The Herald defies Home Ministry order not to use the word Allah - Malaysiakini

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 21 – A Catholic newspaper in Malaysia has defied a ban on using the word “Allah” as a translation for “God”, in a row with the government, which has earlier threatened to close the weekly publication.

The editor of the Herald newspaper, Father Lawrence Andrew, said this week’s edition uses the banned word. He added that he intends to continue doing so until the courts rule on the issue next month.

“We find this restriction on the use of ‘Allah’ unacceptable when we have been using it as a translation for ‘God’ for centuries in Malaysia,” he said.

The country's authorities have said the word should be used only by Muslims.

The government last month ordered a ban on the Herald's Malay edition until the court makes its decision, as part of conditions for it to be allowed to continue printing its editions in English, Chinese and Tamil.

But after the newspaper warned it would take legal action to overturn the ban, the Home Ministry backed down and said it could continue publishing as long as it did not use the disputed translation.

“Munshi Abdullah, the father of modern Malay literature, translated the Bible into Malay in 1852 and he also translated ‘God’ as ‘Allah’ so there is strong historical proof of what we have been using for centuries,” said Father Andrew.

The Herald, which publishes news and information for Catholics in Malaysia in four languages – English, Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil – has a circulation of around 12,000. Malaysia has some 850,000 Catholics.

The publication nearly lost its publishing licence last year over its use of the disputed word.

Religion and language are sensitive issues in Malaysia, where 60 per cent of the nation's 27 million people are Muslim Malays.

Minority groups have complained of increasing “Islamisation” of the country and say their rights are being eroded. (TheMalaysianinsider)

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Fatwa on Yoga : Rulers made final decision - Jakim

IPOH: It is the prerogative of the state religious authorities and their Rulers to accept or reject the National Fatwa Council’s decision to bar Muslims from practising yoga.

Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (Jakim) director-general Datuk Wan Mohamad Sheikh Abd Aziz said the council’s fatwa (edict) prohibiting Muslims from practising yoga would be discussed in the state fatwa committees, whose members were appointed by their respective rulers.

“After it is agreed upon by the committees, the matter will then be presented to the various state religious councils before it is brought before the Sultan for consent.

“This is the process of how a fatwa is implemented in the state,” he said.

“It is the state’s prerogative to decide whether to implement a fatwa,” he said after chairing a meeting with the country’s state Islamic religious council heads here on Tuesday.

The various stands of certain state authorities on the matter did not reflect a difference in opinion between the state bodies and the council, he added.

Since the council came out with the fatwa on Saturday, the Sultan of Selangor has said that the fatwa could not be implemented as the state Fatwa Committee had yet to deliberate on the matter.

Perak Religious Department director Datuk Jamry Sury, who had earlier been quoted as saying that the state would abide by the fatwa, retracted his statement a day later.

Jamry clarified that the fatwa had not been discussed by the Perak Fatwa Committee and brought to the attention of the State Religious and Malays Customs Council before being presented to the Sultan of Perak for consent.

Perlis Mufti Dr Asri Zainal Abidin had also spoken out against the fatwa, saying yoga with the non-Muslim elements removed should be allowed, while other states were set to go ahead with the implementation.

Wan Mohamad explained that Jakim’s duty, as the secretariat of the National Fatwa Council, was to coordinate the process by conducting research on an issue before presenting it to the council.

On the statement by Dr Asri that yoga should not be banned entirely but an alternative should instead be offered, Wan Mohamad said:

“Did the Perlis Fatwa Committee meet before the mufti voiced his disagreement? The matter has to be discussed first before it is agreed or disagreed upon.”

Wan Mohamad pointed out that discussions generated by various quarters over the council’s decision showed that Malaysians were interested in understanding Islam better.

“There is good and bad. It is good that at least now we can take the opportunity to explain the beauty of Islam to non-Muslims.

“As we live in a multi-religious country, it is good for our religious authorities to share information and knowledge with one another,” he said.

