7th Rangers

Malay matters in the nation's future by S THAYAPARAN is commander (Rtd), Royal Malaysian Navy

2012-01-29T14:04:00.003+08:00

COMMENT Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin's challenge to the DAP to provide figures on the number of Malays joining the ranks of this centre-left party, not to mention Professor Khoo Kay Kim's rather jaundiced view of Malay leftist as "non-freedom fighters", is further evidence of the party's desperate need to define what it means to be Malay, both historically and in the present.

Umno's continuing efforts at creating the perception of a monolithic Malay polity has veered from the insidiously sophisticated to the downright crude. Every facet of Malay life as projected by the state's media propaganda organs has been to present the image of the Malays as a unified voting block raging against the liberal foreign ideas of the DAP, the eroding Islamic ideals of PAS or the immorality of Anwar Ibrahim.

There is a reason why there is a state-sanctioned method of practicing Islam. There is a reason for the morality police. There is a reason for apostasy laws. There is a reason for marriage laws.

There is a reason why other religions are demonised. There is a reason why the Malay population has been indoctrinated to fear their fellow Malaysians. And the reason for this is simple.

Himpun placardsWhat Umno desires, and has received for so many years, is total submission from the sizeable majority of the Malay population.

The recent Christian conversion controversy - that Christian proselytising is against the law in a supposedly multiethnic and multi-religious country is further evidence of the ruling regime's fear of not only the diminishment of the role Islam in the public and private lives of Malays but their control of it - implies that a certain segment of the Malay population is not getting any part of the largesse that is supposed to trickle down to them and that they are more then willing to seek elsewhere the assistance they need.

Racial card not exclusively Malays

It has of course gone to ridiculous extremes as in the recent NFC (National Feedlot Corporation) fiasco where Ibrahim Ali and his ilk (bolstered by the right-wing state-controlled Malay mainstream press) suggest that an issue of corruption is really an issue of race and a racial provocation against the Malay community.

NONEThe fact that the alleged whistleblower has been identified as a non-Malay is par for the course in this country's national political debate.

And let us (non-Malays) not assume the high road because we, too, have played the same racial card when it comes to the shenanigans of non-Malay political parties.

In any other functional democracy an investigation into a case of corporate and governmental malfeasance would be handled with the utmost impartial diligence or at least that's the perception the powers-that-be would attempt to convey but here, the fact that the state responded in its usual fear-mongering fashion is an overt threat to non-Malays that they should never attempt to impose any accountability on the government or its financial policies, less they inadvertently start a racial incident.

However, these tactics are fast becoming obsolete since it was a predominantly Malay political party with the vocal backing of its non-Malay allies that first exposed this scandal and the very real fractures within the Malay community that Umno for so very long has been trying to hide or stamp out is being given expression on the national stage.

Professor Khoo's interpretative stance when it comes to the contributions of the Malay left to the independence of this country may favour the Umno narrative but what the current debate proves is that the Malays even then were not some sort of monolithic entity bound by the same political ideology unlike what our state-coddled history professors teach us.

Professor Khoo uses the tired old clichés of communism (anti-religion) and world domination (conveniently forgetting that we were a British colony) to misinterpret a polychromatic Malay left to bolster the narrative that only the Umno-led coalition and the so-called social contract ensured our independence and political and social stability.

Constitutionally-created Malays

said zahari 090106 talkingReaders' interested in a sympathetic perspective of the diverse nature of the Malay left of a pre- and post-colonial Malaya should read Said Zahari's memoir, ‘Dark Clouds at Dawn', to understand how even elements in the British colonial establishment considered a paper like Utusan Melayu a "pinko" or "red" newspaper, a charge vigorously denied by then editor Zahari.

The very fact that a certain segment of the Malay-Muslim population were not hostile to the so-called liberal concepts of self-determination, social justice and fair play - as though such concepts are anathema to Islam - is evidence enough of the ideologically diverse nature of a pre-independence Malay community. A community as yet infected by the propaganda of BTN (Biro Tatanegara) and the stranglehold of a federal government.

If the concept of what constitutes a Malay is complex historically with different connotations of culture as exemplified by the various different traditions and mindsets of various states, is added to these days' constitutionally-created Malays, the mix becomes more explosive.

As I have argued before, the concept of Malay has changed so dramatically over the years through the social engineering agenda of Umno, these days it would be easier for the divergent forms of political and religious ideologies which manifest in the Malay community, to further fracture the concept of ‘Ketuanan Melayu' and in the end, the Umno choke hold.

The shortsightedness in the creation of constitutionally-created Malays will have severe repercussions on Umno and in the end, the country.

For the former, it will be the gradual erosion of influence of the so-called "authentic Malay", a topic of conversation that seems to be de rigueur in the hushed confines of the mosques but more importantly, the corridors of power.

The not-so-recent inclusion of Malaysian Muslim Congress (Kima) as a non-voting member of Umno is like the recognition bestowed on an unwanted child born out of wedlock.

Possible sectarian violence

And let's not forget the Indonesians, Burmese and Filipinos that have been granted the status of Malays outside the Umno-controlled peninsula and we have a situation pregnant with the possibility of some sort of national renunciation.

orang asli protest in putrajaya 170310Meanwhile, the Orang Asli who have long been denied the benefits and privileges accorded to the bumiputera, will continue to be ignored by mainstream political parties until they organise into a cohesive political force which would further tensions within the Malay community.

The consequences for the country will of course be dire. Not only will there be sectarian violence within the Malay community but most probably as has been documented in various parts of the Muslim world, the nature of the conflict will be religious based.

If we are lucky it would be between two extremes, but the reality will probably be that non-Malays will either have to leave this country or latch on to whichever side that offers the least subservient role.

Khairy and indeed others of his temperament should be concerned of the fact that more Malays could be embracing the DAP. This demonstrates that they feel no affinity for the religious brand of politics favoured by PAS or the strong whiff of Umno-ism emanating from PKR.

They have chosen a third, more secular route. Now, by no means does this mean that they are abandoning their religious world view, merely that they don't see their Islamic perspective threatened by the political framework of the DAP.

Malaysiakini.

Navy SEALs Rescue Hostages in Somalia

2012-01-26T22:25:00.002+08:00

Night Mission Leaves 9 Captors Dead, After Weeks of White House Planning.

By JULIAN E. BARNES, NATHAN HODGE and ADAM ENTOUS

Jumping out of an Air Force plane flying high enough to avoid puncturing the nighttime silence, members of a Navy SEAL team parachuted into Somalia's darkness to rescue two aid workers, an American and a Dane, from their three-month captivity.

The operation, which unfolded early Wednesday local time in a remote region of Somalia, extracted the two hostages unharmed and left their nine captors dead, according to the U.S. military. It represented the first public report of an extended U.S. ground raid in that country since a 1993 operation in Mogadishu that left 19 American service members dead and prompted the U.S. to withdraw from Somalia.
The raid was planned and carried out after U.S. officials developed intelligence on the hostages' location and information that raised concerns about the deteriorating health of Jessica Buchanan, a 32-year-old American originally from Ohio. "There was a window of opportunity for military success," Navy Capt. John Kirby, the chief Pentagon spokesman, said Wednesday. "Within the last week or so, we were able to connect enough dots to make the decision."

The operation was the culmination of weeks of secrecy and strategy sessions among officials at the White House, the Pentagon and U.S. military commands abroad, according to defense and senior administration officials. The plan was propelled by the urgency of freeing Ms. Buchanan and Poul Hagen Thisted, a 60-year-old Danish man. Working for a Danish nonprofit group that removes land mines from conflict zones, the two were taken hostage Oct. 25, 2011, by gunmen with unknown motives.

The White House and top Pentagon officials tracked the situation from that day, officials say. On Nov. 23, the White House held a formal meeting of the national security staff to discuss it. Officials appear to have been uncertain then of where the two were being held. At that meeting, President Barack Obama directed that the efforts to find Ms. Buchanan continue, a senior administration official said.

By January, U.S. officials appear to have homed in on the location, near Gadaado, Somalia, east of the Ethiopian border. Last week, aides briefed Mr. Obama on new intelligence reports that Ms. Buchanan's health was deteriorating. Administration and military officials didn't provide details of Ms. Buchanan's health condition, citing privacy restrictions. Members of her family couldn't be located to comment Wednesday.

Don Meyer, the president of Valley Forge Christian College, the Pennsylvania school from which Ms. Buchanan graduated, said the college community was "grateful" for the rescue by the U.S. commandos. "I'm glad they are on our side," he said. John Brennan, the president's senior counterterrorism adviser, began providing Mr. Obama daily updates, noting that a rescue attempt was likely imminent.

To carry out any rescue, the military chose a commando team that included members of SEAL Team Six, the elite special mission unit that carried out the May 2011 raid into Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden. On Saturday, senior national-security officials held a video teleconference to discuss rescue options, the senior administration official said. At a Monday evening meeting with Mr. Brennan in the White House residence, Mr. Obama authorized the operation.

