I call upon all Muslim Brothers & Sisters .............
What is your view of this Muslim brother who feels it is ok to comment on what is right OR not right for the non-Muslims ?
How about the sensitivites of the non-Muslims ?
Why is it ok for this guy to ride roughshod on non-Muslim sensitivities ? Who made him the expert on other religions & cultures ?
Guess what ? I on my part ( in my small way ) will continue ( as I have done in the past ) to defend the followers of the Islamic faith from any insensitive comments from anyone on this forum and others.
Can I have your assurance that you will rise in the same way to defend my sensitivities ?
When I raised this question in another thread I was met with silence ..... I am raising this question again.
Would I be right in warning Datuk Seri Nazri that the consequences of this UMNO bloke, Alwi, stoking such emotions can be fatal ?
Have Alwi & Nazri forgotten May 13 ? Are Alwi's flippant & and cynical words (in Nazri's eyes ) less seditious ?
Nazri shd stop being a loose cannon if he is to gain any credibility. He shd caution people like Alwi who make trashy comments as well.
Even the Deputy Home Minister is on record saying that the ruling was only for Muslims. But this elected member of parliament from Kerteh, seeks to continue to play to the gallery ..... gain cheaper popularity.
Dear Muslim Brothers & Sisters, please help me understand these statements that, in the eyes of this ignorant observer, smack of double standards . Please educate me.
Why is this thing called "sensitivity" a one way street ?
NST
March 24
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE debate on the wearing of the tudung continued in the House yesterday, ending in a shouting match between backbenchers and Opposition MPs.


It started when Datuk Mohd Alwi Che Ahmad (BN-Kereteh) was moving the motion of thanks for the Royal Address.

He was talking about racial politics when Opposition MPs got up to say that no one was questioning Islam as the official religion.

"But what is your opinion about non-Muslims being ordered to wear the tudung?" asked Fong Po Guan (DAP- Batu Gajah), referring to Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Bakri Omar’s order that all policewomen, regardless of race and religion, were required to wear the tudung at official functions.

Mohd Alwi replied that MPs should be "above all that".

"We should not champion a cause for the sake of it."

He said he had seen two police officers, a Chinese and an Indian, wearing the tudung for a long time.

"Now since it has been made into such an issue, they have stopped wearing it. Why do you have to be a champion? I also can be a champion."

At this juncture Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timur) got up and said that the IGP’s instruction made it compulsory for all policewomen to wear the tudung and there was no option given.

"This is not in line with our Federal Constitution to respect all races and religions."

(Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Fu Ah Kiow said on Wednesday that the IGP’s order did not apply to non-Muslim policewomen.)

Mohd Alwi said he was trying to discuss the overall picture.

"But they are like poison and needles that prick here and there," he said, referring to the Opposition MPs.

Kit Siang asked Mohd Alwi to explain what he meant by "poison" and "needles".

A ruckus followed with several Opposition MPs and backbenchers embroiled in a shouting match.

"This is the attitude of our Opposition leaders. They do not understand the instruction by the IGP," Mohd Alwi said.

Fong stood up again and said it was Mohd Alwi who did not understand and asked him to get his facts right before raising the issue.

Mohd Alwi retorted: "It is up to them if they want to wear cheongsam, baju kurung or tudung.

"It is up to them. Even if they do not want to wear anything... it is up to them.

"I have seen several non-Muslim MPs wear the baju kurung. That does not make them a Malay or Muslim.

"Even if the DAP women MPs wore headscarves, it would not make them Muslims."

At this juncture Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen walked into the House wearing a kebarung (a version of the baju kurung) and Mohd Alwi said the dress did not make her a Muslim.

"She is still in MCA and remains a Chinese. In India and Pakistan the people wear scarves and they are not Muslims. But we, in Malaysia, call it tudung.

"That is the difference. What is so sensitive about it," he asked.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Fixing GLCs a ‘Malaysian Agenda’

THE programme to transform government-linked companies is centred on a "Malaysian" rather than a "Malay" agenda, Finance Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said yesterday.

This is because GLCs are listed companies, with shareholders other than the Government.

In a written reply to Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timur), Abdullah said the GLC restructuring was being actively conducted.

"The structure of the development and transformation programme must take into account a larger focus such as the Malaysian agenda."

The programme to enhance the performance of GLCs was launched on July 29 last year, and the overall impact would be seen after two years.

I really dont understand why certain areas of the public service are trying to push headscarves onto people...and saying that it is about creating/maintaining an image of uniformity. What is so important about uniformity anyways?

Take a look at the following images of Sikh police officers such as Jasdeep Bajwa of the Ottawa Police force, Amric Singh of the New York Police Department, or Baltej Singh Dhillon of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who was born in 1966 in Malaysia.

...do they look any less like police officers, or any less uniform, because they are wearing turbans?

