Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Bahrain's uprising is about power not religion-Adrian Hamilton
Thursday, 17 March 2011
International Studies
Sunni. Shia. Every time the protests in Bahrain are mentioned, they are made into a battle between these two branches of Islam, as if this was a war of religions.
It's not about religion, it's about power and the desire for political change. Of course, in terms of power, it matters that 65 per cent of the population of Bahrain is Shia but 95 per cent of authority and most of the wealth belongs to the Sunni royal family and its close circle.But to put it in terms of a religious division is not only misleading, it also plays into the hands of those in Washington, as in Riyadh, who want to see everything through the prism of the confrontation with Iran and the fear of a so-called "Shia arc" emerging through the Gulf.It's grossly exaggerated. The Iranians, ethnically Indo-European, have always had problems of influence among the Arab Shia of the region. So far Iran seems to have played virtually no part in this uprising.
To put the Bahraini demonstrations in Muslim terms is simply a diversion from the real problem, which is that a major part of the population has had it up to the neck with a corrupt and self-serving regime which has garnered the wealth of the island to a small group of royal rich and left the majority excluded. As Ibrahim Shareef, leader of the largest non-religious party in the country, the opposition Waad, put it succinctly this week: "This is not about the Shia versus Sunni; it is about conserving the status quo."
It is the same as in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, the difference being that Bahrain – or rather the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa, the King's uncle – is beholden to neighbouring Saudi Arabia, which has its own problems with minorities and has every fear of the same thing happening there.
The decision to send in Saudi troops, together with police from the United Arab Emirates, makes it depressingly clear where we now stand in the Gulf region so far as protests are concerned. The royalist regimes are not going to tolerate them. There's now a state of emergency in Bahrain, demonstrations have been banned in Saudi Arabia, there's a violent crackdown (also encouraged b y the Saudis) in the Yemen.
Talk of moderate reform, of keeping King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa in Bahrain but firing his wealthy, long-serving prime minister, is now being swept aside. Sheikh Khalifa will survive (which in itself is an interesting comment on the relative power of uncle and nephew), as may the Yemeni president.
That is not entirely good news for the Obama administration, which had urged the idea of compromise, partly to make its support for the Gulf regimes more acceptable back home and partly to forestall total revolution in the future.
As in Libya, it's also deeply dispiriting for those outside, as within, who looked for peaceful change in the Arab world. Yet the latest events in Bahrain should not be the cause for total pessimism. Even if protest is suppressed for the moment, it has happened and has been seen around the world to have happened. That must aggravate the feeling of anger among a resentful people within the country, for whom violent oppression has given added grievance.
It must also affect confidence among investors abroad, who must now put a question mark over the future stability and security of these royalist regimes. That applies to western governments as well, particularly the US for whom the base in Bahrain and the oil in Saudi Arabia is of crucial importance. Alternative strategies for security and for energy are bound now to be considered.
That may not be of enormous comfort to the protesters brutally ejected from Pearl Square, or the doctors and nurses desperately trying to care for the sick and the wounded in the hospital surrounded by security forces firing tear gas into the building.
But the story isn't over. Far from it. The genie is now out of the bottle and a thousand Saudi soldiers are not going to be enough to put it back in.
The real nuclear fears in Japan
The Japanese response to the threat of a nuclear explosion has been fundamentally shaped, commentators keep saying, by the experience of the atomic bombs. Of course it has, but not really as far as civil nuclear power is concerned. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were taken as images of monstrous attack by foreign powers. They have had the effect of turning the Japanese towards pacifism, total destruction being seen as the product of war. Less constructively they have also allowed the Japanese to see themselves as victims as much as perpetrators of violence in the last war, in a way the Germans could not (although recent books on the atrocities in Germany committed by the invading Russians are being used to open up thoughts of victimhood).
Nuclear power, on the other hand was viewed as a Japanese technical response to the outside threat from dependency on oil imports. Traditional attitudes towards man and nature have, it is true, given the country a strong Green movement of its own. But in this case the real damage from threatened nuclear meltdown is confidence in the government and the companies. To have to bring the emperor onto the airwaves showed just how seriously the authorities are now taking the incident and the concern over possible public panic. That may be the real legacy of this crisis, not confidence in nuclear power as such (the Japanese still feel the danger from reliance on imports for their energy) or some intrinsic sense of atomic terror.
Of course, it's about oil
March 28, 2011
I WAS astonished that the Globe took Representative Ed Markey to task for saying that we’re “in Libya because of oil’’ (“Good Ed, bad Ed,’’ Editorial, March 24).
Our whole foreign policy in the Middle East is skewed by our need for oil. We rarely criticize Saudi Arabia, for example, because, after all, they have a lot of oil. And so we haven’t complained that Saudi Arabia is supporting the Sunni leaders of Bahrain against the uprising of its majority Shi’ite population.
