Mongolian model murder a potential time bomb?
Kim Quek
Anwar Ibrahim’s recent call for transparency and for widening police investigations into the Mongolian model’s murder is a stark reminder that all is not well with the Malaysian government’s handling of this murder case. In fact, the standard of transparency and accountability falls so short of that practiced by a democratic country that once again we are painfully reminded of the perversion of justice that took place in the infamous persecution of Anwar Ibrahim more than eight years ago. The injustice then was to condemn and persecute an innocent man. This time, perhaps it is to provide shelter to one guilty of murder.
As in the earlier Anwar case, democratic institutions - police, attorney general’s chamber, judiciary and the media - seemed to have been mobilised again to act in concert in a critical damage control exercise, upon which may hinge the fate of the power structure of the country. However, before dwelling into the details, let us take a perspective view of the case.
At the heart of the scandal is a beautiful Mongolian girl, Altantuya Shaariibuu, who was rather erroneously known as a model, but in fact a multi-lingual interpreter and translator - Chinese, Russian, English and French - for which she travelled frequently. She was alleged to have been a lover of Abdul Razak Baginda, a political analyst and a confidante of the Deputy Prime Minister cum Minister of Defence Najib Tun Razak. The former travelled extensively and often accompanied the latter in his trips overseas.
The gravity of Altantuya’s bizarre murder - shot and blown to pieces - looms from its indirect link to Najib, as two of his bodyguards were charged for killing and Razak Baginda for abetting; and the explosives used were no ordinary explosives, but high power C-4 which was in the exclusive custody of the ministry of defence. Compounding this gravity was another scandal also indirectly linked to Najib via Razak Baginda, whose company was the dubious recipient of an exorbitant commission paid out in connection with the multi-billion purchase of submarines by the ministry of defence.
So Najib, who in many ways acts like the de facto leader of the country, has become the ultimate focal point of two explosive scandals, albeit linked to him indirectly.
That this scandal touches the nerve centre of the top political hierarchy is apparent from the extraordinary treatment accorded to it by the police, attorney general’s chamber, the judiciary and the local media. The local media’s collaboration was most recently demonstrated in the blackout of news on the Anwar Ibrahim press conference on Jan 10, where apart from calling for wider probe, he also bombarded the authorities with a series of incisive questions which would have hit headlines if Malaysia is a country with a free press.
THE POLICE
Starting with the police, why was Najib not queried? (Reuters on Jan 10 quoted a government source saying that no one else had been questioned other than the three accused). The police had no possible justification not to question Najib, as the alleged murderers and the explosives were in his domain.
Keep in mind that these bodyguards are from the Special Action Force where they were trained for extreme duties and absolute obedience and that they had no apparent motive of their own to annihilate the girl. Take note that Razak Baginda was not charged for ordering but abetting the murder (he couldn’t have ordered any way since he had no authority over them). So who had ordered the bodyguards to abduct the girl while she was attempting to enter Razak’s house and later killed her? Shouldn’t the police have been curious to find out some answers from the bodyguards’ immediate boss (Najib) as to why and how they had embarked on such a violent venture? What inference can we draw when the police failed to act as it should have in regards to Najib? Or do the police know what the public don’t?
And why have the police been extremely tight-lipped over details of the case, with the head of the criminal investigations department (Christopher Wan) remaining steadfastly mum?
Why has the Inspector General of Police (Musa Hassan) taken the most unusual, and in fact, unprecedented measure of taking personal charge of this investigation?
Is it proper for the police to hide crucial facts of the case when the news has been hogging international headlines, casting aspersion on the integrity of the government?
Being also minister of security which controls the police force, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is directly responsible for proper police conduct over this investigation. Though he was quick to vow for a no-holds-barred probe and due punishment to the culprits irrespective of status, his words have not been matched by deeds.
PROSECUTOR AND JUDICIARY
Murder is a non-bailable offence. When Razak was granted bond (without security) on Nov. 23 and again extended on bail on Dec. 14 on the questionable ground of having had bronchitis, both the prosecutor and the judge were seen as acting with partiality in favour of the accused, as such bail was rarely granted, safe on grounds of extreme health hazard.
On Jan. 5, Razak’s application for extension of bail was rejected, to the shock of almost every one. However, the rejection was not against the application per se, rather it was against the presentation in oral form. The judge then fixed Jan. 19 to hear the written application.
However, impatient to wait till Jan. 19, Razak appealed and was granted a hearing by the Court of Appear on Jan. 11. The Appellate Court rejected the appeal on the ground that there was no judgment for the court to deliberate on, as the high court had yet to hear the application on Jan. 19.
Apart from his dereliction of duty in failing to oppose bail, the deputy public prosecutor (Salehuddin Saidin) from the A.G.’s chamber had also engaged in improper conduct when he ruled out the possible involvement of parties other than the three accused when the investigation is manifestly incomplete and the self-motivation of the killers ostentatiously lacking. His overzealous push for such a premature conclusion has thus fanned further speculation on the existence of a real master mind behind the three accused.
Perhaps what disappoints the public most is the distant date fixed for the hearing - March 10, 2008. The judge’s (K.N.Segara) explanation of first-come-first-serve cuts no ice. For an important case like this, where the integrity of the highest strata of the government is brought into question at home and abroad, the court has every justification to allocate priority, since it serves public interests to have justice served and law and order restored to regain public confidence at the earliest.
Here again, we are reminded of the contrast in treatment accorded by the court between the Anwar Ibrahim trial for corruption (no money involved) and the present murder trial. If the Anwar trial could commence in just over a month from his arrest, why can’t the present trial, which involves an offence many times more serious, be also given an expeditious trial? Does this not confirm the oft-repeated accusation that our judiciary acts under the dictates of the Executive - insignificant charges could be tried by express, while trials for grave charges could be pushed off, if such judicial arrangements so suit the political interests of the power that be?
SUBMARINE SCANDAL
The key to any murder case is the motive. This is where we have to bring in the submarines deal scandal, for Altantuya’s apparent part in it may provide an important lead to the motivation of this murder.
Reports from Mongolia have thrown light on Altantuya’s working relationship with Razak Baginda. Based on an interview with Altantuya’s father Professor Shaariibuu, a report states that the Professor has established from Altantuya’s documents that the latter had been rendering translation and secretarial services to Razak, interpreting for him in high level meetings and negotiation. In particular, she had assisted Razak in the submarines deal. The Professor further stated that the main purpose of Altantuya’s recent trip to Malaysia was to demand settlement of the fees due to her.
Such demand for fees would have been treated as an ordinary affair, if not for the fact that there is a dark side to this submarine deal.
The Malaysian ministry of defence pays one billion euros (RM 4.5 billion) to the vendor Amaris (French/Spanish JV) for three submarines (including a used one), for which transaction, Razak’s company Perimekar receives a commission of 114 million euros (RM 510 million) from Amaris. The commission is a whopping 11% of the sales value, a ridiculously high figure that suggests improprieties. Excessive as the figure might sound, the true hidden leakage could be very much more if consideration is given to the fact that the sales was not conducted through competitive tenders.
Being the interpreter, who happened to be a charming person, Altantuya could have played an important role in sealing the deal. And considering that this is a deal where money flows freely, it would not be far fetched to imagine that Altantuya could have been promised a more than generous fee, in addition to privy to information that could not be leaked out without causing grievous damage to others.
Under such circumstances, Altantuya could be looked upon as an unwelcome and dangerous visitor if there were irreconcilable differences between her and her Malaysian clients, whether these arose from pecuniary conflicts or sexual entanglement as widely rumoured.
It is obvious that investigations into the murder case cannot be meaningfully pursued without at the same time probing into the submarine deal scandal. In this connection, the participation of our docile Anti-Corruption Agency is long overdue.
This is the time that Prime Minister must show his leadership by personally ensuring that these two law-enforcing bodies directly under his portfolios - police and ACA - work hand in hand to expeditiously secure a full and fair investigation into the murder case as well as to bring the corrupt to book in the submarine corruption scandal. He should further ensure that the judiciary and the attorney general’s chamber be allowed to deliver justice without interference from the Executive.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
The sence and nonsense of Islam-West Dialogue
The sence and nonsense of Islam-West Dialogue
Dr Dzulkifli Ahmad Fri Jan 12, 07 03:59:57 AM
The two weeks lecture and study tour in Berlin hosted by Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO) of more than a dozen Muslim activists and politicians engaged with German politicians and political parties, civil society groups (NGOs), students, the media and the German public, has impacted me significantly on the agenda of 'West-Islam or Muslim-Western Dialogue'.
The program witnessed intense debate of 'Islamists' with salient intellectuals and academics including Professor Anthony Milner of Australian National University and Prof. James Piscatori of the Oxford University.
Meeting with parliamentarians of the foreign committee, engagement with think-tankers of the Konrad Adenaeur-Stiftung, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, the Amensty International, Transparency International and lectures of Prof. Dieter Senghaas on the 'Clash Within Civilization' and 'German History' by Prof. U Preuss were simply intellectually stimulating to say the least, notwithstanding of our various public talks to the German public in the universities.
Shifting from the usual inter-elite or inter-academic discourses which invariably ended in the usual round of apologia and perhaps superficial exchange of courtesies, this experimental project of Dr Farish Noor of the ZMO, was meant to bring his so-called 'unapologetic practitioners' of 'Political Islam' from Malaysia and Indonesia with the 'Western World' with a hope of an outcome with a difference.
Precisely for the reasons mentioned above, I have my earlier apprehension about this West-Islam dialogue, and very reluctantly committed myself to Farish. While such efforts rarely do much harm, they have likewise failed to affect the intended benefit. The deep psychological scars on both sides are often emotional hurdles that make it harder to listen to each other.
Retrospectively though, I could honestly say that it was time well spent. Lest you think that we have solved many problems hence the reason of my satisfaction, the many discourses have indeed raised more questions than answers, which now necessitate further engagement and serious in-depth discourses.
Critical to the prerequisite of a meaningful dialogue must ultimately be premised on the understanding that neither side is required to transform its thought or behaviour. Rather, these must be allowed to remain useful and legitimate qualities recognized by both sides. The question then ceases to be, 'who is better or superior, but who acknowledges and legitimizes the other' in their respective pursuit of expressing and manifesting 'the self' and 'who does not'!
This to me is the defining criteria of a true democrat that understands the demands of plurality in a democracy. This would allow for their respective convictions and program be better appreciated as they would reveal their true nature to one another and possibly overcome or transform negative perceptions or stereotypes, hopefully substituting enmity with understanding and cooperation in due course.
I'm penning down briefly, some pertinent issues and personal reflection on the discourses of the trip.
Firstly, revisiting phraseology.
While not wanting to be excessively semantic or pedantic, ironing out 'politically-loaded' terms that are coinage of both Orientalist thinking and Socio-Political Scientists of both Western and Middle-Eastern origin such as Islamism or Political Islam, Islamic Fundamentalism or Neo-Fundamentalism, radical and moderate Islamist etc would be in order as they are both confusing at best and pejorative at worst.
! That said, some attempt at rationalizing them may be both noteworthy and necessary. It is important that PAS now proposes her own terminology as to how she wants to be described. Pejorative or negative term, the like of describing PAS as 'a fundamentalist Islamic party' invariably reinforces negative stereotyping and has negative implication on the ballot box while it hurts grievously our democratic credentials. Would Democratic Islamist be more favourable and politically-friendly? That alone warrants a discourse.
Insisting on the usage of 'Political Islam' to describe 'Islamic activism or Islamism' as proposed by many Western thinkers, may prove to be fundamentally flawed. Western discourse attempts at representing 'Political Islam', as asserted by Prof. Oliver Roy's basic definition, as 'the contemporary movement that conceives Islam as a political ideology' and describe the people who subscribe to this view as 'Islamists'.
This 'narrow' definition of Islamic activism as 'Islam in political mode' presupposes that Islam per se is apolitical or not political and 'benign'. That's grossly misconceived. In so far as Islam is inherently and intrinsically concerned and interested in matters of government and governance, it is in fact very political from the outset.
The embodiment of the Prophet Muhammad testified to that fact, besides of course the numerous textual evidences and its exegesis. Islam is as much a religion of peace and tranquility of the souls as it is a religion of law that contains and arranges the affairs of and binding on the believers, much like the Ten Commandments of Judaism but with no counterpart in Christianity.
The proposition that Islamists are subscribing to 'Islamism', while 'ordinary Muslims' conform to a form of religious belief that is essentially a private matter is equally unrealistic and faulty. For a large proportion of 'ordinary Muslims' (the ummah) to be responsive to the proposition of the 'Islamists' or the activist minorities, actually reflect the understanding of the vast majority of the 'ordinary Muslims' of the position of Islam as being an intrinsically public matter and its corpus of legal prescription as in fact 'the blueprint of a social order'.
Hence the underpinning reason why so-called 'Islamists parties' throughout the Muslim World have emerged as a major power brokers when allowed to compete in free elections and mandated by the 'ordinary Muslims'. The West must come to grasp with this basic fact, sooner rather than later the better.
Secondly, the lumping of all forms of 'Political Islam' as if they are undifferentiated and a homogenous and monolithic entity, is equally erroneous in its assumptions and misleading in its policy prescriptions by the 'West'. Lumping all 'Islamists' under the rubric of 'fundamentalism' does not help the West to understand Islamic activism and its effervescent tendencies.
It is most unfortunate that the term 'fundamentalist' coined in America in the 19th century to describe anti-modernist Christians, has today become exclusively reserved for Muslims or rather Muslims activists. Initially meant for those who adhere to the literal interpretation of the text, the 'fundamentalist' are now equally demonized and shrewdly made synonymous with 'terrorists', who use illegal force for the fulfillment of their political objectives.
While not wanting to dwell on this topic in great depth, the West must now realize that there are numerous shades of Islamic activism. What they hold in common is their conviction that they found their activism in the tradition and teachings of Islam as contained in scripture and authoritative commentaries. There are significant distinctions in regard to the forms t! hat focuses on political activism, missionary activity or those that have to finally resort to military struggle.
The differentiating varieties of Islamic activism are not so much the relative militancy or moderation with which they express their ideological convictions, but rather determined by the nature of the ideological conviction they subscribed to.
Political Islamists or activists make an issue of the gross mismanagement, corruption, social injustices and failures of Muslim governments and advocate socio-political and legal reforms through democratic process within the ambit of democracy. I have come to be fully convinced that not only is the term 'Political Islam' far from monolithic, each individual actor of the Islamist group must also be studied within its own particular socio-political context rather than resorting to absolute conceptions and stereotyping of what Islamism is or is not.
Missionary Islamists harp on of the corruption of Islamic values and moral decadency of the society at large and give priority to enhancing social and spiritual revival of the 'ummah' for collective salvation and redemption.
Jihadi Islamists admittedly champion the issue of the oppressive weight of the Western political domination and military power in the Islamic world and engage in armed struggle. The West must understand that political radicalization of Islam finds it causes in the very hegemonistic US policies and the diabolical role of the Western power in the Muslim World.
The 'Latin Americanisation' of the American Imperialism in the Middle East, the brutal occupation of the Palestinian people by the Zionist state of Israel who of late is hell-bent on strangulating the legitimate Hamas government of the people, the multiple humiliation of Muslims in so many different countries namely Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and latest in Somalia, marginalization and oppression of several Muslims minorities in Kashmir, Chechnya, Southern Philippines, Southern Thailand and others, invariably make the Muslim world to believe that they are under siege and must fight back.
Little wonder why the Muslim World is enraged.
There could be no justification to any form of violence and terrorism. However, there are underlying reasons why it happened and continue to happen. This is a vicious negative cycle of violence begetting further violence.
Further engagement and discourses should be geared towards articulating the installation of 'Circuit-Breakers' (borrowing Farish's words) in the West-Islam confrontational dialectical paradigm, if the world is ever to witness the light at the end of the tunnel in this very complex and precarious relationship.
Otherwise, the global community will continue to question the sense or perhaps more of the nonsense of this Islam-West Dialogue!
Director,PAS Research Centre.
The sence and nonsense of Islam-West Dialogue
Dr Dzulkifli Ahmad Fri Jan 12, 07 03:59:57 AM
The two weeks lecture and study tour in Berlin hosted by Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO) of more than a dozen Muslim activists and politicians engaged with German politicians and political parties, civil society groups (NGOs), students, the media and the German public, has impacted me significantly on the agenda of 'West-Islam or Muslim-Western Dialogue'.
The program witnessed intense debate of 'Islamists' with salient intellectuals and academics including Professor Anthony Milner of Australian National University and Prof. James Piscatori of the Oxford University.
Meeting with parliamentarians of the foreign committee, engagement with think-tankers of the Konrad Adenaeur-Stiftung, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, the Amensty International, Transparency International and lectures of Prof. Dieter Senghaas on the 'Clash Within Civilization' and 'German History' by Prof. U Preuss were simply intellectually stimulating to say the least, notwithstanding of our various public talks to the German public in the universities.
Shifting from the usual inter-elite or inter-academic discourses which invariably ended in the usual round of apologia and perhaps superficial exchange of courtesies, this experimental project of Dr Farish Noor of the ZMO, was meant to bring his so-called 'unapologetic practitioners' of 'Political Islam' from Malaysia and Indonesia with the 'Western World' with a hope of an outcome with a difference.
Precisely for the reasons mentioned above, I have my earlier apprehension about this West-Islam dialogue, and very reluctantly committed myself to Farish. While such efforts rarely do much harm, they have likewise failed to affect the intended benefit. The deep psychological scars on both sides are often emotional hurdles that make it harder to listen to each other.
Retrospectively though, I could honestly say that it was time well spent. Lest you think that we have solved many problems hence the reason of my satisfaction, the many discourses have indeed raised more questions than answers, which now necessitate further engagement and serious in-depth discourses.
Critical to the prerequisite of a meaningful dialogue must ultimately be premised on the understanding that neither side is required to transform its thought or behaviour. Rather, these must be allowed to remain useful and legitimate qualities recognized by both sides. The question then ceases to be, 'who is better or superior, but who acknowledges and legitimizes the other' in their respective pursuit of expressing and manifesting 'the self' and 'who does not'!
This to me is the defining criteria of a true democrat that understands the demands of plurality in a democracy. This would allow for their respective convictions and program be better appreciated as they would reveal their true nature to one another and possibly overcome or transform negative perceptions or stereotypes, hopefully substituting enmity with understanding and cooperation in due course.
I'm penning down briefly, some pertinent issues and personal reflection on the discourses of the trip.
Firstly, revisiting phraseology.
While not wanting to be excessively semantic or pedantic, ironing out 'politically-loaded' terms that are coinage of both Orientalist thinking and Socio-Political Scientists of both Western and Middle-Eastern origin such as Islamism or Political Islam, Islamic Fundamentalism or Neo-Fundamentalism, radical and moderate Islamist etc would be in order as they are both confusing at best and pejorative at worst.
! That said, some attempt at rationalizing them may be both noteworthy and necessary. It is important that PAS now proposes her own terminology as to how she wants to be described. Pejorative or negative term, the like of describing PAS as 'a fundamentalist Islamic party' invariably reinforces negative stereotyping and has negative implication on the ballot box while it hurts grievously our democratic credentials. Would Democratic Islamist be more favourable and politically-friendly? That alone warrants a discourse.
Insisting on the usage of 'Political Islam' to describe 'Islamic activism or Islamism' as proposed by many Western thinkers, may prove to be fundamentally flawed. Western discourse attempts at representing 'Political Islam', as asserted by Prof. Oliver Roy's basic definition, as 'the contemporary movement that conceives Islam as a political ideology' and describe the people who subscribe to this view as 'Islamists'.
This 'narrow' definition of Islamic activism as 'Islam in political mode' presupposes that Islam per se is apolitical or not political and 'benign'. That's grossly misconceived. In so far as Islam is inherently and intrinsically concerned and interested in matters of government and governance, it is in fact very political from the outset.
The embodiment of the Prophet Muhammad testified to that fact, besides of course the numerous textual evidences and its exegesis. Islam is as much a religion of peace and tranquility of the souls as it is a religion of law that contains and arranges the affairs of and binding on the believers, much like the Ten Commandments of Judaism but with no counterpart in Christianity.
The proposition that Islamists are subscribing to 'Islamism', while 'ordinary Muslims' conform to a form of religious belief that is essentially a private matter is equally unrealistic and faulty. For a large proportion of 'ordinary Muslims' (the ummah) to be responsive to the proposition of the 'Islamists' or the activist minorities, actually reflect the understanding of the vast majority of the 'ordinary Muslims' of the position of Islam as being an intrinsically public matter and its corpus of legal prescription as in fact 'the blueprint of a social order'.
Hence the underpinning reason why so-called 'Islamists parties' throughout the Muslim World have emerged as a major power brokers when allowed to compete in free elections and mandated by the 'ordinary Muslims'. The West must come to grasp with this basic fact, sooner rather than later the better.
Secondly, the lumping of all forms of 'Political Islam' as if they are undifferentiated and a homogenous and monolithic entity, is equally erroneous in its assumptions and misleading in its policy prescriptions by the 'West'. Lumping all 'Islamists' under the rubric of 'fundamentalism' does not help the West to understand Islamic activism and its effervescent tendencies.
It is most unfortunate that the term 'fundamentalist' coined in America in the 19th century to describe anti-modernist Christians, has today become exclusively reserved for Muslims or rather Muslims activists. Initially meant for those who adhere to the literal interpretation of the text, the 'fundamentalist' are now equally demonized and shrewdly made synonymous with 'terrorists', who use illegal force for the fulfillment of their political objectives.
