Taboo or not to be.

 For the Senior Cambridge Examination, Mrs Quah, - my very inspiring literature teacher -  instructed us to learn by heart, and to quote, various passages from Shakespeare's 'Hamlet'.   Here are the first four lines of one of them:

To be, or not to be, that is the question -
Whether 'tis Nobler in the mind to suffer
The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,

 According to Wiki,  the American-Muslim human rights activist Malcolm X or Malik El-Shabazz (1925-1965) quoted the above lines at a debate in Oxford (1963) about "extremism in defence of liberty".

Growing up in a Malay kampung in Singapore throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s,  we had a father who was worldly wise and street savvy about the world around him (and us).  He was fluent and knowledgeable in both his Malayness and the wider English language milieu that was present then in Singapore and in Malaya.  You would not describe him as "alim"  or  "warak".  His familiarity with  the Arabic language was limited to the ability to read the Quran.  He had  a Quran which also provided a Malay translation and when he was teaching us about 'Rukun Islam' and prayers he always wrote down the translation in English as well.  He wanted us to know the meaning and  the spirit of what we were reciting and doing.

I think  Akim and I were the most bolshie with our queries and I reckon we gave him a bit of a headache.  When Akim was in his early 20s  ( I was then 25),  I overheard him asking Abah:
"Abah, prove to me there's God."   Wow!!   I skedaddled away because this was really strong stuff coming from my very quiet and serious kid brother and I thought I'd better make myself scarce.  I regretted I did not hang around to hear my father's QED.  (QED is something you write when you have proven a theorem in Geometry).  It must have worked because Akim kept  his faith and I could see more strength and acceptance in him especially whenever he suffered his very frequent asthma attacks.

When I was teaching in Sekolah Menengah Yusof Ishak I found myself slowly but surely losing my patience with my Malay-Muslim colleagues (to be expected) and even my students.  When one of them complained to me that it was not 'halal' to buy hot drinks from the Chinese stall in the school canteen and that it was not 'right' to sit next to some one eating Chinese food,  I took a deep breath and said,
"Duit-duit  yang kamu pegang tu, tahu kah kamu jika apek jual babi yang telah  memegang-nya terlebih dahulu?   Dengan cikgu, cuba bincangkan lain perkara bersabit dengan cara membaiki latihan ilmu alam, ilmu hisab, mengaturkan jadual kerja sekolah sambil menolong emak di-rumah, dan bagaimana berjimat cermat dalam perbelanjaan  di-sekolah.  Cikgu perhatikan bagaimana murid-murid Cina tidak kesahkan apa jenis  kasut dan beg sekolah yang mereka gunakan, jelas pilihan mereka lebih murah dari pilihan murid Melayu!!  Satu lagi perkara,  berbanding dengan murid-murid Melayu, Cikgu jarang kali melihat murid-murid Cina merambu di tepi jalan selepas sekolah."

I saw a sea of mixed reactions: sheepish, resentful and approving.  AsH always seems to have this effect on people!!

In the midst of such an environment at work, I had to ask my Abah what's wrong with these Malays and Muslims?  Haven't they absorbed anything positive from their culture and their ugama?  He said, "There is nothing negative about our culture and ugama.  It all depends on the interpretation - on what we choose to select.  It's human nature to choose the easiest path and that choice is often based on irresponsibility.  Your choices can lead to good or bad and we are capable of both.  But remember in all your doings and thoughts you are only accountable to the One, to God.  There is no go-between, there is no excommunication in Islam - there's only you and God."

That advice abides with me from then till today and it has put me in good stead, guiding me through all my ups and downs

As Malays and Muslims -  though today the latter takes precedence - we are made aware of the various taboos, of the 'halal' and 'haram', of the 'dosa' and 'pahala',  from an early age.  These dichotomies seemed rational enough for us when we were growing up.  But today, I see my world being circumscribed and digitized by so many sets and sub-sets and binary applications of these rules that I might as well be living in a fishbowl instead of God's glorious and multi-faceted world.

As a consequence of these 'revelations'  and rulings I begin to wonder if  some aspects of my life would be deemed today as  'unacceptable' -  according to the interpretations of our clerics.

                                                           ***************

I have entered a Church, not once, but several times.  I have attended a Christmas Mass at Durham Cathedral with the spouse's Aunt Peggy in 1987.

When I was just 15, Mrs Darke. my Guide Captain came to our kampung house to ask my father's permission for me to attend a Thinking Day Service at St Andrew's Cathedral in Singapore.  Of course my father gave the green light - he did not have to sit me down to caution me about what I should or should not do while I was in the Cathedral.  He had faith in me and in the strength of my faith.  And Mrs Darke had no ulterior evangelistic motive!