Moammar Khadafy’s power is highly dependent on his oil wealth. Indeed, The New York Times on Thursday reported that in 2009, Khadafy demanded that “global energy companies operating in Libya’s oil fields’’ pay his $1.5 billion bill for the downing of Pan Am Flight 103. Some companies balked and others, including US companies, complied. That wasn’t about oil?
And, contrary to your suggestion, Markey did not say that we’ve intervened in Libya to keep oil prices low. No need to put words in his mouth.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Chua must apologise, say Muslim lawyers NGO
“The MCA president has been trying to portray adherents to Islam as anti-social and unable to serve the community,” said Zainul Rijal in a statement today.Thursday, December 16, 2010
Berita Harian Online | Pukul badan guna rantai sucikan dosa
Pukul badan guna rantai sucikan dosa
Oleh Norhashimah Mohd Radzali, Suhana Roslan dan Nor Hatina Shuib
2010/12/17
GOMBAK: Memukul badan sendiri menggunakan rantai sehingga berdarah sebagai tanda menyucikan dosa pada setiap 10 Muharam adalah antara 23 penyelewengan agama diamalkan kumpulan ajaran sesat dikenali Hauzah Ar Ridha yang diserbu Jabatan Agama Islam Selangor (JAIS) di Taman Sri Gombak di sini, malam kelmarin.
Dalam serbuan jam 10.50 malam kelmarin hingga 3 pagi semalam itu, kira-kira 200 orang, termasuk kakitangan awam, pensyarah dan pelajar di institusi pengajian tinggi awam (IPTA) dan swasta (IPTS) ditahan.Turut ditahan wanita dan kanak-kanak ketika masing-masing sedang mendengar ceramah disampaikan seorang lelaki warga Iran yang dipercayai ketua fahaman berkenaan.
Difahamkan, setiap ahli kumpulan dibekalkan tiga batu sebesar kurma yang diletakkan di depan sejadah dan ketika sujud dahi jemaah perlu menyentuh batu itu.
Penyelewengan lain dilakukan kumpulan ajaran sesat itu ialah menziarahi kubur Saidina Husain sebagai ganjaran ke syurga, menghina isteri-isteri Nabi SAW serta mengharuskan sembahyang jamak pada bila-bila masa.
Petang semalam, lelaki warga Iran berusia 48 tahun dan seorang lelaki tempatan berumur 44 tahun dibawa ke Mahkamah Rendah Syariah Gombak Barat, Kuang dekat sini, bagi perintah jaminan sementara pendakwa syarie menyiapkan kertas siasatan.
Hakim Syarie, Saiful Azli Jamaludin membenarkan mereka dijamin RM2,000 seorang dengan dua penjamin dan memerintahkan lelaki Iran menyerahkan pasportnya kepada mahkamah serta tidak dibenarkan ke luar negeri sehingga tarikh sebutan akan datang.
Saiful kemudian menetapkan 20 Januari depan untuk sebutan kes.
Kes itu disiasat mengikut Seksyen 12 (c) Enakmen Jenayah Syariah Selangor 1995 iaitu menghina, mengingkari, mempertikaikan arahan pihak berkuasa agama yang dinyatakan dan diberikan melalui fatwa.
Sementara itu, Ketua Pengarah JAIS, Datuk Muhammad Khusrin Munawi, berkata ciri-ciri kesalahan kumpulan itu termasuk Imam adalah maksum, kemunculan Imam Mahadi bersama orang mati untuk memberi keadilan, menyanjung Saidina Ali secara keterlaluan dengan menambah dalam Syahadah serta menghalalkan dan mengamalkan nikah mutaah (perkahwinan kontrak).
Katanya, kumpulan itu dikenal pasti dua tahun lalu dan dikategorikan sebagai serius kerana mereka menyebarkan fahaman Syiah secara sembunyi dan menggunakan pelajar Malaysia yang belajar di republik itu dengan menawarkan biasiswa serta memberi hadiah berupa buku.
“Malah, apabila ada pembesar Iran melawat negara ini, mereka mengadakan kempen dan penerangan berhubung fahaman itu sebelum membuat lawatan ke pusat pengajian tinggi tempatan untuk menyebarkan fahaman mereka,” katanya di sini, semalam.
Beliau menyifatkan tangkapan kelmarin adalah yang terbesar dalam sejarah JAIS dan tidak menolak kemungkinan orang ramai berminat menyertai ajaran itu kerana membenarkan perkahwinan mutaah yang menjurus kepada perkhidmatan seks.
Muhammad Khusrin berkata, daripada 200 yang ditahan, 128 masih berada dalam tahanan, manakala selebihnya kanak-kanak dan remaja dibebaskan. Berita Harian Online | Pukul badan guna rantai sucikan dosa
Utusan Malaysia Online - Berita Utama
200 pengikut Syiah ditahan
KUALA LUMPUR 16 Dis. - Kegiatan satu ajaran Syiah tegar yang dikhuatiri boleh mengancam keselamatan negara dikesan bergerak aktif di negara ini berikutan penahanan 200 pengikut dan dua ketua kumpulannya, malam semalam.