On Tuesday evening in Washington, before leaving to watch Mr. Obama deliver his annual State of the Union address, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta watched the raid unfold on a video link at the White House. The Air Force provided overhead video of the raid as it unfolded, officials said. Across the world, an Air Force plane ferrying the commandos had taken off from an undisclosed location and flew over Somalia, close to the Ethiopian border. The commandos jumped out.

They were on the ground for about an hour. The SEALs found the encampment where nine armed men were holding the two captives. They reported that there were also explosives at the location. Military officials provided few details of the armed encounter, including how the hostages were being held or the details behind the fight that left the captors dead. Provisions had been made to detain anyone who surrendered but the SEAL team didn't take prisoners, defense officials said. After the team freed Ms. Buchanan and Mr. Thisted, Army helicopters landed to ferry the SEAL team and the rescued hostages to safety.

The president was told at 6:43 p.m. that Ms. Buchanan and Mr. Thisted had been rescued and were safe. At 9 p.m., as he entered the House chamber to deliver his address, Mr. Obama turned to Mr. Panetta to tell him, "Good job tonight." After the speech, Mr. Obama spoke with Ms. Buchanan's father to inform him of the successful rescue mission, administration officials said.

The first stop for the freed hostages was a U.S. base in nearby Djibouti, Camp Lemonnier. Military officials declined to say later whether the hostages remained there or were taken elsewhere, saying they were at a medical facility in the region.

For the military, Tuesday's raid represented something of a return to Somalia. Under the Bush and Obama administration, the military has conducted occasional strikes at suspected terrorists. But until Tuesday, there hadn't been a public report of an extended ground raid. U.S. ground forces have mostly steered clear of the country since 1993. That year, U.S. special operations forces trying to capture Somali warlords ended up battling militants in a clash that left hundreds of Somalis and 19 American service members dead.

Pentagon officials said they haven't confirmed whether the captors holding Ms. Buchanan and Mr. Thisted had direct ties to pirates, characterizing them only as criminals. Still, military officials said that some pirates move between trying to capture ships and other criminal activity.

Emmanuel Ksiangani, a senior researcher at the South Africa based Institute for Security Studies who monitors Somalia, said the raid was unlikely to deter kidnappers in that country, parts of which has been buffeted by waves of drought, famine and armed conflict over the last two years.

"This doesn't change the dynamic of these people having no other source of livelihood and so they will try again," said Mr. Ksiangani. "They will use this as a propaganda tool. Even if these were criminal elements, they will say they killed innocent people and try to capitalize on the deaths of Somalis to create resentment against the United States." Wall Street Journal.
—Solomon Moore contributed to this article.

Happy Chinese New Year

2012-01-24T08:45:00.000+08:00

To all my relations and dear friends and friends of friends who will be celebrating the year of the Dragon, have a great new year. May love, health and prosperity shine upon you all.

The Turkish denial of Genocide brought to account for now, in France

2012-01-24T08:36:00.002+08:00

French parliament votes to make it a crime to deny 1915 killings of Armenians was genocide. Well done, France! PARIS — France’s parliament voted Monday to make it a crime to deny that the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks nearly a century ago constituted a genocide, risking more sanctions from Turkey and complicating an already delicate relationship with the rising power. Turkey, which sees the allegations of genocide as a threat to its national honor, suspended military, economic and political ties and briefly recalled its ambassador last month when the lower house of parliament approved the same bill. Denial is an egoistical syndrome amongst kids.

"In April 1915 the Ottoman government embarked upon the systematic decimation of its civilian Armenian population. The persecutions continued with varying intensity until 1923 when the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist and was replaced by the Republic of Turkey. The Armenian population of the Ottoman state was reported at about two million in 1915. An estimated one million had perished by 1918, while hundreds of thousands had become homeless and stateless refugees. By 1923 virtually the entire Armenian population of Anatolian Turkey had disappeared." -- Armenian National Institute.

Before Monday’s Senate vote, Turkey threatened more measures if the bill passed, though did not specify them. President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose party supported the bill, still needs to sign it into law, but that is largely considered a formality. The debate surrounding the measure comes in the highly charged run-up to France’s presidential elections this spring, and critics have called the move a ploy to the garner votes of the some 500,000 Armenians who live in France. Valerie Boyer, the lawmaker from Sarkozy’s conservative UMP party who wrote the bill, did not deny that, saying that politicians are supposed to pass laws that they think their constituents want. “That’s democracy,” she said.

But this domestic gamble could have major international consequences. France’s relations with Turkey are already strained, in large part because Sarkozy opposes Turkey’s entry into the European Union. The law will no doubt further sour relations with a NATO member that is playing an increasingly important role in the international community’s response to the violence in Syria, the standoff over Iran’s nuclear program and peace negotiations in the Middle East.

“It is null and void for us,” Turkey’s Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin said on live TV immediately after the bill’s passage Monday. “It is a great disgrace and injustice against Turkey. I want to tell to France that you have no value for us in the slightest degree, we don’t care.” The bill has also drawn massive protests in Paris, with thousands of Turks converging on the city this weekend to denounce it. On Monday, smaller rival demonstrations, separated by a substantial police presence, gathered outside the Senate.

The Senate voted 127 to 86 to pass the bill late Monday. Twenty-four people abstained. The measure sets a punishment of up to one year in prison and a fine of €45,000 ($59,000) for those who deny or “outrageously minimize” the killings. Despite the potentially serious consequences, many senators did not show up for the vote, instead allowing colleagues to serve as proxies. Those in the Senate chamber, however, fiercely debated the measure over several hours.

For some in France, the bill is part of a tradition of legislation in some European countries, born of the agonies of the Holocaust, that criminalizes the denial of genocides. Denying the Holocaust is already a punishable crime in France. Most historians contend that the 1915 killings of 1.5 million Armenians as the Ottoman Empire broke up was the 20th century’s first genocide, and several European countries recognize the massacres as such. Switzerland has convicted people of racism for denying the genocide. The Washington Post.

Ten Suggestions For Turkey To Face Its Own History

2012-01-24T08:24:00.001+08:00

Hayk Demoyan

BY HAYK DEMOYAN

The landmark decision made by the Lower House of the French Parliament on criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial provoked an impressive and harsh reaction from Turkish political circles illustrated the aggressive tone in their rhetoric. Indeed, the French law with all chances to be affirmed by Senate sounds like an anathema for Turkey, a country which desires to ascribe itself a new role and activities as a regional power with ambitious projects.

Once again the Turkish leadership faced enormous humiliation and reacted very nervously realizing that the French bill may create a domino effect for new recognitions of the Armenian Genocide and criminalization of the denial of the Turkish atrocities committed during the WWI. Ankara’s disappointment is doubled since the state-sponsored denial campaign and face-saving proposal for establishment of the commission of historians are in limbo.

Thus, as a substitute, Ankara has launched a new campaign of sympathy which is intent on putting forward such or similar proposals from the mouths of foreign leaders. Despite the fact that the very idea of the commission of historians and accusation that Armenia has territorial claims from Turkey is already proven to be a bluff, some leaders in order to please panicked Turkish officials willingly became victims of Turkish tricks. It is especially bizarre that the Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey states “the historians would then contribute to discussions with their findings”, (Swissinfo, December 26, 2011). It is clear that Turkey wants to take from dead protocols what is desired, and avoid the unpleasant responsibilities. The idea fix of the Turkish side is to make Armenian Genocide a subject for endless debates at the same time ignoring historical facts and academic findings on the subject, which has long concluded that Armenian Genocide is a classical example of state organized genocide, a statement made primarily by Rafael Lemkin, a Jewish lawyer who coined the term genocide and gave legal explanations to it back in 1944, thus paving the way for Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Recently Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated that the main obstacles to Turkey to become “one of the world’s most powerful states is that it can’t face up to its past, history, taboos and fears” (Asbarez, November 23, 2011). Like a mantra Turkish leaders and government-associated intellectuals do not stop dealing with its own past via a common practice called – escaping from the truth via denying what happened. The very idea of the commission of historians which is clearly political rather than academic offer is intended to be a trap, striving to receive the rejection of the Armenian side, and at the same time to get a positive stance towards this idea from the world. This goes hand in hand with nervous attempts of the Turkish side to blame on victims for committing mass killings of Turks, a trick, which is very common approach in almost all genocidal crimes and attempts to justify perpetrators.

On November 23, 2011, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, while referring to the Dersim killings of Kurds back in 1930s, said “the most tragic incident of our near past.” While apologizing for Dersim killings Ankara consciously or not slightly linked itself with the Armenian Genocide since many of those who were massacred in Dersim and surrounding territories were Armenian survivors of the Genocide (committed by Young Turks and Kemalist forces between 1915-1922), who found refuge among friendly Kurds. Another shocking confession by the Turkish prime minister: “…It is a disaster that should now be questioned with courage. The party that should confront this incident is not the ruling Justice and Development Party [AK Party]. It is the CHP, which is behind this bloody disaster, who should face this incident and its chairman from Tunceli.” (www.eurasianet.org, November 23, 2011). Leaving aside political connotations of the statement one could say that while criticizing the Republican People’s Party (RPP) led by Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey, Erdogan again points to the Armenian Genocide crimes as well, since many leaders who joined Kemal Ataturk’s team were members of the Ittihadist party, and directly were involved in decision making and perpetration of the Armenian Genocide. Moreover, during the Dersim crimes the RPP was the sole party in the country, as was Ittihad ve Terakki during the WWI when the Genocides against Armenians and other Christian subjects of the Ottoman Empire were being committed.

