(Malaysiakini) Kulim Bandar Baru MP Zulkifli Noordin blogged yesterday that all parties should say “Thank you for carrying out his responsibility as a Muslim” to Iskandar Fadeli, the senior assistant of St Thomas School, Kuching, who caned a 10-year-old boy.
In his posting headlined 'Sosej babi!', Zulkifli (left) blogged that any child of a Muslim is according to Islamic law also a Muslim [a question mark here pertaining to the Beginda boy, and reflective of the larger dilemma of conversion conflicts] and as such, the boy should not be packing pork sausages in his lunchbox. The boy's father is a native Sarawakian, Beginda anak Minda; Zulkifli claims that Beginda is a convert whose Muslim name is Nor Azman bin Abdullah.
Zulkifli has urged that the Islamic state authorities call up both parents as well as the boy to determine the child's religious status. Zulkifli wrote that he disagrees with the contention by DAP and PKR as well as a sprinkling of PAS MPs that the matter is not a religious issue. “Dah kalau ini bukan isu agama, isu apa lagi!” (If this is not a religious issue, what is it then!) he countered.
While the Education Ministry has been slow to get to the bottom of the affair, the Department of Islamic Development (Jakim) takes the episode far more seriously. Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nazri Aziz has announced that Jakim will be investigating Beginda.
Nonetheless, with vigilantes taking upon themselves the 'duty' as Muslims to morally police their neighbours and mete out arbitrary corporal punishment at personal discretion, and with the national preoccupation with the Muslim status of Malaysians, this country is on the verge of becoming a religious police state.
Halal religiosity borders fanaticism
In the earlier cases involving the principals of two schools in Kulaijaya and Bukit Selambau, DAP, when pressing for action to be taken against Siti Inshah Mansor and Ungku Aznan Ungku Ismail had labelled the duo 'racists'. However, DAP did not have the guts to accuse the principals of religious bigotry.
Racism and religious bigotry often overlap: Siti Inshah ordering the Hindu prayer strings of Indian students to be cut from their wrists, and Ungku Aznan berating non-Muslim students for eating during Ramadan, had undoubtedly displayed Islamist supremism.
With the boy who is a native Sarawakian though, he was more a victim of religious bigotry because his tormentor would not see him as belonging to the Si Mata Sepet or Si Kaki Botol communities.
The Pakatan politicians dreaming of Putrajaya while decrying racism nonetheless steadfastly refuse to acknowledge the 800lb gorilla in the room. Evidently, DAP has turned into an apologist for Ketuanan Islam.
As Hindraf chairman P Waythamoorthy (right) observed only recently, MCA and Gerakan have never bent over backwards [to Umno] to the extent DAP has done with its Islamist posturing to woo the PAS constituency.
I would add that MCA has been allied to Umno for over half a century, and Gerakan in Barisan close to four decades, whereas DAP and PAS have been together in the Pakatan coalition a mere two-and-a-half years. Comparatively, DAP is far and away the more malleable to voluntarily endorsing Islamism.
Waytha reckons that the pandering - “Lim Guan Eng claiming to take a leaf from a caliph and a DAP MP's wayang kulit of selendang-clad visits to suraus” - is to please PAS for the sake of Malay-Muslim votes.
HELEN ANG used to be a journalist. In future, she would like to be a practising cartoonist. But for the present, she is in the NGO circles and settling down to more serious writing and reading of social issues.
In his posting headlined 'Sosej babi!', Zulkifli (left) blogged that any child of a Muslim is according to Islamic law also a Muslim [a question mark here pertaining to the Beginda boy, and reflective of the larger dilemma of conversion conflicts] and as such, the boy should not be packing pork sausages in his lunchbox. The boy's father is a native Sarawakian, Beginda anak Minda; Zulkifli claims that Beginda is a convert whose Muslim name is Nor Azman bin Abdullah.Zulkifli has urged that the Islamic state authorities call up both parents as well as the boy to determine the child's religious status. Zulkifli wrote that he disagrees with the contention by DAP and PKR as well as a sprinkling of PAS MPs that the matter is not a religious issue. “Dah kalau ini bukan isu agama, isu apa lagi!” (If this is not a religious issue, what is it then!) he countered.
While the Education Ministry has been slow to get to the bottom of the affair, the Department of Islamic Development (Jakim) takes the episode far more seriously. Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nazri Aziz has announced that Jakim will be investigating Beginda.
Nonetheless, with vigilantes taking upon themselves the 'duty' as Muslims to morally police their neighbours and mete out arbitrary corporal punishment at personal discretion, and with the national preoccupation with the Muslim status of Malaysians, this country is on the verge of becoming a religious police state.
Halal religiosity borders fanaticism
In the earlier cases involving the principals of two schools in Kulaijaya and Bukit Selambau, DAP, when pressing for action to be taken against Siti Inshah Mansor and Ungku Aznan Ungku Ismail had labelled the duo 'racists'. However, DAP did not have the guts to accuse the principals of religious bigotry.
