Day: February 4, 2015

I have instructed my lawyers to institute criminal and civil proceedings against an UMNO blogger Syed Akhbar Ali for a defamatory tweet late last night insinuating that I am a communist and a racialist who is anti-Malay who caused the May 13 race riots.

Syed Akhbar’s tweet carried a graphic of me in the garb of Mao Tse Tung, alleging that I am “Bapa 13 Mei”, and accusing me of having caused the May 13 race riots in 1969 because of my anti-Malay statements and slogans, with a caption “’MELAYU KELUAR! APA LAGI DUDUK SINI, KITA HENTAM LU, SEKARANG KITA SUDAH ADA KUASA” LIM KIT SIANG (BAPA 13 MEI).

The graphic in Syed Akbar’s tweet alleged that I had made the following statements in the following places and dates:

1. Menggunakan slogan “Malai-Si” bermaksud “Mati Melayu”.

2. “Apa polis boleh buat, kita Raja. Buang sama polis Melayu.”
– (11 Mei 69, Bukit Bintang)

3. “Mati Melayu, sakai pergi masuk hutan”.
– (11 Mei 69, Jalan Bukit Bintang).

4. “KL sekarang cina punya”.
Continue reading “My lawyers instructed to institute criminal and civil proceedings against an UMNO blogger Syed Akhbar Ali for his defamatory tweet insinuating that I am a communist and racialist who is anti-Malay who caused the May 13 race riots”

By ROD NORDLAND and RANYA KADRI
New York Times
Feb. 3, 2015

AMMAN, Jordan — When relatives learned Tuesday night that the Islamic State had released a video showing the death of a Jordanian fighter pilot, First Lt. Moaz al-Kasasbeh, they tried to keep it from his mother, Issaf, and his wife, Anwar. They switched off the television and tried to wrest a smartphone out of his wife’s hand, but she had already seen a mobile news bulletin.

Anwar ran crying into the street, calling her husband’s name and saying, “Please, God, let it not be true.” Issaf fell to the floor screaming, pulled her head scarf off and started tearing at her hair.

That was even before they knew how he had been killed. No one dared let them know right away that Lieutenant Kasasbeh’s tormentors had apparently burned him alive inside a cage, a killing that was soon described as the most brutal in the group’s bloody history.

Jordan responded rapidly, executing Sajida al-Rishawi, who was convicted after attempting a suicide bombing, and Ziad al-Karbouli, a top lieutenant of Al Qaeda in Iraq, before dawn on Wednesday, according to the official news agency Petra. Continue reading “Jordan Executes Prisoners After ISIS Video of Pilot’s Death”

Can Islam support a secular, democratic government?
Christian Science Monitor
August 30, 2007

I need a secular state

By Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na`im

ALTANTA – To be a Muslim by conviction and free choice – which is the only way one can be a Muslim – I need to live in a secular state. By a secular state, I mean one that is neutral regarding religious doctrine to facilitate genuine piety. The state should not enforce sharia (the religious law of Islam) because compliance should never be coerced by fear or faked to appease state officials. When observed voluntarily, sharia-based values can help shape laws and public policy through the democratic process. But if sharia principles are enacted as state law, the outcome will simply be the political will of the state.
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Many Muslims equate secularism with antireligious attitudes. Yet I believe that a secular state can promote genuine religious experience among believers and affirm the role of Islam in public life.

The so-called Islamic state is conceptually incoherent and historically unprecedented. There simply is no scriptural basis for an “Islamic state” to enforce sharia. Continue reading “Four views on Islam and the state”

Only last Thursday, I had the occasion to comment that the Malaysian Cabinet Edition 2015 is probably the worst in the 58-year Malaysian history – acting like the traditional three monkeys with eyes that see not, ears that hear not and mouths that speak not.

This was when the Cabinet failed to repudiate and reprimand the Urban Well-being, Housing and Local Government Minister, Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan for his irresponsible and reckless statement that the restoration of local government elections could worsen racial polarisation in support of the equally bizarre statement by the PAS President Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang that the restoration of the third vote could cause a repeat of the May 13 race riots.

Abdul Rahman is the most irresponsible Local Government Minister in the nation’s history for no other Local Government Minister had ever made such a statement in the past 50 years since the suspension of local government elections on March 1965 on the ground of threat from Indonesian Confrontation.

Former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad had dismissed the previous Cabinet as “half-past six” and the former Finance Minister Tun Daim Zainuddin was no less caustic when he talked about “deadwood” Ministers.

But the Cabinet 2015 seems set on proving Mahathir and Daim right in their condemnation of the quality, character and even work ethics of the current batch of Cabinet Ministers.

The Cabinet 2015 had already totted up several major failures in the first month of the new year, including: Continue reading “Open Letter to Ministers an hour before Cabinet meeting – Don’t be “half-past six Cabinet” of “deadwood” Ministers, and don’t be moral pygmies and political dwarfs but take a stand on behalf of present and future generations on the great issue of right and wrong in Malaysia”

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi
Reuters
Feb 3, 2015

AMMAN (Reuters) – Islamic State militants released a video on Tuesday appearing to show a captured Jordanian pilot being burnt alive, and Jordan vowed to avenge his death with an “earth-shaking” response.

A Jordanian official said the authorities would execute several militants jailed in Jordan in response, including a Iraqi woman who Amman had sought to swap for the pilot taken captive after his plane crashed in Syria in December.

Reuters could not immediately confirm the content of the video, which showed a man resembling airman Mouath al-Kasaesbeh standing in a black cage before being set ablaze. But the reaction of the Jordanian authorities made clear they treated it as genuine. Continue reading “Islamic State shows burning of hostage, Jordan vows ‘earth-shaking’ response”