Malaysia not just for Malays, but for Muslims, says hardline Islamist group Hizbut Tahrir
Just hope their stupidity do not spread….
HTM spokesman Abdul Hakim Othman speaks to members of the media during a press conference in Seri Kembangan, on October 3, 2015. — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa
SERI KEMBANGAN, Oct 3 — The Malaysian chapter of hardline Islamists Hizbut Tahrir chided local Muslims today for their preoccupation with race, warning that tribalism is stopping the community from uniting with their brethren worldwide.
Hizbut Tahrir Malaysia (HTM) said many Malaysian Muslims have been influenced by “unIslamic thoughts” that cause them to insist that the country belongs solely to the Malays.
“The Muslims in Malaysia, who are mostly Malays, are still fighting for the Malays, their race. Whereas, in Islam that is haram [forbidden],” HTM spokesman Abdul Hakim Othman told reporters at the sidelines of the group’s Muktamar Khilafah 2015, a congress on establishing a caliphate.
“Malaysia is not owned just by the Malays. For Hizbut Tahrir, we are fine with any Muslims that come here, as this is a country for Muslims. Where anybody deserves to be here.”
In a speech made in the congress, HTM activist Omar Hussein accused Western powers of dividing Muslims into nation-states, causing them to identify more with their nationalities rather than their faith.
“Verily, the reason behind Muslims’ weakness and disunity is because Muslims these days are separated and segregated by the tribal divisions,” Omar told hundreds who attended the congress.
“With nation-states in which political games have been arranged by the West since the fall of the caliphate on March 3, 1924.”
The date refers to the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire’s caliphate, following the Turkish national movement led by Turkey’s first president Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
HTM’s remark today came amid claims by several Umno leaders that racism is in line with Islamic teachings, with Tan Sri Annuar Musa saying in a pro-Malay rally last month that acting in defence of Malay honour was permitted in Islam so long as other races were not oppressed in the process.
Similarly, another leader in that #Merah169 rally, Sungai Besar Umno chief Datuk Jamal Md Yunos also claimed in an interview this week that Islam requires him to prioritise his race before his nationality.
HTM aims to establish an Islamic state in Malaysia and a worldwide caliphate as part of its global network, although it has never explained how.
It had previously said that Putrajaya must implement all of Allah’s laws, and not just hudud, in a comprehensive Islamic rule that encompasses every aspect of government, including its economic, social and foreign policies as well as education.
- See more at:
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/ma....MyTTs6QC.dpuf
Singapore is not an island
http://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/...-not-an-island
Since 1957, first Malaya then Malaysia, was premised on a political and social compact that had Malay dominance as its cardinal principle. So long as this was not challenged, other races could have their own space. In political terms, this compact was reflected in a system structured around an alliance of race-based political parties with the dominant Malay party - United Malays National Organisation or Umno - at its centre.
Supporters of pro-democracy group Bersih gathering near Kuala Lumpur’s Chinatown on Aug 29.
Related Story
Bersih 4 about corruption, not race
The Chinese were represented by the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), later joined by Gerakan; the Indians by the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC). Two opposition parties, the Democratic Action Party (DAP) and Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS ), were in principle multiracial, but in practice largely Chinese and Malay and in any case were peripheral.
It was our refusal to accept the system’s cardinal principle that led to Separation from Malaysia in 1965. But it was a system that had its own coherence and until relatively recently, it did not serve Malaysia badly. And despite the complexities of bilateral relations and occasional periods of tension, over the last 50 years, it was a system we learnt to work with, while going our own way.
That familiar system is now under immense stress. It is not certain that it can hold together.
PRESSURE POINT
The pressure point is religion. Arab influences from the Middle East have for several decades steadily eroded the Malay variant of Islam in which adat or traditional practices coexisted with the Quran in a syncretic, tolerant synthesis, replacing it with a more austere and exclusive interpretation of Islam. This is one aspect of a broader process of globalisation which is a sociocultural and not just an economic phenomenon. It has changed the texture of Malaysian society, I think irreversibly.