Racism and religious bigotry often overlap: Siti Inshah ordering the Hindu prayer strings of Indian students to be cut from their wrists, and Ungku Aznan berating non-Muslim students for eating during Ramadan, had undoubtedly displayed Islamist supremism.
With the boy who is a native Sarawakian though, he was more a victim of religious bigotry because his tormentor would not see him as belonging to the Si Mata Sepet or Si Kaki Botol communities.
The Pakatan politicians dreaming of Putrajaya while decrying racism nonetheless steadfastly refuse to acknowledge the 800lb gorilla in the room. Evidently, DAP has turned into an apologist for Ketuanan Islam.
As Hindraf chairman P Waythamoorthy (right) observed only recently, MCA and Gerakan have never bent over backwards [to Umno] to the extent DAP has done with its Islamist posturing to woo the PAS constituency. I would add that MCA has been allied to Umno for over half a century, and Gerakan in Barisan close to four decades, whereas DAP and PAS have been together in the Pakatan coalition a mere two-and-a-half years. Comparatively, DAP is far and away the more malleable to voluntarily endorsing Islamism.
Waytha reckons that the pandering - “Lim Guan Eng claiming to take a leaf from a caliph and a DAP MP's wayang kulit of selendang-clad visits to suraus” - is to please PAS for the sake of Malay-Muslim votes.
True enough, for we haven't seen Ng Yen Yen and her Wanita MCA predecessors over the last 50 years eagerly donning the selendang to go surau-hopping. Waytha forgot to mention, too, all the spouting of Quranic verses by DAP non-Muslim parliamentarians, and the DAP-led Penang government benchmarking itself on Islamic governance.
'Haram' also forbidden to nons
Iskandar, the school senior assistant who caned the Kuching pupil, had reportedly said the 'haram' issue is very sensitive among Muslims.
A controversial advertisement greeting aired during Deepavali that features a Muslim convert (who shouldn't even celebrate the Hindu festival) contained the same element of hyper sensitivity regarding haram food. It showed the convert's Muslim wife refusing to touch the meal served by her Indian in-laws.
Since the advert is produced by Filem Nasional (Finas), a government agency under the Information, Communication and Culture Ministry, the information that the 2:30-minute video clip imparts, the message it communicates and the culture it promotes reflect the national agenda.
'Haram' also forbidden to nons
Iskandar, the school senior assistant who caned the Kuching pupil, had reportedly said the 'haram' issue is very sensitive among Muslims.
A controversial advertisement greeting aired during Deepavali that features a Muslim convert (who shouldn't even celebrate the Hindu festival) contained the same element of hyper sensitivity regarding haram food. It showed the convert's Muslim wife refusing to touch the meal served by her Indian in-laws. Since the advert is produced by Filem Nasional (Finas), a government agency under the Information, Communication and Culture Ministry, the information that the 2:30-minute video clip imparts, the message it communicates and the culture it promotes reflect the national agenda.
Information: Muthu has converted and become a Mohd Something-or-other. Formerly 'anak lelaki' (let's assume a/l Muniandy), the man is now bin Abdullah - his biological father's name erased from his MyKad. For some, Indian parentage in the Land of 1Malaysian1st is dirt cheap and discarded for Arabism at the drop of a songkok.
Communication: The ad communicates the prevalent demographic trend; in the present instance, the birth of twin Muslim babies towards achieving our 70 million target population. The ad tagline is 'Biarpun berlainan agama, kita tetap keluarga' (Even though we're of different religions, we're still family). While the family of the parents are Hindu, the nuclear family of the son are Muslim - so there you have it, the much vaunted 'Change' that Pakatan followers are constantly clamouring for.
Culture: The Finas vignette does not celebrate Deepavali as it shows absolutely nothing of the religious, cultural or social aspects of the Festival of Lights. Instead it celebrates the ever expanding ummah; the concluding scene in the hospital room is the arrival of Muslim newborns. The different religions within a household unit touted by the tagline is a one-way street conversion to Islam; you won't hear them preaching “we're still family” should a Malay want to convert out of Islam. Instead they'd be invoking detention and ISA.
Given all the cheerleading for Islam by Umno, PAS, every single state institution you can think of, and as I've written before 'the third force in Islamisation' DAP, is it any wonder that this Melayu Baru (formerly Muthu) felt encouraged to ditch his religion of birth?
But he's in good company as some Penangites are keenly awaiting similar good news of their Chief Minister, what with the PAS khatibs earnestly praying in the mosques for this to happen.
Accelerating the Islamisation agenda
Pakatan and their supporters demand nothing less than unconditional, unquestioning support for the opposition cause and for effecting a regime change. Yet do we see DAP and its cohorts PKR and PAS doing any 'opposing' to gear down the Islamisation bulldozer?
Currently, Jamil Khir Baharom is Minister in the PM's Department in charge of religious affairs. Say Pakatan succeeds in taking over Putrajaya and Nasrudin Hassan at Tantawi assumes Jamil's cabinet post. Nasrudin, who is PAS Youth chief, is well-known for his public protests against the many, many things he and his party wing believe are 'unIslamic' and desire to be banned.