However, he reminded the people that Islam was the official religion in the country, as enshrined in the Constitution, and hence should be respected by all.(TheStar)

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We are not anti-Islam, Bar Council

By Debra Chong
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 19 — The Bar Council, which has come under attack for organising a forum on conversion and Islam 10 days ago, emphatically denied PKR MP Zulkifli Nordin’s accusation that it is anti-Islam.

Zulkifli, who was one of the leaders in the rowdy protest against the forum that day, told the press yesterday that he was considering proposing a motion in Parliament to sanction the Bar Council for its anti-Islam stand.

“He was a former council member, you know. And everyone knows our stance. Our more than 50-year history will attest to the fact that we are a multi-racial, multi-religious organisation consisting of members from all religions,” said Bar Council president Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan.

She went on to say that his description of events that took place that day was not accurate. “What I would say is, the film is on YouTube... what took place... and it speaks volumes for itself. There are also many witnesses. You can ask any one of them.

“As far as the motion is concerned, of course he is free to say what he wants, but nothing could be further from the truth. We believe in the freedom of all to practise their religious beliefs and we are the last to be anti any religion.

“Nothing said in the forum can be remotely called anti-Islamic. In fact, half the participants were Muslim. What Dr Mehrun Siraj said will attest to this and shows you there was nothing un-Islamic about that forum. People like her will definitely not sit in a forum like that if it’s going to be anti-Islam.

“The forum was essentially to discuss the jurisdictional conflict between the syariah court and the civil court. The other thing to note is that it has been reported that Pas wants to dialogue with us and we are ready to do that.”

A past president of the Bar Council, Datuk Kuthubul Zaman Bukhari, reaffirmed Ambiga’s position about where the council stands on matters relating to all religions, not just Islam.

“The Bar Council has never been anti-Islam. I was president of the Bar Council for two years, I’ve been a member of the Bar Council for the last 14 years and I am still a council member now, and for sure, being a Muslim, I can consider myself a staunch Muslim as well. The Bar Council has never taken any stand that is anti-Islam. The Bar Council has never taken any position against any racial, religious, ideology and so on. The Bar Council is free from all this,” he said.

“I take issue with the fact that he says the Bar Council did not seek representatives from Islam, I think he’s wrong and the facts speak for themselves. There should be an ex-syariah judge there, someone from Ikim as well, or at least, they wanted to come but subsequently pulled out.

“I totally disagree with the stand taken by Zulkifli. Everybody knows what the Bar Council is about.”

Meanwhile, Lim Chee Wee, the Bar Council secretary whom Zulkifli said had invited him into the auditorium to verify that the forum had indeed ended, had a very different account of what happened that day.

“Ambiga had actually consented to invite him up to discuss whether the session should end early or continue. So Ambiga actually invited him into the building to have that discussion with her.

“Downstairs, essentially what happened was, he basically told us, if we didn’t stop the meeting at 10 o’clock, he would invite the more hostile and aggressive of the demonstrators to storm the building. That was how he put it.

“So, under those circumstances, we had no choice but to invite four representatives to go upstairs to witness and confirm that the forum would end at 10 o’clock. We were under threat of people storming the forum. That’s Number One.

“Number Two... you saw their behaviour when they were in the auditorium. You saw the way they didn’t sit down, they stood in front of all the speakers and they started shouting, coming close to 10 o’clock or thereabouts, to ask us to close the forum. And then there was the unpleasant exchange of things between Muslim and Muslim. He shouted at Mehrun.

“And the one thing I hope you can say in The Malaysian Insider is this: nobody, nobody can actually quote any speaker at the forum for criticising Islam, who challenged the position of Islam in our Federal Constitution, who challenged Article 121(i). Nobody was critical of any religion.

“What people spoke about was the effect of a spouse or parent who converted and then they were left abandoned.”

He said the Bar Council was particularly concerned that some of the newspapers played up the perception that the council was anti-Islam. “The Pas Research Centre and Dr Mehrun Siraj herself said we should have an open dialogue so as to educate Muslims and non-Muslims.”
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Anwar warned by PAS

From the Singapore Straits Times
IPOH, Aug 15 — In a big setback for opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Pakatan Rakyat, Pas Youth leaders warned yesterday that the Islamic party would leave the opposition coalition if Islamic interests were sidelined.