It is impossible for any country to insulate itself from globalisation. Religion in Singapore is not immune from globalisation’s consequences, and not just in our Muslim community. Evangelical Christianity is one example. But Singapore is organised on the principle of multiracial meritocracy. So long as this is accepted by all races and religions as the foundation of our identity, the most corrosive political effects are mitigated. In the Singapore system, God - every God - and Caesar are separate and so all Gods must perforce co-exist, with the state playing the role of neutral arbiter.
Not so in Malaysia.
The cardinal principle of Malay dominance is enshrined in the Constitution, which also places Islam as the first component in the definition of a Malay. This makes the mixture of religion and politics well-nigh inevitable. Umno politicians have been unable to resist the temptation to use religion for electoral advantage. They are responding to the logic of the system as it has evolved.
In 2001, former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad made a fundamental political error when he tried to undercut PAS by declaring that Malaysia was already an Islamic state. A constitutional controversy ensued. But the most damaging consequences were political not legal. Tun Dr Mahathir’s incautious declaration gave a sharper political focus to the changes in the interpretation of Islam that were under way and catalysed a competitive dynamic in which those inclined to religious moderation were inevitably outbid and overwhelmed.
The result has been an increasingly pronounced emphasis on religion in Umno’s political identity and a significant and continuing narrowing of the political and social space for non-Muslims.
Surveys show that Malaysian Malays privilege Islamic credentials over other qualities they look for in their leaders. A Merdeka Centre survey this year revealed that 60 per cent of Malaysian Malays polled identified themselves as Muslims first rather than Malaysians or even Malays. Demography accentuates the political impact of these attitudes. In 1957 the Chinese constituted 45 per cent of Malaya (West Malaysia). In 2010, they constituted only 24.6 per cent of Malaysia including East Malaysia. Malay fertility rates are significantly higher than both Chinese and Indians.
In the 2013 Malaysian General Election, the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition got only 13 per cent of the Chinese vote. Two days after the election, Utusan Malaysia, an Umno mouthpiece, pointedly asked “Apa Lagi Cina Mau?” (What more do the Chinese want?)
The question was provocatively phrased, but not entirely unreasonable. Prime Minister Najib Razak tried hard to win back Chinese votes but got almost nothing for his efforts. MCA won only seven seats. Gerakan was wiped out.
The DAP won 38 seats, the largest number in the opposition coalition.
A NEW SYSTEM IN THE MAKING?
The Chinese parties in BN had clearly lost the trust of Chinese voters. Can MCA win back Chinese votes? Doubtful. MCA is obviously powerless to stem the narrowing political and social space for non-Muslims; the fecklessness of its leaders exposed by constant scandals and internal bickering.
In 2013, BN lost the popular vote but retained its parliamentary majority because of the 47 seats it won in East Malaysia. Native East Malaysians are not ethnically Malay but are classified as bumiputera. Some in Umno began to question whether it was really necessary to work with the Chinese at all. The declining numbers of Chinese in the Malaysian population will sooner or later make them electorally irrelevant to Umno and BN had already retained power without their votes.
Nor can the opposition coalition of the DAP, PAS and Anwar Ibrahim’s Parti Keadilan Rakyat - Pakatan Rakyat (PR) - form a new multiracial system. PR was always a motley crew. Although its component parties are in theory multiracial, they have nothing in common except the ambition to displace BN. Only Anwar’s charismatic personality and political skills held them uneasily together.
Anwar is now in jail and PR has fallen apart. PAS has left. Without Anwar, Keadilan’s future is bleak. The DAP is subject to the demo- graphic constraints of a falling Chinese population and is unlikely to make substantial electoral advances beyond its present strength, although it will probably retain what it now holds. PR’s successor - Pakatan Harapan - a coalition of the DAP, Keadilan and a minor breakaway faction from PAS, is a forlorn hope (pun intended).