While not wanting to dwell on this topic in great depth, the West must now realize that there are numerous shades of Islamic activism. What they hold in common is their conviction that they found their activism in the tradition and teachings of Islam as contained in scripture and authoritative commentaries. There are significant distinctions in regard to the forms t! hat focuses on political activism, missionary activity or those that have to finally resort to military struggle.
The differentiating varieties of Islamic activism are not so much the relative militancy or moderation with which they express their ideological convictions, but rather determined by the nature of the ideological conviction they subscribed to.
Political Islamists or activists make an issue of the gross mismanagement, corruption, social injustices and failures of Muslim governments and advocate socio-political and legal reforms through democratic process within the ambit of democracy. I have come to be fully convinced that not only is the term 'Political Islam' far from monolithic, each individual actor of the Islamist group must also be studied within its own particular socio-political context rather than resorting to absolute conceptions and stereotyping of what Islamism is or is not.
Missionary Islamists harp on of the corruption of Islamic values and moral decadency of the society at large and give priority to enhancing social and spiritual revival of the 'ummah' for collective salvation and redemption.
Jihadi Islamists admittedly champion the issue of the oppressive weight of the Western political domination and military power in the Islamic world and engage in armed struggle. The West must understand that political radicalization of Islam finds it causes in the very hegemonistic US policies and the diabolical role of the Western power in the Muslim World.
The 'Latin Americanisation' of the American Imperialism in the Middle East, the brutal occupation of the Palestinian people by the Zionist state of Israel who of late is hell-bent on strangulating the legitimate Hamas government of the people, the multiple humiliation of Muslims in so many different countries namely Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and latest in Somalia, marginalization and oppression of several Muslims minorities in Kashmir, Chechnya, Southern Philippines, Southern Thailand and others, invariably make the Muslim world to believe that they are under siege and must fight back.
Little wonder why the Muslim World is enraged.
There could be no justification to any form of violence and terrorism. However, there are underlying reasons why it happened and continue to happen. This is a vicious negative cycle of violence begetting further violence.
Further engagement and discourses should be geared towards articulating the installation of 'Circuit-Breakers' (borrowing Farish's words) in the West-Islam confrontational dialectical paradigm, if the world is ever to witness the light at the end of the tunnel in this very complex and precarious relationship.
Otherwise, the global community will continue to question the sense or perhaps more of the nonsense of this Islam-West Dialogue!
Director,PAS Research Centre.
Dr Dzulkifli Ahmad Fri Jan 12, 07 03:59:57 AM
The two weeks lecture and study tour in Berlin hosted by Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO) of more than a dozen Muslim activists and politicians engaged with German politicians and political parties, civil society groups (NGOs), students, the media and the German public, has impacted me significantly on the agenda of 'West-Islam or Muslim-Western Dialogue'.
The program witnessed intense debate of 'Islamists' with salient intellectuals and academics including Professor Anthony Milner of Australian National University and Prof. James Piscatori of the Oxford University.
Meeting with parliamentarians of the foreign committee, engagement with think-tankers of the Konrad Adenaeur-Stiftung, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, the Amensty International, Transparency International and lectures of Prof. Dieter Senghaas on the 'Clash Within Civilization' and 'German History' by Prof. U Preuss were simply intellectually stimulating to say the least, notwithstanding of our various public talks to the German public in the universities.
Shifting from the usual inter-elite or inter-academic discourses which invariably ended in the usual round of apologia and perhaps superficial exchange of courtesies, this experimental project of Dr Farish Noor of the ZMO, was meant to bring his so-called 'unapologetic practitioners' of 'Political Islam' from Malaysia and Indonesia with the 'Western World' with a hope of an outcome with a difference.
Precisely for the reasons mentioned above, I have my earlier apprehension about this West-Islam dialogue, and very reluctantly committed myself to Farish. While such efforts rarely do much harm, they have likewise failed to affect the intended benefit. The deep psychological scars on both sides are often emotional hurdles that make it harder to listen to each other.
Retrospectively though, I could honestly say that it was time well spent. Lest you think that we have solved many problems hence the reason of my satisfaction, the many discourses have indeed raised more questions than answers, which now necessitate further engagement and serious in-depth discourses.
Critical to the prerequisite of a meaningful dialogue must ultimately be premised on the understanding that neither side is required to transform its thought or behaviour. Rather, these must be allowed to remain useful and legitimate qualities recognized by both sides. The question then ceases to be, 'who is better or superior, but who acknowledges and legitimizes the other' in their respective pursuit of expressing and manifesting 'the self' and 'who does not'!
This to me is the defining criteria of a true democrat that understands the demands of plurality in a democracy. This would allow for their respective convictions and program be better appreciated as they would reveal their true nature to one another and possibly overcome or transform negative perceptions or stereotypes, hopefully substituting enmity with understanding and cooperation in due course.
I'm penning down briefly, some pertinent issues and personal reflection on the discourses of the trip.
Firstly, revisiting phraseology.
While not wanting to be excessively semantic or pedantic, ironing out 'politically-loaded' terms that are coinage of both Orientalist thinking and Socio-Political Scientists of both Western and Middle-Eastern origin such as Islamism or Political Islam, Islamic Fundamentalism or Neo-Fundamentalism, radical and moderate Islamist etc would be in order as they are both confusing at best and pejorative at worst.
! That said, some attempt at rationalizing them may be both noteworthy and necessary. It is important that PAS now proposes her own terminology as to how she wants to be described. Pejorative or negative term, the like of describing PAS as 'a fundamentalist Islamic party' invariably reinforces negative stereotyping and has negative implication on the ballot box while it hurts grievously our democratic credentials. Would Democratic Islamist be more favourable and politically-friendly? That alone warrants a discourse.
Insisting on the usage of 'Political Islam' to describe 'Islamic activism or Islamism' as proposed by many Western thinkers, may prove to be fundamentally flawed. Western discourse attempts at representing 'Political Islam', as asserted by Prof. Oliver Roy's basic definition, as 'the contemporary movement that conceives Islam as a political ideology' and describe the people who subscribe to this view as 'Islamists'.
This 'narrow' definition of Islamic activism as 'Islam in political mode' presupposes that Islam per se is apolitical or not political and 'benign'. That's grossly misconceived. In so far as Islam is inherently and intrinsically concerned and interested in matters of government and governance, it is in fact very political from the outset.
The embodiment of the Prophet Muhammad testified to that fact, besides of course the numerous textual evidences and its exegesis. Islam is as much a religion of peace and tranquility of the souls as it is a religion of law that contains and arranges the affairs of and binding on the believers, much like the Ten Commandments of Judaism but with no counterpart in Christianity.
The proposition that Islamists are subscribing to 'Islamism', while 'ordinary Muslims' conform to a form of religious belief that is essentially a private matter is equally unrealistic and faulty. For a large proportion of 'ordinary Muslims' (the ummah) to be responsive to the proposition of the 'Islamists' or the activist minorities, actually reflect the understanding of the vast majority of the 'ordinary Muslims' of the position of Islam as being an intrinsically public matter and its corpus of legal prescription as in fact 'the blueprint of a social order'.
Hence the underpinning reason why so-called 'Islamists parties' throughout the Muslim World have emerged as a major power brokers when allowed to compete in free elections and mandated by the 'ordinary Muslims'. The West must come to grasp with this basic fact, sooner rather than later the better.
Secondly, the lumping of all forms of 'Political Islam' as if they are undifferentiated and a homogenous and monolithic entity, is equally erroneous in its assumptions and misleading in its policy prescriptions by the 'West'. Lumping all 'Islamists' under the rubric of 'fundamentalism' does not help the West to understand Islamic activism and its effervescent tendencies.
It is most unfortunate that the term 'fundamentalist' coined in America in the 19th century to describe anti-modernist Christians, has today become exclusively reserved for Muslims or rather Muslims activists. Initially meant for those who adhere to the literal interpretation of the text, the 'fundamentalist' are now equally demonized and shrewdly made synonymous with 'terrorists', who use illegal force for the fulfillment of their political objectives.
While not wanting to dwell on this topic in great depth, the West must now realize that there are numerous shades of Islamic activism. What they hold in common is their conviction that they found their activism in the tradition and teachings of Islam as contained in scripture and authoritative commentaries. There are significant distinctions in regard to the forms t! hat focuses on political activism, missionary activity or those that have to finally resort to military struggle.
The differentiating varieties of Islamic activism are not so much the relative militancy or moderation with which they express their ideological convictions, but rather determined by the nature of the ideological conviction they subscribed to.
Political Islamists or activists make an issue of the gross mismanagement, corruption, social injustices and failures of Muslim governments and advocate socio-political and legal reforms through democratic process within the ambit of democracy. I have come to be fully convinced that not only is the term 'Political Islam' far from monolithic, each individual actor of the Islamist group must also be studied within its own particular socio-political context rather than resorting to absolute conceptions and stereotyping of what Islamism is or is not.
Missionary Islamists harp on of the corruption of Islamic values and moral decadency of the society at large and give priority to enhancing social and spiritual revival of the 'ummah' for collective salvation and redemption.
Jihadi Islamists admittedly champion the issue of the oppressive weight of the Western political domination and military power in the Islamic world and engage in armed struggle. The West must understand that political radicalization of Islam finds it causes in the very hegemonistic US policies and the diabolical role of the Western power in the Muslim World.
The 'Latin Americanisation' of the American Imperialism in the Middle East, the brutal occupation of the Palestinian people by the Zionist state of Israel who of late is hell-bent on strangulating the legitimate Hamas government of the people, the multiple humiliation of Muslims in so many different countries namely Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and latest in Somalia, marginalization and oppression of several Muslims minorities in Kashmir, Chechnya, Southern Philippines, Southern Thailand and others, invariably make the Muslim world to believe that they are under siege and must fight back.
Little wonder why the Muslim World is enraged.
There could be no justification to any form of violence and terrorism. However, there are underlying reasons why it happened and continue to happen. This is a vicious negative cycle of violence begetting further violence.
Further engagement and discourses should be geared towards articulating the installation of 'Circuit-Breakers' (borrowing Farish's words) in the West-Islam confrontational dialectical paradigm, if the world is ever to witness the light at the end of the tunnel in this very complex and precarious relationship.
Otherwise, the global community will continue to question the sense or perhaps more of the nonsense of this Islam-West Dialogue!
Director,PAS Research Centre.
The sence and nonsense of Islam-West Dialogue
Dr Dzulkifli Ahmad Fri Jan 12, 07 03:59:57 AM
The two weeks lecture and study tour in Berlin hosted by Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO) of more than a dozen Muslim activists and politicians engaged with German politicians and political parties, civil society groups (NGOs), students, the media and the German public, has impacted me significantly on the agenda of 'West-Islam or Muslim-Western Dialogue'.
The program witnessed intense debate of 'Islamists' with salient intellectuals and academics including Professor Anthony Milner of Australian National University and Prof. James Piscatori of the Oxford University.
Meeting with parliamentarians of the foreign committee, engagement with think-tankers of the Konrad Adenaeur-Stiftung, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, the Amensty International, Transparency International and lectures of Prof. Dieter Senghaas on the 'Clash Within Civilization' and 'German History' by Prof. U Preuss were simply intellectually stimulating to say the least, notwithstanding of our various public talks to the German public in the universities.
Shifting from the usual inter-elite or inter-academic discourses which invariably ended in the usual round of apologia and perhaps superficial exchange of courtesies, this experimental project of Dr Farish Noor of the ZMO, was meant to bring his so-called 'unapologetic practitioners' of 'Political Islam' from Malaysia and Indonesia with the 'Western World' with a hope of an outcome with a difference.
Precisely for the reasons mentioned above, I have my earlier apprehension about this West-Islam dialogue, and very reluctantly committed myself to Farish. While such efforts rarely do much harm, they have likewise failed to affect the intended benefit. The deep psychological scars on both sides are often emotional hurdles that make it harder to listen to each other.
Retrospectively though, I could honestly say that it was time well spent. Lest you think that we have solved many problems hence the reason of my satisfaction, the many discourses have indeed raised more questions than answers, which now necessitate further engagement and serious in-depth discourses.
Critical to the prerequisite of a meaningful dialogue must ultimately be premised on the understanding that neither side is required to transform its thought or behaviour. Rather, these must be allowed to remain useful and legitimate qualities recognized by both sides. The question then ceases to be, 'who is better or superior, but who acknowledges and legitimizes the other' in their respective pursuit of expressing and manifesting 'the self' and 'who does not'!
This to me is the defining criteria of a true democrat that understands the demands of plurality in a democracy. This would allow for their respective convictions and program be better appreciated as they would reveal their true nature to one another and possibly overcome or transform negative perceptions or stereotypes, hopefully substituting enmity with understanding and cooperation in due course.
I'm penning down briefly, some pertinent issues and personal reflection on the discourses of the trip.
Firstly, revisiting phraseology.
While not wanting to be excessively semantic or pedantic, ironing out 'politically-loaded' terms that are coinage of both Orientalist thinking and Socio-Political Scientists of both Western and Middle-Eastern origin such as Islamism or Political Islam, Islamic Fundamentalism or Neo-Fundamentalism, radical and moderate Islamist etc would be in order as they are both confusing at best and pejorative at worst.
! That said, some attempt at rationalizing them may be both noteworthy and necessary. It is important that PAS now proposes her own terminology as to how she wants to be described. Pejorative or negative term, the like of describing PAS as 'a fundamentalist Islamic party' invariably reinforces negative stereotyping and has negative implication on the ballot box while it hurts grievously our democratic credentials. Would Democratic Islamist be more favourable and politically-friendly? That alone warrants a discourse.
Insisting on the usage of 'Political Islam' to describe 'Islamic activism or Islamism' as proposed by many Western thinkers, may prove to be fundamentally flawed. Western discourse attempts at representing 'Political Islam', as asserted by Prof. Oliver Roy's basic definition, as 'the contemporary movement that conceives Islam as a political ideology' and describe the people who subscribe to this view as 'Islamists'.
This 'narrow' definition of Islamic activism as 'Islam in political mode' presupposes that Islam per se is apolitical or not political and 'benign'. That's grossly misconceived. In so far as Islam is inherently and intrinsically concerned and interested in matters of government and governance, it is in fact very political from the outset.
The embodiment of the Prophet Muhammad testified to that fact, besides of course the numerous textual evidences and its exegesis. Islam is as much a religion of peace and tranquility of the souls as it is a religion of law that contains and arranges the affairs of and binding on the believers, much like the Ten Commandments of Judaism but with no counterpart in Christianity.
The proposition that Islamists are subscribing to 'Islamism', while 'ordinary Muslims' conform to a form of religious belief that is essentially a private matter is equally unrealistic and faulty. For a large proportion of 'ordinary Muslims' (the ummah) to be responsive to the proposition of the 'Islamists' or the activist minorities, actually reflect the understanding of the vast majority of the 'ordinary Muslims' of the position of Islam as being an intrinsically public matter and its corpus of legal prescription as in fact 'the blueprint of a social order'.
Hence the underpinning reason why so-called 'Islamists parties' throughout the Muslim World have emerged as a major power brokers when allowed to compete in free elections and mandated by the 'ordinary Muslims'. The West must come to grasp with this basic fact, sooner rather than later the better.
Secondly, the lumping of all forms of 'Political Islam' as if they are undifferentiated and a homogenous and monolithic entity, is equally erroneous in its assumptions and misleading in its policy prescriptions by the 'West'. Lumping all 'Islamists' under the rubric of 'fundamentalism' does not help the West to understand Islamic activism and its effervescent tendencies.
It is most unfortunate that the term 'fundamentalist' coined in America in the 19th century to describe anti-modernist Christians, has today become exclusively reserved for Muslims or rather Muslims activists. Initially meant for those who adhere to the literal interpretation of the text, the 'fundamentalist' are now equally demonized and shrewdly made synonymous with 'terrorists', who use illegal force for the fulfillment of their political objectives.
While not wanting to dwell on this topic in great depth, the West must now realize that there are numerous shades of Islamic activism. What they hold in common is their conviction that they found their activism in the tradition and teachings of Islam as contained in scripture and authoritative commentaries. There are significant distinctions in regard to the forms t! hat focuses on political activism, missionary activity or those that have to finally resort to military struggle.
The differentiating varieties of Islamic activism are not so much the relative militancy or moderation with which they express their ideological convictions, but rather determined by the nature of the ideological conviction they subscribed to.
Political Islamists or activists make an issue of the gross mismanagement, corruption, social injustices and failures of Muslim governments and advocate socio-political and legal reforms through democratic process within the ambit of democracy. I have come to be fully convinced that not only is the term 'Political Islam' far from monolithic, each individual actor of the Islamist group must also be studied within its own particular socio-political context rather than resorting to absolute conceptions and stereotyping of what Islamism is or is not.
Missionary Islamists harp on of the corruption of Islamic values and moral decadency of the society at large and give priority to enhancing social and spiritual revival of the 'ummah' for collective salvation and redemption.
Jihadi Islamists admittedly champion the issue of the oppressive weight of the Western political domination and military power in the Islamic world and engage in armed struggle. The West must understand that political radicalization of Islam finds it causes in the very hegemonistic US policies and the diabolical role of the Western power in the Muslim World.
The 'Latin Americanisation' of the American Imperialism in the Middle East, the brutal occupation of the Palestinian people by the Zionist state of Israel who of late is hell-bent on strangulating the legitimate Hamas government of the people, the multiple humiliation of Muslims in so many different countries namely Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and latest in Somalia, marginalization and oppression of several Muslims minorities in Kashmir, Chechnya, Southern Philippines, Southern Thailand and others, invariably make the Muslim world to believe that they are under siege and must fight back.
Little wonder why the Muslim World is enraged.
There could be no justification to any form of violence and terrorism. However, there are underlying reasons why it happened and continue to happen. This is a vicious negative cycle of violence begetting further violence.
Further engagement and discourses should be geared towards articulating the installation of 'Circuit-Breakers' (borrowing Farish's words) in the West-Islam confrontational dialectical paradigm, if the world is ever to witness the light at the end of the tunnel in this very complex and precarious relationship.
Otherwise, the global community will continue to question the sense or perhaps more of the nonsense of this Islam-West Dialogue!
Director,PAS Research Centre.
KES USTAZ MUKHTAR RAMLI
Former AIM MD found guilty of CBT
KUALA LUMPUR: Former Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM) managing director Mukhtar Ramli was found guilty of criminal breach of trust involving RM3.8mil belonging to the poverty eradication agency.
A Sessions Court here immediately passed a five-year jail sentence on the former National Archives director-general yesterday.
He will have to spend, at least, the next few days in prison.
This is because judge Akhtar Tahir refused to grant a stay of execution until Mukhtar's lawyers formally filed a notice of appeal.
He shot down counsel Mohd Yaakob Bakanali's request for a stay, saying there was no such thing as an automatic stay of execution.
When the lawyer pressed for an interim stay of execution, the judge again shot back: “There's no s! uch thing as an interim stay.â€
When Mohd Yaakob pointed out that allowing an interim stay was a practice, Akhtar replied that he was not following that practice.
Mukhtar, 54, was convicted of five counts of criminal breach of trust involving a total of RM3,874,000 at the AIM office at Jalan Ledang, off Jalan Duta, here.
Earlier, in mitigation, Mohd Yaakob urged the court to release his client on a good behaviour bond, saying he had served the Government for 18 years before joining AIM as managing director in 1995.
He said Mukhtar, who was now without a steady job, received a monthly government pension of RM1,411 and, for additional income, he conducted religious classes after AIM sacked him.
Former AIM M-D jailed 5 years for RM3.8m CBT
KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 11, 2007): Former Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM) managing director Mukhtar Ramli was jailed five years by the sessions court here today on five counts of criminal breach of trust involving RM3.8 million.
Judge Akhtar Tahir ruled that the defence had failed to cast a doubt on the prosecution's case and that the offence was not due to technicalities.
He sentenced Mukhtar, 54, to five years jail on each count, and ordered that the sentences run concurrently.
Akhtar fixed Monday (Jan 15, 2007) to hear Mukhtar's application for a stay of execution of the sentence pending appeal and ordered that Mukhtar be sent to Kajang Prison.
In passing sentence, he said Mukhtar had acted arbitrarily in disregard of the set standard and had committed a grave offence which could erode public confidence in the government's efforts to help the people.
He said AIM was set up to help the poor and public officers in! the organisation should be honest and trustworthy so as not to have a negative effect on the poor.
On the first charge, Mukhtar was found guilty of committing CBT of AIM's funds amounting to RM375,000 by purchasing Malaysia Airports Bhd shares without approval from AIM's board of directors or investment committee on Nov 5 and 11, 1999.
The other charges involved the purchase of RM500,000 worth of Asnita shares on Aug 1 and 7, 2000, RM1.5 million worth of Tabung Ittikal shares and RM999,000 worth of Dali Al Ihsan shares on March 13 and 22, 2001, and RM500,000 worth of Dali Al Mizan shares on March 20 and 29, 2001.
All the offences were committed at the AIM office at Lot JKR 3179 &3185, Jalan Ledang off Jalan Duta.
In mitigation, defence counsel Mohamed Yaakob Bakanali asked the court to bind over Mukhtar.
He said Mukhtar had prostate cancer and asthma and needed medical treatment and added that he also had a good service record with the National Archives from 1977 to 1995 before joining AIM.