I would like to set a symbolic roadmap for the Turkish side on what should be done before rising the issue of necessity of the discussion of the Armenian Genocide and better preparation for discussion of unpleasant and intentionally hidden pages of the Turkish history.

Hence I do hope that the following tips could be very useful to follow:

1. It is an urgent need to revise the Kemalist heritage in the social and intellectual debates, especially in terms of lifting a Soviet-like ban on discussion of historical events and censoring memory;

2. It is urgent to eliminate Procrustean Article 301 of the Turkish Criminal Code on insulting the Turkish nation and give a real chance for Turkish academicians, journalists to express their opinions freely, with no fears of being punished for their opinions and judgments;

3. To enable Turkish and foreign researchers to conduct their studies freely, it is strongly suggested that Ankara open the Turkish archives fully, among them the archives of the General staff, declassifying those materials which are related to the hearings of the Turkish military courts in 1919-1922, which sentenced the main criminals responsible for perpetration of the Armenian Genocide to death;

4. It is necessary for Turkey to take real measures for the prevention of further destruction of cultural monuments of Armenian heritage or erasing the cultural markers under the pretext of their restoration. One more important gesture would be welcomed if Ankara orders the removal of Turkish flags from Armenian monuments, especially from those churches which were turned into military depots;

5. It is strongly suggested that the hatred and xenophobia against the Armenians and national minorities living on the territory of Turkey be removed from the Turkish textbooks. It is important also to cease any politically motivated denial campaign in Turkish schools;

6. Stop the financial activities in hiring scholars to deny the Armenian Genocide and while doing so denying the inseparable part of the Turkish history—the Armenian Genocide is not only part of Armenian history and memory, but also that of Turkey;

7. Accept internationally recognized and scholarly accepted definition for “tragic events of 1915” and recognize the crimes committed by Turkey in the past as Genocide and cease all attempts to deny it;

8. Consider the Armenian Genocide, as well as genocidal activities against other indigenous people of Anatolia, such as Greeks and Assyrians, as a shameful page of Turkish history and be ready to apologize without any reservations and semantic exercises;

9. While recognizing and apologizing for the committed genocidal crimes, Turkey must be ready for elimination of the consequences of genocide committed and undertake necessary measures to prepare Turkish society for such developments;

10. It would be a great step for Ankara to deal with the Armenian Genocide issue while accepting the following motto with four important notions: RECOGNITION, CONDEMNATION, APOLOGY AND ELIMINATION OF CONCEQUENCES OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE.

In the end I would like to suggest several proposals on possible commissions which could be useful to and will enable Turkey to face with its own history. The following proposals would be important for further reconciliation of the Turkish society with its own history and memory instead of solely focusing on the questionable Turkish-Armenian commission of historians.

Let Turkey set commissions in following areas:
a. Turkish-Armenian, Turkish-EU and Turkish-Syrian commissions on border issues;

b. Turkish-Cypriot commission on war crimes of the Turkish armed forces in Cyprus in 1974;

c. Turkish-Greek commission on compensation of Greek victims of the state organized pogroms of 1955 in Istanbul;

d. Turkey-NATO commission on training of Azerbaijani officers on the territory of occupied Northern Cyprus;

e. Jewish-Turkish commission on forcible exile and violation of the rights of Jews of Thrace in early 1930s;

f. Turkish-Kurdish commission on compensation as a result of forced resettlement of Kurdish citizens;

g. Turkish-Armenian commission on the elimination of the consequences of the Armenian Genocide

Is that enough until the centennial of the Turkish Republic in 2023?

I think it is more than enough…

Hayk Demoyan is director of the Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute at Dzidzernagapert Asbarez

Barefoot College

2012-01-23T09:00:00.001+08:00

Exercise Carat Part 1 (2008)

2012-01-23T08:34:00.006+08:00

Go here for Part 2

Go here for Part 3

Nigeria: At least 156 dead in wave of bombings, shootings; Boko Haram jihadists claim responsibility

2012-01-22T12:05:00.003+08:00

All of this is supposed to usher in a paradise under Sharia, just as soon as they can kill and terrorize enough people who would stand in the way. "Scores dead as assailants target northern Nigerian city," by Nima Elbagir and Hassan John for CNN, January 21:

Lagos, Nigeria (CNN) -- Nigeria imposed a 24-hour curfew Saturday in the northern city of Kano after assailants killed scores of people and wounded others in a hail of gunfire and coordinated bombings of eight government sites. A military official told CNN that at least 156 people were dead and feared the number would rise.

"The hospitals are not equipped to deal with the influx and severity of the injuries, so we are expecting that figure to go up further," the official said. Nwankpa Nwankpa, a Red Cross information officer in the capital, Abuja, said 50 people were injured in the attacks. He said that search and rescue operations are underway and volunteers are working to assist the injured.

The attacks targeted several police stations, barracks and the building housing the assistant inspector general of police in Kano, Nigeria's second largest city. A passport office, state security headquarters and the immigration office were also hit, police said.

Terrified residents barricaded themselves in their homes, said Rev. Murtala Mati of the Christian Association of Nigeria. "The government is really trying but we are afraid ... we are all scared," he said. During the attack, assailants entered a police station, freed detainees and bombed it, authorities said. They later canvassed the area in a car led by motorcycles, spraying targets with gunfire.

Islamist group Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the blast in a phone call to the Daily Trust, according to journalists at the newspaper.

Nigeria closed its borders Saturday with Cameroon and Niger, whom it has accused of allowing the militants to move freely into Nigeria. The government has put in place a state of emergency, and a large deployment of troops has been sent to the north of the country....

Boko Haram's conduct suggests it wants an open civil war between Christians and Muslims, which would make it easier for it to claim territory and impose Sharia. Nigeria should pull a Sudan and have the south secede from the north. The current boundaries were made by the British and there is nothing sacred about them. Hat tip: Jihad Watch

The presidency is incompatible with adherence to sharia by By Andrew C. McCarthy

2012-01-22T12:00:00.001+08:00

Newt Gingrich’s ardent admiration for Franklin Delano Roosevelt owes more to the latter’s unflinching wartime leadership than his welfare-state policy prescriptions. This week, though, the former Speaker is also undoubtedly in accord with FDR’s aphorism, “I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.” To his great credit, Newt has made an enemy of CAIR.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, that is. The nation’s best known cheerleader for radical Islam — or, as Fox News compliantly puts it, “the largest Muslim civil liberties group in the United States” — has issued a blistering press release that labels Gingrich “one of the nation’s worst promoters of anti-Muslim bigotry.” The occasion for this outburst is the imminent Republican primary in South Carolina.Asked at a campaign appearance whether he’d ever consider endorsing a Muslim for president, Gingrich sensibly answered that he would not rule it out — “it would depend on whether [the hypothetical Muslim candidate] would commit in public to give up sharia.” Naturally, the usual suspects are in full fury, with CAIR the loudest among them. They’ve trotted out the rote response, dutifully echoed by Fox, that sharia, Islam’s legal code, is simply a set of spiritual guidelines — one that, in CAIR’s portrayal, “teaches marital fidelity, generous charity, and a thirst for knowledge.”

Actually, it teaches polygamy, the underwriting of jihadist violence through ostensible charity, and the Islamization of knowledge. Don’t take my word for it. I refer you instead to a CAIR favorite, the International Institute of Islamic Thought.

CAIR and IIIT are both Muslim Brotherhood affiliates long active in our country. Founded in the early Eighties, IIIT is a Virginia-based think tank dedicated to what it calls the “Islamization of knowledge,” which is a “euphemism,” as the Hudson Institute’s Zeyno Baran puts it, “for the rewriting of history to support Islamist narratives” — such as the claim that Spain is actually the rightful property of Muslims, to be renamed “al-Andalus,” as it was known under jihadist conquest. CAIR, strategically based in Washington, was shrewdly designed to be an Islamist public-relations arm — the Brotherhood realizing that the American media and government were suckers for agitators who style themselves as “civil rights” advocates. This was back in the mid-Nineties, when new criminal laws against supporting terrorists complicated the Brotherhood’s overt championing of Hamas.

Both CAIR and IIIT were identified as Brotherhood satellites in the internal Brotherhood memoranda that proved critical in the Justice Department’s successful Holy Land Foundation prosecution — a case involving millions of dollars funneled to Hamas, and a case in which CAIR was cited as an unindicted co-conspirator.