While we're at it, just look at the variety of cultures that wear turbans.

How can a multicultural country have uniformity?

Cheers, m

__________________
The world needs more Canada

I know headscaft is very important to muslim, but it serve no purpose to non-muslim. My granny will scold me crazy if i advise her to wear headscaft since she is 90 years old n with few pieces of white left,she could not stand the hot weather.

With respect, I challenge that MP to say the way he did in OUR court of law. He himself knows what will happen. You get the idea.

__________________
Shali
"Two wrongs don't make a right, but three rights make a left"

It's about time communal politics should be put to a stop. It's not healthy! Be considerate and fair to all irregardless of race and religion. As a wise man once said, "Put the Man right, then the whole world would be right!" We all got feelings!

__________________
lbn

31 August 1957. Almost half a century later, we still have communal politics championed by race-based component political parties. Quite incredible, actually. And very sad.

Absolutely right, shali.
But the consequences of his utterances do not visit upon him & many others who get away with such very spiteful, cynical and sometimes gut wrenching racialistic comments. In all honesty, I dont think challenging the bloke to repeat it in OUR court of law serves any purpose other than to shy away from what ails our Malaysian society in a very fundamental way. There is the arrogance of the majority that rears its ugly head again and again. The minority sits around wringing its hand, fuming with anger & impotent with indignation. We are reminded again and again about May 13th ...... this is wielded almost like a constant threat . Almost as if only one side lost lives and limb in that terrible, terrible blot in our political history.
We are told ad nauseam about the sacrifice that the Malays made in accomodating the non-Malays. We are given the impression that the NEP (despite its dismal results ) was not a mutually agreed upon set of principles towards racial harmony, integration and coexistence. The political misfits in the Buat Nothing gormen keep throwing May 13th in the faces of the non-Malays as if May 13th served to force non-Malays into accepting the NEP and the status of the Bumiputras. The spectre of May 13th is raised again and again like a rotan weilded to discipline the naughty child.
The Barisan gormen that allows the likes of Alwi to spew verbal crap, all morons made in the mould of Alwi and the selectively big mouthed Datuk Seri Nazri disgust me.

In my humble opinion, some of these problems also lies with our moderate moslems brothers... they keep silent on certain issues for fear of raising the ire or indignation of their more conservative or religious brothers... how?

Landmines will be landmines... one wrong step and GOODBYE world..

__________________


N i k o n E q u i p p e d...

Exactly what irks me as well, USJ27Resident ........ There is no doubt there are many moderates, who feel as strong as the non-Muslims do about some of the indignities heaped upon the latter. Somehow it seems to me that the politico-religious "oneupmanship" that the BN gormen plays with PAS or with Muslim fundamentalist views has claimed victims in the shape of the innocent bystander i.e. the non-Muslim who does not have (indeed is not allowed to have ) a say in the goings-on.
Hence if any moderate Muslim is seen to appeal to the good sense of his/her Muslim brothers / sisters he runs the risk of being ostracised. Therefore the deafening silence. Dont forget the climate of fear alluded to by the illustrious Marina Mahathir who is deserving of admiration. She is treading on ground that has never been traversed b4. Remember she is questioning the heretofore unquestionable AND she is a woman to boot, in a world where a woman's voice is expected to be as soft as possible.

Just look at the sheer arrogance in this Alwi's verbal diarhoea >>>>>
Mohd Alwi retorted: "It is up to them if they want to wear cheongsam, baju kurung or tudung.
"It is up to them. Even if they do not want to wear anything... it is up to them."
We voted such specimens into the parliament. And we gave the BN gormen absolute majority to talk such absolute rubbish.
Congratulations Malaysia !!!!!

Don't you just feel tempted to use four letter words .. in all their various implied meanings and nuances .. sigh

__________________
Bob Kee
bobjots : redux
"The hottest place in hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in moral crisis" - Dante

I used the Malay equivalent of a 4 letter English word and chang reminded me of my sojourn in the plantain plantation in the recent past. And as chang is my paternal uncle thrice removed, I ceased and desisted out of sheer respect for my elder family member ............... in other words I ran, scooted, vamoooooosed !!!!
Thus I am alive in this forum to tell you the story ....

That would be putting it in the mildest terms... being labelled as a moderate moslem in Malaysia is like wearing a target practise... for obvious reasons. I think I mentioned this quote before... "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." (Edmund Burke)"

Hence, keeping silent too can have have the same effect...

__________________


N i k o n E q u i p p e d...

The quote is absolutely apt and on target ......... there's that word again !!!!

Your footnote:



Unfortunately, most of us voted for the party instead of the morons that stood on the party-ticket...

B.V.O.N.C.! or instilled fear of the unknown???

__________________


N i k o n E q u i p p e d...