                                                    *****************************

When our dear neighbour Eva passed away in 2003, Iain and I, and our neighbours Celia and Philip accompanied her in the funeral limousine as we were the only 'family' she had.   For nearly twenty years, Eva was like a mother to me - wise, sweet, and understanding.   Iain wrote the obituary for the Vicar to read during the funeral service in Church.  We chose a song she often played on her piano - we could hear her doing so because we were at No 10 and Eva was just next door at No 11.    And when "The Ash Grove" was played by the Church Organ my heart got stuck in my throat and the tears could not be held back.

                                                        ***************************

Peggy, the spouse's Aunt, was a regular churchgoer at St Anne's, Bishop Auckland.  She respected and loved animals enormously.  Once, she got fed up with the wife of the Bishop of Durham for shooting the magpies in the grounds of Bishop Auckland Castle.  So, very early one morning, she retrieved one of the magpies that had been shot by the lady of the house - and pinned it  on the front door of the Bishop's Castle!

Peggy, like the other Wicks sisters, had an indomitable spirit, creative and a strong sense of civic-mindedness and fair play.  At the height of the Salman Rushdie affair, she expressed to me that no one has the right to insult another religion in the name of freedom of speech.   Peggy did not have an easy life, she had no opportunity to travel far away from home but she was always fascinated about different worlds and different cultures.  So whenever we visited her, about 4-5 times a year, I made sure I cooked a Malay dinner, while Peggy cooked an English dessert,    I also made sure I left her a bottle-full of fried ikan bilis before we went home to Leicester  She could never get enough of it!   When she passed away in 2005, the Vicar had chosen her favourite hymn,  "All things bright and beautiful, the Lord God made them all".  And I joined in that hymn to celebrate the life and times of a loving and lovely lady.

                                             *************************************

When I settled down in Leicester around 1985, Dorothy and Frank Moule became our dearest friends. Frank was a painter-decorator who left school at 14 and who, through sheer hard work and determination, went to University as a mature student when he was in his mid-40s, determined to be a teacher.    In his first year, Iain was his lecturer/tutor and Frank - who was ten years older than Iain - was his favourite student. During my first winter in Leicester, Frank and Dot bought me an electric blanket so that 'the little tropical flower' would not suffer too much in the cold.   Frank went on to  take his Masters, and even wrote an autobiography about his life as a painter and decorator, a union man, and a university student: I gave him his title - "Sitting on a Paint Tin".

We attended the service for Frank's funeral at the Unitarian Church in 2002.  It was a non-denominational Church and Iain wrote and read his celebration of the life of a good friend, an honourable man and a noble soul.  I asked Iain to add this, from and of Hamlet at the end of  his reading;  "Good-night sweet prince; And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest."

I sobbed my heart out for Frank and Dot and his three kids.  To the right of me, sitting by herself in the pew was another lady distraught with sorrow - it was Frank's estranged, older sister.

                                                    *********************************

So there we are.   That's my admittance of the number of times I have attended Church.  It has not tainted my faith or diluted my commitment to Islam.  As for uttering Merry Christmas and enjoying Christmas trees, I have done that enough times, I think, to ensure me a place in hell - according to the instructions of  Malaysia's  clerics.

But I held firm to my Abah's words - " in whatever you do, you are accountable only to God".

                                                              *****************


Here is Frank's choice of the song (his personal hymn) to be played at his funeral service.

What profits now to understand
The merits of a spotless shirt -
A dapper boot - a little hand - 
If half the little soul is dirt? 
                (Tennyson 1809 - 1892)

Christmas - Part 1

That time of year is coming upon us again - the season of goodwill and peace to all men (and women, oops!).   It's also the season for  shopping, for putting up ornate lights and decoration in the city centres, for giving and receiving presents, for boozing ( in the West mainly )  and for eating - and I must also add - for over-consumption and over indulgence.

It's similar to any other religious festival (discounting the boozing for Hari Raya of course) and "secular" festivals like Chinese New Year and the Gregorian New Year in most parts of the world.

In Malaysia, of course, all religious festivals are celebrated with gusto and they are all gazetted as public holidays.

But consider this.   In the UK (according to 2011 figures) 4.4 % of the total population are Muslims and the vast majority of these are located in England where they make up just over 5 % of the resident population.  In this primarily Christian country, Muslims do not enjoy a public holiday during  Eid.

In China, which has an estimated 1-5 % Christian population, Christmas Day is not a public holiday.

Christmas Day is a gazetted public holiday in Malaysia - which has a Christian population of 9 %. Yes, Sabah's Christians make up just over 30% of Sabah's population and in Sarawak, 43 % of her population are Christians.   But what of Peninsular Malaysia?

Malaya,  a primarily  Muslim  country, had been invaded and ruled by Christian nations like Portugal, Holland and Britain since the 15th century.  She  became a part of Malaysia in 1963.   Here, Christmas Day was gazetted as a Public Holiday by the colonial authorities long before Merdeka in 1957  -  even though Christians make up just over 3% of the Semenanjung's population (2010 statistics).  I reckon the percentage must have been even lower in pre-1963 and colonial days.    But is this surprising?   Malaya, after all, has been a  part of the Christian British Empire since the late 18th century.