PAS has purged its moderate leadership and is now led by the ulama. Umno is increasingly relying on religion to legitimise itself. Umno and PAS may eventually form some sort of de facto if not de jure alliance that could be the core of a new ruling system. There may be token ornaments of other races, but the Malaysian system will then comprise an overwhelmingly dominant Malay government with a DAP-led Chinese opposition. This will be potentially explosive.
I do not know if such a system will really replace the current system, but it certainly seems possible, even probable. It will not happen overnight. But the controversy over 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) could well hasten its emergence. The recent demonstrations seem to foreshadow such a development.
STRUGGLE FOR POWER IN UMNO
The anti-government Bersih demonstrations held in late August this year were, despite a sprinkling of other races, predominantly Chinese affairs. PAS, which had joined previous Bersih demonstrations, stayed away. The organisers claimed the demonstrations were apolitical, but the DAP with Keadilan clearly played significant roles.
Last month, a pro-government counter-demonstration was organised by Pesaka - a right-wing Malay group ostensibly devoted to silat, the Malay martial art. The demonstration was almost entirely Malay, positioned as defending Malay rights and marked by fierce racial rhetoric. Before the demonstration, posters were displayed, captioned “Cina turun Bersih, sedialah bermandi darah” (Chinese who attend Bersih, be ready to be bathed in blood) which depicted a Bersih supporter being slashed with a parang. A flier with a similar slogan was found at DAP headquarters.
Umno denied organising the demonstration. Datuk Seri Najib did not attend but said he had no objections to Umno members doing so. The president of Pesaka is an Umno leader. Another Umno politician, who was one of the driving forces of the Pesaka demonstration, proudly admitted he was racist because it was under the Constitution.
Thankfully, violence at these demonstrations was avoided by the strong police presence. But the demonstrations certainly raised the temperature of an already racially fraught atmosphere.
Although the authorities denied it, the affray that broke out in July at Low Yat Plaza, a mainly Chinese shopping area in Kuala Lumpur, after a Malay youth was accused of stealing a mobile phone, was certainly racial. It exposed the tinderbox Malaysia had become.
Shortly after news broke about US$700 million (S$1 billion) believed to be from 1MBD being traced to what was alleged to be Mr Najib’s personal account, a Putrajaya spokesman said: “The Prime Minister has not taken any funds for personal use.”
Umno has always operated through a system of patronage. If this is what the spokesman was hinting at, then Dr Mahathir’s accusations against Mr Najib ring hollow. Did he not preside over the same system and for far longer than any other Malaysian prime minister?
This system also means that Mr Najib is in no imminent danger of being forced from office so long as he holds the majority of Umno divisions and retains Malay support. Frustration may account for Dr Mahathir’s attendance at the Bersih demonstration which I do not think has raised the good doctor’s standing with the Malay ground.
The 1MDB scandal is less about corruption than about a struggle for power within Umno.
Dr Mahathir seems to have expected to exercise remote control even though he was no longer prime minister. Among his grievances with his successors were their warming of ties with Singapore, Mr Najib’s decision to settle the railway land issue, cooperation on Iskandar Malaysia (IM) and the refusal of both Tun Abdullah Badawi and Mr Najib to proceed with his pet white elephant: the “crooked bridge”. Dr Mahathir wants to replace Mr Najib with someone more pliable.
The intra-Umno power struggle is not over. Mr Najib retains his office but has been politically damaged. Dr Mahathir’s reputation may have been dented, but he still has a following within Umno and the Malay public.
Mr Najib cannot allow himself to be outflanked on the right. Two days after the September demonstration, he attended a Pesaka gathering. He praised Pesaka members as being “willing to die” for the government and said “Malay people can also show that we are still able to rise when our dignity is challenged, when our leaders are insulted, criticised, shamed”, adding, “We respect other races. But don’t forget: Malays also have their feelings. Malays also have their limits.”