The Islamisation process can only intensify as DAP has shown itself wholly incapable of playing a role to check and balance, and furthermore dependent on PAS to rescue them like in the Teo Nie Ching episode.
What's fact is that DAP, since March 8, 2008, has equally set back the secular agenda with its appeasement of the Islamist juggernaut (call it positive reinforcement of Islamisation) as much as have the spineless BN component parties in capitulating to Umno's push of the Islam agenda (call it passive acquiescence to fait accompli).
Just this week alone, the Finas fiasco is a perfect example of Ketuanan Islam at work. Another is the unfolding drama dubbed 'Sosej babi!' viz the enforcement of pork-free zones.
Even if we were to change the faces in government, the system remains the same. Shared public space will be relentlessly cleansed of contaminants as the culprits remain in their jobs and the identical scheme of things continues to breed more Iskandar Fadelis, more Kong Kali Kong ustazes. Little Mullah Napoleons would still run all over the place and run the show.
Whether under a Barisan or Pakatan state government, Harussani Zakaria remains the Mufti of Perak. Tens of thousands of Islamic Studies graduates are absorbed into the civil service and these can be pro-Umno, pro-PAS (more likely) or non-aligned but working the will of Allah. Ketuanan Islam has gone beyond Umno and PAS.
DAP refuses to deal with the issues as religious bigotry or calling a spade a spade. We know why. At every turn, DAP challenges Umno and MCA (even when Chua Soi Lek was accurate in his critique of the general backwardness of Muslim countries today) but has not shown itself willing to challenge the system.
Communication: The ad communicates the prevalent demographic trend; in the present instance, the birth of twin Muslim babies towards achieving our 70 million target population. The ad tagline is 'Biarpun berlainan agama, kita tetap keluarga' (Even though we're of different religions, we're still family). While the family of the parents are Hindu, the nuclear family of the son are Muslim - so there you have it, the much vaunted 'Change' that Pakatan followers are constantly clamouring for.
Culture: The Finas vignette does not celebrate Deepavali as it shows absolutely nothing of the religious, cultural or social aspects of the Festival of Lights. Instead it celebrates the ever expanding ummah; the concluding scene in the hospital room is the arrival of Muslim newborns. The different religions within a household unit touted by the tagline is a one-way street conversion to Islam; you won't hear them preaching “we're still family” should a Malay want to convert out of Islam. Instead they'd be invoking detention and ISA.
Given all the cheerleading for Islam by Umno, PAS, every single state institution you can think of, and as I've written before 'the third force in Islamisation' DAP, is it any wonder that this Melayu Baru (formerly Muthu) felt encouraged to ditch his religion of birth?
But he's in good company as some Penangites are keenly awaiting similar good news of their Chief Minister, what with the PAS khatibs earnestly praying in the mosques for this to happen.
Accelerating the Islamisation agenda
Pakatan and their supporters demand nothing less than unconditional, unquestioning support for the opposition cause and for effecting a regime change. Yet do we see DAP and its cohorts PKR and PAS doing any 'opposing' to gear down the Islamisation bulldozer?
Currently, Jamil Khir Baharom is Minister in the PM's Department in charge of religious affairs. Say Pakatan succeeds in taking over Putrajaya and Nasrudin Hassan at Tantawi assumes Jamil's cabinet post. Nasrudin, who is PAS Youth chief, is well-known for his public protests against the many, many things he and his party wing believe are 'unIslamic' and desire to be banned.
The Islamisation process can only intensify as DAP has shown itself wholly incapable of playing a role to check and balance, and furthermore dependent on PAS to rescue them like in the Teo Nie Ching episode.
What's fact is that DAP, since March 8, 2008, has equally set back the secular agenda with its appeasement of the Islamist juggernaut (call it positive reinforcement of Islamisation) as much as have the spineless BN component parties in capitulating to Umno's push of the Islam agenda (call it passive acquiescence to fait accompli).
Just this week alone, the Finas fiasco is a perfect example of Ketuanan Islam at work. Another is the unfolding drama dubbed 'Sosej babi!' viz the enforcement of pork-free zones.
Even if we were to change the faces in government, the system remains the same. Shared public space will be relentlessly cleansed of contaminants as the culprits remain in their jobs and the identical scheme of things continues to breed more Iskandar Fadelis, more Kong Kali Kong ustazes. Little Mullah Napoleons would still run all over the place and run the show.
Whether under a Barisan or Pakatan state government, Harussani Zakaria remains the Mufti of Perak. Tens of thousands of Islamic Studies graduates are absorbed into the civil service and these can be pro-Umno, pro-PAS (more likely) or non-aligned but working the will of Allah. Ketuanan Islam has gone beyond Umno and PAS.
DAP refuses to deal with the issues as religious bigotry or calling a spade a spade. We know why. At every turn, DAP challenges Umno and MCA (even when Chua Soi Lek was accurate in his critique of the general backwardness of Muslim countries today) but has not shown itself willing to challenge the system.
HELEN ANG used to be a journalist. In future, she would like to be a practising cartoonist. But for the present, she is in the NGO circles and settling down to more serious writing and reading of social issues.
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