CAIR and the IIIT are so inter-bred that CAIR’s advisory board has included Sayyid Syeed, a founder of, and director of “academic outreach” for, IIIT — in addition to being a founder of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA, another unindicted coconspirator in the HLF case) and a former president of the Muslim Students Association (MSA), the first building block of the Brotherhood’s American infrastructure. And late last year, just weeks before blasting Gingrich, CAIR presented a lifetime achievement award to Iqbal Unus, a top IIIT official, who was also a prime mover in the development of MSA and ISNA.

CAIR’s reverence for the IIIT is relevant because the Islamization think-tank is prominent among the endorsers of Reliance of the Traveller: A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law. In fact, IIIT’s endorsement report is included in Reliance, vouching that this English translation of Umdat al-Salik — an authoritative compendium of sharia composed by a renowned 14th-century Islamic jurist — is accurate, faithful to Muslim doctrine, and highly successful in “its aim to imbue the consciousness of the non-Arabic-speaking Muslim with a sound understanding of Sacred Law.” Thus, IIIT opined, “there is no doubt that this translation is a valuable and important work, whether as a textbook for teaching Islamic jurisprudence to English speakers, or as a legal reference for use by scholars, educated laymen, and students in this [English] language.”

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Militant Islamism, Islamism, Islam by Clifford D. May

2012-01-22T11:41:00.001+08:00

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has described the Muslim Brotherhood as “secular.” Vice President Joseph Biden recently said that the Taliban “is not our enemy.” According to John Brennan, assistant to the president on counterterrorism, terrorists who proclaim they are motivated by religion should not be described using “religious terms.” Where do ideas such as these come from? The answer, in large measure, is from advisers — so perhaps it would be instructive to examine more closely what those advisers are actually saying.

U.S. Navy Commander Youssef H. Aboul-Enein “has advised at the highest levels of the defense department and the intelligence community,” according to the jacket notes on his book, Militant Islamist Ideology: Understanding the Global Threat, published by the Naval Institute Press. Raymond Ibrahim, a young analyst for whom I have great respect, recently gave the book a withering review. My reading is less harsh. I think that Commander Aboul-Enein, who was born in Mississippi and raised in Saudi Arabia, is grappling, seriously and sincerely, with the pathologies that have arisen from within the Muslim world, and is struggling to formulate a coherent American response. That should not suggest, however, that his efforts have been entirely successful.

Aboul-Enein states that the “challenge to America’s national security in the twenty-first century” comes from “Militant Islamist Ideology.” Good for him for not defaulting to “violent extremism,” a term designed to hide rather than to reveal. He urges that policy makers adopt a “nuanced” approach to this challenge — one that “disaggregates” Militant Islamism from both Islam and Islamism.

To charge that “all Islam is evil,” he says, is a mistake. For many Muslims, Islam is “a source of values that guide conduct rather than a system that offers solutions to all problems.” It is no less incorrect, he adds — with more intellectual honesty than many other analysts have demonstrated — to “insist that all Islam is peaceful.” Islamic scripture provides ample justification for hating, oppressing, and killing non-Muslims. But it is neither accurate nor productive, argues Aboul-Enein, to confirm the militants’ claim that theirs is the only authentic interpretation of Islam — that Muslims not waging a “jihad” against “infidels” are, at best, misguided; at worst, traitors to their faith.

As for Islamists, he confirms that they seek “unacceptable outcomes for the United States in the long run.” Allow me to offer one example: Muhammad Badi, supreme leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, said last year that Muslims should strive for “a government evolving into a rightly guided caliphate and finally mastership of the world.”

Despite that, Aboul-Enein argues that Islamism has “potential” as an “alternative to Militant Islamist Ideology.” His rationale: Islamists intend to achieve their objectives not through violence but “within the political and electoral frameworks of the countries in which they operate.”

This is where, in my view, he gets lost in the analytic woods. Islamists may prefer ballots to bullets. But is that because, as Aboul-Enein asserts, they “abhor the violent methodologies espoused by Militant Islamists”? Or is it because they see elections as a less bumpy path to power?

Sheikh Yousef Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood’s spiritual leader, has said that Islam will “conquer Rome . . . not by the sword but by preaching.” But if you were to infer that he has a moral objection to violence, you’d be wrong. The proof: Qaradawi has praised Hitler for his “punishment” of the Jews, adding, “Allah willing, the next time will be at the hand of the believers.”

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A Veterans Rendezvous

2012-01-21T06:20:00.010+08:00

A VETERANS RENDEZVOUS

MALAYSIA’S ARMED FORCES VETERANS Celebrate

A MONTHLY SOCIAL RENDEZVOUS

Wednesday, 25^th January 2012

from 1200 to 1600, at HERITAGE CLUB & LOUNGE

The Royal Chulan, Kuala Lumpur, No 5, Jalan Conlay.

Dress Code: Smart Casual, Mufti. Service & Corps Berets optional.

NOTES

SOFT DRINKS: At RM2.00++ per drink. JUICES & COFFEE/TEA: Hotel prices

BEER: RM7.00 nett 1200 to 1600. RM7.00++ per glass from 1600

Whisky & Spirits: No Corkage. Wine: Corkage RM20.00 per bottle.

Food can be purchased at reasonable cost. Cash terms only.

Contact Persons:

Advisor: Rear Admiral Dato Yaacob Daud (Rtd): HP 012 381 5451

Army Rep: Lt Col Tommy Pereira (Rtd). HP: 019 662 0684

Navy Rep: Cdr Phua Hean Sim (Rtd) 017 330 0339

Air Force Rep: Brig Gen Dato Soon Lian Cheng (Rtd) HP: 012 640 8109

A LAST WEDNESDAY OF EACH MONTH SOCIAL GATHERING

A HERITAGE CLUB ACTIVITY

He is still the Minister with the convoluted logic when he says Public disclosure of ministers' assets 'dangerous'

2012-01-19T21:54:00.005+08:00

Remember him before, I pinched this article from LKS's blog which was written by Martin Jalleh. It was too good, I just could not resist it. A great dressing down for the MP of Padang Rengas. Who is small the boy in the Prime Minister’s Department who treats and turns parliament into his personal playground where he proudly leaves a trail of his political pooh behind? Who is the small boy who tries to act tough, talks big and throws his weight around and wants everybody to think that he is the PM and that he knows everything? More here.....

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz has this convoluted logic. Revealing the asset declarations of ministers and their immediate family members to the public should not be done, "as this may endanger them"."This is especially so as it will also include personal details, on which we also have laws to protect against indiscriminate distribution," Nazri told a press conference in Putrajaya. Asked for details of such "dangers", he would only say that disclosing one's personal wealth to the public at large may present dangers if outsiders knew about the extent of the wealth and properties. In full from Malaysiakini.

Extracted from Malaysiakini comment by Gerard Samuel Vijayan : The "danger" is to the ministers, their spouses and families because the rakyat will be shocked to find out how much of wealth, power and privilege that they have amassed over the years on their meagre ministerial salaries. Their lifestyle and behaviour both in public and private cannot be sustained based on their "official" salaries and perks.

This is a can of worms for UMNO/BN and the PR should harp on this refusal or fear to make a full and frank public disclosure in all their ceramahs especially in the rural Malay heartland. If UMNO ministers claim to be "clean, responsible, decent and pious" Muslims why the fear to disclose? They are already protected by the UTK, SB and police, so what threat to their lives?

This is the lamest excuse and most irresponsible statement ever coming from a minister in 50 years! Disclosure to the PM alone is not enough. It is just like a band of thieves confiding in their leader. Why fear the MACC (toothless tiger) and the public if you have nothing to hide?

Turkey: NATO’s ‘Open Prison’ by Alex Alexiev

2012-01-18T21:17:00.003+08:00

The West needs to confront Turkey, its former ally.

With Egypt’s Islamists scoring a crushing electoral victory over their secular opponents, governments and pundits alike are considering the likely denouement of the vaunted Arab Spring in the region’s largest country, Turkey. It is therefore worth noting some very troubling recent developments in the country that the Muslim Brotherhood and many in the West consistently tout as a successful “Islamist democracy” worth emulating.

On January 5, Turkish prosecutors arrested Gen. Ilker Basbug — the commander, until 2010, of the Turkish Armed Forces appointed by prime minister Recep Erdogan’s government — for allegedly plotting terrorist activities against the state. Basbug now faces the same predicament as 300 other military officers who have languished in jail for years on dubious charges of conspiracy to overthrow the AKP (Justice and Development Party) government, without a single conviction to date.

Perhaps even more disturbing, the regime has begun a new wave of arrests of journalists, bringing their total in prison to 98, as reported by the Turkish journalists union, though this number is not exact. Few of them have been convicted of anything, even though some of them have been kept in jail for four years. Using terrorism legislation to keep suspected opponents in jail for years on trumped-up charges appears to have become the Erdogan regime’s favorite method of punishing and intimidating the opposition and stifling the press. Nor are these tactics limited to his political opponents. In a searing indictment of the profoundly undemocratic nature of the justice system under Erdogan, the Turkish Human Rights Association revealed that 42 percent of the 128,000 people currently imprisoned in Turkey have never been convicted of a crime. To find preemptive incarceration on this scale, one would have to go back to the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century.