So remember the Muslims in England: 5 %  of the population, and they have no leg to stand on if they want Eid to be declared a public holiday in this "primarily Christian country"!

I recall Allahyarham Usman Awang's poem:

Baiknya hati Melayu itu

tak terbandingkan

Selagi yang ada sanggup diberikan

Sehingga tercipta sebuah kiasan:

"Dagang lalu nasi ditanakkan

Suami pulang lapar tak makan

Kera di hutan disusu-susukan

Anak di pangkuan mati kebuluran"


( http://ww1.utusan.com.my/utusan/Rencana/20140409/re_05/ErtiTaatSetiaBaiksungguhlahkerajaanMalaysiaini  - Thank you, Zaini Hassan, for reminding me of Usman Awang's acerbic wit!)

However, the "anak di pangkuan"  mentioned in this poem has mutated into ... fat cats, copycats, cool cats, hep cats, cat's pyjamas (whiskers) - mostly, but not entirely with the aid of the NEP, under the aegis of  the (old) UMNO.   Nearly 60 years after Independence in 1957, the Malays are fighting like cats and dogs.  They have lost the ability to smell the rats.  They have allowed themselves to be manipulated, to be used as cats'  paws - resulting in bitter disputes and in-fighting.

Oh dear, I must stop these references to 'cats'  - they don't deserve to be reflected in the asinine aspects of my bangsa Melayu. 

Sadly the Malays who have been hoisted on the NEP have instead turned into the Other "kera"  -  "seperti kera diberi bunga".  

Even more challenging, the Malays of the 21st century have to re-boot themselves into "Melayu Sederhana" , now that they have been painted into a corner by the uninvited home decorators.  It looks like  si kera  must liberate, liberalise (?) themselves and begin to lay out a carpet of flowers from their little corner right up to the front door -  while all other things remain unequal.

Prince Charles - a prince among (some) men.

On BBC1 News two or three nights ago there was an item on the launch of a report by a Catholic charity.    Accompanying the launch was a statement  by His Royal Highness Prince Charles Philip Arthur George, Prince of Wales, KG, KT, GCB, OM, AK, QSO, PC, ADC, Earl of Chester, Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland.

In his video message HRH Prince Charles said,  " It is an indescribable tragedy that Christianity is now under such threat in the Middle East, an area where Christians have lived for 2000 years and across which Islam spread in 700 AD, with people of different faiths living together peaceably for centuries."

The report, by Aid to the Church in Need, claimed that "across the world, Christians remain the most persecuted religious minority, while Muslim countries predominate among states with the most serious violations of religious freedom."  (My emphasis in bold).

The report also said that "as Western Europe becomes more diverse, political and social tensions are rising between different faith and cultural groups".

John Pontifex, who compiled the religious freedom report, says "all faith communities need to work together to stand up for the right to worship in peace."

"We do not want to be alarmist but we do want to tell the truth in this report about the degrees to which minority groups - Yazidis, and indeed of course Christians, are being pushed out of their homelands."

"It is in effect a genocide.  What more evidence does one need to point to it being a genocide?"

Read :  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29899571    (4 November 2014)

Also read:  http://www.ibtimes.co.in/prince-charles-asks-muslim-leaders-stop-persecution-christians-middle-east-613172


                                                               ****************

On 18 December 2013, at a reception for Middle East Christians at Clarence House in London ...

Read :  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2525604/Christians-Middle-East-need-help-says-Charles-Prince-says-bridges-Islam-deliberately-destroyed.html


......" I have for some time now been deeply troubled by the growing difficulties faced by Christian communities in various parts of the Middle East."

"It seems to me that we cannot ignore the fact that Christians in the Middle East are increasingly being deliberately targeted by fundamentalist Islamic militants."

          Judge not, that ye be not judged.  For with what judgement ye
          judge, ye shall be judged:  and with what measure ye mete, it shall be
          measured to you again.  And why beholdest thou the mote in thy 
          brother's  eye, but considerest  not the beam that is in thine own eye?  
          Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of
          thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?  Thou hypocrite,
          first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see
         clearly to cast the mote out of thy brother's eye.
         (The Bible. Matthew 7:1-5)
          

HRH Prince Charles will one day - on the demise of his mother Queen Elizabeth II - ascend the
British throne.  Fidei Defensor or 'Defender of the Faith' will be one of his assignations.  He will be the 'Defender of the Anglican Faith' (as of 1544) and this signifies the British monarch's position as the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, a position that is superior (formally) to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Another inherited title is  Dieu et mon droit - meaning God and my right - referring to the divine right of the king/queen to govern.

This you can observe in the British Passport

Note 'Dieu et mon droit' at the base of the logo

and the British coin.

The 50p coin.  FD stands for  'Fidei Defensor'.

In 1994 HRH did declare that "I personally would rather see (my future role) as Defender of Faith, not the Faith."