WHAT NEXT?
A former minister, Tan Sri Zainuddin Maidin, has said that “if Najib succeeds in uniting Umno and PAS, then I am confident the Malays will forgive his grave mistakes”, adding that “after fulfilling this large and sincere task” he should step down and hand power to former deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin.
I do not know if Mr Najib feels he has committed “grave mistakes”. But he certainly will not hand over power to a man he unceremoniously sacked. Still, Mr Zainuddin is probably not wrong about anyone who brings Umno and PAS together becoming a Malay hero. It may not be Mr Najib, but the trajectory of political developments in Malaysia already seems to point in that direction.
Malaysia and Singapore are each other’s second-largest trading partner. Malaysia is Singapore’s sixth-largest investment destination and we are the top investor in IM. Every day tens of thousands of Malaysians commute across the Causeway to work in Singapore. It is in our interest to see Malaysia stable with a healthy economy.
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/wo...riage-proposal
Pakistan woman ‘set on fire for refusing marriage proposal
MULTAN (Pakistan), Oct 23 — A young Pakistani woman was recovering in hospital today after she was burned over nearly half her body by a man she had refused to marry, police said.
Sonia Bibi, 20, told police from her hospital bed that her former lover Latif Ahmed sprinkled her with petrol and set her alight after she turned down his proposal.
A doctor in Multan’s main Nishtar hospital confirmed to AFP that 45 to 50 per cent of Bibi’s body had been burnt in the attack, but said she was out of danger.
The incident took place in a remote village of Multan district in central Punjab province, and police have arrested the 24-year-old Ahmed, local police official Jamshid Hayat told AFP.
“Police arrested the man after recording the statement of Sonia Bibi in the presence of her parents,” Hayat said.
“The girl told us that she was in love with Latif, whom she accused of dousing her in gasoline and setting her alight,” Hayat said.
Police have launched a probe, he said, but preliminary investigations suggested Latif had set Bibi on fire “after she refused to marry him”.
Mukhtar Cheema, another police official in Multan confirmed the incident, saying that Bibi had told police she had turned Ahmed down as she was no longer in love with him. — AFP
- See more at:
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/ma...ealth-services
Discrimination against single women in public sexual health services?
KUALA LUMPUR Oct 25 — Public sexual healthcare providers appear to be discriminating against single women on moral grounds, with clinics regularly withholding access to contraceptives, among others, without proof of marriage.
Despite the lack of directives to limit universal sexual health care to the married, its provision by government clinics to unwed women is inconsistent from one location to another.
Recent attempts by Malay Mail Online to obtain contraceptives at one such clinic was initially denied as caregivers there insisted that they have never provided birth control medication to unmarried women, although the reporter was able to convince them to dispense these after a long negotiation.
At another clinic, also in the Klang Valley, the nurses outright said it is mandatory for clients to bring in their marriage certificates in order to be registered and treated.
Calls to 18 maternal and child health clinics in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor also supported the suspicion that unmarried women face informal barriers to obtaining sexual health services that are provided unchallenged to their married counterparts, with all saying they must check if they are allowed to dispense contraceptives to singles.
Seven later said no, while five said it is not encouraged; another said to seek the doctor’s advice first.
Six said it was possible after further checks, although one said it was necessary for patients to disclose their religion, explaining that Muslim women must provide proof of marriage in order to obtain the medication.
Premarital sex and sex in general remain taboo subjects in conservative Malaysia, and such views are hampering access to sexual health services at government clinics in times of changing norms and values.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), men and women have the right to be informed of and have access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable methods of fertility regulation of their choice.
“Reproductive health, therefore, implies that people are able to have a responsible, satisfying and safe sex life and that they have the capability to reproduce and the freedom to decide if, when and how often to do so,” according to its web site.
The unofficial barriers to single women securing contraceptives from public healthcare providers also come at a time when cases of teen pregnancies and baby dumping are on the rise.