Not surprisingly, the AKP’s increasingly repressive policies have caused a storm of indignation among opposition parties in parliament, where the AKP has a commanding majority. The leader of the main opposition party, CHP (the Republican People’s Party), Kemal Kilicdaroglu, accused the government of engaging in a “blood feud” and of having transformed the country into an “open prison,” while another opposition-party leader blasted the AKP for “legitimizing oppression, lawlessness, and slander.”

In response, a government prosecutor has asked the Ministry of Justice to remove Kilicdaroglu’s parliamentary immunity, making it possible for him also to be indicted and thrown in jail for “attempting to influence a fair trial.” As if to confirm that the prosecutor acted with the full support of the government, Prime Minister Erdogan opined tersely that “what needed to happen has happened,” adding that the prosecutor’s action was long overdue. Should the Islamist government carry out this blatant threat to silence even the duly elected opposition, it would be difficult to argue that the AKP regime maintains even a semblance of democracy.

Which raises the question why the AKP appears to be in such a hurry, seemingly overreaching at a time when there is no visible challenge to its political dominance. The short answer is that, just below the surface, problems are brewing that may soon present a formidable threat to Turkey’s Islamists. To begin with, the grand geopolitical scheme of the AKP, known as “Neo-Ottomanism,” is in shambles. The policy was designed to re-create a Turkish Islamist sphere of influence in former Ottoman domains, based on the radicalization of Muslim minorities and a putative “zero problems with neighbors” policy, but its author, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, has little to show for his efforts. Nor has he succeeded in convincing the Balkan Christian nations long enslaved by the Ottomans that “the Ottoman centuries were a successful history” that “needs to be re-created.” Worse still, in his hysterical reaction to the new French law making the denial of Armenian genocide a crime, Davutoglu has managed to alienate the French — especially Nicolas Sarkozy, whom he compared to dictators Bashar al-Assad and Moammar Qaddafi. (He conveniently forgot that the former was a favorite Neo-Ottoman partner, while the latter dispensed the al-Qaddafi Human Rights Prize to a grateful Erdogan.) Erdogan’s anti-Israeli policy has created yet another axis of intractable conflict, and recent indications that Ankara is taking over from Tehran the role of chief sponsor of Hamas is only likely to exacerbate it.

Domestically, the AKP has aggravated the conflict with Turkey’s large Kurdish minority to such an extent that a new flare-up of widespread Kurdish anti-government violence is no longer unthinkable. Neither is the large, educated, and secular Alevi community anywhere near making its peace with the Islamists.

Perhaps most significantly, there are now clear signs that the AKP’s greatest achievement and the most important source of its popularity, a booming economy, may soon be a thing of the past. Over the past year, the Turkish stock market has lost half of its value, inflation has reached double digits, and the lira has depreciated 20 percent against the dollar. With the country importing twice as much as it exports, the trade deficit is an unsustainable 10 percent of GDP. Indeed, none of these trends is sustainable, which is why the International Monetary Fund now projects a dramatic slowdown of Turkish GDP growth — from 7.5 percent in 2011 to 2 percent in 2012.

Despite these troubling signs on all fronts, there is no evidence that the West, especially Washington, is willing to go beyond the usual apologetics for the AKP regime and admit that our NATO ally is becoming an enemy of the West and everything it stands for. If this continues, American politicians may begin having to ask, “Who lost Turkey?”

— Alex Alexiev is a visiting fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C. He tweets on national-security politics at twitter.com/alexieff. National Review

Martin Luther King Jr: "Israel... is one of the great outpost of democracy in the world"

2012-01-18T06:00:00.003+08:00

When America lost Martin Luther King, they lost an entire generation of Americans to the divisive, nefarious posers who tried to fill the vacuum that King's assassination created for their own evil ends. And still, to this day, the memory of Dr. King is looted to advance the agenda of liars, cheaters and destroyers.

Below are a few quotes by King on this topic here:

1)"Israel’s right to exist as a state in security is uncontestable.”

2)Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity. I see Israel as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality.

3)“I cannot stand idly by, even though I happen to live in the United States and even though I happen to be an American Negro and not be concerned about what happens to the Jews in Soviet Russia. For what happens to them happens to me and you, and we must be concerned.”

4)During an appearance at Harvard University shortly before his death, a student stood up and asked King to address himself to the issue of Zionism. The question was clearly hostile. King responded, “When people criticize Zionists they mean Jews, you are talking anti-Semitism.”

5)“I solemnly pledge to do my utmost to uphold the fair name of the Jews-because bigotry in any form is an affront to us all.”
Hat tip: Atlas Shrugs

The manufacturing of the fear culture By Commander (Rtd) S Thayaparan

2012-01-17T05:36:00.003+08:00

COMMENT Fear has been the primary weapon for social and economical cohesion in Malaysia, and religion or more accurately Islam has been the ‘keris' - either sheathed or unsheathed - that has reminded us of our place in the natural order of the BN-constructed reality. The politically-motivated acquittal of Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim on his politically-motivated charges has brought on the real possibility of a new era of government comprised of a contentious group of political, racial, social, economical, but most importantly, religious interests.

If it truly is to be a Malaysia for all Malaysians regardless of race or religion, we have to understand Islam and why we have come to fear it. And we are not alone. All over the world there is a deep undercurrent of discontent when it comes to Islam and this cannot be merely dismissed as the angst induced by right-wing or nationalistic propaganda. I say "we" because I am not merely referring to non-Muslims but also to Muslims.

If the non-Muslim fears to speak out when his or her rights are trampled on for fear of the repercussions, so it is for the Muslim who fears to speak out in case he is labeled a traitor to his religion or worse. Fear is the commonality and it binds both believer and non-believer alike.

BN's social engineering

A fear culture is about control. It takes shapes in a variety of forms depending on the impetus of its makers, be it ideological, social or religious. In Malaysia, where Islam is the dominant method of controlling the population and discourse, it is the majority Malays that are under the most pressure from the state. And it is with them that the future of this country rests. The fear culture needs for large swathes of the population to be fearful of the "other". It needs for them to be ignorant of the state's own malfeasances.

It uses the instruments at its disposal - education and the media - to inculcate a culture of distrust that serves its own agenda. It does this by conflating race and religion and it has done an extremely good job of giving shape to the fears of a large population of Malays. The fact that the discourse in Malaysia is always dominated by race and religion is testament to how effective the ruling regime has been in carrying out its various social engineering programmes.

When I was a young naval officer, I wrote a paper comparing the May 13 riots to a Christmas party if ever Malays fought amongst themselves for control of their community and the destiny of Malaysia. The problem is that the term "Malay" itself has become meaningless with the introduction of constitutionally created Malays to bolster the voting power of the ruling Umno regime. What this has done is to introduce "foreign" cultural elements that are both myopic and outward looking into mainstream Malay society, and of course Islamic discourse.

If ever there is an eventual showdown between Umno and the Anwar-led dissidents, it would involve more that just "authentic" Malays but rather a whole range of diverse Muslim informed ethnic groups vying for control over, what has been championed as Malay rights, and in the end, control of this nation. Religion and race which were willfully conflated will become the Pandora's Box that plunges this country into communal violence. If the tide of bigotry and governmental malfeasance is not stemmed, we will go the route of the failed state and be confined to the trash can of history.

Non-Malays willing participants

What of the role of the "other" in this fear culture? We non-Malays and non-Muslims have been cast in the role of victims in this culture and we have passionately embraced this role never realising that it was with our consent that this reality has taken root over the years. We have been willing participants as our rights have been eroded, our various faiths mocked. We have colluded in the denunciation of those who have chosen the more difficult non-mainstream road of dissenting against the established order that we wholeheartedly embraced.

It matters not to me if this system is merely a relic from our colonial history or that the established racial divisions a cunning ploy of our colonial master. What matters to me is how we (ab)used the system in the name of racial and religious integration when it was anything but. Early arguments about being grateful for being allowed to live here have given way to more sophisticated "racialist" concepts of Ketuanan Melayu and the need to defend Islam against interlopers. History has been reshaped to fit the narrative of the Malays as being benevolent hosts and later imperiled bumiputeras.

We willingly shaped this country into what it is today and we are repulsed by our own creation. My concern has never been for the urban Christians who flock to houses of worship who nurture their consumerist instincts and pastors who are bestowed great wealth by parishioners in the guise of divine blessing. It is not for the temple priests who bathe themselves in gold and charge the faithful in coin for the benevolence of a thousand different gods.

My concern is for the people whose religion has been mocked and their faith disenfranchised. The indigenous people whose choice of religion makes them targets for they dare wonder off the religious reservations imposed on them. It's for the "poor" churches and temples which are destroyed and whose worshipers are intimated when they do their god's work, servicing communities who don't share the same faith as them.