If that is HRH's desire then maybe he should be a bit more circumspect about apportioning blame to Islam for causing agony to the Middle Eastern Christians - in the same way that Catholics and other Christian groupings are doing.    Such people are merely 'menanggok di air yang keroh' .... or making hay while the sun shines and striking while the iron' s hot.

Let us remember: allegations that Islam and Muslims are more violent, than any other faith and groupings on this planet must always be seen in a context - and a context Westerners usually forget:

1.  Countries with the Christian heritage have killed off tens of millions of people in the wars of the twentieth century, 16 million in World War I, 60 million in World War II.  Some have attributed more deaths during WW II to "Buddhists in Asia" - because Buddhists in the Zen orders supported Japanese militarism.  And today you have the Buddhist monks of Myanmar pushing for the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingyas.

2.  Then there were those killed in the Colonial (Christian) wars against non-Christian natives. In India we have the Battle of Plassey,  the Indian Mutiny and other colonial 'skirmishes".  Belgium - a strongly Catholic country, - in its conquest over the Congo killed off half of the Congolese - at least 8 million.

3.  Does Christianity  want to be reminded of the Holocaust of over 6 million Jews - that Christianity thrived on the belief that Jews were the killers of Jesus Christ.  Who pays for this 'indescribable' crime?  They are mainly the Muslims in Palestine and by default the  Christians of the Christian Holy Land.

4.  Most recently, Christian civilization has surpassed itself in inflicting civilian deaths on Muslim populations in Bosnia, Iraq (twice), Afghanistan  - using the "official" excuse of a "War on Terror". Their direct involvement in 'wars of liberation' in Libya and Egypt, their support for Muslim radical/extremist groups like al-Qaeda, Muslim Brotherhood and ISIS is well-documented.   Of course you will not find such facts in documents and videos publicised  by Christian charity groups like  'Aid to the Church in Need'.

5.  If Muslims are slaughtering each other today, do take into account the inter-Christian butchery that took place during the Christian Reformation and Counter-Reformation.  And Christian civilization seems to have little stomach to analyze and discuss the "indescribable tragedy" of  the African Slave Trade that claimed 10 million African lives or the number of Native Americans in North, Central and South America hunted and massacred during Christian Colonial Conquests.

                                                       *****************

The killing of Fusilier Lee Rigby in May 2012 sparked off blood-curdling cries against Islam in Britain.  David Cameron regarded it as an "an attack on the British way of life".  One sane voice dared to differ.   Seumas Milne of the Guardian had this to say: "When Rigby became a target by Muslim extremists, it  was a predicted consequence of an avalanche of violence unleashed by the US, Britain and others in eight direct military interventions in Arab and Muslim countries that have left hundreds of thousands dead,  Only the wilfully blind or ignorant can be shocked when there is blowback from that onslaught at home.  The surprise should be that there haven't been more such atrocities."

Read :  http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/20/woolwich-attack-muslim-world-islamophobia


When it comes to selecting victims, it seems that some victims, - especially Christians and Israelis - are more equal than others.  The Judaeo-Christians shield themselves, through their media machine, from the atrocities committed by their culture on others especially in  Muslim countries.

Other than perusing videos presented to him by sources related to his Faith - HRH might try to catch some of these .......

Bound and gagged: A Taliban insurgent in US custody in Afghanistan

A few days after the end of the Gulf ground war, an American soldier inspects the carbonized bodies of Iraqi soldiers killed when their convoy ... was bombed and strafed by Allied Aircraft.

Afghani children - victims of the War on Terror

More victims 

Victim of sanctions on Iraq

Victim of phosporus in Iraq - the very same 'weapon' used by Israel in Gaza.  With the phosporus bomb, "as the charge bursts, fragments of the white phosporus would be scattered ... at speed, and the particles spontaneously ignited on contact with the air.  They had a marked tendency to adhere to naked skin, where they would continue to burn and cause painful flesh wounds."  How different is this from ISIS's beheading??

Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before. 

Of course the minority Christians in the Middle East are victims of this terror war in their homeland but no more and no less than the majority who are Muslims.  To simply blame their plight on the Muslim extremists is mischievous - and perfidious.  For 2000 years these early Christians have lived in peace under Muslim rule.  Think: would they have survived the inter-Christianity wars in Europe in the Middle Ages, in the battle for supremacy between the Catholics and the Protestants? Think again - when did their world (and the Muslims too) began to fall apart.  Who made it difficult for Christians to make their pilgrimage to the Holy Land?

Perhaps HRH should also listen to other concerned voices like CAAT  (Campaign Against Arms Trade).

Prince Charles dressed up in the costume of a ceremonial sword dance in Saudi Arabia to "help enhance military links"

And Jesus said, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."  And they cast lots to divide his garments.  (Luke 23:34)

=====================================================================================

Dr Mahzan bin Haron, this posting is for you.  You (among a couple of others) nagged me incessantly to get to work on writing.  

