Chameleons like Nasha and his new masters are a dime a dozen in the streets. Give them enough time and they will always show their true colours in the end.The whole spectacular drama adds a new dimension to what we know as The ultimate MCA Chinese opera vs UMNO Malay-Muslim Silat. How do you solve a massive political scandal at the highest spheres of the Barisan while at the same time saving the Party?
SEND TO HASSAN ALI AND IBRAHIM ALI WHERE HE BELONGS.
The Election Year Outsourcing that No One’s Talking About
“Hold fast to the hope of God, all together, and be not divided.” –Quran 3:103
“Islam is simple,” the taxi driver explained to me as he drove me to the Center for Shariah Studies in Muscat, the capital of Oman in the southeastern corner of the Arabian Peninsula. “Basically, Islam is like a tree, and all of the various denominations are branches on the tree, they make up the entirety of the religion,” he said. The driver’s insightful comment introduced me to the beliefs of the Ibadi denomination in Islam, which represents a majority of Omani citizens and a small minority of Muslims worldwide.
My recent journey to Oman brought new insights, offered both by erudite scholars of Islamic law as well as ordinary Omanis. Home to Ibadis, as well as Sunnis, small groups of several branches of Shiism and foreigners from various faith traditions, Oman represents a unique situation of relative interreligous harmony. In a time where intra- and inter-religious conflicts seem to dominate the headlines, Oman is a stable nation ruled by an absolute monarch, Sultan Qaboos. Perhaps partly due to the strict rule of the Sultan, Oman has seen little turmoil in recent years. Omanis are proud of their country’s tolerant attitude toward religious minorities and although they like to differentiate themselves through their distinct Ibadi background, they consider any Muslim who prays toward the direction of Mecca to be a Muslim, no matter what their specific theological beliefs may be.
Oman represents a calm oasis in the midst of a cyclone of intra-Muslim ignorance and brutality. My time there stirred me to reflect on the disheartening situation of Muslims in the modern world and their futile struggle to create impenetrable boundaries based on superficial religious differences. While around the Muslim-majority world, Sunnis, Shiites, Ibadis and others have lived in relative calm and harmony for hundreds of years, recent political factors have kindled the flames of sectarian violence.
MCA appeals to the basest fears of the Chinese in Malaysia by telling them that it can save them from PAS’s Islamic state. And I certainly do not agree when some in Umno tell Malays to fear the rise of Christianity or even the threat of the Chinese to perceived Malay supremacy. This is not the spirit of the Barisan Nasional (BN) that was set up by Tun Abdul Razak Hussein after the May 13 1969 race riots to bring together all Malaysians under one umbrella. On this day when many Malaysians celebrate the act of forgiveness, is it not time to take back the country from politicians on either side of the divide who only seek to exploit our vilest fears and divisions?
 Searching for pages of the Quran in the remnants of a Missouri mosque after it was burned to the ground [AP] |
On Thursday, a Palestinian American was visiting his father's grave at Muslim cemetery in Evergreen Park, a suburb southwest of Chicago, when he noticed graffiti written on the tombstones. "Mohamad is a liar," and "f*ck rag head," were scribbled in marker on the tombs in what cannot be seen as an isolated attack against Muslim sites in the US. In the two weeks before the graffiti was discovered, seven Islamic centres - from California to Rhode Island - have been attacked. In one of the attacks, a mosque in Joplin, Missouri, was burned to the ground. It was the second attempt to destroy the mosque after an unsuccessful attempt by arsonists one month earlier. With the end of the month of Ramadan and the fast-approaching Eid holiday, many US Muslims are asking why the media and their elected politicians are not doing more to highlight the attacks on their community. The community, however, has received a different kind of attention as of late. And it's not one they’re happy about. "One of the committees I sit on is homeland security," said US Representative Joe Walsh, offering his credentials to a packed town hall event in the Chicago suburb of Elk Grove, on August 8. "I'm not sure of a lot of things, but one thing I am sure of is that there are people in this country, there is a radical strain of Islam in this country - it's not just over there - trying to kill Americans every week," he told the crowd. It wasfilmed and posted to YouTube. "And it is a threat that is much more at home now then it was right after 9/11. It's here, it's in Elk Grove, it's in Addison, it's in Elgin,” Walsh said referring to neighbouring Chicago suburbs. Sonia Hassan, a 39-year-old Egyptian American - and an Elk Grove resident for most of her life - was furious when she heard about the event a day later. "I wish I had been there," she told Al Jazeera. "I would've stood up and said: 'You are saying stuff that can affect my family and my community in a negative way.'" Hassan told Al Jazeera that her parents, immigrants from Egypt who moved to Elk Grove in the mid-1970s, were the first Arabs or Muslims in the area. She described an incident a few years ago when a neighbour from across the street approached her mother and shouted one word, "terrorist", before returning to her home. And earlier this summer, Hassan said that a car full of men threw water balloons at her family's home. She suspects it wasn't a random act because of what she called "racist howls" from the men. 