He said Mukhtar had been jobless since his sacking from AIM and was surviving on his monthly pension of RM1,411 besides giving religious lessons.
Yaakob said the offences occurred due to inadequate conditions and instructions and that Mukhtar had not profited from them.
DPP Nordin Hassan said there was an agreement between the government and AIM that forbade AIM to make any investment, so the offences committed by Mukhtar were not technical in nature because he had refused to get advice and instead ordered the AIM legal adviser to shut up during the board meeting.
Bekas Pengarah Urusan AIM kena 5 tahun
Oleh Ahmad Johari Mohd Ali
KUALA LUMPUR: Bekas Pengarah Urusan Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM), Mukhtar Ramli, dihukum penjara lima tahun oleh Mahkamah Sesyen di sini semalam selepas didapati bersalah terhadap lima tuduhan pecah amanah membabitkan RM3.8 juta milik AIM.
Hakim Akhtar Tahir membuat keputusan itu selepas mendapati pihak pendakwaan berjaya membuktikan kes melampaui keraguan munasabah dan kesalahan itu bukan disebabkan faktor teknikal.
Dalam penghakimannya, Akhtar berkata, badan amal itu ditubuhkan untuk menolong rakyat miskin dan sebarang tindakan penjawat awam akan memberi kesan kepada golongan terbabit.
Oleh itu, katanya, mereka perlu menjalankan tanggungjawab dan amanah dengan jujur kerana badan itu mendapat bantuan kerajaan.
“Kesalahan ini menunjukkan tertuduh bertindak sewenang-wenangnya tanpa mengikut peraturan. Ia amat serius dan bukan kesalahan teknikal saja seperti didakwa pihak pembelaan.
“Perbuatan tertuduh juga boleh menjejaskan keyakinan orang awam dan imej kerajaan di mata dunia,†katanya sambil berharap hukuman itu menjadi pengajaran bukan saja kepada tertuduh, malah penjawat awam lain.
Mukhtar, 54, yang berkemeja putih dan berseluar gelap serta bersongkok, kelihatan sugul ketika Akhtar menjatuhkan hukuman lima tahun penjara bagi setiap tuduhan itu. Mahkamah memerintahkan hukuman itu berjalan serentak.
Terdahulu, ketika mahkamah berhenti rehat lima minit sebelum hukuman dijatuhkan, Mukhtar sambil tersenyum, berkata “Tak apa†kepada peguamnya, Mohd Yaakob Bakanali apabila Akhtar mensabitkannya dengan kesalahan itu. Keluarganya termasuk isteri dan dua anak mereka turut hadir di mahkamah.
Mukhtar didakwa melakukan lima kesalahan itu di pejabat AIM, Lot JKR 3179 & 3185, Jalan Ledang Off Jalan Duta di sini. Setiap tuduhan membawa hukuman maksimum 20 tahun dan sebatan jika sabit kesalahan mengikut Seksyen 409 Kanun Keseksaan.
Dalam rayuan sebelum hukuman dijatuhkan, Mohd Yaakob memohon supaya anak guamnya hanya dikenakan bon jaminan berkelakuan baik dengan jumlah jaminan yang munasabah.
Mohd Yaakob berkata, tertuduh yang menghidap kanser prostat dan asma, perlu mendapatkan rawatan doktor setiap tiga bulan.
Katanya, tertuduh mempunyai rekod baik sepanjang memegang jawatan sebagai Pengarah Arkib Negara dari 1977 hingga 1995 sebelum menyertai AIM.
“Selepas tertuduh dipecat dari AIM, dia tidak mempunyai pekerjaan tetap dan bergantung kepada bantuan pencen RM1,411 sebulan dan membuka kelas mengajar agama. “Anak guam saya juga sudah menjalani hukuman tidak langsung bermula dari tarikh dia didakwa hingga sekarang.
“Ia juga menyusahkan hidupnya dan keluarga selain tidak mendapat apa-apa keuntungan dari segi kewangan melalui kesalahan itu,†katanya.
Bagaimanapun, Timbalan Pendakwa Raya Nordin Hassan yang memohon supaya Mukhtar dikenakan hukuman setimpal, berkata ada perjanjian antara kerajaan dan AIM yang menyatakan badan itu tidak boleh membuat sebarang pelaburan.
Katanya, kesalahan yang dilakukan Mukhtar bukan kesalahan teknikal kerana beliau enggan mendapatkan nasihat, sebaliknya mengarahkan penasihat undang-undang AIM berdiam diri dalam mesyuarat lembaga AIM.
“Tertuduh patut dikenakan hukuman berat sejajar dengan usaha kerajaan menangani jenayah pecah amanah melalui langkah Parlimen meminda undang-undang bagi membolehkan hukuman lebih berat dikenakan terhadap pesalah,†katanya.
Dalam prosiding semalam juga, Akhtar menetapkan Isnin ini untuk mendengar permohonan tertuduh bagi penangguhan pelaksanaan hukuman sementara menunggu rayuan.
Bekas Pengarah AIM pecah amanah dihukum penjara lima tahun
KUALA LUMPUR 11 Jan. – Bekas Pengarah Urusan Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM), Mukhtar Ramli dihukum penjara lima tahun oleh Mahkamah Sesyen di sini hari ini setelah didapati bersalah atas lima tuduhan melakukan pecah amanah RM3.8 juta wang milik institusi membasmi kemiskinan itu.
Hakim Akhtar Tahir memerintahkan Mukhtar, 54, dihukum penjara lima tahun bagi setiap tuduhan yang dihadapinya tetapi kesemua hukuman tersebut berjalan serentak mulai hari ini.
Perintah tersebut dikeluarkan selepas beliau memutuskan bahawa pihak pendakwaan berjaya membuktikan kes melampaui keraguan munasabah bagi kelima-lima tuduhan itu.
Hakim tersebut bagaimanapun menolak permohonan pihak pembela untuk menangguhkan pelaksanaan hukuman dan sebaliknya menetapkan 15 Januari ini untuk mendengar permohonan itu.
Sebelum menjatuhkan hukuman, Akhtar menyatakan bahawa sebarang tindakan oleh penjawat awam dalam AIM akan memberi kesan kepada golongan miskin dan termiskin kerana tujuan badan awam itu ditubuhkan adalah untuk membantu golongan tersebut.
‘‘Oleh itu mereka (penjawat awam) perlu jujur, amanah dan mengikut peraturan kerana AIM mendapat bantuan daripada kerajaan
.
‘‘Tindakan tertuduh menunjukkan dia bertindak sewenang-wenangnya tanpa mematuhi peraturan,’’ menurut Akhtar sambil menambah ia bukanlah satu kesalahan teknikal. Perbuatan tertuduh juga, kata hakim, boleh menjejaskan keyakinan orang awam dan imej kerajaan di mata dunia.
Mukhtar yang bersongkok, kelihatan tenang sepanjang keputusan dibacakan oleh Akhtar.
Dia hadir di mahkamah dengan ditemani isteri dan dua orang anaknya. Turut memenuhi galeri awam ialah ahli-ahli Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM).
Mukhtar dibicarakan setelah dia mengaku tidak bersalah atas kelima-lima tuduhan ketika pertama kali dihadapkan ke mahkamah pada 16 Ogos 2002.
Mengikut tuduhan pindaan pertama, dia didakwa melakukan pecah amanah dengan cara melupuskan dana AIM dengan membuat pembelian saham Malaysian Airport Berhad (MAB) berjumlah RM375,000 tanpa kelulusan Lembaga Pengarah atau Jawatankuasa Pelaburan AIM.
Bagi tuduhan pindaan berikutnya, dia didakwa melakukan kesalahan yang sama membabitkan RM500,000 saham ASNITA, RM1.5 juta saham Tabung Ittikal, RM999,000 saham DALI AL IHSAN dan RM500,000 saham DALI AL MIZAN. Kesemua kesalahan itu didakwa dilakukan di pejabat AIM di Lot JKR 3179 & 3185, Jalan Ledang Off Jalan Duta di sini antara 5 November 1999 dan 29 Mac 2001.
Sepanjang perbicaraan yang bermula pada 31 Januari 2003, sebanyak 23 saksi pendakwa dan lima saksi pembela termasuk tertuduh sendiri telah dipanggil memberi keterangan.
Mohd. Yaacob semasa mengemukakan rayuan meringankan hukuman menyatakan, tertuduh yang merupakan Pengarah Arkib Negara sebelum berkhidmat di AIM, menghidap penyakit kanser prostat dan lelah.
Tertuduh juga, katanya, yang kini mengendalikan kelas pengajaran agama pernah menyertai ABIM untuk memberi khidmat semasa konflik perang Bosnia di negara tersebut.
Memandangkan Mukhtar tidak mendapat sebarang faedah atau keuntungan daripada pelaburan itu, Mohd. Yaacob memohon tertuduh hanya dikenakan bon jaminan berkelakuan baik.
Timbalan Pendakwa Raya, Nordin Hassan yang mengendalikan pendakwaan pula memohon hukuman yang setimpal bagi kesalahan yang melibatkan pecah amanah wang berjumlah RM3.8 juta.
Menurutnya, kesalahan itu adalah serius kerana ia dilakukan oleh pengarah urusan sebuah badan yang ditubuhkan untuk membantu golongan miskin dan termiskin di negara ini.
MAJLIS PENERANGAN KES USTAZ MUKHTAR RAMLI DAN SOLAT HAJAT
TARIKH : 12 JANUARI 2007
MASA : BERMULA DENGAN SOLAT ISYAK BERJAMAAH
TEMPAT : SURAU ANJUNG RAHMAT, BATU 6, JALAN GOMBAK,
KUALA LUMPUR: Former Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM) managing director Mukhtar Ramli was found guilty of criminal breach of trust involving RM3.8mil belonging to the poverty eradication agency.
A Sessions Court here immediately passed a five-year jail sentence on the former National Archives director-general yesterday.
He will have to spend, at least, the next few days in prison.
This is because judge Akhtar Tahir refused to grant a stay of execution until Mukhtar's lawyers formally filed a notice of appeal.
He shot down counsel Mohd Yaakob Bakanali's request for a stay, saying there was no such thing as an automatic stay of execution.
When the lawyer pressed for an interim stay of execution, the judge again shot back: “There's no s! uch thing as an interim stay.â€
When Mohd Yaakob pointed out that allowing an interim stay was a practice, Akhtar replied that he was not following that practice.
Mukhtar, 54, was convicted of five counts of criminal breach of trust involving a total of RM3,874,000 at the AIM office at Jalan Ledang, off Jalan Duta, here.
Earlier, in mitigation, Mohd Yaakob urged the court to release his client on a good behaviour bond, saying he had served the Government for 18 years before joining AIM as managing director in 1995.
He said Mukhtar, who was now without a steady job, received a monthly government pension of RM1,411 and, for additional income, he conducted religious classes after AIM sacked him.
Former AIM M-D jailed 5 years for RM3.8m CBT
KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 11, 2007): Former Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM) managing director Mukhtar Ramli was jailed five years by the sessions court here today on five counts of criminal breach of trust involving RM3.8 million.
Judge Akhtar Tahir ruled that the defence had failed to cast a doubt on the prosecution's case and that the offence was not due to technicalities.
He sentenced Mukhtar, 54, to five years jail on each count, and ordered that the sentences run concurrently.
Akhtar fixed Monday (Jan 15, 2007) to hear Mukhtar's application for a stay of execution of the sentence pending appeal and ordered that Mukhtar be sent to Kajang Prison.
In passing sentence, he said Mukhtar had acted arbitrarily in disregard of the set standard and had committed a grave offence which could erode public confidence in the government's efforts to help the people.
He said AIM was set up to help the poor and public officers in! the organisation should be honest and trustworthy so as not to have a negative effect on the poor.
On the first charge, Mukhtar was found guilty of committing CBT of AIM's funds amounting to RM375,000 by purchasing Malaysia Airports Bhd shares without approval from AIM's board of directors or investment committee on Nov 5 and 11, 1999.
The other charges involved the purchase of RM500,000 worth of Asnita shares on Aug 1 and 7, 2000, RM1.5 million worth of Tabung Ittikal shares and RM999,000 worth of Dali Al Ihsan shares on March 13 and 22, 2001, and RM500,000 worth of Dali Al Mizan shares on March 20 and 29, 2001.
All the offences were committed at the AIM office at Lot JKR 3179 &3185, Jalan Ledang off Jalan Duta.
In mitigation, defence counsel Mohamed Yaakob Bakanali asked the court to bind over Mukhtar.
He said Mukhtar had prostate cancer and asthma and needed medical treatment and added that he also had a good service record with the National Archives from 1977 to 1995 before joining AIM.
He said Mukhtar had been jobless since his sacking from AIM and was surviving on his monthly pension of RM1,411 besides giving religious lessons.
Yaakob said the offences occurred due to inadequate conditions and instructions and that Mukhtar had not profited from them.
DPP Nordin Hassan said there was an agreement between the government and AIM that forbade AIM to make any investment, so the offences committed by Mukhtar were not technical in nature because he had refused to get advice and instead ordered the AIM legal adviser to shut up during the board meeting.
Bekas Pengarah Urusan AIM kena 5 tahun
Oleh Ahmad Johari Mohd Ali
KUALA LUMPUR: Bekas Pengarah Urusan Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM), Mukhtar Ramli, dihukum penjara lima tahun oleh Mahkamah Sesyen di sini semalam selepas didapati bersalah terhadap lima tuduhan pecah amanah membabitkan RM3.8 juta milik AIM.
Hakim Akhtar Tahir membuat keputusan itu selepas mendapati pihak pendakwaan berjaya membuktikan kes melampaui keraguan munasabah dan kesalahan itu bukan disebabkan faktor teknikal.
Dalam penghakimannya, Akhtar berkata, badan amal itu ditubuhkan untuk menolong rakyat miskin dan sebarang tindakan penjawat awam akan memberi kesan kepada golongan terbabit.
Oleh itu, katanya, mereka perlu menjalankan tanggungjawab dan amanah dengan jujur kerana badan itu mendapat bantuan kerajaan.
“Kesalahan ini menunjukkan tertuduh bertindak sewenang-wenangnya tanpa mengikut peraturan. Ia amat serius dan bukan kesalahan teknikal saja seperti didakwa pihak pembelaan.
“Perbuatan tertuduh juga boleh menjejaskan keyakinan orang awam dan imej kerajaan di mata dunia,†katanya sambil berharap hukuman itu menjadi pengajaran bukan saja kepada tertuduh, malah penjawat awam lain.
Mukhtar, 54, yang berkemeja putih dan berseluar gelap serta bersongkok, kelihatan sugul ketika Akhtar menjatuhkan hukuman lima tahun penjara bagi setiap tuduhan itu. Mahkamah memerintahkan hukuman itu berjalan serentak.
Terdahulu, ketika mahkamah berhenti rehat lima minit sebelum hukuman dijatuhkan, Mukhtar sambil tersenyum, berkata “Tak apa†kepada peguamnya, Mohd Yaakob Bakanali apabila Akhtar mensabitkannya dengan kesalahan itu. Keluarganya termasuk isteri dan dua anak mereka turut hadir di mahkamah.
Mukhtar didakwa melakukan lima kesalahan itu di pejabat AIM, Lot JKR 3179 & 3185, Jalan Ledang Off Jalan Duta di sini. Setiap tuduhan membawa hukuman maksimum 20 tahun dan sebatan jika sabit kesalahan mengikut Seksyen 409 Kanun Keseksaan.
Dalam rayuan sebelum hukuman dijatuhkan, Mohd Yaakob memohon supaya anak guamnya hanya dikenakan bon jaminan berkelakuan baik dengan jumlah jaminan yang munasabah.
Mohd Yaakob berkata, tertuduh yang menghidap kanser prostat dan asma, perlu mendapatkan rawatan doktor setiap tiga bulan.
Katanya, tertuduh mempunyai rekod baik sepanjang memegang jawatan sebagai Pengarah Arkib Negara dari 1977 hingga 1995 sebelum menyertai AIM.
“Selepas tertuduh dipecat dari AIM, dia tidak mempunyai pekerjaan tetap dan bergantung kepada bantuan pencen RM1,411 sebulan dan membuka kelas mengajar agama. “Anak guam saya juga sudah menjalani hukuman tidak langsung bermula dari tarikh dia didakwa hingga sekarang.
“Ia juga menyusahkan hidupnya dan keluarga selain tidak mendapat apa-apa keuntungan dari segi kewangan melalui kesalahan itu,†katanya.
Bagaimanapun, Timbalan Pendakwa Raya Nordin Hassan yang memohon supaya Mukhtar dikenakan hukuman setimpal, berkata ada perjanjian antara kerajaan dan AIM yang menyatakan badan itu tidak boleh membuat sebarang pelaburan.
Katanya, kesalahan yang dilakukan Mukhtar bukan kesalahan teknikal kerana beliau enggan mendapatkan nasihat, sebaliknya mengarahkan penasihat undang-undang AIM berdiam diri dalam mesyuarat lembaga AIM.
“Tertuduh patut dikenakan hukuman berat sejajar dengan usaha kerajaan menangani jenayah pecah amanah melalui langkah Parlimen meminda undang-undang bagi membolehkan hukuman lebih berat dikenakan terhadap pesalah,†katanya.
Dalam prosiding semalam juga, Akhtar menetapkan Isnin ini untuk mendengar permohonan tertuduh bagi penangguhan pelaksanaan hukuman sementara menunggu rayuan.
Bekas Pengarah AIM pecah amanah dihukum penjara lima tahun
KUALA LUMPUR 11 Jan. – Bekas Pengarah Urusan Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM), Mukhtar Ramli dihukum penjara lima tahun oleh Mahkamah Sesyen di sini hari ini setelah didapati bersalah atas lima tuduhan melakukan pecah amanah RM3.8 juta wang milik institusi membasmi kemiskinan itu.
Hakim Akhtar Tahir memerintahkan Mukhtar, 54, dihukum penjara lima tahun bagi setiap tuduhan yang dihadapinya tetapi kesemua hukuman tersebut berjalan serentak mulai hari ini.
Perintah tersebut dikeluarkan selepas beliau memutuskan bahawa pihak pendakwaan berjaya membuktikan kes melampaui keraguan munasabah bagi kelima-lima tuduhan itu.
Hakim tersebut bagaimanapun menolak permohonan pihak pembela untuk menangguhkan pelaksanaan hukuman dan sebaliknya menetapkan 15 Januari ini untuk mendengar permohonan itu.
Sebelum menjatuhkan hukuman, Akhtar menyatakan bahawa sebarang tindakan oleh penjawat awam dalam AIM akan memberi kesan kepada golongan miskin dan termiskin kerana tujuan badan awam itu ditubuhkan adalah untuk membantu golongan tersebut.
‘‘Oleh itu mereka (penjawat awam) perlu jujur, amanah dan mengikut peraturan kerana AIM mendapat bantuan daripada kerajaan
.
‘‘Tindakan tertuduh menunjukkan dia bertindak sewenang-wenangnya tanpa mematuhi peraturan,’’ menurut Akhtar sambil menambah ia bukanlah satu kesalahan teknikal. Perbuatan tertuduh juga, kata hakim, boleh menjejaskan keyakinan orang awam dan imej kerajaan di mata dunia.
Mukhtar yang bersongkok, kelihatan tenang sepanjang keputusan dibacakan oleh Akhtar.
Dia hadir di mahkamah dengan ditemani isteri dan dua orang anaknya. Turut memenuhi galeri awam ialah ahli-ahli Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM).
Mukhtar dibicarakan setelah dia mengaku tidak bersalah atas kelima-lima tuduhan ketika pertama kali dihadapkan ke mahkamah pada 16 Ogos 2002.
Mengikut tuduhan pindaan pertama, dia didakwa melakukan pecah amanah dengan cara melupuskan dana AIM dengan membuat pembelian saham Malaysian Airport Berhad (MAB) berjumlah RM375,000 tanpa kelulusan Lembaga Pengarah atau Jawatankuasa Pelaburan AIM.
Bagi tuduhan pindaan berikutnya, dia didakwa melakukan kesalahan yang sama membabitkan RM500,000 saham ASNITA, RM1.5 juta saham Tabung Ittikal, RM999,000 saham DALI AL IHSAN dan RM500,000 saham DALI AL MIZAN. Kesemua kesalahan itu didakwa dilakukan di pejabat AIM di Lot JKR 3179 & 3185, Jalan Ledang Off Jalan Duta di sini antara 5 November 1999 dan 29 Mac 2001.
Sepanjang perbicaraan yang bermula pada 31 Januari 2003, sebanyak 23 saksi pendakwa dan lima saksi pembela termasuk tertuduh sendiri telah dipanggil memberi keterangan.
Mohd. Yaacob semasa mengemukakan rayuan meringankan hukuman menyatakan, tertuduh yang merupakan Pengarah Arkib Negara sebelum berkhidmat di AIM, menghidap penyakit kanser prostat dan lelah.
Tertuduh juga, katanya, yang kini mengendalikan kelas pengajaran agama pernah menyertai ABIM untuk memberi khidmat semasa konflik perang Bosnia di negara tersebut.
Memandangkan Mukhtar tidak mendapat sebarang faedah atau keuntungan daripada pelaburan itu, Mohd. Yaacob memohon tertuduh hanya dikenakan bon jaminan berkelakuan baik.