Three days ago you wrote me  "If you stop, it's like a doctor who stops practicing because there's so much diseases and sick people around and it's only getting worse now."

I'm weary and the leaves are turning brown ...

Victoria Park - Our Haven.

.......  but you're making sense, just like my Abah, just like your Tok Antan.

Top 10 tips for happiness by Pope Francis

Speaking in the Argentine Weekly "Viva" this week  ( which was also the second(?) or third (?) week of the massacre in Gaza)  Pope Francis shared with the world his recipe for happiness.

Readhttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/pope-francis-issues-top-10-tips-for-happiness-9639488.html

1.  ' Live and let live '  which is similar to the saying in Rome ' Move forward and let others do the same."

Image 1

I think it very much depends on who is holding the gun and the money-bag.


2.   "Be giving of yourself to others."   People need to be open and generous ......

Image 2.  "We are left with nothing.  Our vocabulary is full of words:demolition, detention, beatings, killings and closures."  From War on Want, Association of Gaza Artists.  I bought a series of these postcards in the early 1990s.

Well, the Palestinians have been very giving ; of their land, their homes, their livelihood, their children and their lives.


3.  "Proceed calmly in life"

Image 3.  Mor Ostrovski, an Israeli Defence (?) Force (IDF) sniper,  calmly aiming at the back of the head of a Palestinian boy.

Read http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/18/israeli-sniper-photo-child-crosshairs-instagram_n_2711977.html

It's easy to be calm when you are holding the gun and clutching the money-bag.


4.  A healthy sense of leisure.  The Pope said  "consumerism has brought us anxiety."

Here's a picture of fulfilling consumerism.

Image 4.  " Spot the baby in the buggy!"  A mother doing her post - Christmas Sale shopping in Leicester.  Picture from the Daily Mail.

 The Pope further added, " ... set aside time to play with the children and turn off the TV when they sit down to eat."

 Looking for sustenance in the rubbish dump in Catholic Philippines.

As for eating in front of the TV, the urban poor of the Philippines survive on food scraps from trash bags.

Read  http://edition.cnn.com/2012/04/30/world/asia/philippines-pagpag-slums/

For the past month or so,  there should be a warning sign about watching TV while eating.  You may just about throw out your stomach contents if you are confronted with this.

 5.   Sundays should be holidays.  Sunday is for family.

As for the families of these children, there will be no dinners on Sunday or Monday or Tuesday etc, etc  only grief and heartache.

As for this Rabbi, he has chosen which children do not deserve the Pope's vision of a family Sunday.

6.  Find innovative ways to create dignified jobs for young people.

Young Palestinians will not face unemployment problems because they have been culled by the Zionists.  For those who survive, there won't be problems like 'drug addiction' and 'suicide' which was referred to by the Pope.  They just live in abject poverty and fear and degradation.

Perhaps the Pope was thinking of young people in United Kingdom, a nation who are great friends of Israel. Their young people have no worries over their tomorrows.

 7.  Respect and take care of nature.  Environmental degradation " is one of the biggest challenges we have."

Often on my trips to New Zealand to visit the spouse's relatives, I have to endure questions or comments about how terrible Malaysia is with regards  to deforestation and environmental vandalism.  But when I observe how treeless NZ is - and how sheep are more populous than humans, I reckon they take the prize for hypocrisy when it comes to deforestation.

Read  http://envirohistorynz.com/2012/08/05/burning-new-zealands-forests/

According to the above article, one small burn-off of forest on the east coast of North Island, in the 1900s, destroyed 30,000 acres of indigenous forest.  We are rapped on the knuckles for cutting the forests for oil palm, the Kiwis do it for sheep.  We are regarded as vandals when the slash and burn technique is used for forest clearance.  Well, the Kiwis did it many, many years ago as from the 1900s because they found this technique  low-cost and efficient.   According to the same article " the rate of forest loss in NZ is the highest in the world."  So, 'goosey-goosey gander, whither shall you wander?  Upstairs and downstairs in the master's chamber.'

I took this photograph of a forest clearance on the road somewhere between Kuching and Lubok Hantu in the mid-1980s.

Now take a look at this one.

The image above shows a clear-cut forest in Oregon (Credit Calibas).

Read http://www.americanforests.org/magazine/article/north-american-forests-in-the-age-of-man/

And here's another self-righteous "green" country - Great Britain - selling off their woodland "to meet financial targets imposed by successive governments."

Read  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/revealed-the-true-scale-of-britains-woodland-selloff-6278861.html

Sermon for the Day:  People who live in glass-houses should not throw stones.


8.  Stop being negative.  "Needing to talk badly about others indicates low self-esteem."  That means "I feel so low that instead of picking myself up I have to cut others down."

Image 6

Image 6A

Oh dear, if the two groups above do what they do because they suffer from low esteem, where do the Gazans fit in?  According to the Israelis they are no different from cockroaches.



