....but this we now know....those who have contributed to that RM12million may or may not have assisted in the freeing of those hostages....but we and they now know that they will never see their money again!

Where that RM12million went will now take its place with that RM2.6billion donation, with 1MDB and the various other financial capers, shennaningans and outright scams that this corrupt Umno led BN government have perpetrated and will continue to perpetrate, upon the long suffering people of this nation....so help me God! 

 

The Enemies of Islam are Everywhere! Beware! LOL!

Survey: Muslims fear TPP will unleash wave of booze, sex and porn

KUALA LUMPUR, April 10 — Some Muslims opposed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement for fear it will nullify Islamic laws in the country and…

themalaymailonline.com

steadyaku47 comment: Here we go again round the mulberry bush. This time around, the mulberry bush happens to be the TPP Agreement...aiyah why another "Islamic Conundrum" so soon after that Rayanair one? Why? 

Did we not see that the Rayanair debacle was because someone took the "Islamic Route" to try and start an airline without understanding what was required to make one successful? This planet is littered with Airline that have failed! At one time, the safest airline in the world - QANTAS _ was hundreds of millions AUD dollars in the red...but not anymore! But it still had to sustain itself for a while...and without good capable management and deep pockets that is impossible. 

How long has Rayanair been in operations? Four months ma! Not even a drop in the ocean...four months and it went kaput! 

Did it go Kaput because of it's Sharia compliance module or was it because that "anyone can fly" slogan got every one wanting to fly? Even an oil and gas company (that has no business to be in the airline business!), Merdeka Jayabumi Enterprise and mining company, Terus Maju Metal who are the shareholders of this Syariah compliance airline!!!!


DId it go belly up because of the Christians sabotaging the airline? 

The Chinese bikin kachau? 

Did money changed hands when the license was granted by DCA? Were there political pressure, greased by financial considerations and inducements...and of course Islamic considerations (Huh!) to be blame for this airline even flying when it should not be? And to have its HQ in Langkawi? Where got road man! 

But I digress....we are talking about that TPP Agreement. It would seems that some Muslims are opposed to the Trans -Pacific Partnership for fear it will nullify Islamic laws in the country! I am not even going to read the article reporting on these fears of the TPP Agreement by some Muslims.....why waste my time ma...though I too have my own reservations about that Agreement.....but again I digress.

Just a word of advise to these Muslims who oppose the TPP Agreements on the grounds that it is a threat to Islam........go ride a camel and fornicate!

Peruntukan untuk Jabatan Hal Ehwal Agama : Penang vs Kelantan.

Umno...Apo Nak di Kato?

Samson Singh shared Stephen Francis's video.

6 mins ·

Respect u lah Sarawak CM ....now lets see what umno has to say ????.. Obviously nothing lah, cause they depend on u for votes ...

 

2:14/2:51

Stephen Francis

30 mins ·

No religious conversion ? Finally some sense in fanatism. Kick out or disband all religious departments. Woot woot.

steadyaku47 comment : Saya "share" aja.....