According to Welfare Department statistics, there were a total of 472 abandoned babies in the country between 2005 and 2010. Activists attributed many of the cases to the stigma that unwed mothers face as well as the lack of access to sexual health education.
Figures from the Health Ministry revealed that 16,528 teen pregnancies were recorded last year based on the number of adolescents that registered at government clinics. On average, there are around 50 teen pregnancies a day.
Reproductive health care includes not only access to contraceptives such as birth control pills, condoms, but also scientific rather than religious-based information on reproductive health, treatment for sexually transmitted infection and diseases, access to safe abortion, among others.
These services are technically available to all at the 1,061 government clinics all over the country, inclusive of standalone Maternal and Child Health Clinics and 1810 Community Health Clinics, under the Health Ministry.
Dr Choong Sim-Poey, the president of the Penang Family Health Development Association (FHDA), said the fact that sexual health services are given to singles on a “discretionary” basis allows cultural and religious bias to operate.
The co-chair of Reproductive Rights Advocacy Alliance Malaysia (RRAAM) said some official data indicated that this unmet need for better contraceptive and abortion services has long been ignored by health authorities because of such biases.
“In a nutshell, the government considers that all single women are celibate, and if they are not, they should be punished.
“And because of stigma and prejudice, a lay person may find it quite difficult to get accurate information on where to get such services,” he explained.
He said a more controversial aspect of discrimination in reproductive health services is termination of pregnancy or induced abortions for unplanned and unwanted pregnancies.
Although Section 312 of the Penal Code allows for terminations on grounds of mental distress, he said records showed that government hospitals only provide abortion for serious medical risks of a continuing pregnancy.
As such, most abortions here are provided by private doctors who are willing to recognise mental distress as a valid and legal indication for an abortion, he noted.
“But because the private sector abortions are unregulated, clients, especially if they are single, are exploited by some doctors with exorbitant fees putting this procedure or treatment beyond the means of many women,” he said.
WHO calls for legal abortion a “fundamental right of women, irrespective of where they live” and “legalisation of abortion on request is a necessary but insufficient step toward improving women’s health”.
Dr Choong said an official Health Ministry guideline released in September 2012 made it clear that government health facilities should provide this service according to the law, but based on informal feedback, he said this has yet to be effected.
“The concept of reproductive rights of women as a human rights principle has yet to be recognised by our government,” he said.
Sex educator and activist June Low said the answer to the current situation is not to tell staff at government clinics not to apply their own morals on patients; rather, she advocate comprehensive sex education for everyone, from students through to adults.
“Get sex ed in schools, get people talking about sex and being more open about it as an issue that affects us all.
“Only then can we expect a shift in attitudes,” she said.
- See more at:
http://www.cambiarnews.com/news/saud...hypocrisy/8632
Saudi Singer Shams Bandar Slams Arab World and Hypocrisy
The 28-year-old Saudi-born singer Shams Bandar Al-Aslami might not have been so popular before but after making some bold comments about the Arab world she is getting the limelight almost everywhere.
Shams was interviewed recently where she lamented on the worrisome situation that a number of Arab countries are currently going through, blaming the Arab world in general for hypocrisy on the matter. Her comments were pretty hard hitting and got criticized all over the Arab countries because it is not usual for an Arab to speak out so openly against his/ her fellow Arabs.
Shams Bandar, on the other hand, has recently announced that she is giving up her Saudi and Kuwaiti nationality and taking on a European nationality. In the interview, she was inquired as to the reasons for this. When she was probed with questions about why she regarded the Arab world as “hell” and the west as “paradise,” she finally spoke up:
WHY TELL OURSELVES LIES? THE SYRIANS ARE SCATTERED IN THE WORLD’S OCEANS, DYING BY THE MILLIONS ON A DAILY BASIS… IRAQIS ARE DYING BY THE MILLIONS… ALL THE ARAB COUNTRIES HAVE CLOSED THEIR BORDERS TO THEM. WHAT CAN THESE WRETCHED PEOPLE DO WITH THEIR ARAB CITIZENSHIP? HOW DOES A SUFFERING SYRIAN BENEFIT FROM HIS ARAB CITIZENSHIP, WHEN HIS CHILDREN AND FAMILY HAVE BEEN KILLED AND HIS LIFE HAS BEEN DESTROYED? HIS OWN ARAB BRETHREN DO NOT LET HIM IN
.