Timbalan Pendakwa Raya, Nordin Hassan yang mengendalikan pendakwaan pula memohon hukuman yang setimpal bagi kesalahan yang melibatkan pecah amanah wang berjumlah RM3.8 juta.
Menurutnya, kesalahan itu adalah serius kerana ia dilakukan oleh pengarah urusan sebuah badan yang ditubuhkan untuk membantu golongan miskin dan termiskin di negara ini.
MAJLIS PENERANGAN KES USTAZ MUKHTAR RAMLI DAN SOLAT HAJAT
TARIKH : 12 JANUARI 2007
MASA : BERMULA DENGAN SOLAT ISYAK BERJAMAAH
TEMPAT : SURAU ANJUNG RAHMAT, BATU 6, JALAN GOMBAK,
FIGHTING FOR THEIR SURVIVAL
A Christian Exodus from the Arab World
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,457002,00.html
By Amira El Ahl, Daniel Steinvorth, Volkhard Windfuhr
Bernhard Zand
Violence, terrorism and the Islamists' growing influence pose a threat to Christianity in the Middle East. In some countries, members of an unpopular Christian minority are already fighting for their survival -- or fleeing for their lives.
In New Baghdad, the driver of a minibus, a Shiite named Ali, set out at 7 a.m. on the last Sunday before Christmas. A few hours earlier he had received a call on his mobile phone with instructions to pick up five passengers for a long trip outside the city. His first passenger, he had been told, would tell him who the other passengers were and what their destination would be. He was also told not to mention a word to anyone.
The first passenger was a 24-year-old man named Raymon, who was sitting on his suitcase a few blocks away. He directed Ali through the city's dreary east side, where having a Shiite as a driver is a smart move -- first to the Karrada district, where Amir and Fariz boarded the bus, and then to Selakh, where Wassim and Qarram were waiting. By 9 a.m., Ali had picked up all of his passengers and the bus left Baghdad and began traveling to the northeast -- for the 350-kilometer (218-mile) journey to Kurdistan, the only part of Iraq that is anything close to safe.
The five young men traveling in Ali's red Kia were the last seminary students at the Chaldean Catholic Babel College to leave Baghdad. Four priests have been abducted since mid-August, and two others were murdered. Father Sami, the director of the seminary, was kidnapped in early December. The community managed to raise $75,000 to buy his freedom, but after hesitating for weeks, Emmanuel III, the Chaldean patriarch, decided to withdraw the teaching institutions of his community from Baghdad. He ordered the evacuation of the city's four Catholic churches, the Hurmis monastery and the college in the city's Dura neighborhood, but chose to remain behind in the city as the lonely shepherd of a rapidly shrinking congregation.
A history that traces back to the Ottoman Empire
Present-day Iraq was still part of the Ottoman Empire when Iraq's Catholics opened their first priest seminary. They moved it from Mosul to Baghdad 45 years ago and, in 1991, untouched by then dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, they founded the Babel College for Philosophy and Theology in Dora. It would only exist there for 15 years, a flicker in the history of the Chaldean people. "I don't know when or whether we will ever return," says Bashar Varda, the man Father Sami has entrusted with running the seminary.
Christians have lived in the Arab world for the past 2,000 years. They were there before the Muslims. Their current predicament is not the first crisis they have faced and, compared to the massacres of the past, it is certainly not the most severe in Middle Eastern Christianity. But in some countries, it could be the last one. Even the pope, in his Christmas address, mentioned the "small flock" of the faithful in the Middle East, who he said are forced to live with "little light and too much shadow," and demanded that they be given more rights.
There are no reliable figures on the size of Christian minorities in the Middle East. This is partly attributable to an absence of statistics, and partly to the politically charged nature of producing such statistics in the first place. Lebanon's last census was taken 74 years ago. Saddam Hussein, a Sunni who is himself part of a minority, was fundamentally opposed to compiling denominational statistics. In Egypt the number of Christians fluctuates between five and 12 million, depending on who is counting.
Given the lack of hard numbers, demographers must rely on estimates, whereby Christians make up about 40 percent of the population in Lebanon, less than 10 percent in Egypt and Syria, two to four percent in Jordan and Iraq and less than one percent in North Africa. But the major political changes that are currently affecting the Middle East have led to shrinking Christian minorities. In East Jerusalem, where half of the population was Christian until 1948, the year of the first Arab-Israeli war, less than five percent of residents are Christian today. In neighboring Jordan, the number of Christians was reduced by half between the 1967 Six Day War and the 1990s. There were only 500,000 Christians still living in Iraq until recently, compared to 750,000 after the 1991 Gulf War. Wassim, one of the seminary students now fleeing to Kurdistan, estimates that half of those remaining Christians have emigrated since the 2003 US invasion, most of them in the last six months.
Greater affluence
Demographics have accelerated this development. Christians, often better educated and more affluent than their Muslim neighbors, have fewer children. Because the wave of emigration has been going on for decades, many Middle Eastern Christians now have relatives in Europe, North America and Australia who help them emigrate. Their high level of education increases their chances of obtaining visas. Those who leave are primarily members of the elite: doctors, lawyers and engineers.
But there are deeper-seated reasons behind the most recent exodus: the demise of secular movements and the growing influence of political Islam in the Middle East.
It was a Syrian Christian, Michel Aflaq, who founded the nationalist Baath movement in 1940, a career ladder for Iraqi Christians until 2003 and still a political safe haven for many Syrian Christians today. Former Egyptian President Gamal Abd al-Nasser had no qualms about paying homage to the Virgin Mary, who supposedly appeared on a church roof in a Cairo suburb after Egypt's defeat in its 1967 war with Israel. And former Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, who died in 2004, insisted on sitting in the first row in Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity during the annual Christmas service.
But those days are gone. The last prominent Christians -- Chaldean Tariq Aziz, Saddam's foreign minister for many years, and Hanan Ashrawi, Arafat's education minister -- have vanished from the political stage in the Middle East. And since the election victories of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Hamas in the Palestinian Authority, the rise of Hezbollah in Lebanon and the bloody power struggles between Sunni and Shiite militias in Iraq, the illusion that Christian politicians could still play an important role in the Arab world is gone once and for all.FIGHTING FOR THEIR SURVIVAL
A Christian Exodus from the Arab World
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,457002,00.html
By Amira El Ahl, Daniel Steinvorth, Volkhard Windfuhr
Bernhard Zand
Violence, terrorism and the Islamists' growing influence pose a threat to Christianity in the Middle East. In some countries, members of an unpopular Christian minority are already fighting for their survival -- or fleeing for their lives.
In New Baghdad, the driver of a minibus, a Shiite named Ali, set out at 7 a.m. on the last Sunday before Christmas. A few hours earlier he had received a call on his mobile phone with instructions to pick up five passengers for a long trip outside the city. His first passenger, he had been told, would tell him who the other passengers were and what their destination would be. He was also told not to mention a word to anyone.
The first passenger was a 24-year-old man named Raymon, who was sitting on his suitcase a few blocks away. He directed Ali through the city's dreary east side, where having a Shiite as a driver is a smart move -- first to the Karrada district, where Amir and Fariz boarded the bus, and then to Selakh, where Wassim and Qarram were waiting. By 9 a.m., Ali had picked up all of his passengers and the bus left Baghdad and began traveling to the northeast -- for the 350-kilometer (218-mile) journey to Kurdistan, the only part of Iraq that is anything close to safe.
The five young men traveling in Ali's red Kia were the last seminary students at the Chaldean Catholic Babel College to leave Baghdad. Four priests have been abducted since mid-August, and two others were murdered. Father Sami, the director of the seminary, was kidnapped in early December. The community managed to raise $75,000 to buy his freedom, but after hesitating for weeks, Emmanuel III, the Chaldean patriarch, decided to withdraw the teaching institutions of his community from Baghdad. He ordered the evacuation of the city's four Catholic churches, the Hurmis monastery and the college in the city's Dura neighborhood, but chose to remain behind in the city as the lonely shepherd of a rapidly shrinking congregation.
A history that traces back to the Ottoman Empire
Present-day Iraq was still part of the Ottoman Empire when Iraq's Catholics opened their first priest seminary. They moved it from Mosul to Baghdad 45 years ago and, in 1991, untouched by then dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, they founded the Babel College for Philosophy and Theology in Dora. It would only exist there for 15 years, a flicker in the history of the Chaldean people. "I don't know when or whether we will ever return," says Bashar Varda, the man Father Sami has entrusted with running the seminary.
Christians have lived in the Arab world for the past 2,000 years. They were there before the Muslims. Their current predicament is not the first crisis they have faced and, compared to the massacres of the past, it is certainly not the most severe in Middle Eastern Christianity. But in some countries, it could be the last one. Even the pope, in his Christmas address, mentioned the "small flock" of the faithful in the Middle East, who he said are forced to live with "little light and too much shadow," and demanded that they be given more rights.
There are no reliable figures on the size of Christian minorities in the Middle East. This is partly attributable to an absence of statistics, and partly to the politically charged nature of producing such statistics in the first place. Lebanon's last census was taken 74 years ago. Saddam Hussein, a Sunni who is himself part of a minority, was fundamentally opposed to compiling denominational statistics. In Egypt the number of Christians fluctuates between five and 12 million, depending on who is counting.
Given the lack of hard numbers, demographers must rely on estimates, whereby Christians make up about 40 percent of the population in Lebanon, less than 10 percent in Egypt and Syria, two to four percent in Jordan and Iraq and less than one percent in North Africa. But the major political changes that are currently affecting the Middle East have led to shrinking Christian minorities. In East Jerusalem, where half of the population was Christian until 1948, the year of the first Arab-Israeli war, less than five percent of residents are Christian today. In neighboring Jordan, the number of Christians was reduced by half between the 1967 Six Day War and the 1990s. There were only 500,000 Christians still living in Iraq until recently, compared to 750,000 after the 1991 Gulf War. Wassim, one of the seminary students now fleeing to Kurdistan, estimates that half of those remaining Christians have emigrated since the 2003 US invasion, most of them in the last six months.
Greater affluence
Demographics have accelerated this development. Christians, often better educated and more affluent than their Muslim neighbors, have fewer children. Because the wave of emigration has been going on for decades, many Middle Eastern Christians now have relatives in Europe, North America and Australia who help them emigrate. Their high level of education increases their chances of obtaining visas. Those who leave are primarily members of the elite: doctors, lawyers and engineers.
But there are deeper-seated reasons behind the most recent exodus: the demise of secular movements and the growing influence of political Islam in the Middle East.
It was a Syrian Christian, Michel Aflaq, who founded the nationalist Baath movement in 1940, a career ladder for Iraqi Christians until 2003 and still a political safe haven for many Syrian Christians today. Former Egyptian President Gamal Abd al-Nasser had no qualms about paying homage to the Virgin Mary, who supposedly appeared on a church roof in a Cairo suburb after Egypt's defeat in its 1967 war with Israel. And former Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, who died in 2004, insisted on sitting in the first row in Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity during the annual Christmas service.
But those days are gone. The last prominent Christians -- Chaldean Tariq Aziz, Saddam's foreign minister for many years, and Hanan Ashrawi, Arafat's education minister -- have vanished from the political stage in the Middle East. And since the election victories of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Hamas in the Palestinian Authority, the rise of Hezbollah in Lebanon and the bloody power struggles between Sunni and Shiite militias in Iraq, the illusion that Christian politicians could still play an important role in the Arab world is gone once and for all.
A Christian Exodus from the Arab World
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,457002,00.html
By Amira El Ahl, Daniel Steinvorth, Volkhard Windfuhr
Bernhard Zand
Violence, terrorism and the Islamists' growing influence pose a threat to Christianity in the Middle East. In some countries, members of an unpopular Christian minority are already fighting for their survival -- or fleeing for their lives.
In New Baghdad, the driver of a minibus, a Shiite named Ali, set out at 7 a.m. on the last Sunday before Christmas. A few hours earlier he had received a call on his mobile phone with instructions to pick up five passengers for a long trip outside the city. His first passenger, he had been told, would tell him who the other passengers were and what their destination would be. He was also told not to mention a word to anyone.
The first passenger was a 24-year-old man named Raymon, who was sitting on his suitcase a few blocks away. He directed Ali through the city's dreary east side, where having a Shiite as a driver is a smart move -- first to the Karrada district, where Amir and Fariz boarded the bus, and then to Selakh, where Wassim and Qarram were waiting. By 9 a.m., Ali had picked up all of his passengers and the bus left Baghdad and began traveling to the northeast -- for the 350-kilometer (218-mile) journey to Kurdistan, the only part of Iraq that is anything close to safe.
The five young men traveling in Ali's red Kia were the last seminary students at the Chaldean Catholic Babel College to leave Baghdad. Four priests have been abducted since mid-August, and two others were murdered. Father Sami, the director of the seminary, was kidnapped in early December. The community managed to raise $75,000 to buy his freedom, but after hesitating for weeks, Emmanuel III, the Chaldean patriarch, decided to withdraw the teaching institutions of his community from Baghdad. He ordered the evacuation of the city's four Catholic churches, the Hurmis monastery and the college in the city's Dura neighborhood, but chose to remain behind in the city as the lonely shepherd of a rapidly shrinking congregation.
A history that traces back to the Ottoman Empire
Present-day Iraq was still part of the Ottoman Empire when Iraq's Catholics opened their first priest seminary. They moved it from Mosul to Baghdad 45 years ago and, in 1991, untouched by then dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, they founded the Babel College for Philosophy and Theology in Dora. It would only exist there for 15 years, a flicker in the history of the Chaldean people. "I don't know when or whether we will ever return," says Bashar Varda, the man Father Sami has entrusted with running the seminary.
Christians have lived in the Arab world for the past 2,000 years. They were there before the Muslims. Their current predicament is not the first crisis they have faced and, compared to the massacres of the past, it is certainly not the most severe in Middle Eastern Christianity. But in some countries, it could be the last one. Even the pope, in his Christmas address, mentioned the "small flock" of the faithful in the Middle East, who he said are forced to live with "little light and too much shadow," and demanded that they be given more rights.
There are no reliable figures on the size of Christian minorities in the Middle East. This is partly attributable to an absence of statistics, and partly to the politically charged nature of producing such statistics in the first place. Lebanon's last census was taken 74 years ago. Saddam Hussein, a Sunni who is himself part of a minority, was fundamentally opposed to compiling denominational statistics. In Egypt the number of Christians fluctuates between five and 12 million, depending on who is counting.
Given the lack of hard numbers, demographers must rely on estimates, whereby Christians make up about 40 percent of the population in Lebanon, less than 10 percent in Egypt and Syria, two to four percent in Jordan and Iraq and less than one percent in North Africa. But the major political changes that are currently affecting the Middle East have led to shrinking Christian minorities. In East Jerusalem, where half of the population was Christian until 1948, the year of the first Arab-Israeli war, less than five percent of residents are Christian today. In neighboring Jordan, the number of Christians was reduced by half between the 1967 Six Day War and the 1990s. There were only 500,000 Christians still living in Iraq until recently, compared to 750,000 after the 1991 Gulf War. Wassim, one of the seminary students now fleeing to Kurdistan, estimates that half of those remaining Christians have emigrated since the 2003 US invasion, most of them in the last six months.
Greater affluence
Demographics have accelerated this development. Christians, often better educated and more affluent than their Muslim neighbors, have fewer children. Because the wave of emigration has been going on for decades, many Middle Eastern Christians now have relatives in Europe, North America and Australia who help them emigrate. Their high level of education increases their chances of obtaining visas. Those who leave are primarily members of the elite: doctors, lawyers and engineers.
But there are deeper-seated reasons behind the most recent exodus: the demise of secular movements and the growing influence of political Islam in the Middle East.
It was a Syrian Christian, Michel Aflaq, who founded the nationalist Baath movement in 1940, a career ladder for Iraqi Christians until 2003 and still a political safe haven for many Syrian Christians today. Former Egyptian President Gamal Abd al-Nasser had no qualms about paying homage to the Virgin Mary, who supposedly appeared on a church roof in a Cairo suburb after Egypt's defeat in its 1967 war with Israel. And former Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, who died in 2004, insisted on sitting in the first row in Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity during the annual Christmas service.
But those days are gone. The last prominent Christians -- Chaldean Tariq Aziz, Saddam's foreign minister for many years, and Hanan Ashrawi, Arafat's education minister -- have vanished from the political stage in the Middle East. And since the election victories of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Hamas in the Palestinian Authority, the rise of Hezbollah in Lebanon and the bloody power struggles between Sunni and Shiite militias in Iraq, the illusion that Christian politicians could still play an important role in the Arab world is gone once and for all.FIGHTING FOR THEIR SURVIVAL
A Christian Exodus from the Arab World
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,457002,00.html
By Amira El Ahl, Daniel Steinvorth, Volkhard Windfuhr
Bernhard Zand
Violence, terrorism and the Islamists' growing influence pose a threat to Christianity in the Middle East. In some countries, members of an unpopular Christian minority are already fighting for their survival -- or fleeing for their lives.
In New Baghdad, the driver of a minibus, a Shiite named Ali, set out at 7 a.m. on the last Sunday before Christmas. A few hours earlier he had received a call on his mobile phone with instructions to pick up five passengers for a long trip outside the city. His first passenger, he had been told, would tell him who the other passengers were and what their destination would be. He was also told not to mention a word to anyone.
The first passenger was a 24-year-old man named Raymon, who was sitting on his suitcase a few blocks away. He directed Ali through the city's dreary east side, where having a Shiite as a driver is a smart move -- first to the Karrada district, where Amir and Fariz boarded the bus, and then to Selakh, where Wassim and Qarram were waiting. By 9 a.m., Ali had picked up all of his passengers and the bus left Baghdad and began traveling to the northeast -- for the 350-kilometer (218-mile) journey to Kurdistan, the only part of Iraq that is anything close to safe.
The five young men traveling in Ali's red Kia were the last seminary students at the Chaldean Catholic Babel College to leave Baghdad. Four priests have been abducted since mid-August, and two others were murdered. Father Sami, the director of the seminary, was kidnapped in early December. The community managed to raise $75,000 to buy his freedom, but after hesitating for weeks, Emmanuel III, the Chaldean patriarch, decided to withdraw the teaching institutions of his community from Baghdad. He ordered the evacuation of the city's four Catholic churches, the Hurmis monastery and the college in the city's Dura neighborhood, but chose to remain behind in the city as the lonely shepherd of a rapidly shrinking congregation.
A history that traces back to the Ottoman Empire
Present-day Iraq was still part of the Ottoman Empire when Iraq's Catholics opened their first priest seminary. They moved it from Mosul to Baghdad 45 years ago and, in 1991, untouched by then dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, they founded the Babel College for Philosophy and Theology in Dora. It would only exist there for 15 years, a flicker in the history of the Chaldean people. "I don't know when or whether we will ever return," says Bashar Varda, the man Father Sami has entrusted with running the seminary.
Christians have lived in the Arab world for the past 2,000 years. They were there before the Muslims. Their current predicament is not the first crisis they have faced and, compared to the massacres of the past, it is certainly not the most severe in Middle Eastern Christianity. But in some countries, it could be the last one. Even the pope, in his Christmas address, mentioned the "small flock" of the faithful in the Middle East, who he said are forced to live with "little light and too much shadow," and demanded that they be given more rights.
There are no reliable figures on the size of Christian minorities in the Middle East. This is partly attributable to an absence of statistics, and partly to the politically charged nature of producing such statistics in the first place. Lebanon's last census was taken 74 years ago. Saddam Hussein, a Sunni who is himself part of a minority, was fundamentally opposed to compiling denominational statistics. In Egypt the number of Christians fluctuates between five and 12 million, depending on who is counting.
Given the lack of hard numbers, demographers must rely on estimates, whereby Christians make up about 40 percent of the population in Lebanon, less than 10 percent in Egypt and Syria, two to four percent in Jordan and Iraq and less than one percent in North Africa. But the major political changes that are currently affecting the Middle East have led to shrinking Christian minorities. In East Jerusalem, where half of the population was Christian until 1948, the year of the first Arab-Israeli war, less than five percent of residents are Christian today. In neighboring Jordan, the number of Christians was reduced by half between the 1967 Six Day War and the 1990s. There were only 500,000 Christians still living in Iraq until recently, compared to 750,000 after the 1991 Gulf War. Wassim, one of the seminary students now fleeing to Kurdistan, estimates that half of those remaining Christians have emigrated since the 2003 US invasion, most of them in the last six months.
Greater affluence
Demographics have accelerated this development. Christians, often better educated and more affluent than their Muslim neighbors, have fewer children. Because the wave of emigration has been going on for decades, many Middle Eastern Christians now have relatives in Europe, North America and Australia who help them emigrate. Their high level of education increases their chances of obtaining visas. Those who leave are primarily members of the elite: doctors, lawyers and engineers.
But there are deeper-seated reasons behind the most recent exodus: the demise of secular movements and the growing influence of political Islam in the Middle East.
It was a Syrian Christian, Michel Aflaq, who founded the nationalist Baath movement in 1940, a career ladder for Iraqi Christians until 2003 and still a political safe haven for many Syrian Christians today. Former Egyptian President Gamal Abd al-Nasser had no qualms about paying homage to the Virgin Mary, who supposedly appeared on a church roof in a Cairo suburb after Egypt's defeat in its 1967 war with Israel. And former Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, who died in 2004, insisted on sitting in the first row in Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity during the annual Christmas service.
