Why Indonesia banned ISIS

 — Dominic Berger

The Malay Mail Online

October 1, 2014

OCTOBER 1 — Like in all democracies, the proscription of terrorist groups in Indonesia is a politically delicate and legally ambiguous process.

It requires the government to articulate convincing justifications for a ban, as well as provide adequate legal mechanisms for its implementation.

An examination of both suggests that when Indonesia banned ISIS in August 2014, it did so for much more complex reasons than fear of violent terrorism.

When ISIS captured large swathes of territory in Syria and northern Iraq and images of shocking violence made news around the world, the Indonesian public, and the government, remained largely pre-occupied with its most fiercely contested presidential election campaign in a decade. Despite signs throughout the first half of 2014 that Indonesia would eventually be forced to address the ISIS threat, the government and the public remained relatively uninterested. Back in March, even a public demonstration by ISIS supporters at the Hotel Indonesia roundabout in central Jakarta drew neither the media’s nor the government’s attention. It took the appearance of a video on YouTube, titled Join the Ranks, in which an Indonesian ISIS fighter in Syria urged fellow Indonesians to join ISIS, to sharply focus the government’s attention on the growing ISIS-threat to Indonesia.

On the face of it, the video should not have been a shock to officials or the public. It had been widely known that some elements of Indonesia’s Islamist community supported the various factions engaged in the anti-Assad insurgency that had been raging in Syria for years, and that at least 50 Indonesians had travelled to the region to take up arms. Jamaah Islamiyyah (JI), the group responsible for the Bali bombings, has in recent years renounced violence in Indonesia, but the closely allied organisation HASI have since 2012 channelled humanitarian volunteers and financial aid to the region.  When ISIS split officially from the Al-Qaida aligned Jabat Al-Nusra (JN) in February 2014, Indonesian Islamists were similarly divided, breaking into pro-JN and pro-ISIS camps.  While JI largely supported JN, JI’s former spiritual leader, Abu Bakar Ba’asyir made headlines from prison with a pledge of allegiance to ISIS. His two sons, meanwhile, split with their father as did many in Ba’asyir’s organisation Jamaah Ansarut Tauhidand, and joined a new rival organisation, Jamaah Ansharasy Syariat. Many other organisations, such as Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia (MMI) vehemently reject ISIS.

Despite remaining indifferent for months to these increasingly complex – and dangerous – links between the conflict in Syria and Iraq and Indonesia’s Islamist community, within days of the video making headlines, pressure mounted on Minister for Communication and Information Tifatul Sembiring to block the video, and on the government to take firm action against the apparent growth of ISIS support in Indonesia. On August 4, the government’s most senior officials fronted the media and announced that henceforward ISIS is “banned” in Indonesia.

There are two important points to note about the announced ban. First, while local and international media reports of the announcement framed it as an unequivocal “ban”, it has become clear over subsequent weeks that it amounted to little more than a political statement. While the seniority of the ministers present at the announcement – the line-up included including Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, Djoko Suyanto, Head of the Military, General Moeldoko, National Police Chief General Sutarman, Chief of the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) Marciano Norman, and Minister of Religious Affairs, Lukman Hakim Syaifuddin – succeeded in placating the Indonesian public as well as Western observers, the lack of a clear legal framework for law enforcement agencies and the judiciary means than in practice, uncertainty remained over what legal sanctions Indonesian supporters of ISIS would face.

Second, Indonesia arguably has more experience with the threat posed by the return of its nationals from foreign wars than most other countries. During the 1990s, Indonesians who returned from Afghanistan after joining the fight against the Soviet Union, were instrumental in providing the ideological inspiration and organisational know-how for a generation of jihadists in Southeast Asia, culminating in a series of mass-casualty terrorist attacks in Indonesia, including the Bali bombings. The threat that Indonesians with battlefield experience in Syria and Iraq would pose upon their return to Indonesia was clear to experts.  But instead of justifying the ISIS-ban based on the threat posed by returning fighters, such as those that had appeared in the video, statements during the announcement emphasised ISIS’s ideological incompatibility with Indonesia’s national ideology of Pancasila. For example, Djoko Suyanto stated that ‘the government rejects and bans the teachings of ISIS […] ISIS is not in line with state ideology’.  The most in-depth analysis of ISIS in Indonesia, a September 2014 report by IPAC, concluded that:

it was not that IS was more violent or more of a security risk than earlier movements, although both may well be true; it was that it constituted a direct challenge to national loyalty that so alarmed officials.