9.  Don't proselytize:  respect other's beliefs.  Bravo, Bravo, Bravo!!!
 -
Long, long ago Christian missionaries came on the coat-tails of Western Imperialism to convert heathens, but especially Muslims to Catholicism and later Protestantism.

See http://anaksihamid.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-camel-and-arab-metaphor-for-allah.html

Today we do not see any less fervour in capturing the souls of  Muslims and others.  The method may have changed but the desire and objectives remain the same.

Read  http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2002/september9/1.34.html?paging=off

Sermon forToday :  Fine Words Butter no Parsnips.


10.  Work for Peace. " We are living in a time of many wars."

Peace will not come if there is no Justice.

The Pope further added, " the call for peace must be shouted."  It all depends on who shouts the loudest and on what and whose terms?

The British, the Balfour Treaty and the Zionist State of Israel.

Image 7

Image 8

Image 9

Finally, my gratitude to the Pope for showing me the path to happiness.  I do apologize if  my translation seems jaundiced and unpalatable.  But we do not live in a fair and promising world - especially for the Palestinians and Gazans and many, many others.




                                                  ******************************

I do recommend Mohammed Jehan Khan's blog  http://mohammedjehankhan.wordpress.com/2014/07/03/understanding-israel-history-facts-and-quotes/

It is one of the best on Palestine and Zionism.  Furthermore, he draws his own cartoons - a remarkable young man - wish we could have a homegrown version like him.  Images 1, 4A, 6, 6A, 7, 8, and 9 were taken from his blog.  Thank you Mohammed Jehan Khan.

" If you could read my mind, love ...

.... What a tale my thoughts could tell.
Just like an old time movie,
About a ghost from a wishing well."    (Gordon Lightfoot  1970)

AsH has been tackling a dilemma of sorts - whether to carry on writing or to put away all my thoughts and notes and references and chuck them into a box marked  "Do not open until 2044" - my 100th anniversary - when I will become like Lightfoot's "ghost from a wishing well".

This has so far been, a disturbing year in so many ways, - to simplify it, too many scales have been removed from my eyes.  Illusions will always plague your life whether you're seventeen or seventy.

This was (is?) how I feel just like Pak Belang below.

Pak Belang in the spouse's illustrated book,  "Fatimah's Kampung"  was captured when his jungle habitat was swallowed up by development and he ended up as a caged exhibit in an urban theme park.

Pak Belang is looking at you!

The above illustrates Pak Belang's world before wrath, avarice, sloth, pride, lust, envy and gluttony  ( the Seven Deadly Sins according to Christianity) destroyed its world.

Especially in Malaysia today, these features, this idolisation of the Self has become the norm despite attempts to veil them in purr words  like religion, human rights and peace and love!

Yesterday I made a bad mistake. Instead of sorting out something  quick to sew from my box of cross-stitch samplers, I turned to read The Daily Mail.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2669427/From-Syria-Iraq-Kenya-Malaysia-How-new-era-Islamic-fundamentalism-spreading-fear-chaos-world.html

Here's a close-up of nasty fundamentalist Malaysia.

You can't possibly imagine Malaysia as practising a "creeping Islamisation of the country"  because this country and the surrounding Malay Archipelago has always been an Islamic region even before Christian imperialists like Spain, Portugal, Holland, and Great Britain invaded and manipulated the Muslim Sultanates and population for their religious and economic plunder.

The Mail conveniently omitted one very special feature of Malaysia.  This is one nation where the indigenous mainly Muslim Malays were swamped by an influx of immigrants from China and India, a deliberate British policy to maximise the development (plunder) of the country's resources.  This is the only nation with such a toxic racial mixture and surprisingly has managed to look after her population without being a basket case depending on massive Western aid - and lo and behold! - has given opportunities for the non-Malay, non- Muslim denizens (and the Malay elites too, of course) to thrive and make loadsofmoney.  On top of this they can even afford to invest their surplus  in  wealthy foreign countries like Singapore, USA and Britain.

We have evangelist corporate moghuls like Tan Sri Dato Francis Yeoh Sock Ping of YTL Corporation and Tan Sri Dato Khoo Kay Peng ( Hope Foundation) who by the way has a 40% stake in Britain's upmarket Laura Ashley. The one thing that's creeping (and very rapidly too) into Malaysia is Christian evangelisation.

There's nothing new about Christian evangelisation. It has been with us for millenia although the tactics today are much more high-tech, aggressive and devious.

I reckon I have said enough in many previous postings about Judaeo-Christians' and secularist-liberals' anti-Islam agenda.   I'm almost turning blue in the face writing about this issue and like Pak Belang I'm getting too tired and too old and quite washed out.  But perhaps these images will suffice.

Recent and not-so-recent Creators of Chaos:

From a Children's Story Book in the 1940s

From the mouth of Britain's most revered son.

From Britain's foremost liberal newspaper.