But those days are gone. The last prominent Christians -- Chaldean Tariq Aziz, Saddam's foreign minister for many years, and Hanan Ashrawi, Arafat's education minister -- have vanished from the political stage in the Middle East. And since the election victories of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Hamas in the Palestinian Authority, the rise of Hezbollah in Lebanon and the bloody power struggles between Sunni and Shiite militias in Iraq, the illusion that Christian politicians could still play an important role in the Arab world is gone once and for all.
Amalan Doa buat ayah bonda tercinta
Amalan Doa buat ayah bonda tercinta
Ya Allah ya Tuhan ku, Aku menghulurkan kedua tanganku yang hina ini, memohon Engkau limpahkan rahmat dan hidayahMu. Terasa terlalu lemah diri ini tanpa pertolonganMu ya Allah. Ya Allah Segala pujian bagiMu Tuhan Sekelian Alam. Yang Maha Pemurah lagi Maha Mengasihani. Tuhan Pemerintah hari pembalasan. Hanya Engkaulah yang kami sembah dan kepadaMu kami memohon pertolongan Tunjukkanlah kami jalan yang lurus Jalan orang-orang yang Engkau telah kurniakan nikmat keatas mereka Bukannya jalan orang yang Engkau murkai dan bukan pula orang-orang yang sesat. Ya Allah Ya Zaljalaaliwalikrom Ampunkan dosa-dosa ku kepada Mu ya Allah. Aku terlalu lemah dengan godaan syaitan, aku masih melakukan maksiat walaupun ku tahu ianya Engkau murkai, aku masih lalai dalam ibadat walaupun ku tahu ianya Engkau tuntuti. Ya Allah, teguhkanlah iman ku, kuatkanlah hatiku, Kurniakanlah kepadaku hidayahMu, taufiqMu dan lindunganMu Jauhilah aku dari segala laranganMu, Dekatkanlah aku dengan segala suruhanMu, Tanamlah rasa benci dihatiku kepada maksiat, Tanamlah rasa cinta dihatiku kepada ibadat. Ya Allah, Ya Rahim Ya Karim Jadikanlah aku hambaMu dan umat Muhammad SAW yang beriman kepadaMu dan berbakti kepada kedua ibubapaku. Ya Allah, ampunkanlah dosa kedua ibubapaku kasihilah mereka sebagaimana mereka mengasihiku ketika aku kecil bukakanlah pintu hati mereka untuk beriman kepadaMu aku terlalu banyak terhutang budi kepada mereka ya Allah terlalu banyak budi mereka yang ku balas dengan menyakiti hati mereka kasih sayang mereka kubalas dengan kata-kata menentang sedangkan ku tahu,Englau melarang menyebut walaupun perkataan "huh" kepada mereka.Didikan dan asuhan mereka aku ambil ringan. Aku lupa ya Allah, berkat usaha, asuhan dan didikan merekalah aku berjaya kini, keselesaan sanggup dilupakan ketika mengandungkan aku kesakitan yang amat sangat sanggup dilalui ketika melahirkan aku tidur malam mereka aku ganggu titik peluh mereka basah kering demi membesarkan aku tidak pernah mereka mengadu letih tidak pernah mereka mengadu sakit lauk yang dimulut sanggup mereka luah untuk diberikan kepadaku harta yang dikumpul sanggup dilepaskan untuk pendidikanku namun selama ini aku lupa semua itu ya Allah kerana mereka tidak pernah merungut kepadaku ya Allah kerana mereka tidak pernah mengadu kepadaku ya Allah Ya Allah Ya Rahman Ya Rahim dimalam ini aku terkenang semua itu dimalam ini aku mengadu kepadaMu ya Allah dimalam ini aku memohon sepenuh hati kepadaMu ya Allah rahmatilah mereka, ampunilah dosa-dosa mereka, dan sekiranya ketika ini mereka Engkau siksa didalam kubur ya Allah aku memohon agar Engkau hentikanlah ya Allah aku memohon agar jangan Engkau siksa ibubapaku ya Allah aku tahu ya Allah mereka terlalu lemah dan tidak mungkin dapat menahan siksaanMu yang amatpedih itu ya Allah Perkenankanlah doa ku ini dan jadikanlah ini doa anak yang soleh yang Engkau janjikan akan diperkenankan ya Allah ya Tuhanku. Maha Suci Allah Yang Maha Besar Engkau jadikanlah anak-anak ku dari orang-orang yang soleh yang mendoakan keampunanku daripadaMu ya Allah jadikanlah mereka sebagai anak kunci pintu syurga ku ya Allah dan jangan Engkau jadikan mereka anak kunci ku ke nerakaMu Teguhkanlah iman mereka ya Allah jauhilah mereka dari siksaMu ya Allah. Tuhan Sekelian Alam.
Amalan Doa buat ayah bonda tercinta Ya Allah ya Tuhan ku, Aku menghulurkan kedua tanganku yang hina ini, memohon Engkau limpahkan rahmat dan hidayahMu. Terasa terlalu lemah diri ini tanpa pertolonganMu ya Allah. Ya Allah Segala pujian bagiMu Tuhan Sekelian Alam. Yang Maha Pemurah lagi Maha Mengasihani. Tuhan Pemerintah hari pembalasan. Hanya Engkaulah yang kami sembah dan kepadaMu kami memohon pertolongan Tunjukkanlah kami jalan yang lurus Jalan orang-orang yang Engkau telah kurniakan nikmat keatas mereka Bukannya jalan orang yang Engkau murkai dan bukan pula orang-orang yang sesat. Ya Allah Ya Zaljalaaliwalikrom Ampunkan dosa-dosa ku kepada Mu ya Allah. Aku terlalu lemah dengan godaan syaitan, aku masih melakukan maksiat walaupun ku tahu ianya Engkau murkai, aku masih lalai dalam ibadat walaupun ku tahu ianya Engkau tuntuti. Ya Allah, teguhkanlah iman ku, kuatkanlah hatiku, Kurniakanlah kepadaku hidayahMu, taufiqMu dan lindunganMu Jauhilah aku dari segala laranganMu, Dekatkanlah aku dengan segala suruhanMu, Tanamlah rasa benci dihatiku kepada maksiat, Tanamlah rasa cinta dihatiku kepada ibadat. Ya Allah, Ya Rahim Ya Karim Jadikanlah aku hambaMu dan umat Muhammad SAW yang beriman kepadaMu dan berbakti kepada kedua ibubapaku. Ya Allah, ampunkanlah dosa kedua ibubapaku kasihilah mereka sebagaimana mereka mengasihiku ketika aku kecil bukakanlah pintu hati mereka untuk beriman kepadaMu aku terlalu banyak terhutang budi kepada mereka ya Allah terlalu banyak budi mereka yang ku balas dengan menyakiti hati mereka kasih sayang mereka kubalas dengan kata-kata menentang sedangkan ku tahu,Englau melarang menyebut walaupun perkataan "huh" kepada mereka.Didikan dan asuhan mereka aku ambil ringan. Aku lupa ya Allah, berkat usaha, asuhan dan didikan merekalah aku berjaya kini, keselesaan sanggup dilupakan ketika mengandungkan aku kesakitan yang amat sangat sanggup dilalui ketika melahirkan aku tidur malam mereka aku ganggu titik peluh mereka basah kering demi membesarkan aku tidak pernah mereka mengadu letih tidak pernah mereka mengadu sakit lauk yang dimulut sanggup mereka luah untuk diberikan kepadaku harta yang dikumpul sanggup dilepaskan untuk pendidikanku namun selama ini aku lupa semua itu ya Allah kerana mereka tidak pernah merungut kepadaku ya Allah kerana mereka tidak pernah mengadu kepadaku ya Allah Ya Allah Ya Rahman Ya Rahim dimalam ini aku terkenang semua itu dimalam ini aku mengadu kepadaMu ya Allah dimalam ini aku memohon sepenuh hati kepadaMu ya Allah rahmatilah mereka, ampunilah dosa-dosa mereka, dan sekiranya ketika ini mereka Engkau siksa didalam kubur ya Allah aku memohon agar Engkau hentikanlah ya Allah aku memohon agar jangan Engkau siksa ibubapaku ya Allah aku tahu ya Allah mereka terlalu lemah dan tidak mungkin dapat menahan siksaanMu yang amatpedih itu ya Allah Perkenankanlah doa ku ini dan jadikanlah ini doa anak yang soleh yang Engkau janjikan akan diperkenankan ya Allah ya Tuhanku. Maha Suci Allah Yang Maha Besar Engkau jadikanlah anak-anak ku dari orang-orang yang soleh yang mendoakan keampunanku daripadaMu ya Allah jadikanlah mereka sebagai anak kunci pintu syurga ku ya Allah dan jangan Engkau jadikan mereka anak kunci ku ke nerakaMu Teguhkanlah iman mereka ya Allah jauhilah mereka dari siksaMu ya Allah. Tuhan Sekelian Alam.
Ya Allah ya Tuhan ku, Aku menghulurkan kedua tanganku yang hina ini, memohon Engkau limpahkan rahmat dan hidayahMu. Terasa terlalu lemah diri ini tanpa pertolonganMu ya Allah. Ya Allah Segala pujian bagiMu Tuhan Sekelian Alam. Yang Maha Pemurah lagi Maha Mengasihani. Tuhan Pemerintah hari pembalasan. Hanya Engkaulah yang kami sembah dan kepadaMu kami memohon pertolongan Tunjukkanlah kami jalan yang lurus Jalan orang-orang yang Engkau telah kurniakan nikmat keatas mereka Bukannya jalan orang yang Engkau murkai dan bukan pula orang-orang yang sesat. Ya Allah Ya Zaljalaaliwalikrom Ampunkan dosa-dosa ku kepada Mu ya Allah. Aku terlalu lemah dengan godaan syaitan, aku masih melakukan maksiat walaupun ku tahu ianya Engkau murkai, aku masih lalai dalam ibadat walaupun ku tahu ianya Engkau tuntuti. Ya Allah, teguhkanlah iman ku, kuatkanlah hatiku, Kurniakanlah kepadaku hidayahMu, taufiqMu dan lindunganMu Jauhilah aku dari segala laranganMu, Dekatkanlah aku dengan segala suruhanMu, Tanamlah rasa benci dihatiku kepada maksiat, Tanamlah rasa cinta dihatiku kepada ibadat. Ya Allah, Ya Rahim Ya Karim Jadikanlah aku hambaMu dan umat Muhammad SAW yang beriman kepadaMu dan berbakti kepada kedua ibubapaku. Ya Allah, ampunkanlah dosa kedua ibubapaku kasihilah mereka sebagaimana mereka mengasihiku ketika aku kecil bukakanlah pintu hati mereka untuk beriman kepadaMu aku terlalu banyak terhutang budi kepada mereka ya Allah terlalu banyak budi mereka yang ku balas dengan menyakiti hati mereka kasih sayang mereka kubalas dengan kata-kata menentang sedangkan ku tahu,Englau melarang menyebut walaupun perkataan "huh" kepada mereka.Didikan dan asuhan mereka aku ambil ringan. Aku lupa ya Allah, berkat usaha, asuhan dan didikan merekalah aku berjaya kini, keselesaan sanggup dilupakan ketika mengandungkan aku kesakitan yang amat sangat sanggup dilalui ketika melahirkan aku tidur malam mereka aku ganggu titik peluh mereka basah kering demi membesarkan aku tidak pernah mereka mengadu letih tidak pernah mereka mengadu sakit lauk yang dimulut sanggup mereka luah untuk diberikan kepadaku harta yang dikumpul sanggup dilepaskan untuk pendidikanku namun selama ini aku lupa semua itu ya Allah kerana mereka tidak pernah merungut kepadaku ya Allah kerana mereka tidak pernah mengadu kepadaku ya Allah Ya Allah Ya Rahman Ya Rahim dimalam ini aku terkenang semua itu dimalam ini aku mengadu kepadaMu ya Allah dimalam ini aku memohon sepenuh hati kepadaMu ya Allah rahmatilah mereka, ampunilah dosa-dosa mereka, dan sekiranya ketika ini mereka Engkau siksa didalam kubur ya Allah aku memohon agar Engkau hentikanlah ya Allah aku memohon agar jangan Engkau siksa ibubapaku ya Allah aku tahu ya Allah mereka terlalu lemah dan tidak mungkin dapat menahan siksaanMu yang amatpedih itu ya Allah Perkenankanlah doa ku ini dan jadikanlah ini doa anak yang soleh yang Engkau janjikan akan diperkenankan ya Allah ya Tuhanku. Maha Suci Allah Yang Maha Besar Engkau jadikanlah anak-anak ku dari orang-orang yang soleh yang mendoakan keampunanku daripadaMu ya Allah jadikanlah mereka sebagai anak kunci pintu syurga ku ya Allah dan jangan Engkau jadikan mereka anak kunci ku ke nerakaMu Teguhkanlah iman mereka ya Allah jauhilah mereka dari siksaMu ya Allah. Tuhan Sekelian Alam.
Amalan Doa buat ayah bonda tercinta Ya Allah ya Tuhan ku, Aku menghulurkan kedua tanganku yang hina ini, memohon Engkau limpahkan rahmat dan hidayahMu. Terasa terlalu lemah diri ini tanpa pertolonganMu ya Allah. Ya Allah Segala pujian bagiMu Tuhan Sekelian Alam. Yang Maha Pemurah lagi Maha Mengasihani. Tuhan Pemerintah hari pembalasan. Hanya Engkaulah yang kami sembah dan kepadaMu kami memohon pertolongan Tunjukkanlah kami jalan yang lurus Jalan orang-orang yang Engkau telah kurniakan nikmat keatas mereka Bukannya jalan orang yang Engkau murkai dan bukan pula orang-orang yang sesat. Ya Allah Ya Zaljalaaliwalikrom Ampunkan dosa-dosa ku kepada Mu ya Allah. Aku terlalu lemah dengan godaan syaitan, aku masih melakukan maksiat walaupun ku tahu ianya Engkau murkai, aku masih lalai dalam ibadat walaupun ku tahu ianya Engkau tuntuti. Ya Allah, teguhkanlah iman ku, kuatkanlah hatiku, Kurniakanlah kepadaku hidayahMu, taufiqMu dan lindunganMu Jauhilah aku dari segala laranganMu, Dekatkanlah aku dengan segala suruhanMu, Tanamlah rasa benci dihatiku kepada maksiat, Tanamlah rasa cinta dihatiku kepada ibadat. Ya Allah, Ya Rahim Ya Karim Jadikanlah aku hambaMu dan umat Muhammad SAW yang beriman kepadaMu dan berbakti kepada kedua ibubapaku. Ya Allah, ampunkanlah dosa kedua ibubapaku kasihilah mereka sebagaimana mereka mengasihiku ketika aku kecil bukakanlah pintu hati mereka untuk beriman kepadaMu aku terlalu banyak terhutang budi kepada mereka ya Allah terlalu banyak budi mereka yang ku balas dengan menyakiti hati mereka kasih sayang mereka kubalas dengan kata-kata menentang sedangkan ku tahu,Englau melarang menyebut walaupun perkataan "huh" kepada mereka.Didikan dan asuhan mereka aku ambil ringan. Aku lupa ya Allah, berkat usaha, asuhan dan didikan merekalah aku berjaya kini, keselesaan sanggup dilupakan ketika mengandungkan aku kesakitan yang amat sangat sanggup dilalui ketika melahirkan aku tidur malam mereka aku ganggu titik peluh mereka basah kering demi membesarkan aku tidak pernah mereka mengadu letih tidak pernah mereka mengadu sakit lauk yang dimulut sanggup mereka luah untuk diberikan kepadaku harta yang dikumpul sanggup dilepaskan untuk pendidikanku namun selama ini aku lupa semua itu ya Allah kerana mereka tidak pernah merungut kepadaku ya Allah kerana mereka tidak pernah mengadu kepadaku ya Allah Ya Allah Ya Rahman Ya Rahim dimalam ini aku terkenang semua itu dimalam ini aku mengadu kepadaMu ya Allah dimalam ini aku memohon sepenuh hati kepadaMu ya Allah rahmatilah mereka, ampunilah dosa-dosa mereka, dan sekiranya ketika ini mereka Engkau siksa didalam kubur ya Allah aku memohon agar Engkau hentikanlah ya Allah aku memohon agar jangan Engkau siksa ibubapaku ya Allah aku tahu ya Allah mereka terlalu lemah dan tidak mungkin dapat menahan siksaanMu yang amatpedih itu ya Allah Perkenankanlah doa ku ini dan jadikanlah ini doa anak yang soleh yang Engkau janjikan akan diperkenankan ya Allah ya Tuhanku. Maha Suci Allah Yang Maha Besar Engkau jadikanlah anak-anak ku dari orang-orang yang soleh yang mendoakan keampunanku daripadaMu ya Allah jadikanlah mereka sebagai anak kunci pintu syurga ku ya Allah dan jangan Engkau jadikan mereka anak kunci ku ke nerakaMu Teguhkanlah iman mereka ya Allah jauhilah mereka dari siksaMu ya Allah. Tuhan Sekelian Alam.
Masa depan bahasa Melayu makin tergugat
Masa depan bahasa Melayu makin tergugat - Awang Sariyan
Mohd Sabri Said Tue Dec 26, 06 09:01:24 AM
BUKIT MERTAJAM, 26 Dis (Hrkh) - Status bahasa Melayu kini umpama 'telur di hujung tanduk' walaupun Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) bermati-matian mahu memartabatkan kedudukan bahasa ibunda.
Pensyarah Univesiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Profesor Dr Awang Sariyan menyifatkan, kemelut bahasa terus menjadi-jadi sehingga menimbulkan kerumitan di kalangan pelajar Melayu terutamanya di kawasan pedalaman.
"Pengabaian dasar bahasa memungkinkan timbul kemerosotan yang berterusan status pelajar Melayu di negara ini. Sekarang ini pun keputusan peperiksaan menyaksikan kejatuhan dalam dua pelajaran utama iaitu Sains dan Matematik, " ujarnya.
Beliau berkata demikian ketika membentangkan kertas kerja bertajuk Bahasa dan Pendidikan Islam Membangun Peradaban Ummah sempena Kongres Umat Islam Se Malaysia (Kuisma) di Komplek An-Nahdoh, Kubang Semang, Bukit Mertajam baru-baru ini.
Katanya, jika benar kerajaan mahu menyanjung kedaulatan bahasa Melayu mereka juga kena bersama-sama mempraktik kaedah seperti mengadakan mesyuarat atau urusan rasmi dalam bahasa Melayu sepertimana yang termaktub perkara 152 dalam perlembagaan.
Menurutnya, bagi merealisasikan semula status bahasa Melayu agar tidak ketandusan maka kena kembali menyuarakan bahasa termasuk menukarkan pembelajaran Sains dan Matematik dalam bahasa Malaysia.
Ini kerana, selepas diperkenalkan dalam peperiksaan mutu keputusan makin rendah seolah perangkap samar yang boleh meragut nyawa dalam jangka masa panjang.
Lagi pun, bahasa ibunda tidak menghalang kecapi kemajuan sebagaimana Jepun, Korea dan China.
"Kita jadi takut dan bimbang tidak memperolehi kemajuan seandainya tidak mengamalkan bahasa Inggeris. Sedangkan, negara maju seperti Jepun, Korea, China, Russia tidak pun mengutamakan bahasa Inggeris tetapi tetap maju dan terus berpotensi sehingga kini, " jelasnya dalam program anjuran Teras Pengupayaan Melayu (Teras) dan Sekretariat Jaringan Muafakat Pertubuhan-Pertubuhan Islam Perak (JAMA'IY).
Turut sebagai ahli panel dalam agenda Memperkukuhkan Pendidikan Islam- Satu Penilaian Untuk Melakar Masa Depan Ummat' ialah Pensyarah Kuliyyah Undang-Undang Univesiti Islam Antarabangsa (UIAM), Profesor Dr Aziz Bari dan Pensyarah Kuliyyah Pendidikan Islam UIAM, Profesor Madya Dr Sidek Baba. - mr
Mohd Sabri Said Tue Dec 26, 06 09:01:24 AM
BUKIT MERTAJAM, 26 Dis (Hrkh) - Status bahasa Melayu kini umpama 'telur di hujung tanduk' walaupun Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) bermati-matian mahu memartabatkan kedudukan bahasa ibunda.
Pensyarah Univesiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Profesor Dr Awang Sariyan menyifatkan, kemelut bahasa terus menjadi-jadi sehingga menimbulkan kerumitan di kalangan pelajar Melayu terutamanya di kawasan pedalaman.
"Pengabaian dasar bahasa memungkinkan timbul kemerosotan yang berterusan status pelajar Melayu di negara ini. Sekarang ini pun keputusan peperiksaan menyaksikan kejatuhan dalam dua pelajaran utama iaitu Sains dan Matematik, " ujarnya.
Beliau berkata demikian ketika membentangkan kertas kerja bertajuk Bahasa dan Pendidikan Islam Membangun Peradaban Ummah sempena Kongres Umat Islam Se Malaysia (Kuisma) di Komplek An-Nahdoh, Kubang Semang, Bukit Mertajam baru-baru ini.
Katanya, jika benar kerajaan mahu menyanjung kedaulatan bahasa Melayu mereka juga kena bersama-sama mempraktik kaedah seperti mengadakan mesyuarat atau urusan rasmi dalam bahasa Melayu sepertimana yang termaktub perkara 152 dalam perlembagaan.