But focusing on the threat posed by ISIS’s ideology, rather than its advocacy of violence, seems contradictive. After all, the government hasn’t banned any of the dozens of Islamist organisation that reject violence, but adhere to broadly similar ideological doctrines and goals as ISIS. One such organisation is the transnational Islamist organisation Hizbut Tahrir. In early June, month before ISIS declared the caliphate, Hizbut Tahrir’s Syria chapter was raving about the imminent declaration of the Caliphate:

Note that we in Hizbut Tahrir have been preparing for this moment a long time ago, and are competent, with Allah’s support to rally support for the new growing Khilafah state from all the countries of the Muslim world, in many different forms and shapes… Muslims are watching eagerly Ash-Sham [Syria], the abode of Islam, waiting for this final decisive moment that will change the world’s history, and are ready to sacrifice all to reach the great victory.

A prominent 2013 publication by a Solo-based publisher associated with JI, entitled Strategi Dua Lengan (The Two-Arm Strategy), was widely discussed amongst Indonesian jihadi’s and makes brief reference to the relationship between non-violent groups like Hizbut Tahrir and violent groups like ISIS. In laying out a roadmap to establishing a Caliphate in Syria and Yemen through violent means, its author notes the ‘important legacy left by the intellectuals of Hizbut Tahrir […] around the idea of the Caliphate’. But despite Hizbut Tahrir’s enthusiasm for the imminent declaration of a caliphate, only weeks later, when ISIS leader al-Baghdadi declared a caliphate on 29 June, Hizbut Tahrir distanced itself from ISIS, claiming that it fails to fulfil certain conditions, such as total control over the territory, and the provision of security to the population living under it.

Hizbut Tahrir’s Indonesia (HTI) branch is registered as a legal organisation at Indonesia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, and holds public seminars, which are sometimes attended by Indonesian politicians or police officials, in which it promotes the need for the establishment of an Islamic Caliphate. But despite the group’s close ideological and organisational guidance from its Middle Eastern branches, Indonesian officials have not characterised Hizbut Tahrir’s vision of an Islamic Caliphate as an ideological threat. Evidently, unlike ISIS, the group is seen as an organisation, rather than a state-like entity that competes for the loyalty of Indonesia’s citizens. In addition, ISIS’s lack of an organisational structure or community support means that the firm government response against it carried few political costs for the government. In contrast, groups like Hizbut Tahrir have effectively leveraged their elite political connections and organisational networks in the wider community to avoid state-repression.

Ironically, while Hizbut Tahrir has downplayed ISIS’s claim to statehood, the Indonesian government appears to take the claim much more seriously. On August 25, at a seminar attended by several Western ambassadors and diplomats, Indonesian deputy Foreign Minister Dino Patti Djalal carefully explained that ‘diplomatically, Indonesia would not recognise ISIS’. At the same seminar, Ansyaad Mbai, head of Indonesia’s Counter-Terrorism Body BNPT argued that Indonesian’s who pledge allegiance to ISIS could be charged with makar (rebellion). On a different occasion, Minister of Religion, Lukman Hakim Saifuddin, in referring to the act of baiat, the Islamic act of pledging loyalty to a Caliph, which several Indonesian Islamists had publicly done, suggested that ‘taking an oath and pledging loyalty to a foreign state or part of a foreign state can lead to the loss of Indonesian citizenship’. Such statements suggest that officials assessed the threat from ISIS as stemming from its claim to statehood, rather than its call to violent jihad.

That the threat from ISIS is defined as stemming from its ideology, rather than its violence, is already evident in the kinds of initiatives taken against ISIS. The first major trend in Indonesia’s response to ISIS, as already mentioned, has been the vigorous reaffirmation of the orthodox state-ideology of Pancasila. For example, on August 9, Commander of the Armed Forces, General Moeldoko, announced he would visit schools and pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) to provide ‘guidance’ – presumably meaning the dissemination of Pancasila material. A second trend has been the excessive pursuit and attempted criminalisation of symbolic expressions of support for ISIS, such as the arrests of Indonesians in possession of ISIS flags.