A number of them who spoke at the Youth wing's annual assembly asked members to be wary of Anwar as he seemed bent on brushing aside Islamic law in order to get non-Muslims' support in his bid to become prime minister.

Terengganu delegate Wan Khairy Wan Abdullah said: “We have heard many of his speeches and they confuse us because he does not want Islam to be dominant in the country.”

Penang delegate Mohd Raduan Ramli said some in Pas had made the mistake of giving the leadership mantle to Anwar and Pakatan. “Come Sept 16, we will not be with Pakatan if Islam is not in a governing position,” he said, referring to the date Anwar has set in promising to capture the federal government.

Delegate after angry delegate who spoke also served notice on central Pas leaders: they would be removed from their posts if they entered into cosy deals with Pakatan or Umno, but dared to leave Islam at the door. They reminded leaders that setting up an Islamic state was in the Pas constitution.

“We, the youths of Selangor, will not hesitate to leave Pakatan Rakyat. What is the use of toppling Umno only to replace it with an infidel government, even if it is just?” said Selangor delegate Zulkifli Ahmad. His speech was the hardest hitting and was repeatedly greeted by shouts of “Allahuakbar” (God is Great).

The delegates had uncharacteristically harsh words for some of their leaders for lusting after power “like Umno”.

“Do not deviate from our struggle as the youths are ready to pull down anyone who transgress,” said a Johor delegate.

The remarks are being taken seriously by the central leaders because these delegates were picked to represent the views of the party's 175 divisions.

The angry reaction from the delegates to talks with Umno and for being too close to Pakatan carried the message that they would rather have Pas go it alone than compromise its “Islamic struggle”.

At the end of the meeting yesterday, the 500 delegates called on their central leaders to stop any more talks with Umno, which they said confused the ground.

But they agreed to stay with the Pakatan coalition.

The one-day meeting of the Youth wing, the right wing of the Islamists, was the first time that Pas had gathered everyone together since it and its two Pakatan partners captured five of Malaysia's 13 states in the March general election.

Pakatan's other two members are the multi-racial Parti Keadilan Rakyat and the Chinese-led DAP.

The main assembly, to be attended by some 5,000 leaders, will be opened by party president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang today.

To stay with Pakatan or to work with its traditional enemy Umno has become a major issue among Pas's 800,000 members.

While Pas is happy that many non-Muslims voted for it at the March general election, there is much angst that it is losing its focus in defending Islamic issues.
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Malay Muslim groups invasion caused Bar Council to stop forum

An open forum organised by the Bar Council to discuss matters of conflict in family law arising from one party's conversion to Islam today was interrupted by protesters from several Malay-Muslim movements.

In her opening speech, Bar Council president Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan invited the protesters to join the forum and share their dissenting views.

"I'm aware this forum has drawn many criticisms from many quarters. I don't have a problem with criticism... there are demonstrators outside, you can hear them," she said.

Jerking her chin towards the windows at the back of the auditorium, she continued: "We have absolutely no quarrel with them. They are exercising their freedom of speech. We hope they'll be allowed to carry out their demonstration peacefully. We're certainly not lodging any police report."

At 9.25am, just as the forum was warming up, Ambiga informed the participants inside the auditorium that the police had advised the forum be wrapped up by 10am.

According to reports, the 100-plus protesters, who had been demonstrating outside the building since 8am, had swelled tremendously and were in danger of turning more than unruly.

[Strong police presence outside the Bar Council building.]

At 9.50am, a handful of protesters, led by Kulim Bandar Baharu parliamentarian Zulkifli Noordin from Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), muscled their way to the front of the first-floor auditorium at the Bar Council headquarters in Leboh Pasar Besar here amid an ongoing and lively discussion on the 2006 court case of R. Subashini, whose ethnic Indian husband T. Saravanan had embraced Islam and converted their five-year-old son without her knowledge or consent.

