Malaysia still dodging the issue

Malaysia's Home Ministry held a briefing for foreign diplomats on Monday to try to ease their concerns about the recent spate of attacks on Christian churches.

But rather than offering a rational explanation of what exactly the Government is trying to achieve with its attempts to limit the use of the word Allah, the diplomats heard this:

Our landscape is different from other countries. Malays here are different from other countries.

So said Home Ministry secretary, Gen. Mahmood Adam.

And he may well be right about that, but he was still avoiding the issue.

Because the one fact that the Government still refuses to acknowledge is that the essence of this controversy lies not in the nature of Malaysia's culture, but in the direct actions of its Government.

It was the Government, not the people, that introduced legislation establishing the principle that the word Allah is exclusive to Islam. (A claim that has been convincingly debunked by numerous experts. Here's one succinct explanation.)

What's especially comical is that even Malaysia's own Islamic leaders don't agree with the Government.

based on Islamic principles, the use of the word Allah by the people of the Abrahamic faiths such as Christianity and Judaism, is acceptable,

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim (a Muslim) concurs:

With respect to the use of the word Allah, it cannot be disputed that Arabic speaking Muslims, Christians and Jews have collectively prayed to God as Allah throughout the last fourteen centuries. While sensitivities over its usage have arisen in Malaysia, the way to resolve these conflicts is not by burning churches and staging incendiary protests but by reasoned engagement and interreligious dialogue.

Bizarrely, the consistent calls for dialogue over issues of religious sensitivities continue to go unheeded. (The Jakarta Post expresses similar concerns about the situation in Indonesia here.)

And all the while that Malaysia's Home Ministry continues to maintain the fiction that somehow its position is the Malaysian people's position, it is truly missing the wood for the trees.

Because once this particular issue fades away, what will inevitably be left behind in the minds of foreign diplomats - and investors - will be another paragraph in the catalogue of niggling entries that mark Malaysia as a "risk", a country increasingly unable to reconcile its religious and racial communities, thanks in large part to tone-deaf government.

Al Jazeera

Malaysia: Ninth church vandalized by Islamic supremacists enraged over Christian use of the word "Allah"

Arabic-speaking Christians have been using the word "Allah" for God from time immemorial, and these Malay Christians, influenced by this in their non-Arab but Muslim society, have been doing so for decades.

The whole idea of making this an issue at all was just another expression of Islamic supremacism. Or maybe an excuse to firebomb churches.

"Ninth Church Vandalized in Malaysia as Tensions Rise," by Seth Mydans for the New York Times, January 11

BANGKOK -- A ninth church was vandalized Monday in Malaysia in a series of arson attacks that have raised religious tensions surrounding a dispute over the use of the word "Allah" by Christians in this mostly Muslim nation.

"Allah" is the common term for God in Malay-language Bibles, but the government and many Muslim groups insist that the word should be reserved for use in Islam.

The attacks, which began on Friday, came after a court ruling on Dec. 31 that overturned a government ban on the use of "Allah" by Christians. That ruling has been stayed while the government appeals.

Only one of the churches has been seriously damaged, and some of the attacks were minor. In Monday's attack, the Sidang Injil Borneo Church in the central state of Negeri Sembilan was slightly damaged when its door was burned, according to local reports.

Government officials condemned the violence Monday but defended their position, saying conditions are different in Malaysia from those in neighboring Indonesia or in Arab nations where "Allah" is the common term for God....

Thanks to JihadWatch

Settler group brings Korans to Palestinians after mosque attack

A delegation of Israelis from the West Bank on Sunday brought copies of the Koran to the Palestinian village of Yasuf, where two days earlier a mosque was torched and vandalized allegedly at the hand of angry settlers.

The delegation from the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, led by peace activist Rabbi Menachem Froman, met the village elders at a nearby checkpoint after being held up for several hours by the Israel Defense Forces.

The delegation said they brought the Muslim holy books to show their condemnation for the attack and to replace those burnt by vandals.

Security officials say they fear that the torching of a mosque near Nablus on Friday could lead to reprisal attacks by Palestinians on Jews. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered Israel's security services to find the people behind the arson, which Jewish extremists are suspected of perpetrating.

Immediately after the attack on the mosque at the village of Yasuf, Palestinian residents scuffled with members of the Border Police, a few of whom were lightly wounded. Several Palestinians were also hurt.

The arson prompted army and Border Police commanders to increase their presence in the Nablus area to prevent further attacks by Jewish extremists and reprisals by Palestinians. Security sources said such reprisals were a concern because the arson attack offended Palestinians' religious sentiments.


"The attack on the mosque was a dangerous provocation that could cause a further and unnecessary conflagration," one security official said.

Israel Defense Forces officers in the West Bank say that some settlers may escalate their opposition to the temporary freeze on settlement construction by targeting the Palestinian population - the "price tag" policy.

Attacks like the arson have provoked similar attacks by Palestinians, which the Shin Bet security service calls "popular attacks." These include acts that require little planning like stabbings, stone throwing and the hurling of Molotov cocktails.

The assailants - whose acts drew condemnations from U.S., Palestinian, Israeli and settler leaders - entered Yasuf before dawn Friday, according to the police.

They burned prayer carpets and a book stand containing Muslim holy texts, and left graffiti on the floor reading "Price tag - greetings from Effi." The vandals escaped. Police officials said they had no definite leads. The Shin Bet declined to discuss the investigation.