In Depok, ice-cream seller Firman Hidayat was arrested for hanging an ISIS flag on his balcony. After determining that Firman is merely a ‘fan’ who ‘idolises’ ISIS, police released him, but continued to monitor and ‘guide’ him. Near Surabaya police arrested Egy Darwanto, a fisherman who flew an IS flag on his boat. At his house, police found hundreds of books about terrorism. Egy was released, with a police official stating that ‘we haven’t found any criminal violations or violations under the terrorism law, so he is just forced to report regularly’.

But the pattern by which the Indonesian government responded to the ISIS threat is not new, nor inexplicable. In fact, the language Indonesian officials use to explain the threat posed by ISIS, and some of the responses on the ground, follow a very particular script. The language mirrors narratives officials frequently apply to several obscure, and indeed frivolous, “rebellions”, such as isolated groups of separatists in Maluku who express loyalty to the Republic of South Maluku (RMS) and obscure factions of the Islamic State of Indonesia (Negara Islam Indonesia, NII) in West Java – both remnants of long-defeated 1950s rebellions. Both movements, which in reality consist of little more than handfuls of isolated, unarmed and poor individuals, are routinely described by officials as a “state-within-a-state”, and hence rebellious. In recent years, dozens of RMS and NII members have been charged with makar (rebellion) – the same law some officials have recently suggested should be applied to ISIS supporters. In court proceedings, state prosecutors routinely point to the possession of RMS and NII flags and other paraphernalia as evidence for the crime of rebellion. Despite their lack of organisational capacity, community support or intent to commit violence, security officials and political elites consistently characterise these tiny groups as dangerous threats to the national ideology and the “NKRI” (Negara Kesatuan Republic Indonesia, The Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia).

That government officials have described ISIS in much the same terms as those used to describe worn-out anti-state rebellions suggest that officials similarly perceive ISIS as a threat against the NKRI. The alarming difference is, of course, that unlike the RMS sympathisers in Maluku and obscure NII factions in West Java, ISIS presents a real threat. The spectre of violence committed by returning Indonesian ISIS fighters is surely of concern to many officials. But some seem to be more concerned that returning fighters will re-enter Indonesia not as members of a terrorist organisation bent on committing mass murder, but as representatives of a foreign state. — New Mandala

* Dominic Berger (
[email protected]
) is a PhD candidate at the Department of Political and Social Change at the Australian National University.

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Can moderates take on the Islamic State and win?

by Melissa Chi

Malay Mail Online

October 3, 2014

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 3 — The Islamic State (IS) has been luring hundreds of the followers of the religion of peace to join its cause in the Middle East, including Malaysians, by romanticising jihad, but a panel of moderate Muslims here believe the militant movement can be beaten.

Speaking at a youth townhall session themed ‘Extremists & Terrorism: How Should Moderates Respond?’ at Publika Solaris Dutamas last night, a three-man panel representing three local Muslim groups suggested the first step to counter the IS and other like-minded jihadists would be to make moderation “sexy” again.

“There is something narrative on the other side. It’s really powerful and it can be very attractive and you really have to counter that narrative,” said Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, CEO of the Global Movement of Moderates Foundation (GMM).

The IS and other similar extremist Muslim groups have been holding up their fight to forcefully create a caliphate in Syria and Iraq as a chance for Muslims worldwide to gain glory for Islam and themselves, even at the cost of their lives in which they will be rewarded with martyrdom in the hereafter.

“Most of us are silent. We don’t actually talk about this. I think we need to shape discourse to reclaim the centre stage,” Saifuddin said.

He added that there should be attempts to make “moderation look sexy” by trying to make it like the norm rather than the exception when it comes to public discourse.

Ahmad El Mohammady from Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM) said the IS claimed to bring the banner of freedom and its followers touted themselves religious warriors fighting for Islam, which he noted was appealing to some Muslims.

“It’s a question of identity,” he said, and added, “Because the voice of moderation is not fashionable, it is outdated.”

Ahmad said the IS was fighting a propaganda war and had, on its side, “experts” to package and market its message to a wider audience through technology and sleek, high-definition promotional videos.

“They have experts packaging messages, like the game Flame of Wars. The IS took that game and created a movie and propaganda out of it by using effective messages and sound,” the political science lecturer from the International Islamic University Malaysia said.

Julia Sveshnikova from the Islamic Renaissance Front (IRF) said a challenge for moderates was knowing the identity of these religious terrorists and exposing the real reason for their fight, which she attributed to the lack of analytical reports on the people who make up the militant jihadist movements.