The Brutuses among us

For far too long, many non-Muslims who were in a position to vocalise the distress of others, at the inequality that surrounded them, did nothing but pray to their gods for their own self-enrichment, conveniently leaving politics to "others". Now it seems they have discovered their courage and the full force of the state's fear instruments have been deployed against them. Suddenly, issues which were subservient to consumerist desires have become important but because they have been apathetic to the needs of their own communities, they have neither the skill nor the fortitude to combat these forces.

So they look either for divine guidance or to other more seasoned veterans to fight their battles for them, ironically the same disenfranchised religious groups who have been articulating their fears for years. By their omissions, the non-Malays have not only done a disservice to their own communities but we have done a greater disservice to the Malay community. Our silence and complicity all these years has empowered the more radical Islamic elements (and disenfranchised the more moderate ones) who have always been against the corrupt practices of the state.

And the state's more militant response in its Islamic social engineering programmes was to counter the lack of Islamic credentials arguments promulgated by the ever changing Islamic party. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.

Dismantling BN's fear culture

If we are to have faith in Pakatan Rakyat then they must convince voters of any race or religion that they are willing to break the culture of fear that the BN has cultivated over the years. As the alliance with the sole Islamic party - PAS - a party in the midst of vicious internal political infighting between moderate and fundamentalist impulses, and with PKR beholden to said parties influence and ground-level reach, it is incumbent on Pakatan to demonstrate that they can balance the religious needs of their most strident members without resorting to the old ways of Umno.

What Pakatan has going for it is both its strength and weakness. The DAP which has been labeled racist and anti-Muslim has been on the just side of the religious debate since the slow creep of Islamisation through the decades. However, they have effectively been cut off from a rural Muslim population that views them as both a foreign influence, intent on usurping their Malay sovereignty and a threat to their religion. Furthermore, the so-called urban Muslim intelligentsia beholden to Umno for obvious reasons continues to demonise any form of egalitarian discourse emanating from the DAP.

The recent high-profile inclusion of two Umno stalwarts into the DAP is a good sign, but one wonders how this will eventually turn out considering the enormous pressure placed upon Muslims and their role in the public discourse. But I take great comfort in the intellectual premise articulated by slain Islamic scholar Farag Foda who said, "There is quite a big difference between the Islamic religion and an Islamic state. Criticising an Islamic state does not mean deviating from Islam.

"One may find much to say about or object to in an Islamic state, even in its greatest days. But one can only bow reverentially, adoringly and faithfully when one talks about the Islamic faith."

Open and honest national discourse

I, like many others, wonder of the shape of things to come when an emboldened PAS steps into the power vacuum left by a defeated BN. This fear culture perpetuated by Umno (and at times PAS) using Islam, manifest in many forms and its main aim has always been to separate the various ethnic groups in the hope of replaying the old Roman game (and perfected by the British) of divide and conquer.

If we are to become an authentic Malaysian culture, we must be able to have open and honest discourse unclouded by the conflations bestowed upon us by the powers-that-be. If this fear culture is to be dismantled, the first place to start is the way how the state influences public discourse. It is an established practice when it comes to the discourse of human rights or any variety thereof; non-Muslims are constantly reminded that any
issue concerning Islam remains the sole province of Muslims.

This way the dissenting opinion (which is based on a religious or secular framework) is subservient to the notion that the non-Muslim concern is incompatible with Islam and therefore incompatible to the welfare of his fellow Malay Malaysian. The non-Muslim is rejected as a participant in the national discourse and what he becomes is an interloper interfering with Islam.

This interference is violently rejected by Muslims, or at least the Umno-influenced ones, because to do otherwise is to acknowledge the commonality of the various ethnic groups in Malaysia. So, the non-Muslim dutifully accepts that some rights don't apply to Muslims, and this is expressed in one form or another by the various non-Malay component parties of the BN. The question here is how does the BN claim to be for all Malaysians, when there are different roles attributed to each ethnic group and the welfare of each is dependent on different sets of criteria determined not by principle but by the ruling Umno regime?

The vocal cheerleaders

There is an almost malicious side to this equation in that the state tactically supports pressure groups created to enforce not only the dogma of the religious interpretations of the state but also to control the discourse through threats and intimidation. In this way, Umno gets to control how the discourse is framed and the role non-Muslim/Malays play in it.

The states apparatus - be it the media, law enforcement or the judiciary - act as vocal cheerleaders for those so-called "non-governmental" pressure groups, whose agenda it is to enforce the will of the ruling coalition by reminding non-Muslims that they here by the magnanimity of a certain segment of the ruling Malay population. Understand now, when I say this new government should influence the nature of public discourse, I merely mean that their influence should only extend to encouraging a plurality of voices and sanctioning those who would use threats of violence or intimidation to silence differing opinions.

By doing this, what the state is doing is creating an environment where different groups regardless of race or religion band together to express an opinion without fearing repercussions for speaking out against a state-enforced doctrine. In other words, Malaysians in spite of race or religion are forced to articulate their views either in solidarity with members of different ethnic groups or religions (discovering common ground) or find their views rejected by the mainstream population.

Furthermore, any form of rhetoric that says that Islam needs to be defended should be dismissed by the state and should not be in any way part of the state's reform agenda. The state should treat all religions equally, while recognising that Islam is the official religion. The so-called defenders of the Islamic faith are in reality the most virulent of bigots conflating the issues of race and culture and instigating an ignorant population into fearing that their way of life is under attack and needs defending. These groups or individuals should only be sanctioned if their conduct becomes seditious or they become a very real threat to public safety.

This extends to anti-Christian statements from government-funded scholars or from government-funded institutions.

What is to be done to move forward

It's time to abolish the BTN (Biro Tatanegara) courses. This has been an instrument of indoctrination for the civil service and graduates to instill fear of the "other" and to create a subculture which assumes that they are tools of the government and not that the government is a tool of the people. The BTN course not only distorts the teachings of Islam but furthered perpetuates the myth that the Malay community, and by extension Islam is under siege.

Disempower government-funded agencies from issuing statements deemed to be anti-communitarian in nature based on religion, such as when religious bodies issue statements proclaiming that Muslims should not attend non-Muslim activities. Reinterpret the roles of these religious bodies as government organs that foster interfaith communication and inter-ethnic goodwill. And lastly, religious conversion and the consequences of it - once and for all, make it clear that there is separation between the civil and syariah courts and in the case of conversions involving non-Malays, the proper avenue for such cases is the civil courts and not the syariah courts.

The syariah courts have been used by Muslim converts for their own agendas making a mockery of Islamic jurisprudence which further alienates and fosters a climate of fear in a vital section of the Malaysian public. I realise that these suggestions are merely wishful thinking but if there is a serious attempt to implement them then perhaps one day, we will wake up to a new dawn, one not in the fear culture where a politician like DAP leader Lim Guan Eng does not have to say that no member of his political party ever wishes to be the next prime minister of th country he or she was born in, as if such an aspiration should be beyond the expectation of non-Malay citizens.

S THAYAPARAN is commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Malaysiakini

Turkish Honour

2012-01-15T12:48:00.002+08:00

Turkey

In 2008, a British investigative TV program, on hearing of the abuse that befalls children in Turkish and Romanian orphanages, got the Duchess of York to go undercover in which to expose the neglect that riddles both countries' child services. The Romanians noted what had been exposed and have rectified some (not all) of the shortfalls.

The Turks, on the other hand, played the victim card and charged the duchess of York with child abuse and tried to have her extradited to Turkey where, I suppose, Turkish honour could be avenged. The government of the day told them to sling their hook and sort out the mess they allow their own children to live in. At that, the Turkish government dropped all charges and said the case was closed. That was 2008.

For some strange reason, this week, the Turks resubmitted their request for the Duchess to be sent to Turkey in which to face charges of child abuse. Her crime? She filmed children getting abused. Well, the British government have told the Turks to sling their hook, as exposing child abuse isn't a crime in the UK. Funny how the so called rigorous Turks who have no problem berating others of abuse (France/Israel/Armenia) never ever admit that they are just as bad, if not worse, than everybody else (combined). Gee, I wonder why that is? Hat tip: Eye On The World

New find reveals Swedes' role in Ottoman sex-slave trade

2012-01-14T14:50:00.000+08:00

(The Local) The recent uncovering of centuries-old documents has revealed that Swedish ships were used in the Mediterranean slave trade. Up to three quarters of the cargo was women who researchers have suggested were sold as sex slaves. [...]

“Sweden actively participated in the Ottoman Empire slave trade with the Sub-Sahara – and this is completely new,” he said.

According to Östlund’s findings, the shipping registries state that the Swedish ships’ cargo was "negroes".

While the slaves sent to America were predominantly men used for plantation work, the Ottoman Empire had a different agenda entirely.

“Up to 75 percent of the passengers on board were women,” said Östlund.