Defending the west and comparing it against the practices of Arab she taunted whether the former chopped off heads, decapitated people, stoned or publically executed them before moving on to talk about ISIS and how they are the stark opposite of the west at least as far as laws and constitutions are concerned.
“For 1,400 years we have been slaughtering one another, just because one of us prays one way and another prays a different way,” Shams Bandar said and concluded that 1400 years ago the USA was not there then why on earth is the Arab world blaming them for everything.
Saudi actor arrested by religious police for taking selfies with female fans in mall
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...-a6710931.html
A popular actor and TV presenter has been arrested in a mall in Saudi Arabia after his appearance caused a huge commotion among young female fans.
Abdul Aziz al-Kassar, a Saudi national who lives in Kuwait, was on a working visit to Riyadh when he was mobbed by fans trying to take pictures and selfies with him.
Kassar had publicised his visit to the Al Nakheel shopping centre on Friday evening, asking his social media followers for recommendations of “the best mall to visit”, Gulf News reported.
But in a TV interview at the weekend, he told the Gulf Rotana network he had not expected the “overwhelming” welcome he received from fans.
Video from the mall posted to YouTube and Twitter appears to show Kassar surrounded by women taking photos, before a man in white robes grabs him by the shirt and hauls him away.
Kassar told Gulf Rotana: “I did not expect to find so many people waiting for me. I want to clarify that the presence of young women at the mall was not something under my control.
“When I stepped in, several fans came over and surrounded me until someone came over and pulled me aside into a room that I learned was reserved for the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice inside the mall.
Saudi’s ‘religious police’ assault Kuwaiti artist @KASSAR_KASSAR in a mall in Riyadh. #شكرا_رجل_الهييه_تلال_الارقاب pic.twitter.com/eD56DuRCdf
— توثيق جرائم الهيئة (@HaiaWatch) October 24, 2015
“I understood that the man who pulled me was a member of the commission and I did not resist him out of my respect for the Commission,” he added.
Kassar said he initially had his phone confiscated, and he has been released on bail pending an investigation into accusations of disturbing public order, mixing with women unrelated to him and abusing social media.
Hugely popular on social media and with acting credits across Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, Kassar has also presented a number of TV programmes. He claimed that the religious police should have warned him about the number of fans congregating and that they “did not tell me to stay away”.
Drug smuggling, rape and torture: These 5 Saudi royals all did things commoners would be executed for
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/10/drug...ted-back-home/
The recent arrests of two Saudi Arabian princes — one for smuggling literal tons of illegal drugs in his private plane and one for a series of sexually abusive incidents involving his employees — call attention to a long and august tradition of fabulously wealthy people from the highly religious Islamic monarchy acting in absolutely horrible ways.
On Monday, Saudi prince Abdel Mohsen Bin Walid Bin Abdulaziz and four associates were caught at the Beirut airport attempting to carry “two tons of Captagon pills” into Saudi Arabia as well as a quantity of cocaine.
Captagon is the brand name for fenethylline, a combination of the stimulants amphetamine and theophylline. Sources in the Middle East say Captagon is fueling fighters on both sides of Syria’s bloody civil war.
The Guardian said that the drug was first synthesized in the 1960s to treat “hyperactivity, narcolepsy and depression,” but was ultimately banned as too addictive. It remains wildly popular in the Middle East, but virtually unheard-of anywhere else.