Menurutnya, bagi merealisasikan semula status bahasa Melayu agar tidak ketandusan maka kena kembali menyuarakan bahasa termasuk menukarkan pembelajaran Sains dan Matematik dalam bahasa Malaysia.
Ini kerana, selepas diperkenalkan dalam peperiksaan mutu keputusan makin rendah seolah perangkap samar yang boleh meragut nyawa dalam jangka masa panjang.
Lagi pun, bahasa ibunda tidak menghalang kecapi kemajuan sebagaimana Jepun, Korea dan China.
"Kita jadi takut dan bimbang tidak memperolehi kemajuan seandainya tidak mengamalkan bahasa Inggeris. Sedangkan, negara maju seperti Jepun, Korea, China, Russia tidak pun mengutamakan bahasa Inggeris tetapi tetap maju dan terus berpotensi sehingga kini, " jelasnya dalam program anjuran Teras Pengupayaan Melayu (Teras) dan Sekretariat Jaringan Muafakat Pertubuhan-Pertubuhan Islam Perak (JAMA'IY).
Turut sebagai ahli panel dalam agenda Memperkukuhkan Pendidikan Islam- Satu Penilaian Untuk Melakar Masa Depan Ummat' ialah Pensyarah Kuliyyah Undang-Undang Univesiti Islam Antarabangsa (UIAM), Profesor Dr Aziz Bari dan Pensyarah Kuliyyah Pendidikan Islam UIAM, Profesor Madya Dr Sidek Baba. - mr
Muhammad's Sword
From: John L. Esposito
>>
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Uri Avnery
>> >
>> > 23.9.06
>> >
>> > Muhammad's Sword
>> >
>> > Since the days when Roman Emperors threw Christians
>> > to the lions, the
>> > relations between the emperors and the heads of the
>> > church have
>> > undergone many changes.
>> >
>> > Constantine the Great, who became Emperor in the
>> > year 306 - exactly 1700
>> > years ago - encouraged the practice of Christianity
>> > in the empire, which
>> > included Palestine. Centuries later, the church
>> > split into an Eastern
>> > (Orthodox) and a Western (Catholic) part. In the
>> > West, the Bishop of
>> > Rome, who acquired the title of Pope, demanded that
>> > the Emperor accept
>> > his superiority.
>> >
>> > The struggle between the Emperors and the Popes
>> > played a central role in
>> > European history and divided the peoples. It knew
>> > ups and downs. Some
>> > Emperors dismissed or expelled a Pope, some Popes
>> > dismissed or
>> > excommunicated an Emperor. One of the Emperors,
>> > Henry IV, "walked to
>> > Canossa", standing for three days barefoot in the
>> > snow in front of the
>> > Pope's castle, until the Pope deigned to annul his
>> > excommunication.
>> >
>> > But there were times when Emperors and Popes lived
>> > in peace with each
>> > other. We are witnessing such a period today.
>> > Between the present Pope,
>> > Benedict XVI, and the present Emperor, George Bush
>> > II, there exists a
>> > wonderful harmony. Last week's speech by the Pope,
>> > which aroused a
>> > world-wide storm, went well with Bush's crusade
>> > against "Islamofascism",
>> > in the context of the "Clash of Civilizations".
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > IN HIS lecture at a German university, the 265th
>> > Pope described what he
>> > sees as a huge difference between Christianity and
>> > Islam: while
>> > Christianity is based on reason, Islam denies it.
>> > While Christians see
>> > the logic of God's actions, Muslims deny that there
>> > is any such logic in
>> > the actions of Allah.
>> >
>> > As a Jewish atheist, I do not intend to enter the
>> > fray of this debate.
>> > It is much beyond my humble abilities to understand
>> > the logic of the
>> > Pope. But I cannot overlook one passage, which
>> > concerns me too, as an
>> > Israeli living near the fault-line of this "war of
>> > civilizations".
>> >
>> > In order to prove the lack of reason in Islam, the
>> > Pope asserts that the
>> > prophet Muhammad ordered his followers to spread
>> > their religion by the
>> > sword. According to the Pope, that is unreasonable,
>> > because faith is
>> > born of the soul, not of the body. How can the sword
>> > influence the soul?
>> >
>> > To support his case, the Pope quoted - of all people
>> > - a Byzantine
>> > Emperor, who belonged, of course, to the competing
>> > Eastern Church. At
>> > the end of the 14th century, the Emperor Manuel II
>> > Palaeologus told of a
>> > debate he had - or so he said (its occurrence is in
>> > doubt) - with an
>> > unnamed Persian Muslim scholar. In the heat of the
>> > argument, the Emperor
>> > (according to himself) flung the following words at
>> > his adversary:
>> >
>> > "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new,
>> > and there you will
>> > find things only evil and inhuman, such as his
>> > command to spread by the
>> > sword the faith he preached".
>> >
>> > These words give rise to three questions: (a) Why
>> > did the Emperor say
>> > them? (b) Are they true? (c) Why did the present
>> > Pope quote them?
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > WHEN MANUEL II wrote his treatise, he was the head
>> > of a dying empire. He
>> > assumed power in 1391, when only a few provinces of
>> > the once illustrious
>> > empire remained. These, too, were already under
>> > Turkish threat.
>> >
>> > At that point in time, the Ottoman Turks had reached
>> > the banks of the
>> > Danube. They had conquered Bulgaria and the north of
>> > Greece, and had
>> > twice defeated relieving armies sent by Europe to
>> > save the Eastern
>> > Empire. In 1453, only a few years after Manuel's
>> > death, his capital,
>> > Constantinople (the present Istanbul) fell to the
>> > Turks, putting an end
>> > to the Empire that had lasted for more than a
>> > thousand years.
>> >
>> > During his reign, Manuel made the rounds of the
>> > capitals of Europe in an
>> > attempt to drum up support. He promised to reunite
>> > the church. There is
>> > no doubt that he wrote his religious treatise in
>> > order to incite the
>> > Christian countries against the Turks and convince
>> > them to start a new
>> > crusade. The aim was practical, theology was serving
>> > politics.
>> >
>> > In this sense, the quote serves exactly the
>> > requirements of the present
>> > Emperor, George Bush II. He, too, wants to unite the
>> > Christian world
>> > against the mainly Muslim "Axis of Evil". Moreover,
>> > the Turks are again
>> > knocking on the doors of Europe, this time
>> > peacefully. It is well known
>> > that the Pope supports the forces that object to the
>> > entry of Turkey
>> > into the European Union.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > IS THERE any truth in Manuel's argument?
>> >
>> > The pope himself threw in a word of caution. As a
>> > serious and renowned
>> > theologian, he could not afford to falsify written
>> > texts. Therefore, he
>> > admitted that the Qur'an specifically forbade the
>> > spreading of the faith
>> > by force. He quoted the second Sura, verse 256
>> > (strangely fallible, for
>> > a pope, he meant verse 257) which says: "There must
>> > be no coercion in
>> > matters of faith".
>> >
>> > How can one ignore such an unequivocal statement?
>> > The Pope simply argues
>> > that this commandment was laid down by the prophet
>> > when he was at the
>> > beginning of his career, still weak and powerless,
>> > but that later on he
>> > ordered the use of the sword in the service of the
>> > faith. Such an order
>> > does not exist in the Qur'an. True, Muhammad called
>> > for the use of the
>> > sword in his war against opposing tribes -
>> > Christian, Jewish and others
>> > - in Arabia, when he was building his state. But
>> > that was a political
>> > act, not a religious one; basically a fight for
>> > territory, not for the
>> > spreading of the faith.
>> >
>> > Jesus said: "You will recognize them by their
>> > fruits." The treatment of
>> > other religions by Islam must be judged by a simple
>> > test: How did the
>> > Muslim rulers behave for more than a thousand years,
>> > when they had the
>> > power to "spread the faith by the sword"?
>> >
>> > Well, they just did not.
>> >
>> > For many centuries, the Muslims ruled Greece. Did
>> > the Greeks become
>> > Muslims? Did anyone even try to Islamize them? On
>> > the contrary,
>> > Christian Greeks held the highest positions in the
>> > Ottoman
>> > administration. The Bulgarians, Serbs, Romanians,
>> > Hungarians and other
>> > European nations lived at one time or another under
>> > Ottoman rule and
>> > clung to their Christian faith. Nobody compelled
>> > them to become Muslims
>> > and all of them remained devoutly Christian.
>> >
>> > True, the Albanians did convert to Islam, and so did
>> > the Bosniaks. But
>> > nobody argues that they did this under duress. They
>> > adopted Islam in
>> > order to become favorites of the government and
>> > enjoy the fruits.
>> >
>> > In 1099, the Crusaders conquered Jerusalem and
>> > massacred its Muslim and
>> > Jewish inhabitants indiscriminately, in the name of
>> > the gentle Jesus. At
>> > that time, 400 years into the occupation of
>> > Palestine by the Muslims,
>> > Christians were still the majority in the country.
>> > Throughout this long
>> > period, no effort was made to impose Islam on them.
>> > Only after the
>> > expulsion of the Crusaders from the country, did the
>> > majority of the
>> > inhabitants start to adopt the Arabic language and
>> > the Muslim faith -
>> > and they were the forefathers of most of today's
>> > Palestinians.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > THERE IS no evidence whatsoever of any attempt to
>> > impose Islam on the
>> > Jews. As is well known, under Muslim rule the Jews
>> > of Spain enjoyed a
>> > bloom the like of which the Jews did not enjoy
>> > anywhere else until
>> > almost our time. Poets like Yehuda Halevy wrote in
>> > Arabic, as did the
>> > great Maimonides. In Muslim Spain, Jews were
>> > ministers, poets,
>> > scientists. In Muslim Toledo, Christian, Jewish and
>> > Muslim scholars
>> > worked together and translated the ancient Greek
>> > philosophical and
>> > scientific texts. That was, indeed, the Golden Age.
>> > How would this have
>> > been possible, had the Prophet decreed the
>> > "spreading of the faith by
>> > the sword"?
>> >
>> > What happened afterwards is even more telling. When
>> > the Catholics
>> > re-conquered Spain from the Muslims, they instituted
>> > a reign of
>> > religious terror. The Jews and the Muslims were
>> > presented with a cruel
>> > choice: to become Christians, to be massacred or to
>> > leave. And where did
>> > the hundreds of thousand of Jews, who refused to
>> > abandon their faith,
>> > escape? Almost all of them were received with open
>> > arms in the Muslim
>> > countries. The Sephardi ("Spanish") Jews settled all
>> > over the Muslim
>> > world, from Morocco in the west to Iraq in the east,
>> > from Bulgaria (then
>> > part of the Ottoman Empire) in the north to Sudan in
>> > the south. Nowhere
>> > were they persecuted. They knew nothing like the
>> > tortures of the
>> > Inquisition, the flames of the auto-da-fe, the
>> > pogroms, the terrible
>> > mass-expulsions that took place in almost all
>> > Christian countries, up to
>> > the Holocaust.
>> >
>> > WHY? Because Islam expressly prohibited any
>> > persecution of the "peoples
>> > of the book". In Islamic society, a special place
>> > was reserved for Jews
>> > and Christians. They did not enjoy completely equal
>> > rights, but almost.
>> > They had to pay a special poll-tax, but were
>> > exempted from military
>> > service - a trade-off that was quite welcome to many
>> > Jews. It has been
>> > said that Muslim rulers frowned upon any attempt to
>> > convert Jews to
>> > Islam even by gentle persuasion - because it
>> > entailed the loss of taxes.
>> >
>> > Every honest Jew who knows the history of his people
>> > cannot but feel a
>> > deep sense of gratitude to Islam, which has
>> > protected the Jews for fifty
>> > generations, while the Christian world persecuted
>> > the Jews and tried
>> > many times "by the sword" to get them to abandon
>> > their faith.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > THE STORY about "spreading the faith by the sword"
>> > is an evil legend,
>> > one of the myths that grew up in Europe during the
>> > great wars against
>> > the Muslims - the reconquista of Spain by the
>> > Christians, the Crusades
>> > and the repulsion of the Turks, who almost conquered
>> > Vienna. I suspect
>> > that the German Pope, too, honestly believes in
>> > these fables. That means
>> > that the leader of the Catholic world, who is a
>> > Christian theologian in
>> > his own right, did not make the effort to study the
>> > history of other
>> > religions.
>> >
>> > Why did he utter these words in public? And why now?
>> >
>> > There is no escape from viewing them against the
>> > background of the new
>> > Crusade of Bush and his evangelist supporters, with
>> > his slogans of
>> > "Islamofascism" and the "Global War on Terrorism" -
>> > when "terrorism" has
>> > become a synonym for Muslims. For Bush's handlers,
>> > this is a cynical
>> > attempt to justify the domination of the world's oil
>> > resources. Not for
>> > the first time in history, a religious robe is
>> > spread to cover the
>> > nakedness of economic interests; not for the first
>> > time, a robbers'
>> > expedition becomes a Crusade.
>> >
>> > The speech of the Pope blends into this effort.
>> >
>> > Who can foretell the dire consequences?
>>
>>
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Uri Avnery
>> >
>> > 23.9.06
>> >
>> > Muhammad's Sword
>> >
>> > Since the days when Roman Emperors threw Christians
>> > to the lions, the
>> > relations between the emperors and the heads of the
>> > church have
>> > undergone many changes.
>> >
>> > Constantine the Great, who became Emperor in the
>> > year 306 - exactly 1700
>> > years ago - encouraged the practice of Christianity
>> > in the empire, which
>> > included Palestine. Centuries later, the church
>> > split into an Eastern
>> > (Orthodox) and a Western (Catholic) part. In the
>> > West, the Bishop of
>> > Rome, who acquired the title of Pope, demanded that
>> > the Emperor accept
>> > his superiority.
>> >
>> > The struggle between the Emperors and the Popes
>> > played a central role in
>> > European history and divided the peoples. It knew
>> > ups and downs. Some
>> > Emperors dismissed or expelled a Pope, some Popes
>> > dismissed or
>> > excommunicated an Emperor. One of the Emperors,
>> > Henry IV, "walked to
>> > Canossa", standing for three days barefoot in the
>> > snow in front of the
>> > Pope's castle, until the Pope deigned to annul his
>> > excommunication.
>> >
>> > But there were times when Emperors and Popes lived
>> > in peace with each
>> > other. We are witnessing such a period today.
>> > Between the present Pope,
>> > Benedict XVI, and the present Emperor, George Bush
>> > II, there exists a
>> > wonderful harmony. Last week's speech by the Pope,
>> > which aroused a
>> > world-wide storm, went well with Bush's crusade
>> > against "Islamofascism",
>> > in the context of the "Clash of Civilizations".
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > IN HIS lecture at a German university, the 265th
>> > Pope described what he
>> > sees as a huge difference between Christianity and
>> > Islam: while
>> > Christianity is based on reason, Islam denies it.
>> > While Christians see
>> > the logic of God's actions, Muslims deny that there
>> > is any such logic in
>> > the actions of Allah.
>> >
>> > As a Jewish atheist, I do not intend to enter the
>> > fray of this debate.
>> > It is much beyond my humble abilities to understand
>> > the logic of the
>> > Pope. But I cannot overlook one passage, which
>> > concerns me too, as an
>> > Israeli living near the fault-line of this "war of
>> > civilizations".
>> >
>> > In order to prove the lack of reason in Islam, the
>> > Pope asserts that the
>> > prophet Muhammad ordered his followers to spread
>> > their religion by the
>> > sword. According to the Pope, that is unreasonable,
>> > because faith is
>> > born of the soul, not of the body. How can the sword
>> > influence the soul?
>> >
>> > To support his case, the Pope quoted - of all people
>> > - a Byzantine
>> > Emperor, who belonged, of course, to the competing
>> > Eastern Church. At
>> > the end of the 14th century, the Emperor Manuel II
>> > Palaeologus told of a
>> > debate he had - or so he said (its occurrence is in
>> > doubt) - with an
>> > unnamed Persian Muslim scholar. In the heat of the
>> > argument, the Emperor
>> > (according to himself) flung the following words at
>> > his adversary:
>> >
>> > "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new,
>> > and there you will
>> > find things only evil and inhuman, such as his
>> > command to spread by the
>> > sword the faith he preached".
>> >
>> > These words give rise to three questions: (a) Why
>> > did the Emperor say
>> > them? (b) Are they true? (c) Why did the present
>> > Pope quote them?
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > WHEN MANUEL II wrote his treatise, he was the head
>> > of a dying empire. He
>> > assumed power in 1391, when only a few provinces of
>> > the once illustrious
>> > empire remained. These, too, were already under
>> > Turkish threat.
>> >
>> > At that point in time, the Ottoman Turks had reached
>> > the banks of the
>> > Danube. They had conquered Bulgaria and the north of
>> > Greece, and had
>> > twice defeated relieving armies sent by Europe to
>> > save the Eastern
>> > Empire. In 1453, only a few years after Manuel's
>> > death, his capital,
>> > Constantinople (the present Istanbul) fell to the
>> > Turks, putting an end
>> > to the Empire that had lasted for more than a
>> > thousand years.
>> >
>> > During his reign, Manuel made the rounds of the
>> > capitals of Europe in an
>> > attempt to drum up support. He promised to reunite
>> > the church. There is
>> > no doubt that he wrote his religious treatise in
>> > order to incite the
>> > Christian countries against the Turks and convince
>> > them to start a new
>> > crusade. The aim was practical, theology was serving
>> > politics.
>> >
>> > In this sense, the quote serves exactly the
>> > requirements of the present
>> > Emperor, George Bush II. He, too, wants to unite the
>> > Christian world
>> > against the mainly Muslim "Axis of Evil". Moreover,
>> > the Turks are again
>> > knocking on the doors of Europe, this time
>> > peacefully. It is well known
>> > that the Pope supports the forces that object to the
>> > entry of Turkey
>> > into the European Union.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > IS THERE any truth in Manuel's argument?
>> >
>> > The pope himself threw in a word of caution. As a
>> > serious and renowned
>> > theologian, he could not afford to falsify written
>> > texts. Therefore, he
>> > admitted that the Qur'an specifically forbade the
>> > spreading of the faith
>> > by force. He quoted the second Sura, verse 256
>> > (strangely fallible, for
>> > a pope, he meant verse 257) which says: "There must
>> > be no coercion in
>> > matters of faith".
>> >
>> > How can one ignore such an unequivocal statement?
>> > The Pope simply argues
>> > that this commandment was laid down by the prophet
>> > when he was at the
>> > beginning of his career, still weak and powerless,
>> > but that later on he
>> > ordered the use of the sword in the service of the
>> > faith. Such an order
>> > does not exist in the Qur'an. True, Muhammad called
>> > for the use of the
>> > sword in his war against opposing tribes -
>> > Christian, Jewish and others
>> > - in Arabia, when he was building his state. But
>> > that was a political
>> > act, not a religious one; basically a fight for
>> > territory, not for the
>> > spreading of the faith.
>> >
>> > Jesus said: "You will recognize them by their
>> > fruits." The treatment of
>> > other religions by Islam must be judged by a simple
>> > test: How did the
>> > Muslim rulers behave for more than a thousand years,
>> > when they had the
>> > power to "spread the faith by the sword"?
>> >
>> > Well, they just did not.
>> >
>> > For many centuries, the Muslims ruled Greece. Did
>> > the Greeks become
>> > Muslims? Did anyone even try to Islamize them? On
>> > the contrary,
>> > Christian Greeks held the highest positions in the
>> > Ottoman
>> > administration. The Bulgarians, Serbs, Romanians,
>> > Hungarians and other
>> > European nations lived at one time or another under
>> > Ottoman rule and
>> > clung to their Christian faith. Nobody compelled
>> > them to become Muslims
>> > and all of them remained devoutly Christian.
>> >
>> > True, the Albanians did convert to Islam, and so did
>> > the Bosniaks. But
>> > nobody argues that they did this under duress. They
>> > adopted Islam in
>> > order to become favorites of the government and
>> > enjoy the fruits.
>> >
>> > In 1099, the Crusaders conquered Jerusalem and
>> > massacred its Muslim and
>> > Jewish inhabitants indiscriminately, in the name of
>> > the gentle Jesus. At
>> > that time, 400 years into the occupation of
>> > Palestine by the Muslims,
>> > Christians were still the majority in the country.
>> > Throughout this long
>> > period, no effort was made to impose Islam on them.
>> > Only after the
>> > expulsion of the Crusaders from the country, did the
>> > majority of the
>> > inhabitants start to adopt the Arabic language and
>> > the Muslim faith -
>> > and they were the forefathers of most of today's
>> > Palestinians.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > THERE IS no evidence whatsoever of any attempt to
>> > impose Islam on the
>> > Jews. As is well known, under Muslim rule the Jews
>> > of Spain enjoyed a
>> > bloom the like of which the Jews did not enjoy
>> > anywhere else until
>> > almost our time. Poets like Yehuda Halevy wrote in
>> > Arabic, as did the
>> > great Maimonides. In Muslim Spain, Jews were
>> > ministers, poets,
>> > scientists. In Muslim Toledo, Christian, Jewish and
>> > Muslim scholars
>> > worked together and translated the ancient Greek
>> > philosophical and
>> > scientific texts. That was, indeed, the Golden Age.
>> > How would this have
>> > been possible, had the Prophet decreed the
>> > "spreading of the faith by
>> > the sword"?