'Demonising Muslims' Ahmed Rehab, the executive director of the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told Al Jazeera that, while politicians such as Walsh and others weren't telling people to go out and wage attacks against Muslims, the things they're saying are clearly having an effect. "We're not necessarily seeing a cause and effect relationship … but we are seeing correlation between the rise in Islamophobic rhetoric and the violent crime on houses of worship, schools and other Muslim targets," Rehab said. In the days following Walsh's comments, an Islamic school in the town of Lombard was hit with a bottle of acid, and a man fired a rifle at a mosque in Morton Grove while 500 worshippers were praying inside. Both suburban towns are fewer than 15 miles from the Congressman's town hall event. "Unless you give actual information, what you're doing is suggesting to people that it could be your neighbour in hijab that I'm talking about, or the guy at the gas station with the beard," Rehab said. "And in a country where it's been proven that its citizens can't tell the difference between a Muslim and a Sikh, trust me they won’t know the difference between a radical Muslim and a moderate Muslim." Since September 11, 2001, Sikh Americans have often been the targets of anti-Muslim attacks. It's unclear if this was the case during an August 5 attack at a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin, when a shooter with ties to white supremacist groups killed five worshippers and a police officer before taking his own life. For Rehab, the rise in attacks could be attributed to the fact that this is an election year. And ever since the attacks on the World Trade Centre, CAIR has documented a steady increase in "Islamophobic rhetoric" during election seasons. Rehab said this was politicians exploiting an underlying fear that some people have of Muslim Americans, in order to score "political points". Before Mitt Romney effectively secured his party's nomination to face off against Barack Obama in November's presidential election, other Republican candidates such as Michelle Bachmann, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich had all warned about the threat the United States faced from "radical Islam". "[Politicians] believe they can make themselves out to be the heroes that know how protect this country from the Muslims," Rehab said. "And in order to sell that narrative, you have to demonise Muslims." 'Scared to pray' Walsh, whose office did not respond to Al Jazeera's request for comment about his statements and the spate of attacks on Muslim sites, did release a video in response to the Elk Grove event. In the video, Walsh did not condemn any of the attacks on Islamic centres - or even mention them. Instead, he issued a stern warning: "Let me be clear: bowing to political correctness has and will get Americans killed." "We must always speak the truth to this threat, no matter how politically incorrect," Walsh said. Meanwhile, for observers such as Hassan, who would normally be excited for this weekend's Eid holiday, that "truth" has created a sense of worry and fear - as many of the nation's nearly three million Muslims will be gathering to worship at religious centres across the country. "Eid is Sunday, and it's messed up that these hate crimes are happening around this time," Hassan said. "It's making people scared to go pray. They think something is going to happen." "Why is our holy month being tainted and it's OK? Would it be OK if this was happening during any other religion's holiday?" |
Datuk Seri Najib Razak must act now and snuff out once and for all attempts by his ruling Barisan Nasional’s (BN) main party to inflame religious sensitivities in the run-up to national polls, his political foes from Pakatan Rakyat (PR) reminded the prime minister today as they denounced a controversial Facebook posting in Umno Youth’s official page yesterday.
The controversial poster, which was taken down several hours after it appeared on the political youth wing’s social network site early yesterday afternoon, had read: “Jika anda setuju untuk jadikan KRISTIAN sebagai agama rasmi persekutuan Malaysia, teruskan sokongan anda kepada Pakatan Rakyat. (If you agree to make CHRISTIANITY the official religion of the federation of Malaysia, continue supporting Pakatan Rakyat.) ‘God bless you my son’.”
DAP national organising secretary Teresa Kok. — File pic
“I think Najib has to really look into his own party... there are certain elements in the party trying to destroy the country by playing religious fire (sic),” she told The Malaysian Insider today, adding that it was an attempt to “spoil” the existing religious- and racial-harmony.
“I think Najib should seriously look into it, otherwise his slogan of 1 Malaysia will become a laughing stock,” said the Seputeh MP, noting that it was posted before the Muslim Aidilfitri holiday today, which she said is also “celebrated by all races”.
Kok — who was at the Selangor mentri besar’s Aidilfitri open house party in Shah Alam — said she was glad that Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin acted swiftly on the matter and removed the incendiary poster from the wing’s Facebook wall within hours of its appearance.
The Umno Youth chief had yesterday denied that the picture was uploaded by members of his team or that the wing supported the statement. The poster was taken down from the website at about 6.30pm yesterday.
PAS vice president Datuk Mahfuz Omar. — File pic
“Although Pemuda Umno say they do not censor what is posted on the Facebook page, the reality is this is the result of Umno and the mainstream media’s attitude,” he said, calling the youth wing by its Malay name.
He said the move is intended to “scare Muslim voters to make them afraid to vote for Pakatan Rakyat (PR)”, but adds that Malaysians are “mature” enough to be unaffected by such “provocations”.