Last week, in Los Angeles, 29-year-old Majed Abdulaziz Al-Saud was arrested on suspicion of “forced oral copulation” of an adult and other charges.
Al-Saud is accused by three anonymous female employees of going on a violent, debauched rampage in which he attacked male and female aides and house workers, forcing them to strip on command and perform sex acts against their will.
Last week neighbors spotted a naked, bleeding woman frantically trying to scale the 8-foot fence around Al-Saud’s Beverly Hills compound. They helped the woman escape and called police.
By Thursday Al-Saud — who is the son of Saudi Arabia’s late King Abdullah — was free on $300,000 bail.
The arrests echo other instances of wealthy Saudis running afoul of the law, including the case of 27-year-old Monsour Alshammari. Alshammari was apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border attempting to flee the country to escape prosecution on rape charges in Utah.
According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Alshammari is related to Saudi royalty and U.S. authorities say that if he is allowed to return to that country, they will lose the ability to extradite and try him.
In 2013, a Saudi princess named Meshael Alayban was arrested in Irvine, California on charges that she imprisoned and abused a Kenyan house servant. The L.A. Times said that the victim accused Alayan of imprisoning her and treating her as slave labor.
In 2010, a wealthy Saudi couple was accused of torturing a 49-year-old Sri Lankan maid by hammering 24 hot nails into her flesh when she complained about her workload.
Also in 2010, Saudi Prince Saud bin Abdulaziz bin Nasir Al-Saud was jailed for life after bludgeoning his manservant Bandar Abdulaziz to death in London. During Nasir Al-Saud’s trial it came to light that the man he murdered was also his partner.
The BBC noted that the 34-year-old prince spent more of his time in court arguing that he isn’t gay than he did denying the murder.
The oil-rich nation is a theocratic monarchy which is rigidly controlled by the House of Saud, a royal family with thousands of members, the majority of whom wield outsized wealth and influence over a population boasting one of the widest gaps between rich and poor on the planet.
Some 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers were from wealthy Saudi families and former al Qaeda head Osama bin Laden also hailed from the richest districts of Riyadh, the Saudi capital.
The country is governed by Islamic law and its criminal justice system regularly executes offenders by means of beheadings, firing squads and crucifixions. An August report said that the Saudi government is executing one person every two days for crimes as various as “drug trafficking, rape, murder, armed robbery and apostasy.”
Saudi Arabia ‘may jail woman who posted video of husband groping housemaid’
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...-a6683651.html
A Saudi woman who filmed a clip appearing to show her husband groping their housemaid could face prison because of the nation’s defamation laws.
The woman secretly shot the encounter between her husband and the maid on her phone. The resulting footage appears to show the man talking to a maid and kissing her.
Seeking her revenge, she shared the footage on a social media alongside the caption: “the minimum punishment for this husband is to scandalise him.”
The video, shown above, went viral in Saudi Arabia, with many viewers rallying in support of the wife, the Sada newspaper reported, according to Emirates 24/7.
“I salute you warmly for your valiant courage,” Al Yamama, a blogger, said of the woman’s decision, according to Gulf News.
“You did the best thing because there was an urgent need for revenge and your revenge is the best."
However, Majid Qaroob, a top Saudi lawyer, said the woman could be handed a one-year prison sentence or a fine of 500,000 Saudi Riyals (£87,630).
“This law [on information technology crimes] includes stiff punishment for anyone using mobile phones with a camera or other equipment to photograph others and defame them,” he said.
Millions of people work as maids in the Gulf States, many of whom are migrants from poor countries such as the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka and Nepal.
Appellate court bins bid by mum and four sons to remove ‘Islam’ status from IC
http://m.themalaymailonline.com/mala...-status-from-i
PUTRAJAYA, Oct 30 — The Court of Appeal today dismissed the bid by a mother and her four sons to get the National Registration Department (NRD) to change their names and remove “Islam” as their religious status in their identification cards (IC).