Despite the heavy police escort, heated words were exchanged between some of the protesters and some members of the Bar Council. The word "monkey" was heard bandied about several times by both sides.

Calls for calm by the forum moderator, Zarizana Abdul Aziz, a lawyer from the Penang-based non-government organisation Women's Centre for Change, were ignored, as were calls from the floor for the protesters, hogging the central aisle, to sit down and not block the view of the forum panellists.

Surprisingly, the discussion still went on. In fact, the topic had moved onwards to the case of S. Shamala, whose husband Dr M. Jeyaganesh embraced Islam four years after their marriage and converted their two children as well.

The incident came close to turning into a real fracas when one of the protesters, a stout man in a white shirt with green lining on the sleeves, grabbed a microphone and shouted: "I represent Umno Malaysia! Close this forum right now!"

“Don’t insult Islam” and “You! Chinese, Indians, go to hell!” he shouted, reported politics 101 malaysia.

The man, who only identified himself as Jais, added: "We want to give advice; next time, don't have things like this that challenge the people of Islam."

Immediately, an incensed woman, lost within the crowd of hulking men, latched onto another microphone and hollered right back: "You represent Umno; I represent the Muslims! I'm ashamed by your behaviour! Islam does not condone this behaviour! Do not make use of Islam!"

Turns out that the chilli padi was Dr Mehrun Siraj, an outspoken law lecturer at the International Islamic University and a former member of the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam).

The male protesters looked fit to burst a blood vessel at her words. Fortunately, members of the Bar Council secretariat were on hand and quickly intervened before anything untoward happened in that highly charged atmosphere.

A lawyer on the sidelines shook her head and tsk-ed at the chaos in front of her. "They're bullies! Such bullies!" she said, though she did not elaborate whom she was referring to.

[Protestors gather outside to express their opposition to the forum.]


The organising committee from the Family Law Department of the Bar Council went around the room and repeatedly called on the protesters and the annoyed participants to take their seats. They too were mostly ignored.

It was only when Ambiga finally took control of the microphone and announced in a loud and exasperated voice that the crowd inside finally listened: "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to close this forum, right after everyone sits down. Please sit down."

The time was three minutes to 10am.

For all that the forum lasted only an hour and 10 minutes, when it was schedued to last till lunch time, Ambiga was satisfied. She found the discussion fruitful.

"It's unfortunate that we could not carry on with the forum. It's a real shame we had to stop the forum due to the advice from the police.

"I have great faith in our ability and maturity, as Malaysians, to discuss sensitive issues sensibly. I do not subscribe to the view that we cannot talk about sensitive issues, not for one minute. Not today. Maybe it was the case 30 years ago, but not today," Ambiga concluded.

Excerpt from http://themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/headlines/42-lead-stories/
2759-the-day-the-loudest-won-the-day-or-did-they
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Bar Council conversions forum stopped by people's protest

Several hundred protesters demonstrated outside the Bar Council forum on conversions to Islam this morning, with some forcing their way into the hall as police called on the organisers to wrap up proceedings by 10am.

Witnesses said several protesters entered the building escorted by police, stood in the middle of the hall and stared at the several hundred participants attending the "Conversion to Islam: Article 121(1A) of the Federal Constitution, Subashini & Shamala Revisited" forum.

The protesters had gathered since 8am and brought out banners criticising and condemning the forum which has received objections from both government and opposition leaders.

At 9.25am, Bar Council president Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan interrupted the forum to say the police have advised them to wrap it up by 10am as protest still going on outside the building. The forum began at 8.45am.

Ambiga closed the forum 3 minutes before 10am deadline. Protesters still trying to barge in. Pas Unit Amal members standing between them and the police, trying to stop them.

Protesters are leaving but some are trying to chase and harass participants coming out. Bar Council members are seen seeking the help of the police to prevent this.

Excerpt from http://themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/headlines/
42-lead-stories/2741-protest-stops-bar-council-conversions-forum
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