PKR’s vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar.— File pic
“At the very least, the Pakatan Rakyat deserves an immediate apology,” she said in a text message to The Malaysian Insider in an immediate response to the poster yesterday.
“I await the authorities’ speedy action to charge the person held responsible for any posts on the Umno Youth FB Page,” she said, noting that Section 114A of the Evidence Act would be a relevant law.
The prime minister had said on Twitter last week that the federal government would revisit Section 114A that presumes guilt on an accused person prosecuted for cyber-offences, but Information, Communications and Culture Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim later said the law, that was passed by Parliament in April and came into force last month, would stay.
Yesterday’s Facebook picture provoked an uproar on the popular social network with some cyber citizens supporting the statement and others condemning the Umno youth wing for attempting to fan emotions and religious sentiments between Christians and Muslims on the eve of Aidilfitri, one of the biggest holidays in multicultural Malaysia’s calendar.
The Facebook post appeared to suggest that a vote for PR will catapult Christianity into Islam’s unquestioned position as Malaysia’s religion, showing that faith is still being used to scare off the crucial Malay-Muslim vote in the run-up to national polls.
The picture is a reminder of Malay daily Utusan Malaysia, which last year placed on its front page an unsubstantiated report suggesting that the DAP was conspiring with the Church to install a Christian as prime minister and create a Christian Malaysian state.
UMNO–Barisan’s cynical view of how they would conduct negotiations.The logical position we are bound to take,we’re happy to talk forever, as long as we can win every election by cheating
Bersih will focus on removing the current Election Commission (EC) leadership, claiming that the government must “listen to the people” after 100 of thousands rallied for free and fair elections The electoral reforms movement said today it will “reconsider its position” should the government fail to commit to further electoral reforms when asked if it would hold a fourth rally after claiming that yesterday’s sit-in drew a crowd of 250,000 to city street
BERSIH DENIES LOSING CONTROL
Organisers did not lose control on protesters during the Bersih 3.0 demonstration yesterday, insisted Bersih co-chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan.
The violence that ensued, said Ambiga, only happened after police decided to fire teargas on protesters.
But some researchers have blamed the Umno-led counter-procession that began at the residence of then Selangor mentri besar Datuk Harun Idris for the violence.A conspiracy theory explains an event as being the result of an alleged plot by a covert group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general publi
“Bersih condemns any act of violence by any quarters. I would say the 250,000 people yesterday came in peace and did not come for violence.
“All purported acts of violence only took place after teargas was fired. Until then, we had full control of the situation before it all went awry,” she said.
PAPAMUGOMO’S FORECAST MCA IS POISED TO WIN MORE SEATS WITH SOILED LEK SEXY BABIES’SSTRATEGIC POSITIONING AND CAMPAINING
1Malaysia and the Soiled Dick by the BN-led federal government, most political analysts believe that the BN’s chances of retaining the federal government are still high, with some even arguing that it might win more seats this time
Here is perhaps the most daring MCA sex babies campaigning without wearing bottoms. I still cannot believe this is what you get to see for free on the roadsides while driving in in Bukit Bintang or Buki Bintang . Is this even legal anymore when the pussy is clearly showing to anyone on the street? And the best part is that there is some guy who really like taking photos of her too… And she doesn’t mind it either because it seems she is posing for him.
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin wants Barisan Nasional (BN) component party machinery to give undivided support to any candidate who stood as BN candidate in the coming general election.
Muhyiddin said this was because the victory of any candidate chosen by the top leadership, would depend on the support of the party machinery because what was important is for the party to win no matter who the candidate was.
“When the time comes, the top leadership will decide on who will be the candidate any designated area. Such a decision is not made hastily and for sure will be the best choice.
“Even though the area may not be Umno, the victory of our friends in BN will ensure that our party wins. The candidates can be from MCA or Gerakan but we must support anyone standing on a BN ticket and ensure the candidate wins,” he said.
Muhyiddin who is also the Federal Territory BN chairman was speaking atthe launch of the Federal Territory election machinery here today.
This soiled style campaigning by young MCA sexy babies in revealing outfits according to MCA Minister Young Young Buki Bintang a top tourist attraction. And it seems the outfits have only gotten more revealing and outrageous since then
As the 13th general election (GE) draws nearer, questions on
its likely outcome are reaching feverish pace. Political circles are now
abuzz with pre-poll analyses and forecasts as Barisan Nasional (BN) and
Pakatan Rakyat (PR) step up their campaigning.
its likely outcome are reaching feverish pace. Political circles are now
abuzz with pre-poll analyses and forecasts as Barisan Nasional (BN) and
Pakatan Rakyat (PR) step up their campaigning.
In the last GE held on March 8, 2008, BN lost more than one-third of
parliamentary seats. Some people even think that there is a remote
possibility the BN may lose its grip on the federal government in the next
election.READMOREhttp://papamugomo.blogspot.com
parliamentary seats. Some people even think that there is a remote
possibility the BN may lose its grip on the federal government in the next
election.READMOREhttp://papamugomo.blogspot.com
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