The appellate court ruled that their argument of being mistakenly identified as Muslims by the NRD was not supported by “cogent evidence,” noting that there was evidence to show that they had identified themselves as being of Indian Muslim heritage and professing Islam.
“Based on the evidence on record, we are of the unanimous view that the decision of the National Registration Department not to change the names and religion of the applicants in their respective identity cards is correct in law and cannot be categorised as being perverse, unreasonable, irrational or illegal so as to warrant our intervention,” the three-man panel led by Court of Appeal judge Datuk Mohd Zawawi Salleh said.
“Therefore we affirm the decision of the High Court and dismiss all appeals with costs,” he said, fixing RM5,000 as the total costs that the five have to pay for the High Court and Court of Appeal proceedings.
Today was the hearing of the appeal by a Hindu-born mother, her Hindu-born son from her first marriage and her three other sons from her second marriage, against the Kuala Lumpur High Court’s February 10 decision to dismiss their judicial review bid against the NRD’s refusal to make the amendments.
The mother Jamilah Jan Vasanthegokelam, 56, had sought to get the NRD to remove Islam as her official religious status and to revert her name to her original - Vasanthegokelam Subramaniam - when she was born to Hindu parents.
During the appeal hearing, Jamilah’s lead counsel Robin Lim Fang Say said his client had changed her name at the NRD at the request of her second husband Mohd Baser Kalakan to avoid problems in obtaining a birth certificate for their eldest son, due to his Muslim-sounding name, and her name that did not sound like a Muslim’s.
But Lim argued that Jamilah’s name change is not conclusive proof that she had changed her religion and she had no intention to convert, noting that she herself had conducted her own search and confirmed with the Islamic authorities that there was no certificate of her conversion to Islam.
Jamilah’s three sons from the second marriage — Mohd Jefrey Mohd Baser, 32, Mohd Jass Mohd Baser, 28 and Mohd Naser Mohd Baser, 22 — now also want the religious status classification of Muslim in their identity cards to be removed. Lim had noted that their birth certificates did not carry their religious status or that of their parents.
Jamilah’s other son Mahendra Ghanasan had his name changed to Mohd Sharif Abdullah and was declared to the NRD as being an Indian Muslim and professing the Islamic faith when he obtained his IC at the age of 12, but the 35-year-old wants to reinstate his original name and Hindu religious status that was stated in his birth certificate.
Lim had said there was no conversion certificate to show that Mohd Sharif had converted to Islam.
But senior federal counsel Mazlifah Ayob, who represented the NRD, noted that Jamilah has held this new name for 30 years since she applied for a name change in 1983 and has been holding the identification card with the word “Islam” printed on it for the last 13 years since it was issued in 2003.
Mazlifah cited Jamilah’s 2013 statutory declaration in support of her application to the NRD for a name change and removal of the Islam status, where the latter had said she had converted to Islam but was not a practising Muslim.
Jamilah’s lawyer Lim interjected to say that his illiterate client had mistakenly thought that her identification card details meant that she had converted.
Mazlifah said NRD’s records show that the application forms for all four sons for their identification cards were filled up with “Indian Muslim” and “Islam” as their race and religion.
Lim contended that the religious status of Jamilah’s husband was unclear as there was no evidence to state he was born or converted to be Muslim, while government lawyer Mazlifah said that his identification card application and an application for his death certificate had stated that he was a Muslim.
At one point, Mazlifah said the NRD was not denying applicants their right to amend their religious status in their identification cards, but said there was a need to show some proof that they have become apostates.
Jamilah and her four sons had filed for judicial review against the NRD director-general and the Home Minister.
Nithiyawathi Subramaniam and federal counsel Haryati Ahmad appeared for the five appellants and the two respondents respectively, while Farez Mohd Ali Jinnah held a watching brief on behalf of the Bar Council.
The other Court of Appeal judges who heard this case today are Datuk Nallini Pathmanathan and Datuk Abd Rahman Sebli.