From a Conservative MP

Muslim walking the gauntlet in his 'adopted' Christian country

Playing with Words:  "vandals", not "desecrators".  "Racially motivated"?  No, it's religious hatred!

Who's counting? 

Here's a little story to add to the Mail's  angst about the "ban" on using the word "Allah" in non-Muslim texts in Semenanjung Malaysia.   There's a road in Leicester called Belgrave Road, the main artery from the city to the north (avoiding the M1). Hence it is a most strategic commercial route to the north of England from days of yore.

When the Indian community was expelled from Uganda by President Idi Amin, they migrated to Britain in 1972 because they were holders of British Passports.  A Gujarati entrepreneur from Uganda - Gentilal Parmar - saw the winds of upheaval and made a crucial (and lucrative) move to buy up residential and commercial properties in and around Belgrave Road.  When these 'refugees'  (mainly Hindus) from Uganda arrived in Leicester they gravitated to Belgrave Road.  Today, Belgrave Road is Leicester's Little India.

Belgrave Road, Leicester.

Some years ago in the late 1980s, an ex-student of mine from Singapore came to Leicester for a visit.  We took him for a drive along Belgrave Road.  This was his first trip into England.  He was shocked at the scenes and the shops and the sights.  He exclaimed,  " But where are the orang putih?  I did not come to Leicester to see my fellow Indians - we have them at home (Singapore) and we have Serangoon Road!"

The Indians from Uganda thrived and  prospered in Leicester and by 2012 the native orang putih became a minority (less than 50%)  in this ancient Roman city.  (In fact the old Roman road ran right in front of our terrace house and it still keeps its Latin name!)   The Indians from Uganda were not farmers and were not from  the poorer  rural parts of Uganda.  Being savvy urban shopkeepers, businessmen, entrepreneurs and professionals they found the right niche in this Midland city.  They became movers and shakers in Leicester's economy and politic framework.

Then in the 1990s there was a fervour and a strong vocal movement among Leicester's Asians ( Indians and anyone else for that matter, who are not Caucasians or Africans or Afro-Caribbeans, are termed as Asians.  It's as if - in Malaysia - the immigrants are lumped simply as non-Malays!) - to change the name of Belgrave Road.  They wanted to re-name it Mahatma Gandhi Road.  There was of course the expected outcry from the "natives'.  They regarded this as more flexing  of the Asians' political (and religious)  muscle.

Of course, that could not materialise.  But they managed this, at least.

Gandhi's statue at Belgrave Road as you enter Leicester from the north.

Malays and Muslims in Malaysia have as much right to retain "Allah" for their own use - just as Christian and secular whites in Leicester have - to keep the name of the artery road to the north of their country England as "Belgrave Road."

Alas, this article by the Mail's Simon Tomlinson is just another hatchet job on Islam and Malaysia by an ignorant and self-righteous hack from the British press. We've seen and heard it all before - a very easy and popular topic for western liberals and  Judaeo-Christians - on their  favourite bete noir.

More of the same from my earlier postings:

1.  http://anaksihamid.blogspot.com/2011/07/simon-tisdalls-lecture.html  This is another self-righteous diatribe from another Simon from a pukka middle-class British newspaper.

2.  http://anaksihamid.blogspot.com/2011/08/humanitarian-imperialism-white-curse.html

3.  http://anaksihamid.blogspot.com/2011/03/holier-than-thou.html

4.  http://anaksihamid.blogspot.com/2011/03/holier-than-thou-part-2.html

5.  http://anaksihamid.blogspot.com/2012/02/whited-sepulchre.html

6.  http://anaksihamid.blogspot.com/2010/12/11th-commandment-thou-shalt-not.html

7.  http://anaksihamid.blogspot.com/2010/01/patchwork-puzzle.html

8.  http://anaksihamid.blogspot.com/2010/02/lest-we-forget.html

9.  http://anaksihamid.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-camel-and-arab-metaphor-for-allah.html

Enough is Enough.  This is why I feel I'm in the same state as Pak Belang.

Keeping up with Comments

I've been having problems with my comments page just like I had a few months ago.  Here are a couple of them - which I could not deal with earlier.

Thank you Anon at 10.53am.  Racial and religious differences will always matter for all of us, not only in Malaysia.  If we look at the example of Northern Ireland  ( a part of the United Kingdom), where there is hardly any difference in colour and culture in the Northern Irish, the religious animosity between the two dominant Christian factions - the Catholics and the Protestants - remains as intransigent as ever, despite the Peace Treaty and the political transformation that followed.

As for racial and religious differences, if we look at what happened in many other countries (South Africa, Sri Lanka and Burma for example) the inherently and historically Malay-Muslim Peninsula has a lot to be proud of.  Despite being flooded with immigrants whose religion and race and culture are as far apart as chalk and cheese, Semenanjung Tanah Melayu has done a commendable job (albeit with a couple of warts) in sustaining  all who live on board, in sharing the country's largesse and even giving room for one immigrant group to maintain and develop their economic prowess and control.  Of course , the less privileged and the poorer denizens have to be given a leg-up, despite the complaints and whingeing of the well-heeled who believe that they got to be where they were and are,  primarily on merit.