"We condemn this attack in the strongest terms and call for the perpetrators to be brought to justice," the U.S. State Department said.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak has condemned the act as a bid to thwart the peace process with the Palestinians. "This is an extremist act geared toward harming the government's efforts to advance the political process for the sake of Israel's future," he said on Friday.

President Shimon Peres urged officials to do "everything in their power to bring to justice" the people behind the attack, which he said ran contrary to Israel's fundamental values.

"The government, the security forces and the law-enforcement institutions must take every measure, with the utmost urgency, to find the perpetrators and put them on trial in accordance with the gravity of the acts," Peres said in a statement.

According to opposition leader Tzipi Livni in a speech in Herzliya on Friday, "while a human rights march goes on in Tel Aviv, in Samaria extremist elements set fire to a mosque in a severe, despicable act of provocation."

In a statement yesterday, the secretary general of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, added that the "profanation of the mosque and the torching of copies of the Koran found in it, and the spraying of racist graffiti on the mosque's walls against Islam and Muslims represent blatant aggression against the sanctity of sacred places."

Danny Dayan, who heads the Yesha Council of settlements, said the vandalism was "a wrong and foolish act." He added that "whoever did this does not wish for the good of the settlements in Judea and Samaria."

But far-right activist Itamar Ben-Gvir said that "Netanyahu must freeze these racist edicts to calm the atmosphere."

MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) added that "those who wish to wipe out the Jewish people must not expect us to identify with their symbols and centers of incitement. I ran out of condemnations when the synagogues at Gush Katif were burned."

Haaretz

Geneva: Fake call to prayer, mosque attacked

As it turns out, the anti-minaret vote coincides with the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha.

For the second time in the past ten days, two weeks before the anti-minaret vote, the Petit-Saconnex mosque (Geneva), filed a complaint by the police.

On Saturday, Nov. 7th, the residents were woken up at 7AM by a call to prayer organized by the right-wing group Jeunes identitaires genevois (JIG). The call was made through a megaphone mounted on a car (JIG video here).

JIG chose Saturday since the Muslims organized an open day in mosques across Switzerland that day.

JIG justified their action, saying they needed to inform the people.

"We want to show that in case the initiative is rejected, we're de-facto accepting that in a few years such calls will echo in Switzerland," they told Swiss newspaper Le Matin.

This past Saturday night, the local mosque was pelted with stones. The windows, shutters, wooden door and granite dome of the entrance were broken, said the imam of the Islamic Cultural Center, Youssef Ibram. Ibram said that the police took away several kilos of stones in order to check for fingerprints and DNA.

This is the first time in 30 years that the mosque has been vandalized, the imam said.

He linked it to both the fake muezzin call and to the minaret vote initiative.

The mosque hired a security guard to guard the mosque at night.

Sources: Tribune de Genève, Romandie (French)

Thanks to Islam in Europe

Breakaway Muslims vote to dismiss executive

Angus Hohenboken, Natalie O'Brien March 24

A FAULTLINE through the most powerful Muslim organisation in the country deepened last night as a breakaway faction of the Lebanese Muslim Association voted to sack its executive.

The meeting of young MLA members, labelled the "Taliban of Lakemba" by controversial Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali, was held outside Bankstown Town Hall in west Sydney after the group was reportedly shut out of the venue due to security concerns.

The 54 association members at the meeting voted unanimously in favour of motions of no confidence in the board's six executive office-holders.

"All we are asking is for a fair vote in April," Bilal Alameddine said. "From today there will basically be two boards directing what goes on in the (Lakemba) Mosque: nine on our side and six on their side."

Members said that, while the no confidence motions named the board's six office-holders, no one was singled out -- rather it was a vote of no confidence in the executive amid concerns the vote for the new board at the annual general meeting next month would be rigged.

The power struggle is mainly between the younger generation and the old guard, with tensions escalating in recent years.

LMA president Shawky Kassir said the executive would not accept the vote, as the executive was accepted by the majority of the organisation's 400 members.

"There is only one legitimate board," Mr Kassir said. "Irrelevant of its outcome, the meeting was not legal.

"They go and meet wherever they want and whenever they want -- any decision outside the proper procedure of the LMA constitutional law will not be accepted by the members and everybody around the mosque."

One senior Muslim said the younger group were "crazy and will stop at nothing".

The LMA board had previously sent a letter to the members attempting to cancel the meeting, and failed in an attempt to get an injunction in the Supreme Court to stop the meeting going ahead.

Mr Alameddine, who strenuously denied claims the group had Taliban ideology, said the cancelled venue booking was another example of the "political games" being played by the board. "The council asked the police for a risk assessment over the meeting and the police said there was no risk, but the council still cancelled the meeting because of security concerns," he said. "We are not radicals."

Bankstown City Council could not be contacted at the time of going to publication.

Trouble was expected at the Lakemba Mosque last Friday after confrontations last week between supporters of Sheik Hilali and his rivals, but a guest imam from Lebanon gave the sermon instead of Sheik Hilali.

Several scuffles have broken out during prayer times after the Nine Network's A Current Affair played security video footage of Sheik Hilali kicking in a door in his own mosque before calling in the police to report an act of vandalism.

The Muslim youths believe Sheik Hilali staged the vandalism to frame them and gain public support.

Sheik Hilali has denied the allegations and says there is more CCTV footage that proves there was a break-in.

Source: The Australian