Dua ketua kumpulan itu termasuk seorang warga Iran telah dihadapkan ke Mahkamah Rendah Syariah Gombak Barat, Kuang, hari ini dan dibebaskan dengan jaminan.
Para pengikut lain juga telah dibebaskan dengan jaminan Jabatan Agama Islam Selangor (JAIS) dan akan dipanggil untuk diambil keterangan dalam masa terdekat.
Kumpulan yang ditahan di sebuah rumah kedai di Taman Sri Gombak, Batu Caves, dekat sini itu dikatakan berbahaya kerana menganggap penganut Islam mazhab lain sebagai kafir dan halal dibunuh.
Mereka yang menggunakan nama Hauzah Ar Ridha Alaihissalam itu dikesan sudah dua tahun menjalankan kegiatan mereka di tingkat empat rumah kedai berkenaan.
Dalam serbuan sepasukan penguat kuasa JAIS pada pukul 10.15 malam itu, seramai 200 pengikut terdiri daripada lelaki dan perempuan termasuk kanak-kanak sedang khusyuk berselawat dan mendengar khutbah daripada seorang lelaki warga Iran.
Sebahagian pengikutnya yang ditahan merupakan pensyarah dan pelajar institusi pengajian tinggi (IPT), peguam dan kakitangan kerajaan.
Pengikutnya terdiri daripada 75 lelaki dan 35 wanita tempatan, enam wanita dan tiga lelaki warga Indonesia, dua wanita Myanmar serta masing-masing seorang lelaki Pakistan, Myanmar dan Iran, manakala selebihnya kanak-kanak.
Ia merupakan penahanan terbesar melibatkan pengikut ajaran yang didakwa sesat dicatatkan di Selangor setakat ini dan JAIS percaya ajaran tersebut turut tersebar di negeri-negeri lain.
Pengarahnya, Datuk Muhammed Khusrin Munawi berkata, pihaknya telah mengikuti pergerakan kumpulan terbabit sejak dua tahun lalu dan setelah memperoleh cukup bukti mengaitkan mereka sebagai pengikut ajaran Syiah yang tegar, barulah markas itu diserbu.
Beliau berkata, ajaran Syiah jika dibiarkan berkembang boleh mengancam keselamatan negara kerana pengikut yang fanatik menganggap umat Islam mazhab lain sebagai kafir.
"Bagi mereka, darah pengikut fahaman lain adalah halal dan ia bermakna penganut Ahli Sunnah Wal Jamaah boleh dibunuh.
"Ajaran Syiah lebih bahaya berbanding ajaran sesat seperti Al Arqam. Pengikut Syiah di Iran dan India misalnya bergaduh sesama Islam semata-mata berbeza fahaman.
"Inilah yang ingin dielakkan berlaku di negara ini dan tujuan ia disekat," katanya kepada pemberita ketika ditemui di lokasi serbuan di sini hari ini.
Muhammed Khusrin berkata, mengikut Enakmen Pentadbiran Perundangan Islam 1989, fahaman dan ajaran Syiah adalah menyeleweng daripada pegangan Ahli Sunnah Wal Jamaah kerana wujud beberapa percanggahan dari sudut akidah dan syariah.
Katanya, antaranya adalah menyanjung sahabat Rasulullah, Saidina Ali secara keterlaluan, menghalalkan nikah mutaah, menolak hadis yang diriwayatkan oleh Ahli Sunnah Wal Jamaah sekalipun hadis Mutawir dan mengkafirkan para sahabat Rasulullah.
"Penyelewengan dari sudut syariah pula adalah menolak ijmak ulama, qias dan mengamalkan nikah mutaah. Pengikut Syiah juga terlibat pelbagai penyelewengan umum seperti percaya ganjaran syurga jika menziarahi kubur Saidina Husin.
"Selain itu menyiksa diri dengan memukul badan menggunakan rantai sehingga berdarah sempena 10 Muharam, mengharuskan jamak sembahyang dalam semua keadaan dan tidak mewajibkan haji," katanya.
Menurut Muhammed Khusrin, pihaknya percaya ajaran Syiah yang memudahkan ibadat dan menghalalkan nikah mutaah menjadi punca tarikan umat Islam di negara ini untuk menjadi pengikutnya.
Beliau berkata, kumpulan ajaran sesat terbabit mempunyai dana sendiri bagi membiayai aktiviti dan menyewa bangunan untuk dijadikan markas operasi, manakala penyebarannya pula dibuat secara tertutup melalui penganjuran majlis-majlis tertentu.
Katanya, semua yang ditangkap akan didakwa di bawah Seksyen 12(c) Enakmen Jenayah Syariah Selangor 1995 iaitu menghina, mengingkari, melanggar atau mempertikaikan arahan-arahan yang dinyatakan dan diberikan fatwa oleh pihak berkuasa agama.