“These women were used as servants and concubines, often both at the same time. They lived a relatively short time, research suggests an average of seven years after reaching the Empire, and this kept the slave trade between Africa and Tripoli going strong.” Hat tip: Eye On The World

More...

38 of worst 50 countries persecuting Christians are Muslim

2012-01-14T14:37:00.002+08:00

Here are the countries ranked as the 50 worst in persecuting Christians during 2011:

Nine of the top ten, and 38 of all 50, are Muslim countries. Malaysia makes the list, at number 50 after the recent demonizing of Christians. Thanks to UMNO, Hasan Ali and his ilk.

1. North Korea 2. Afghanistan 3. Saudi Arabia 4. Somalia 5. Iran 6. Maldives 7. Uzbekistan 8. Yemen 9. Iraq 10. Pakistan 11. Eritrea 12. Laos 13. Northern Nigeria 14. Mauritania 15. Egypt 16. Sudan 17. Bhutan 18. Turkmenistan 19. Vietnam 20. Chechnya 21. China 22. Qatar 23. Algeria 24. Comoros 25. Azerbaijan 26. Libya 27. Oman 28. Brunei 29. Morocco 30. Kuwait 31. Turkey 32. India 33. Burma (Myanmar) 34. Tajikistan 35. Tunisia 36. Syria 37. United Arab Emirates 38. Ethiopia 39. Djibouti 40. Jordan 41. Cuba 42. Belarus 43. Indonesia 44. Palestinian Territories 45. Kazakhstan 46. Bahrain 47. Colombia 48. Kyrgyzstan 49. Bangladesh 50. Malaysia

Given this list, UN Watch points out the irony that the Organization of the Islamic Conference sponsored a UN resolution entitled "Combating intolerance, negative stereotyping, stigmatization, discrimination, incitement to violence and violence against persons, based on religion or belief. Hypocrites ain't they? For them as always tolerance is a one way street, for you to be tolerant of their intolerance."

An Orwellian assault on free speech by Clifford D. May

2012-01-12T18:59:00.007+08:00

It’s funny, in an Orwellian way, that in Europe there are now militant groups with such cutesy names as Sharia4Belgium and Sharia4Holland. Less funny, but perhaps more Orwellian, is this:

Last month, the European Foundation for Democracy (EFD) held an event in Amsterdam featuring two speakers who favor liberalizing Islam. More than 20 members of these pro-sharia groups pushed their way in shouting “Allahu akbar!” They demanded the event be stopped, called the speakers apostates, spat on them, threw eggs at them, and threatened to kill them. Proud of these actions and apparently not overly concerned with legal consequences, they even made a YouTube videoof their “protest.”
Now here’s the least funny and most Orwellian part: Very few Europeans — very few journalists, politicians, members of the self-proclaimed Human Rights community, or Muslim organizations claiming to be moderate — have expressed outrage over this boot-stomping suppression of free speech in a city, country, and continent that claim to value freedom and tolerance. Imagine if the situation had been slightly different — if, say, a Muslim Brotherhood event had been violently disrupted by spitting, egg-throwing, death-threatening Christians or Jews.
Roberta Bonazzi, EFD’s Italian-born executive director — a friend and colleague of mine — bravely vowed not to be silenced. “We are united and will continue to support inspirational Muslim reformers across Europe,” she said. The speakers she had attempted to feature also kept a stiff upper lip. Irshad Manji, Canadian author of The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim’s Call for Reform in Her Faith, said that she and Dutch parliamentarian Tofik Dibi had “refused to leave, even when police asked. We wouldn’t play on jihadi terms.” Dibi, of the Green-Left party (and of Moroccan descent), said “the disruption shows that even in the Netherlands it is necessary to continue the debate on reforming Islam.”

Necessary, yes; safe, no. In Europe, increasingly, free speech ends where Islam, Islamism, and even Islamic terrorism begin. Two months ago, the Paris offices of the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo were firebombed and its staff targeted with death threats after publication of an issue “edited” by the prophet Mohammad.

In 2004, Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered on an Amsterdam street: He had directed a film about the treatment of women in Islamic societies. The film’s author, Somali-born Dutch parliamentarian and writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali, also was subjected to death threats. She subsequently fled to America.

In 2005, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published a dozen cartoons satirizing terrorism in the name of Islam. That led to protests, riots, death threats, an assassination plot, and the bombing of the Danish embassy in Pakistan.

All of this continues a trend begun more than a generation ago: In 1989, Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordered any Muslim willing and able to murder British author Salman Rushdie, whose novel The Satanic Verses Khomeini deemed blasphemous. Rushdie has required body guards ever since.

Had he been resident in any of the more than 50 states that hold membership in the Saudi-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation (formerly called the Organization of the Islamic Conference but the new name is so much friendlier), that probably would not have saved him. Last year, Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Pakistan’s Punjab province, defended a Christian woman sentenced to death under Pakistan’s blasphemy law for having said something some Muslims found offensive. One of Taseer’s own bodyguards shot him 27 times with an MP5 sub-machine gun. Many Pakistani clerics and religious scholars praised the killer and prohibited praying at Taseer’s funeral.

Not a single OIC member state seriously guarantees freedom of speech. Some, notably Saudi Arabia, also actively prohibit freedom of worship. Nevertheless, in association with the OIC, the U.S. State Department last month hosted, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attended, a three-day, closed-door international conference in Washington on combating religious “intolerance, negative stereotyping and stigmatization.”

Behind those closed doors, the conference reinforced the OIC tenet that all religions are equal — though one is more equal than others. OIC members are concerned only about the “defamation” of Islam and, evidently, they do not view militant Muslims attacking reformist Muslims as defaming their faith.
Nina Shea, who serves on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, was able to attend parts of the conference. She argued that the Obama administration “erred” in portraying it as “as a meeting of minds between the OIC and America on freedoms of religion and speech.” On the contrary, the conference “immediately reignited OIC demands for the West to punish anti-Islamic speech” as Saudi clerics and Iranian mullahs interpret that term.

Shea noted, too, that speakers at the conference “gave a sweeping overview of American founding principles on religious freedom and how they have been breached time and again in American history by attacks against a broad variety of religious minority groups — including now against Muslims.” The audience was reassured that “the Obama administration is working diligently to prosecute American Islamophobes and is transforming the U.S. Justice Department into the conscience of the nation, though it could no doubt learn a thing or two from the assembled delegates.”

From which delegates exactly? The Saudis whose school textbooks describe Jews as apes and Christians as swine? Or those of the European Union, which, in response to the violence incited over the Danish cartoons, has mandated religious hate-speech codes that shield Islamic militants from criticism but, as the attack against EFD’s speakers illustrates, do little to protect the rights of liberal Muslims, much less of non-Muslims?

Will the day come when Europeans and Americans again stand up on their hind legs and defend their freedoms, values, and traditions? Or have we effectively given up the fight in an attempt to appease such groups as the OIC and Sharia4Belgium? If only Orwell were still with us: I bet he’d have some pungent answers to these questions.

— Clifford D. May is president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a policy institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.

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National Review

Timeline of "mysterious" deaths and blasts linked to Iran's nuclear program

2012-01-12T18:26:00.002+08:00

From Haaretz:

January 11, 2012

Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, 32, is killed by a bomb placed on his car by a motorcyclist in Tehran. According to the semi-official Fars news agency, Roshan was a university professor and nuclear scientist who supervised a department at Natanz uranium enrichment facility in Isfahan province. Fars cites witnesses as saying a motorcyclist stuck a magnetic bomb on the side of the car which then exploded, killing one and wounding two people inside.

December 11, 2011

At least seven people are reportedly killed in an explosion at a steel mill linked with Iran's nuclear program in the city of Yazd.

November 28, 2011

An explosion rocks the western Iranian city of Isfahan, home to key nuclear facility, according to a report by the semi-official Fars news agency, which adds that the blast is heard in several parts of the city.

November 12, 2011

A massive explosion at a military arms depot near Tehran reportedly kills 17 members of the Revolutionary Guards including a missile expert, and wounds 15, in what officials say they are treating as an accident.

July 23, 2011

Dariush Rezaeinejad, a 35-year-old member of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, is reportedly shot dead by two gunmen firing from motorcycles. State-run media initially identify the victim as Darioush Rezaei, a physics professor and expert in neutron transport, but later backtrack and name him Dariush Rezaeinejad, an electronics PhD student who participated in developing high-voltage switches, a key component to setting off the explosions needed to trigger a nuclear warhead.

May 24, 2011

An explosion blamed on a technical problem reportedly causes a fire at an oil refinery during a visit by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. One person is killed and six injured but Ahmadinejad was not hurt and appeared on state television giving a scheduled speech to mark the inauguration of a new phase of the refinery in Abadan, south-western Iran, close to the Iraqi border.

November 29, 2010

Majid Shahriyari, a nuclear engineer, is reportedly killed in a bomb attack on his car. In a separate attack, Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, a nuclear scientist subject to UN sanctions because of what Western officials said is his involvement in suspected nuclear weapons research, is allegedly wounded in a car bomb attack. (Davani now heads Iran's Atomic Energy Organization.)

