We, a group of concerned citizens of Malaysia, would like to express how disturbed and deeply dismayed we are over the continuing unresolved disputes on the position and application of Islamic laws in this country.
The ongoing debate over these matters displays a lack of clarity and understanding on the place of Islam within our constitutional democracy. Moreover, they reflect a serious breakdown of federal-state division of powers, both in the areas of civil and criminal jurisdictions.
We refer specifically to the current situation where religious bodies seem to be asserting authority beyond their jurisdiction; where issuance of various fatwa violate the Federal Constitution and breach the democratic and consultative process of shura; where the rise of supremacist NGOs accusing...
Politics
Often, a man is only going to get what he thinks he deserves. Yammering is an easy task, that anyone could indulge in, but to truly act is another matter entirely. This is also applicable to the people of a nation bound in hopes of prosperity.
Greenland, no not the island in the Arctic Circle but the country in the Western Region of Africa. It will only be as good as the populace think it should be. The polls are nigh and the nation is desperate, so desperate, we might actually swap a poorly cooked meal for cow dung as long as the cow dung appears to be a delectable meal from afar. For years over, we blame the government for all the excesses and ineptitude evinced in our nation's history, but very little a time do we point the same accusative fingers at ourselves.
If the truth be...
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Good day!
I am not blaming the universal political history I am blaming the Nigerian political misery, reality has endorsed so much calamities on the masses living hopeless life full of burden and pain, seeing this occupying the society and re-generating in higher numeral number day-in day-out.
This is so unfortunate and all this damages is been brought by the so called politics by the so called politicians in society, hear me out Yesterday just died-Tomorrow never cried don’t be deceived, am not compensating you the spiritual youth but I am only in essence saying nobody gives you a chance you’ve got to take chances, don’t stand still because they are not still, This gorillas in suite, hidden in their political suite, the anti-humanities selfish greedy hags of zero resolution, no...
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For Trayvon Martin and All Lynched Black Boys
How do you raise a black child?
Embraced by your womb and your heart
But diminished by the whiteness around you
Priceless angel in your arms
But prison fodder to American justice
A laughing smiling face in your eyes
But a menace in a hoodie in the eyes of the law
How do you raise a black child?
While you searched frantically for your baby
The police let his body languish as a John Doe
We were brought to these shores as disposable people
Shackled and chained
Beaten and tortured
Diminished and dehumanized
They still do not see us as people
But they readily see us as perps
Has our value yet been redeemed?
Have we yet been embraced as Americans?
How do you raise a black child
When society says he has no...
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My son's favorite word is, "No." While age appropriate at 20 months, the thought of his natural defiance and rebellion meeting with the wrong officer when years replace months causes an anxiety in my chest that I find hard to shake. Zion is all energy and light wound tightly with strings of promise...
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Dear Green Party,
Look, I’m an anarchist, and voting isn’t something I do any more. But sometimes, I look at the Green Party and think “they look like they might stand a chance and they’d probably be the least terrible. Maybe I’ll vote for them.” It was growing inside me, the knowledge that you, at least, might make things tolerable rather than terrible. All that’s gone now, because you’ve made yourselves look no different to the others.
I’m talking, of course, about your Cambridge candidate, Rupert Read. It turns out he’s a really, really nasty piece of work. The clues came when he tweeted the sort of dogwhistle comment which alerts the wise to transmisogyny: he went for the old “don’t call me cis” type bollocks. Digging deeper it turns out that yes, he’s a transmisogynist, and...
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To the Youth in Europe and North America,
The recent events in France and similar ones in some other Western countries have convinced me to directly talk to you about them. I am addressing you, [the youth], not because I overlook your parents, rather it is because the future of your nations and countries will be in your hands; and also I find that the sense of quest for truth is more vigorous and attentive in your hearts.
I don’t address your politicians and statesmen either in this writing because I believe that they have consciously separated the route of politics from the path of righteousness and truth.
I would like to talk to you about Islam, particularly the image that is presented to you as Islam. Many attempts have been made over the past two decades, almost since the...
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I was in Berlin a year after the wall came down and asked an East German journalist how it felt to young people to now be free. He replied: “It’s great – the problem is we don’t know how to use that freedom.”
My community of Marlborough has had a 32-year relationship with the Muslim community of Gunjur in The Gambia. In conversation with friends there since the events in Paris, they have said they are all appalled at the murders that took place, supposedly in the name of Islam.
At the same time, they are confused by the demands for the protection of freedom of speech when that speech is gratuitously offensive, not even humorous and is fundamentally about making money through the sale of a magazine.
Hands up, those who do not think that with freedom comes responsibility.
Dr...
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Dear Professor Chameau,
When the new 'King Abdullah University of Science and Technology' was inaugurated in 2009 it was recognised as a visionary attempt to 'rekindle science in the Islamic world'. To mark the significance of the occasion, His Majesty King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia invited heads of state and Nobel laureates to participate. The undersigned continue to take a profound and sympathetic interest in this visionary undertaking.
As members of the international scientific and scholarly community we owe it to KAUST to assist it in becoming a leading institution for education and research. All such academies have the right to assistance from others, world-wide, and everyone is heavily dependent on receiving that assistance.
We write out of concern that the fabric of...
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The murder of the Charlie Hebdo journalists was shocking and repulsive, and has rightly been condemned. Nevertheless, it is undesirable that this tragedy should be elevated into a heroic defence of freedom of speech.
Such freedom is a privilege which must be exercised responsibly. It is not an absolute human right. The law of civilised nations does not protect defamation, plagiarism, blackmail, harassment and other forms of bullying. There has to be a sense of balance. It is legitimate to lampoon living public figures such as politicians and celebrities for their politics and lifestyle. It is also legitimate to criticise religious leaders for extreme beliefs, pomp and ostentation and perhaps, above all, for child abuse.
This is not the same as lampooning the founders of Islam and...
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