>> >
>> > What happened afterwards is even more telling. When
>> > the Catholics
>> > re-conquered Spain from the Muslims, they instituted
>> > a reign of
>> > religious terror. The Jews and the Muslims were
>> > presented with a cruel
>> > choice: to become Christians, to be massacred or to
>> > leave. And where did
>> > the hundreds of thousand of Jews, who refused to
>> > abandon their faith,
>> > escape? Almost all of them were received with open
>> > arms in the Muslim
>> > countries. The Sephardi ("Spanish") Jews settled all
>> > over the Muslim
>> > world, from Morocco in the west to Iraq in the east,
>> > from Bulgaria (then
>> > part of the Ottoman Empire) in the north to Sudan in
>> > the south. Nowhere
>> > were they persecuted. They knew nothing like the
>> > tortures of the
>> > Inquisition, the flames of the auto-da-fe, the
>> > pogroms, the terrible
>> > mass-expulsions that took place in almost all
>> > Christian countries, up to
>> > the Holocaust.
>> >
>> > WHY? Because Islam expressly prohibited any
>> > persecution of the "peoples
>> > of the book". In Islamic society, a special place
>> > was reserved for Jews
>> > and Christians. They did not enjoy completely equal
>> > rights, but almost.
>> > They had to pay a special poll-tax, but were
>> > exempted from military
>> > service - a trade-off that was quite welcome to many
>> > Jews. It has been
>> > said that Muslim rulers frowned upon any attempt to
>> > convert Jews to
>> > Islam even by gentle persuasion - because it
>> > entailed the loss of taxes.
>> >
>> > Every honest Jew who knows the history of his people
>> > cannot but feel a
>> > deep sense of gratitude to Islam, which has
>> > protected the Jews for fifty
>> > generations, while the Christian world persecuted
>> > the Jews and tried
>> > many times "by the sword" to get them to abandon
>> > their faith.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > THE STORY about "spreading the faith by the sword"
>> > is an evil legend,
>> > one of the myths that grew up in Europe during the
>> > great wars against
>> > the Muslims - the reconquista of Spain by the
>> > Christians, the Crusades
>> > and the repulsion of the Turks, who almost conquered
>> > Vienna. I suspect
>> > that the German Pope, too, honestly believes in
>> > these fables. That means
>> > that the leader of the Catholic world, who is a
>> > Christian theologian in
>> > his own right, did not make the effort to study the
>> > history of other
>> > religions.
>> >
>> > Why did he utter these words in public? And why now?
>> >
>> > There is no escape from viewing them against the
>> > background of the new
>> > Crusade of Bush and his evangelist supporters, with
>> > his slogans of
>> > "Islamofascism" and the "Global War on Terrorism" -
>> > when "terrorism" has
>> > become a synonym for Muslims. For Bush's handlers,
>> > this is a cynical
>> > attempt to justify the domination of the world's oil
>> > resources. Not for
>> > the first time in history, a religious robe is
>> > spread to cover the
>> > nakedness of economic interests; not for the first
>> > time, a robbers'
>> > expedition becomes a Crusade.
>> >
>> > The speech of the Pope blends into this effort.
>> >
>> > Who can foretell the dire consequences?
>>
Pak Lah, Worry About the Rakyats’ Rice Bowl Instead
SEEING IT MY WAY
Malaysiakini Dec 21, 2006
Pak Lah, Worry About the Rakyats’ Rice Bowl Instead
Co-written with Din Merican
Editorial lead: This is not the time to be nice to any individual. It
is time to be nice to ALL Malaysians and worry about their pots of rice.
As he enters his fourth year as Prime Minister, Abdullah Badawi still
does not get it! He is concerned with his son-in-law’s pot of rice,
not that of the rakyats’. Since he cannot brag about the nation’s
economic achievements under his leadership, he is reduced to boasting
of his son’s wealth. There is no glory if his son (and son-in-law)
were rich but the nation poor.
Someone ought to tell him that he was elected to lead Malaysia, not to
take care of the well being of his grown-up family, its friends and
cronies. His advisers and family members have convinced him that those
critics are out to bring him down. If Abdullah persists with his
present pattern, rest assured that this belief would be self-fulfilling.
Abdullah should ponder the fate of another leader who was consumed
with filling in the rice pots of his family members. Suharto’s
downfall was ugly for him, as well as for his family and Indonesia.
Abdullah hides behind accusing his critics of fitnah, a particularly
sinister term replete with profound religious implications. That is
just a case of yet another rouge politician seeking subterfuge behind
religion.
Being intellectually lazy, Abdullah conveniently cocoons himself and
is thus shielded from the harsh realities. There he was a few months
ago rationalizing that he was just “warming up!” Now he pronounces
himself satisfied with his performance! It sure does not take much to
make him satisfied, the smug satisfaction of low expectation.
The Curious Silence of Many
Abdullah is impervious to the plight of the poor devastated by his
recent reduction of oil subsidy. The demands by civil servants for a
40 percent pay hike reflect the general increasing cost and declining
standard of living.
Gone are his promises of open tenders and competitive biddings. Mega
projects like the second Penang link and the new palace are being
awarded without much discussion or formal tender processes. He has yet
to deny disbursing RM600 million to UMNO operatives at the recent
General Assembly, the most obscene and expensive display of money
politics. Six months after the cancellation of the crooked bridge in
Johore and there is still no full accounting of the total costs,
including the hefty penalty payments. He spent hundreds of millions on
the Monsoon Cup for a sporting event that hardly registered on the
Malaysian consciousness.
The self-serving behaviors of his advisors ensconced on the infamous
“fourth floor” of the Prime Minister’s Office are understandable; their
very positions depend on their ability to humor the old man. As for
his family members, there is the traditional Asian filial loyalty: the
father being always right, the son (or son-in-law) always the prince.
That will never change with Malays, Oxbridge education notwithstanding.
As for the others, there is the residuum of feudal Malay culture: the
sultan is always right, challenge him at your peril. Classical Malay
literature is replete with heroes presumed to be derhaka (and suffered
the fate) for daring to correct the wayward ways of their sultans.
Hang Tuah was only the most famous. Whatever the sultan wishes, he
gets, and more. Increasingly, Abdullah is behaving like a pseudo
sultan, minus of course the heritage or even regal charm.
It Takes More Than A Leader To Destroy A Nation
Thanks to the British colonial legacy, our nation is governed by laws
and institutions. Those laws and institutions however, are premised on
having competent and honorable leaders and individuals to serve them.
With the corrupt and the incompetent, even the best laws would
eventually be circumvented, and robust institutions eroded.
Abdullah alone could not destroy Malaysia; his lack of engagement is
perversely an assurance of that. His lack of diligence and attention
however could by default let others ruin the country. If that were to
happen, the blame must then be equally borne by his advisors,
ministers, and senior politicians, pundits, and public servants. They
let it happen.
There are men of integrity in Abdullah’s cabinet (not many), but they
have remained curiously silent. They are either putting their careers
ahead of the fate of the nation, or they condone Abdullah’s shenanigans
and incompetence. Or both. We look forlornly for a local Robin Cook
or Paul O’Neill in Abdullah’s cabinet, men who willingly gave up their
cabinet positions to impress their conviction on their wayward leader.
More recently, a bipartisan group of distinguished retired Americans
told their president publicly and in no uncertain terms that his Iraq
policy is deeply flawed.
As UMNO President, Abdullah is answerable to its members. Judging from
their collective behaviors at the party’s recent General Assembly, do
not expect them to provide responsible checks and balances.
If ministers and UMNO members cannot provide the necessary oversight,
then surely there is the UMNO Supreme Council. Their members, except
for the few appointed by Abdullah and thus beholden to him, are elected
by the membership. Thus we would expect them to be independent. Yet
they too have remained curiously silent.
As we look at the roster of distinguished Malaysians who are now
retired, we are humbled by their accomplishments and contributions in
academia, the professions, and public service. They too are silent.
If they agree with the direction the nation is headed, they should
voice their support so as to encourage the leadership to do more of the
same. If they disagree, then they owe it to their fellow citizens to
voice their concerns. Surely the whole country has not suddenly been
gripped by mediocrity and low expectations. We cannot find any other
explanation for this curious but far from elegant silence.
An African proverb has it that it takes a village to raise a child.
Likewise, it would take more than just a leader to destroy a country.
Saddam could not ruin Iraq without those “enablers” around him. They
too must bore the blame.
When reality strikes and Malaysians find ourselves in an abyss, yes, we
will blame Abdullah. We must also pour our wrath on those others
complicit: his ministers, pundits, and intellectuals now singing his
praise. That ought to make them pause and examine their stance; to
have the courage to impress upon Abdullah of this reality before voters
deliver their verdict in the next general elections.
Abdullah’s self-admitted poor time management is not an acceptable
excuse. His frequent and obvious inattention and dozing off should not
be tolerated. If the burden of the office is too much for Abdullah,
his advisors, ministers, and senior UMNO politicians owe it to the
nation to tell the man to give it up and let others more capable take
the helm.
This is not the time to be nice to any one individual; it is a time to
be nice and considerate to all Malaysians and to worry about their pot
of rice. To remain competitive, Malaysians, leaders and followers
alike, must work hard and smart. Malaysia does not need nor should she
tolerate sleepy heads.
Malaysiakini Dec 21, 2006
Pak Lah, Worry About the Rakyats’ Rice Bowl Instead
Co-written with Din Merican
Editorial lead: This is not the time to be nice to any individual. It
is time to be nice to ALL Malaysians and worry about their pots of rice.
As he enters his fourth year as Prime Minister, Abdullah Badawi still
does not get it! He is concerned with his son-in-law’s pot of rice,
not that of the rakyats’. Since he cannot brag about the nation’s
economic achievements under his leadership, he is reduced to boasting
of his son’s wealth. There is no glory if his son (and son-in-law)
were rich but the nation poor.
Someone ought to tell him that he was elected to lead Malaysia, not to
take care of the well being of his grown-up family, its friends and
cronies. His advisers and family members have convinced him that those
critics are out to bring him down. If Abdullah persists with his
present pattern, rest assured that this belief would be self-fulfilling.
Abdullah should ponder the fate of another leader who was consumed
with filling in the rice pots of his family members. Suharto’s
downfall was ugly for him, as well as for his family and Indonesia.
Abdullah hides behind accusing his critics of fitnah, a particularly
sinister term replete with profound religious implications. That is
just a case of yet another rouge politician seeking subterfuge behind
religion.
Being intellectually lazy, Abdullah conveniently cocoons himself and
is thus shielded from the harsh realities. There he was a few months
ago rationalizing that he was just “warming up!” Now he pronounces
himself satisfied with his performance! It sure does not take much to
make him satisfied, the smug satisfaction of low expectation.
The Curious Silence of Many
Abdullah is impervious to the plight of the poor devastated by his
recent reduction of oil subsidy. The demands by civil servants for a
40 percent pay hike reflect the general increasing cost and declining
standard of living.
Gone are his promises of open tenders and competitive biddings. Mega
projects like the second Penang link and the new palace are being
awarded without much discussion or formal tender processes. He has yet
to deny disbursing RM600 million to UMNO operatives at the recent
General Assembly, the most obscene and expensive display of money
politics. Six months after the cancellation of the crooked bridge in
Johore and there is still no full accounting of the total costs,
including the hefty penalty payments. He spent hundreds of millions on
the Monsoon Cup for a sporting event that hardly registered on the
Malaysian consciousness.
The self-serving behaviors of his advisors ensconced on the infamous
“fourth floor” of the Prime Minister’s Office are understandable; their
very positions depend on their ability to humor the old man. As for
his family members, there is the traditional Asian filial loyalty: the
father being always right, the son (or son-in-law) always the prince.
That will never change with Malays, Oxbridge education notwithstanding.
As for the others, there is the residuum of feudal Malay culture: the
sultan is always right, challenge him at your peril. Classical Malay
literature is replete with heroes presumed to be derhaka (and suffered
the fate) for daring to correct the wayward ways of their sultans.
Hang Tuah was only the most famous. Whatever the sultan wishes, he
gets, and more. Increasingly, Abdullah is behaving like a pseudo
sultan, minus of course the heritage or even regal charm.
It Takes More Than A Leader To Destroy A Nation
Thanks to the British colonial legacy, our nation is governed by laws
and institutions. Those laws and institutions however, are premised on
having competent and honorable leaders and individuals to serve them.
With the corrupt and the incompetent, even the best laws would
eventually be circumvented, and robust institutions eroded.
Abdullah alone could not destroy Malaysia; his lack of engagement is
perversely an assurance of that. His lack of diligence and attention
however could by default let others ruin the country. If that were to
happen, the blame must then be equally borne by his advisors,
ministers, and senior politicians, pundits, and public servants. They
let it happen.
There are men of integrity in Abdullah’s cabinet (not many), but they
have remained curiously silent. They are either putting their careers
ahead of the fate of the nation, or they condone Abdullah’s shenanigans
and incompetence. Or both. We look forlornly for a local Robin Cook
or Paul O’Neill in Abdullah’s cabinet, men who willingly gave up their
cabinet positions to impress their conviction on their wayward leader.
More recently, a bipartisan group of distinguished retired Americans
told their president publicly and in no uncertain terms that his Iraq
policy is deeply flawed.
As UMNO President, Abdullah is answerable to its members. Judging from
their collective behaviors at the party’s recent General Assembly, do
not expect them to provide responsible checks and balances.
If ministers and UMNO members cannot provide the necessary oversight,
then surely there is the UMNO Supreme Council. Their members, except
for the few appointed by Abdullah and thus beholden to him, are elected
by the membership. Thus we would expect them to be independent. Yet
they too have remained curiously silent.
As we look at the roster of distinguished Malaysians who are now
retired, we are humbled by their accomplishments and contributions in
academia, the professions, and public service. They too are silent.
If they agree with the direction the nation is headed, they should
voice their support so as to encourage the leadership to do more of the
same. If they disagree, then they owe it to their fellow citizens to
voice their concerns. Surely the whole country has not suddenly been
gripped by mediocrity and low expectations. We cannot find any other
explanation for this curious but far from elegant silence.
An African proverb has it that it takes a village to raise a child.
Likewise, it would take more than just a leader to destroy a country.
Saddam could not ruin Iraq without those “enablers” around him. They
too must bore the blame.
When reality strikes and Malaysians find ourselves in an abyss, yes, we
will blame Abdullah. We must also pour our wrath on those others
complicit: his ministers, pundits, and intellectuals now singing his
praise. That ought to make them pause and examine their stance; to
have the courage to impress upon Abdullah of this reality before voters
deliver their verdict in the next general elections.
Abdullah’s self-admitted poor time management is not an acceptable
excuse. His frequent and obvious inattention and dozing off should not
be tolerated. If the burden of the office is too much for Abdullah,
his advisors, ministers, and senior UMNO politicians owe it to the
nation to tell the man to give it up and let others more capable take
the helm.
This is not the time to be nice to any one individual; it is a time to
be nice and considerate to all Malaysians and to worry about their pot
of rice. To remain competitive, Malaysians, leaders and followers
alike, must work hard and smart. Malaysia does not need nor should she
tolerate sleepy heads.
Europe is not the sum of its parts
Europe is not the sum of its parts
By Spengler
Apropos of the debate over a European constitution, it should be
remembered that Europe did not arise as an agglomeration of nations.
On the contrary, Europe existed before any of its constituent
nations, and the unified Europe of Church and Empire created the
nations along with their languages and cultures. As individual
nations, Europe's constituent countries will die on the vine.
That, sadly, is the way things are headed. Europe's leaders on
Thursday announced another tilt at a European constitution, after the
rejection of a first draft in French and Dutch referenda in 2005. The
prospect of an all-powerful entity in Brussels, less accountable to
voters than national governments, continues to provoke sufficient
revulsion that the European summit eschewed the word "constitution"
in favor of the euphemism "institutional settlement".
Pope Benedict XVI raised hackles by insisting that the European
constitution make reference to the Christian heritage of the
continent, not only among European secularists, especially the
government of France, but also of course in Turkey, a Muslim country
that aspires to European Community (EC) membership. In fact, Benedict
could have put the matter even more forcefully. There is no reason
for Europeans to adopt a secular constitution. Absent the Christian
mission that created Europe, the destinies will diverge of the
European peoples, to the extent that no common policy will be
perceived as fair and just.
Hilaire Belloc's famous quip - "Europe is the faith, the faith is
Europe" - was precisely correct. Europe came into being before a
single Frenchmen or German was born, at the crowning of Charlemagne
as Holy Roman emperor in AD 800. Voltaire was only partly correct -
the Holy Roman Empire was neither Roman nor an empire, but it was
holy. European monarchs donned the robes of ancient Rome like small
children playing dress-up, and the power of their emperors was more
symbolic than real. But the unifying concept of Christendom is what
made it possible to create nations out of the detritus of Rome and
the rabble of invading barbarians.
Why do European nations exist in opposition to Europe? That fact, I
believe, is not a measure of Europe's political maturity but rather
of its decadence. The German language in its modern form was born at
the court of Emperor Charles IV at Prague, when Teutonic grammar was
standardized on the Latin mold. Dante Latinized his local Tuscan
dialect to create an "eloquent vulgate". The Catholic monarchs
imposed the Castilian language on the fractious Iberian tribes,
without complete success, as the survival of philological relics such
as Catalan and Galician makes clear.
Why is there a Germany, and not merely a Brandenburg, Bavaria,
Franconia, Swabia and Hanseatic League? Why is there a Spain, and not
merely a Navarra, Andalusia and Castile? It is because European
languages and European literature made possible a common discourse
within the great national divisions. Europe's common faith and the
institutions that supported it created this common culture as an
expedient for worship and administration. Europe is the faith, for
the faith gave birth to Europe.
Under Church and Empire the nations owed fealty to a higher power by
virtue of the authority of faith. Its common language was Latin, and
its ultimate authority was pope rather than emperor. The empire was
weak, but it was holy, as a series of German emperors discovered when
they attempted to substitute their own secular power for the ultimate
authority of faith. Henry IV stood bareheaded in the snow for three
days waiting for Pope Gregory VII to reverse his excommunication in
1077; the Staufen dynasty came to a terrible end after its prolonged
war with the papacy in the second half of the 13th century. Without
the faith, Europe's civil society could not exist, and a challenger
to the authority of faith, no matter how powerful, ultimately must fail.
Nationalism as an antipode to Empire did not effervesce from the
rising bourgeoisie, or develop out of Protestantism. It was the
invention of Cardinal Richelieu during the reign of Louis XIII. As I
have reported elsewhere, [1] Richelieu for the first time proposed
that the welfare of Christendom could be represented in a single
European nation, whose particular interests thus defined the
interests of the Christian world. In that spirit Richelieu kept the
Thirty Years' War raging until half the population of central Europe
was dead.
Europe's nationalism of the 19th century was a response to France,
specifically to Richelieu's successor Napoleon Bonaparte. One can
trace the roots of nationalism to Romantic interest in the songs and
stories of the European peoples, to Johann Herder and Johann Fichte
and so forth - but it should be remembered that the "Romantics" took
their name from Rome. Their object was to renew the medieval Church.
When Napoleon invaded the rest of Europe with a mass popular army,
the other nations of Europe responded by creating mass armies. German
nationalism was born at the Battle of Leipzig in 1813, when all
Germany stood on the same field for the first time since the Thirty
Years' War - but this time on grounds of sovereignty, not religion.
Ethnically defined nationalism led Europe into World Wars I and II,
from which it has not recovered, and from whose wounds it yet might
die. Europe's secular nationalism stands in contrast to popular
sovereignty on a Christian foundation in the United States - but it
was not just "the people", but what Abraham Lincoln called an "almost-
chosen people" that made this possible.
For reasons I have detailed elsewhere, I believe that the European
concept of universal empire was doomed to failure. [2] But I have
certain sympathy for those who defended it against Richelieu's
alternative. European is a tragedy in which all the protagonists
deserve a measure of sympathy, for they are all too human - in this
respect I have a sympathy for the human predicament of Muslims, as
well. In Hamlet or Wallenstein, one does not hiss at the villain and
cheer at the hero, but rather tries to strike the right balance of
empathy and detachment. I have no sympathy for Richelieu, but rather
a grudging admiration. His long duel with his Spanish counterpart,
the Count-Duke of Olivares, was the ultimate exercise in cunning
applied to modern statesmanship.
As secular entities, the nations of Europe will go their separate
ways to perdition. As their demographics shift, they will fall one by
one to Muslim majorities.
Even as a practical matter in the relative short term, a European
government cannot work. Consider a simple example: Only 15% of
Germany's population is at the age of household formation, and real
housing prices have fallen by 2% during the past 10 years. By
contrast, 23% of Ireland's population is at the age of household
formation, and real home prices have risen by about 15% in the past
10 years, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development. The OECD shows that there is a trend line across its
member states between these two variables. Demographics are
significant for home prices, although other factors are important.
Now, suppose the EC should consider subsidies to families with young
children to purchase homes. In effect it will tax Germans to support
Irishmen. Or suppose it should consider a wealth tax to support
pensions - in that case it

would tax the capital gains on the homes of Irishmen to support Germans.
The US constitution must deal with such regional problems
continuously, but they are easily solved through free movement of
people through the country. Even with mobility of labor it is much
harder for a German to become an Irishman than for a Hoosier to
become a Tar Heel (ie, move from Indiana to North Carolina).