January 12, 2010

Iranian university professor and nuclear scientist, Massoud Ali Mohammadi is assassinated in a bomb attack outside his Tehran home, say reports. Ali-Mohammadi is said to have publicly backed opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi in the disputed June presidential election, and Iranian pro-reform Web sites prior to the contentious government elections had listed his name among a list of 240 Tehran University teachers who supported the opposition.

Hat tip: Eye On The World

This coming Chinese New Year of the Dragon, remember this UMNO Warlord, for your CNY shopping

2012-01-10T20:07:00.002+08:00

"Don't bow down to the Chinese and Indians just because we want to win. Don't do it".

Can you guys out there send the same message as you all did for Gardenia Bread. They need us more than we need them. So get that message across, make them run ads and blow their money trying to deny what is irrefutable proof below.

Do you think that Umno needs the Non-Malay votes to win? He says no. His myopic view should apply to the whole of Malaysia including Sabah and Sarawak. He is thinking of Titiwangsa as if it is the whole of Malaysia. This is what will bring them down. He has forgotten that if the Non Malay voters are counted in Malaysia, the Non-Malays can outvote the Malays. He has stupidly forgotten the votes of the real natives in the peninsular and the states of Sabah and Sarawak. He is at odds with his Chief's 1Malaysia plan.

For your information, this chappie is the Managing Director of CI Holdings . The Company among others, operates Pemanis which is the maker of Pepsi, 7Up, Mirinda, Evervess, Frost, Kickapoo; zero sugar/ zero calorie carbonated beverages, such as Pepsi Max and Pepsi Light; energy drinks; coffee; water; tea; isotonics, and juice. CI Holdings. So you fellas out there know which company and political party you support each time you open a soft drink. You decide. Smiles everyone. Got this via e-mail-edit

Now he is back paddling from up shit creek for this: "Gentlemen. If you secure 70 percent of the 32,000 Malay votes, then we won't need Chinese and Indian votes," Johari said in the video clip, triggering applause from his audience."If we want to win in Titiwangsa, we want Malays (to vote for us). We want Malays. Don't bow down to the Chinese and Indians just because we want to win. Don't do it," he said. In full from Malaysiakini.

Killing Osama, Terrorist!! Well done, the Special Forces

2012-01-09T23:09:00.003+08:00

A 1 hour 15 minutes documentary. All soldiers will enjoy this.

Nigerian Christians warn of campaign of "religious cleansing" against them

2012-01-09T22:17:00.001+08:00

That is exactly what is going on. Boko Haram's ultimatum for Christians to leave northern areas has come and gone, and attacks have increased in frequency. Boko Haram wants as wide a civil war as it can instigate, and thus a freer hand to push its agenda through slaughter. It wants to create a security vacuum to be filled with more Sharia, and a civil war would make the entire country hostage to the fulfillment of its demands. "Nigeria Christians liken attacks to civil war run-up," by Ola Awoniyi for Agence France-Presse, January 8:

The head of Nigeria's Christians has warned that attacks on the faithful that have killed more than 80 people suggest "religious cleansing" and compared it to the run-up to the 1960s civil war. The intensifying violence as well as warnings from Christian leaders that they will defend themselves come at a crucial moment for Nigeria, with the country also facing nationwide strikes on Monday over soaring fuel prices.

The stark warning from Ayo Oritsejafor, head of the Christian Association of Nigeria, on Saturday came with at least six gun and bomb attacks targeting Christians since Christmas having killed more than 80 people. Attacks have seen victims gunned down while their eyes were closed in prayer in church, caught up in a gruesome bomb blast while leaving Christmas services and shot while gathering to mourn the death of a friend.

In the latest violence, residents said gunmen shot dead three people believed to be Christians as they were playing poker on Saturday night in the northeastern town of Biu.

Islamist group Boko Haram has claimed most of the violence, which has sparked fears of a wider religious conflict in a country whose 160 million population is roughly divided between a mainly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south. A purported spokesman for the group a week ago gave Christians living in the north a three-day ultimatum to leave the region. In claiming subsequent attacks, the spokesman said they were in response to the ultimatum.

At mass on Sunday in the capital Abuja, worshippers were frisked and made to pass through metal detectors upon entry -- measures that have been in place for several weeks. In the economic capital Lagos, which has not been hit by attacks, churchgoers were told to be on alert for any suspicious movements.

Oritsejafor said on Saturday that Christians would defend themselves, though he added that he was not advocating reprisals.

An emergency meeting of church heads concluded "that the pattern of these killings does suggest to us a systematic ethnic and religious cleansing," he said.The ethnic groups are being targeted because of their religion. "We are reminded by the occurrences of these killings of the genesis of the civil war that took place here in Nigeria."...

The verdict on Sodomy II must have been the most important one for KL High Court judge, Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah.

2012-01-09T19:40:00.003+08:00

Dr Chris Anthony

He will never forget it for the rest of his life.

In the years ahead, I am sure he will always have pleasant memories of the morning of 9 January 2012 when he rose to do justice in the trial of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, the Opposition leader, in the presence of thousands of the latter's supporters. In his verdict lay the fate of Anwar's political future and the reputation of the judiciary and fortunately the judge rose above politics to save both Anwar and the institution he represented.

It is too early to conclude that our judiciary may now be totally independent just from this case as a lot of public pressure could have compelled the judge to acquit Anwar. However we hope this would be the beginning of judicial independence in the country. Despite all the odds against him, Anwar has proven once again he is indeed a great man, a loyal citizen and a patriotic Malaysian who will do anything to stand up for his principles to save his country.

He had demonstrated beyond doubt that he is the right choice to lead the nation if elected by the people to do so. He could have chosen the easy way out but he has demonstrated his greatness by choosing to sacrifice his peace, his comfort and his health to fight corruption, injustice and racism that is threatening to destroy the nation we all slogged to develop.

At the age of 64 and with severe spine problems, he is willing to do something which most of us will shudder even at the thought of it. Yes, he is willing to go to jail to save his country and people based of his principles of socio-economic equality, justice and fairness for the man on the street regardless of race or creed.

He is willing to sacrifice not his peace alone but that of his family. Which wife would want to send the husband to jail, knowing what happened the last time he was sent there? Which children would want to send their father to prison knowing well the risks he may be subjected? By his willingness to sacrifice himself for our future he has won the admiration of all Malaysians across ethnic divide.

This brave Malaysian deserves our undivided support in his endeavors to free our nation from the clutches of tyranny and corruption. He has called for change and change we must bring. We need not take to the streets or risk our lives to support him. We can do it peacefully and democratically with the power bestowed upon us as citizens - the ballot box.

Yes, it is that simple-just cast the vote for change at the right time and we can convince many others to do so likewise. The man who was considered irrelevant by his opponents has proved himself relevant by willing to go the extra mile and do the extraordinary to lead the nation in bringing change.

It is the duty of all citizens to rally behind this great Malaysian to realize that dream and yearning for change. Our vote on that defining day of the 13GE will not only bring the change we badly need but also help free this great man from further persecution and imprisonment.

The verdict on Sodomy II may be over but the fight continues as the bigger battle has yet to come. Malaysiakini.

Muslim Persecution of Christians: December, 2011 The Christmas Edition by Raymond Ibrahim

2012-01-07T22:37:00.002+08:00

January 5, 2012 • Stonegate Institute

The Nigerian church bombings, wherein the Islamic group Boko Haram killed over 40 people celebrating Christmas mass, is just the most obvious example of anti-Christian sentiment in December. Elsewhere around the Muslim world, Christmas time for Christians is a time of increased threats, harassment, and fear, which is not surprising, considering Muslim clerics maintain that "saying Merry Christmas is worse than fornication or killing someone." A few examples:

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Islam's Slave-Soldiers Return to Egypt

January 2, 2012 • Stonegate Institute

The myths of a "patriotic" or "altruistic" Egyptian military carefully protecting the "rights" of its citizenry—the narrative of the mainstream media of the January 25 Revolution—are long gone.

Back in January, it was natural to conclude that the Egyptian military was the "savior" of the people, and that their "anti-democratic" president, Hosni Mubarak, embodied all of Egypt's ills: such views are intrinsic to the Western worldview. Today, however, far from allowing protesters to stand atop its tanks in triumph, the military has taken to mowing them down with tanks at Maspero, and other barbarities—culminating in the recent massacre of civilians in Tahrir [ironically, "Liberation"] Square.

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Nigeria's Christmas Present: Blown Up Christians

December 28, 2011 • Hudson New York

Several churches in northern Nigeria were bombed December 25, in what has been described as "Nigeria's blackest Christmas ever." The attacks, perpetrated by the Muslim militant group Boko Haram, killed at least 39 people, "the majority dying on the steps of a Catholic church [in Madalla near the capital of Abuja] after celebrating Christmas Mass as blood pooled in dust from a massive explosion." Charred bodies and dismembered limbs lay scattered around the destroyed church.

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