The table below illustrates the reduction of the gap between rich and poor which, since Colonial times, has coincided with a racial overlay and an urban/rural divide.

Here's a closeup of the above Table:  Mean Monthly Gross Household Income by Ethnicity, Strata and State, Malaysia, 1970-2012.

In short this Government has done quite well, for a Third World Country - and a Government run by mainly  Malay-Muslims to boot!!



As for your second sentence, I detect a bit of snide and insinuation about referring to West Malaysia as  "The Malay Peninsula".  Whether the Malay Peninsula is now West Malaysia or Peninsular Malaysia or Semenanjung Malaysia - in the language of the Malays from the Malay Archipelago-  before the encroachment of the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British and the unnatural increase of the Semenanjung's population - the Peninsula  consisted of several  Malay-Muslim states:
1. The Kedah Sultanate which included Penang and Seberang Prai  (1136 to the present)
2. The Malacca Sultanate  (1462-1511)
3. The Johor Sultanate which included Singapore  (1528 to the present) ......

...... and the Sultanates of Pahang, Kelantan, Perlis, Perak, Selangor, Negri Sembilan and Trengganu.

As for Borneo, up to the arrival of the Europeans, the two major powers were the Brunei and Sulu Sultanates.  But that's another story of  Judaeo-Christian malfeasance in Southeast Asia.  They did the same when they carved up the African continent among themselves.  The violent mess that plagues the Middle East had its origin in the (secret) 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement between United Kingdom, France and pre-Revolution Russia to divide the Arab provinces of the defeated Ottoman Empire.

The name of  a  nation can be changed, it can even be anglicized, but the core makeup of its entity remains intact despite attempts by certain parties to rescript its history.

"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to relive it."   (George Santayana 1863-1952)

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Thank you Anon May 21 2014 at 4.05 am.

I don't think the Malay Sultans have the same privileges as royalty elsewhere.  The Crown Prince of the United Kingdom can spout statements about how Muslims are making life difficult for Christians in the Middle East and he can blithely compare Putin to Hitler AND he can get away with it.

Why name only Pertubuhan Melayu Kebangsaan Melayu Bersatu  (I assume you mean UMNO)?  What about PKR and PAS?

As for your suggestion that AsH should write an open letter to the "party president and the Sultan",  it reminded me of  another occasion when my fellow-Malays asked me to be their  'representative'.

In Singapore, in the late 1960s,  the celebration for Hari Raya Puasa depended on the sighting of the moon.  There were times when this did not coincide with the official date for Hari Raya.  When that happened, teachers and students of Sekolah Menengah Yusof Ishak were only allowed time off for prayers and then they had to report for school as usual.  That was when the Malay teachers, mostly men, both senior and junior pushed me forward to ask the principal, Mr Charles Lazaroo to give the Malay medium staff and students time off for the rest of the day after prayers.  I was just in my early 20s and I found no difficulty in chiding them and suggested ,  "Why don't all of us talk to Mr Lazaroo?"  That stopped all the proposals and pleas to place me in the line of fire.

This, I fear is the most destructive weakness of the orang Melayu - they are too self-serving and hence become too divided to take a stand.  They prefer to shine in the light of the opposition groupings by sucking up to them and to contribute to slagging off their fellow Malays  than to take on the taunts and  fire from their own  kin-groups and from their nemesis.

Furthermore, unlike me, your generation has a longer time left on this earth to make the necessary changes and sacrifice to guide the "frustrated and pragmatic Malays"out there - whether at home or abroad.   AsH is getting too old and weary from fighting too many battles for her students - being a minder for the Malay Stream against the English Stream in YISS  and for the English Stream vis-a-vis the Chinese Stream in Jurong Secondary School.

In my seventh decade, I  do not have the energy to pitch any more battles.  All I do is react- to hypocrisy and double standards - to convey a tit-for-tat and  turn myself into ....

Drawn by my Voodoo-man,  Iain Buchanan

  

Let me quote one of  our sharpest and kindest Malay poets and gentlemen, Usman Awang.  Where are the likes of him today??

Extracted from Zaini Hassan, Dilema Melayu Moden  (pages 373-376)

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Thank you very much cannonkapit for the bouquet.

It's very touching, your belief in what I write.  Cikgu has never left her 'tanah air'  (which includes Singapore and  Malaysia), wherever she settles.  Right now, since 2007, the spouse and I have the best of our two worlds that we hold close to our hearts - Malaysia and  England. 

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 Thank you Leicester United Fan,

Even though our LFC did not make it big, but as a fan you've done quite well.  I can't agree more with what you've said.  The election results have proven what we all knew all along.  She was used for a patsy by her two Sifus -   the father and the son ... and Diana the Roman goddess of the hunt, the moon and birthing!