To recapture Europe means re-creating the faith. It is hard to
imagine that the Roman Catholic Church might re-emerge as Europe's
defining institution. The European Church is enervated. But I do not
think that is the end of the matter. As I argued last month, Russia
has become the frontier between Europe and the Islamic world and,
unlike Europe, is not prepared to dissolve quietly into the ummah.
[3] Pope Benedict's recent pilgrimage to Turkey, it must be
remembered, only incidentally dealt with Catholic relations with
Islam; first of all it was a gesture to Orthodoxy in the form of a
visit to the former Byzantium, its spiritual home.
Franz Rosenzweig, that most Jewish connoisseur of Christianity,
believed that the Church of Peter (Rome) and the Church of Paul
(Protestantism) would yield place to the Church of John (Orthodoxy) -
that the churches of works and faith would be transcended by the
church of love. If Europe has a future, it lies in an ecumenical
alliance of Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and at least some elements of
Anglicanism.
For the time being, Europe's constitution will be stillborn. But
Europe is not yet dead. Russia is the place to watch, and the quiet
conversation of Catholicism is the still, small voice to listen for.
Notes
1. The sacred heart of darkness, Asia Times Online, February 11, 2003.
2. Why Europe chooses extinction, ATol, April 8, 2003, and The Laach
Maria monster, ATol, June 1, 2005.
3. Russia's hudna with the Muslim world, ATol, February 21.
(Copyright 2007 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
By Spengler
Apropos of the debate over a European constitution, it should be
remembered that Europe did not arise as an agglomeration of nations.
On the contrary, Europe existed before any of its constituent
nations, and the unified Europe of Church and Empire created the
nations along with their languages and cultures. As individual
nations, Europe's constituent countries will die on the vine.
That, sadly, is the way things are headed. Europe's leaders on
Thursday announced another tilt at a European constitution, after the
rejection of a first draft in French and Dutch referenda in 2005. The
prospect of an all-powerful entity in Brussels, less accountable to
voters than national governments, continues to provoke sufficient
revulsion that the European summit eschewed the word "constitution"
in favor of the euphemism "institutional settlement".
Pope Benedict XVI raised hackles by insisting that the European
constitution make reference to the Christian heritage of the
continent, not only among European secularists, especially the
government of France, but also of course in Turkey, a Muslim country
that aspires to European Community (EC) membership. In fact, Benedict
could have put the matter even more forcefully. There is no reason
for Europeans to adopt a secular constitution. Absent the Christian
mission that created Europe, the destinies will diverge of the
European peoples, to the extent that no common policy will be
perceived as fair and just.
Hilaire Belloc's famous quip - "Europe is the faith, the faith is
Europe" - was precisely correct. Europe came into being before a
single Frenchmen or German was born, at the crowning of Charlemagne
as Holy Roman emperor in AD 800. Voltaire was only partly correct -
the Holy Roman Empire was neither Roman nor an empire, but it was
holy. European monarchs donned the robes of ancient Rome like small
children playing dress-up, and the power of their emperors was more
symbolic than real. But the unifying concept of Christendom is what
made it possible to create nations out of the detritus of Rome and
the rabble of invading barbarians.
Why do European nations exist in opposition to Europe? That fact, I
believe, is not a measure of Europe's political maturity but rather
of its decadence. The German language in its modern form was born at
the court of Emperor Charles IV at Prague, when Teutonic grammar was
standardized on the Latin mold. Dante Latinized his local Tuscan
dialect to create an "eloquent vulgate". The Catholic monarchs
imposed the Castilian language on the fractious Iberian tribes,
without complete success, as the survival of philological relics such
as Catalan and Galician makes clear.
Why is there a Germany, and not merely a Brandenburg, Bavaria,
Franconia, Swabia and Hanseatic League? Why is there a Spain, and not
merely a Navarra, Andalusia and Castile? It is because European
languages and European literature made possible a common discourse
within the great national divisions. Europe's common faith and the
institutions that supported it created this common culture as an
expedient for worship and administration. Europe is the faith, for
the faith gave birth to Europe.
Under Church and Empire the nations owed fealty to a higher power by
virtue of the authority of faith. Its common language was Latin, and
its ultimate authority was pope rather than emperor. The empire was
weak, but it was holy, as a series of German emperors discovered when
they attempted to substitute their own secular power for the ultimate
authority of faith. Henry IV stood bareheaded in the snow for three
days waiting for Pope Gregory VII to reverse his excommunication in
1077; the Staufen dynasty came to a terrible end after its prolonged
war with the papacy in the second half of the 13th century. Without
the faith, Europe's civil society could not exist, and a challenger
to the authority of faith, no matter how powerful, ultimately must fail.
Nationalism as an antipode to Empire did not effervesce from the
rising bourgeoisie, or develop out of Protestantism. It was the
invention of Cardinal Richelieu during the reign of Louis XIII. As I
have reported elsewhere, [1] Richelieu for the first time proposed
that the welfare of Christendom could be represented in a single
European nation, whose particular interests thus defined the
interests of the Christian world. In that spirit Richelieu kept the
Thirty Years' War raging until half the population of central Europe
was dead.
Europe's nationalism of the 19th century was a response to France,
specifically to Richelieu's successor Napoleon Bonaparte. One can
trace the roots of nationalism to Romantic interest in the songs and
stories of the European peoples, to Johann Herder and Johann Fichte
and so forth - but it should be remembered that the "Romantics" took
their name from Rome. Their object was to renew the medieval Church.
When Napoleon invaded the rest of Europe with a mass popular army,
the other nations of Europe responded by creating mass armies. German
nationalism was born at the Battle of Leipzig in 1813, when all
Germany stood on the same field for the first time since the Thirty
Years' War - but this time on grounds of sovereignty, not religion.
Ethnically defined nationalism led Europe into World Wars I and II,
from which it has not recovered, and from whose wounds it yet might
die. Europe's secular nationalism stands in contrast to popular
sovereignty on a Christian foundation in the United States - but it
was not just "the people", but what Abraham Lincoln called an "almost-
chosen people" that made this possible.
For reasons I have detailed elsewhere, I believe that the European
concept of universal empire was doomed to failure. [2] But I have
certain sympathy for those who defended it against Richelieu's
alternative. European is a tragedy in which all the protagonists
deserve a measure of sympathy, for they are all too human - in this
respect I have a sympathy for the human predicament of Muslims, as
well. In Hamlet or Wallenstein, one does not hiss at the villain and
cheer at the hero, but rather tries to strike the right balance of
empathy and detachment. I have no sympathy for Richelieu, but rather
a grudging admiration. His long duel with his Spanish counterpart,
the Count-Duke of Olivares, was the ultimate exercise in cunning
applied to modern statesmanship.
As secular entities, the nations of Europe will go their separate
ways to perdition. As their demographics shift, they will fall one by
one to Muslim majorities.
Even as a practical matter in the relative short term, a European
government cannot work. Consider a simple example: Only 15% of
Germany's population is at the age of household formation, and real
housing prices have fallen by 2% during the past 10 years. By
contrast, 23% of Ireland's population is at the age of household
formation, and real home prices have risen by about 15% in the past
10 years, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development. The OECD shows that there is a trend line across its
member states between these two variables. Demographics are
significant for home prices, although other factors are important.
Now, suppose the EC should consider subsidies to families with young
children to purchase homes. In effect it will tax Germans to support
Irishmen. Or suppose it should consider a wealth tax to support
pensions - in that case it

would tax the capital gains on the homes of Irishmen to support Germans.
The US constitution must deal with such regional problems
continuously, but they are easily solved through free movement of
people through the country. Even with mobility of labor it is much
harder for a German to become an Irishman than for a Hoosier to
become a Tar Heel (ie, move from Indiana to North Carolina).
To recapture Europe means re-creating the faith. It is hard to
imagine that the Roman Catholic Church might re-emerge as Europe's
defining institution. The European Church is enervated. But I do not
think that is the end of the matter. As I argued last month, Russia
has become the frontier between Europe and the Islamic world and,
unlike Europe, is not prepared to dissolve quietly into the ummah.
[3] Pope Benedict's recent pilgrimage to Turkey, it must be
remembered, only incidentally dealt with Catholic relations with
Islam; first of all it was a gesture to Orthodoxy in the form of a
visit to the former Byzantium, its spiritual home.
Franz Rosenzweig, that most Jewish connoisseur of Christianity,
believed that the Church of Peter (Rome) and the Church of Paul
(Protestantism) would yield place to the Church of John (Orthodoxy) -
that the churches of works and faith would be transcended by the
church of love. If Europe has a future, it lies in an ecumenical
alliance of Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and at least some elements of
Anglicanism.
For the time being, Europe's constitution will be stillborn. But
Europe is not yet dead. Russia is the place to watch, and the quiet
conversation of Catholicism is the still, small voice to listen for.
Notes
1. The sacred heart of darkness, Asia Times Online, February 11, 2003.
2. Why Europe chooses extinction, ATol, April 8, 2003, and The Laach
Maria monster, ATol, June 1, 2005.
3. Russia's hudna with the Muslim world, ATol, February 21.
(Copyright 2007 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
PAS kini melangkah di tengah kota
Setelah lebih 20 tahun di Melewar, PAS kini melangkah di tengah kota
Roy Rasul
Mon Mar 12, 07 03:41:37 PM
Terlebih dulu diucapkan setinggi tahniah di atas kejayaan PAS memiliki ibu pejabat barunya yang terletak di No, 318A Jalan Raja Laut, Kuala Lumpur.
Pejabat setinggi lima tingkat itu dikenali sebagai Pejabat Agung PAS yang mula beroperasi pada 1 Mac lalu.
Sekaligus juga ibu pejabat PAS atau lebih dikenali sebagai Markas Tarbiyah PAS, di Taman Melewar, Gombak ditinggalkan dengan seribu kenangan setelah lebih 20 tahun beroperasi.!
Lama juga rupanya Taman Melewar melakari lanskap politik PAS yang boleh disifatkan sebagai politik kontemporari Malaysia.
Sebab itu, sebut saja Taman Melewar, automatik dalam minda 'terset' perkataan PAS. Begitulah betapa hebatnya Markas Tarbiyah PAS.
Ibu pejabat PAS 'sepelaung' dari PWTC
Agak menarik juga, dalam diam tak diam ibu pejabat PAS yang baru ini boleh dikatakan berada 'sepelaung' dengan Pusat Dagangan Dunia Putra (PWTC), di mana terletakkan ibu pejabat Umno.
Bak kata seorang rakan, senang sikit sama ada PAS atau Umno pasang teropong untuk 'menghidu' rahsia masing-masing.
Itu mengenai pesekitaran hadapan bangunan PAS sekarang yang sebelum ini adalah cawangan RHB Bank.
Bagaimanapun bertapaknya pejabat PAS di situ rasanya ada yang perasan dan ada yang tidak bahawa di belakang bangunan itu merupakan 'lubuk maksiat'.
Sebab itu semasa penulis dan beberapa rakan pejabat, Wan Nordin, Saadon dan Wan Zahari ditugas membuat 'assignment' di ibu pejabat baru itu minggu lalu, hati kami terus terdetik..."eh....ini tempat maksiat’!'
Perkataan itu yang tersembur tanpa disedari dari mulut kami berempat sebaik saja memasuki sebuah tempat parking yang tidak jauh dari kawasan berkenaan.
Dalam langkahan yang diatur mata kami berempat tercuri-curi memerhati di persekitaran itu. Seram juga silap-silap haribulan terpandang kelibat-kelibat yang menyesakkan mata.
Mulutku bagai terkunci, kerana seingat aku kawasan ini dikenali sebagai Lorong Haji Taib.
Satu lembah yang ‘top’ dengan pelb! agai cerita, bapa ayam, mak ayam, anak ayam kampung, mak nyah, mat lalok, mat gian dalam kata lain tempat ‘jual orang’.
Ia adalah kawasan Chow Kit yang juga disebut kawasan murahan. Kerana ia cukup sinonim dengan permasalahan sosial dan gejala negatif terutama sekitar lorong ini.
'Anak ayam kampung'
Dalam kejauhan fikiranku melayang. Tiba-tiba nostalgia di zaman aku mula berjinak dengan gelanggang kewartawanan atau pun pemberita kadet sekitar pertengahan 80-an dulu.
Masa itu aku baru bekerja di Majalah Alam Wanita terbitan Pustaka Antara, yang terletak di Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman. Tidak jauh dari situ.
Aku disapa oleh rakanku yang bernama Ajis yang bekerja sebagai 'Lay-out Artis'.
'Roy kau tak nak cover story kat depan office kita ni ke, tadi aku nampak 'anak ayam kampung' baru sampai, cun dan bergetah habis.’
Aku merenung tajam ke mukanya yang tersengeh dan tidak berkata apa-apa. Sesungguhnya aku kurang mengerti maksudnya.
Dengan tersipu-sipu pintu biliknya ditutup mungkin beliau perasan aku kurang berminat dengan bab yang dicakapnya.
Keesokan paginya baru Ajis bercerita panjang denganku. Barulah aku faham rupanya 'anak ayam kampung itu adalah anak gadis kampung yang jahil dengan selok-belok Kuala Lumpur.
Simpati aku tidak terkata mengenangkan nasib anak gadis yang masih suci, sesuci ibu dan ayahnya membelai dan menjaganya dengan pernah kemuliaan.
Tetapi dalam sekelip mata menjejaki kaki di Lorong Haji Taib, kesuciannya dinoda dan terus ternoda.
Setelah terpalit dengan noda hitam itu akhirnya bermastautin sehingga bergelar pelacur tua di situ.
Kini tugas PAS untuk memutihkan kembali Lorong Haji Taib
Di situlah definisi Kuala Lumpur, bukanlah di Sri Hartamas ataupun Bangsar. Bukan juga Mid Valley atau One Utama dan KLCC tetapi Chow Kit.
Walaupun berdekatan dengan kawasan 'kurang elok' dan menyimpan banyak rahsia tentang Kuala Lumpur tetapi ‘Lorong Haji Taib’ tidak siapa yang peduli.
Malah ia dianggap sebagai tempat keji lagi hina.
Di persekitaran Pejabat baru PAS itu letaknya 'red light district' ibu kota tersayang kita.
Satu rahsia yang aku rasa bukan rahsia lagi. Diketahui umum tetapi tidak diperkatakan.
Satu hipokrasi yang telah lama sebati di dalam diri kita sebagai warga kota.
Tetapi yang peliknya mengapa dibiarkan maksiat terus bertakung di situ sedangkan lebih dua dekad Umno yang kononnya mempejuangan agama dan bangsa berdiri megah 'sejengkal' dari situ.
Nah! Sekarang ini PAS boleh membuka mata dan terus dengan misinya bahawa pindahnya mereka ke sana bukan setakat Parti Islam Semalaysia tetapi parti untuk semua masyarakat.
Ayuh di tanganmu, PAS yang diterajui Presiden Dato’ Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, kami rakyat marhain menaruh segunung harapan untuk memutih kawasan yang dipenuhi titik-titik hitam itu.
Kami tidak mahu lagi khasya anak Melayu Islam berkubang dan terus bernanah dengan barah yang membusung sehingga tidak lagi menjadi insan yang dikehendaki agama.
Mudah-mudahan dengan hadirnya PAS di situ, Lorong Haji Taib menjadi pusat pentarbiahan dan nur syiar Islam bergelapan di situ.
Roy Rasul
Mon Mar 12, 07 03:41:37 PM
Terlebih dulu diucapkan setinggi tahniah di atas kejayaan PAS memiliki ibu pejabat barunya yang terletak di No, 318A Jalan Raja Laut, Kuala Lumpur.
Pejabat setinggi lima tingkat itu dikenali sebagai Pejabat Agung PAS yang mula beroperasi pada 1 Mac lalu.
Sekaligus juga ibu pejabat PAS atau lebih dikenali sebagai Markas Tarbiyah PAS, di Taman Melewar, Gombak ditinggalkan dengan seribu kenangan setelah lebih 20 tahun beroperasi.!
Lama juga rupanya Taman Melewar melakari lanskap politik PAS yang boleh disifatkan sebagai politik kontemporari Malaysia.
Sebab itu, sebut saja Taman Melewar, automatik dalam minda 'terset' perkataan PAS. Begitulah betapa hebatnya Markas Tarbiyah PAS.
Ibu pejabat PAS 'sepelaung' dari PWTC
Agak menarik juga, dalam diam tak diam ibu pejabat PAS yang baru ini boleh dikatakan berada 'sepelaung' dengan Pusat Dagangan Dunia Putra (PWTC), di mana terletakkan ibu pejabat Umno.
Bak kata seorang rakan, senang sikit sama ada PAS atau Umno pasang teropong untuk 'menghidu' rahsia masing-masing.
Itu mengenai pesekitaran hadapan bangunan PAS sekarang yang sebelum ini adalah cawangan RHB Bank.
Bagaimanapun bertapaknya pejabat PAS di situ rasanya ada yang perasan dan ada yang tidak bahawa di belakang bangunan itu merupakan 'lubuk maksiat'.
Sebab itu semasa penulis dan beberapa rakan pejabat, Wan Nordin, Saadon dan Wan Zahari ditugas membuat 'assignment' di ibu pejabat baru itu minggu lalu, hati kami terus terdetik..."eh....ini tempat maksiat’!'
Perkataan itu yang tersembur tanpa disedari dari mulut kami berempat sebaik saja memasuki sebuah tempat parking yang tidak jauh dari kawasan berkenaan.
Dalam langkahan yang diatur mata kami berempat tercuri-curi memerhati di persekitaran itu. Seram juga silap-silap haribulan terpandang kelibat-kelibat yang menyesakkan mata.
Mulutku bagai terkunci, kerana seingat aku kawasan ini dikenali sebagai Lorong Haji Taib.
Satu lembah yang ‘top’ dengan pelb! agai cerita, bapa ayam, mak ayam, anak ayam kampung, mak nyah, mat lalok, mat gian dalam kata lain tempat ‘jual orang’.
Ia adalah kawasan Chow Kit yang juga disebut kawasan murahan. Kerana ia cukup sinonim dengan permasalahan sosial dan gejala negatif terutama sekitar lorong ini.
'Anak ayam kampung'
Dalam kejauhan fikiranku melayang. Tiba-tiba nostalgia di zaman aku mula berjinak dengan gelanggang kewartawanan atau pun pemberita kadet sekitar pertengahan 80-an dulu.
Masa itu aku baru bekerja di Majalah Alam Wanita terbitan Pustaka Antara, yang terletak di Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman. Tidak jauh dari situ.
Aku disapa oleh rakanku yang bernama Ajis yang bekerja sebagai 'Lay-out Artis'.
'Roy kau tak nak cover story kat depan office kita ni ke, tadi aku nampak 'anak ayam kampung' baru sampai, cun dan bergetah habis.’
Aku merenung tajam ke mukanya yang tersengeh dan tidak berkata apa-apa. Sesungguhnya aku kurang mengerti maksudnya.
Dengan tersipu-sipu pintu biliknya ditutup mungkin beliau perasan aku kurang berminat dengan bab yang dicakapnya.
Keesokan paginya baru Ajis bercerita panjang denganku. Barulah aku faham rupanya 'anak ayam kampung itu adalah anak gadis kampung yang jahil dengan selok-belok Kuala Lumpur.
Simpati aku tidak terkata mengenangkan nasib anak gadis yang masih suci, sesuci ibu dan ayahnya membelai dan menjaganya dengan pernah kemuliaan.
Tetapi dalam sekelip mata menjejaki kaki di Lorong Haji Taib, kesuciannya dinoda dan terus ternoda.
Setelah terpalit dengan noda hitam itu akhirnya bermastautin sehingga bergelar pelacur tua di situ.
Kini tugas PAS untuk memutihkan kembali Lorong Haji Taib
Di situlah definisi Kuala Lumpur, bukanlah di Sri Hartamas ataupun Bangsar. Bukan juga Mid Valley atau One Utama dan KLCC tetapi Chow Kit.
Walaupun berdekatan dengan kawasan 'kurang elok' dan menyimpan banyak rahsia tentang Kuala Lumpur tetapi ‘Lorong Haji Taib’ tidak siapa yang peduli.
Malah ia dianggap sebagai tempat keji lagi hina.
Di persekitaran Pejabat baru PAS itu letaknya 'red light district' ibu kota tersayang kita.
Satu rahsia yang aku rasa bukan rahsia lagi. Diketahui umum tetapi tidak diperkatakan.
Satu hipokrasi yang telah lama sebati di dalam diri kita sebagai warga kota.
Tetapi yang peliknya mengapa dibiarkan maksiat terus bertakung di situ sedangkan lebih dua dekad Umno yang kononnya mempejuangan agama dan bangsa berdiri megah 'sejengkal' dari situ.
Nah! Sekarang ini PAS boleh membuka mata dan terus dengan misinya bahawa pindahnya mereka ke sana bukan setakat Parti Islam Semalaysia tetapi parti untuk semua masyarakat.
Ayuh di tanganmu, PAS yang diterajui Presiden Dato’ Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, kami rakyat marhain menaruh segunung harapan untuk memutih kawasan yang dipenuhi titik-titik hitam itu.
Kami tidak mahu lagi khasya anak Melayu Islam berkubang dan terus bernanah dengan barah yang membusung sehingga tidak lagi menjadi insan yang dikehendaki agama.
Mudah-mudahan dengan hadirnya PAS di situ, Lorong Haji Taib menjadi pusat pentarbiahan dan nur syiar Islam bergelapan di situ.
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