“We need to be more sober to think deeper about this. Do we know how profitable this war is?

“How much they profit and who are the people they recruit. So we should treat them more soberly, trying to unmask this illusion, this romance around that to talk more about it,” she said.

The total number of Southeast Asians fighting alongside Islamic State is estimated by governments and police to be a few hundred.

As many as 40 Malaysians are currently fighting for the IS in Syria, with some saying that the jihad was mandated by the Prophet Muhammad, business news service Bloomberg reported Monday.

Some of the jihadists identified as Malaysian come from diverse backgrounds and include a former Kedah PAS leader Mohd Lotfi Ariffin, who was died in Syria following an ambush, and a UK-educated 38-year-old who held a job with a construction company, Ahmad Salman Abdul Rahim.

On August 11 this year, Hong Kong daily South China Morning Post reported that Malaysian police have revealed local jihadists who joined IS are now training their sights on Putrajaya.

A senior Malaysian police official was reported as saying that suspected jihadists had planned attacks on entertainment venues in Kuala Lumpur and a Carlsberg factory in Petaling Jaya.

The violence and brutality committed by terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria poses a threat to the Middle East and, if left unchecked, the world, the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations said in a statement on September 27.

Malaysians and Indonesians fighting for the IS have also reportedly banded together over their common language and are said to be planning to expand their numbers to form a “katibah”, a military unit of 100 men roughly equivalent to a company.

Malaysia has designated IS a terrorist group.

The organisation was formerly known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

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Congrats to BN-owned/controlled “mainstream mass media” in achieving a world record in ignoring THE World University Rankings 2014 for two consecutive days because not a single Malaysian university made it to the Top 400 universities list for fifth year

Congrats to the Barisan Nasional-owned/controlled mainstream mass media in achieving a world record in ignoring the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2014 for two consecutive days because not a single Malaysian university made it to the THE Top 400 Universities list for the fifth year in succession.

The THE Top 400 World University Rankings 2014 show a “power shift” from the United States and United Kingdom to the Far East.

While US and UK universities continue to dominate the THE World University Rankings 2014, they are starting to lose ground to East Asian rivals.

What should concern Malaysians is why this shift of higher education excellence from the West to the  East has by-passed Malaysia.

Some 24 Asian universities are now in the top 200 compared with 20 a year earlier. This includes two listed in the top 25 – Tokyo University and the National University of Singapore.

In the top 400 universities list, 52 are from Asia, comprising Japan 12, China 12, South Korea 9, Hong Kong 6, Taiwan 6, India 4, Singapore 2, Thailand 1.

But there is not a single Malaysian University not only in the Top 200 but also in the Top 400 universities listed in the THE World University Rankings, not only for 2014 but for the entire five year THE World University Rankings series since 2010.

Just like the BN owned/controlled mainstream mass media,  Barisan Nasional leaders particularly the Education Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, has chosen to play dumb and refused to make any comment on the shocking absence of a single Malaysian university in the Top 400 universities listing, when not only other Asian countries are represented like South Korea 9, Hong Kong 6, Taiwan 6, India 4, Singapore 2, Thailand 1, countries outside the UK and US region are also represented, like Turkey 6, South Africa 3, Israel 3,  Brazil 2, Iran 2 and Morocco 1.

University of Malaya Vice Chancellor Professor Datuk Dr. Mohd Amin Jalaludin told The Malaysian Insider that the university has not participated in the THE rankings because the UM is not yet in a strong enough financial position to compete with other richer, older and better-ranked universities, but it would be ready to enter the THE rankings in 2018.

Nine years ago, at the University of Malaya’s centennial celebrations in June 2005, the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, in his capacity as Deputy Prime Minister challenged the University of Malaya to raise its 89th position among the world’s top universities in the THES-QS Ranking 2004 to 50 by the year 2020.

At the time, this challenge for University of Malaya to be ranked among the world’s  Top 50 Universities by 2020 was accepted by the then UM Vice Chancellor.

Has this been reneged by the present UM Vice Chancellor with a 13-year deferment for UM to be ranked among the world’s Top 50 universities (i.e. in 2033), or is the UM VC declaring that Malaysia would meet the challenge to be among the world’s Top 50 universities in 2018 when UM enters the THE ranking?

In any event, the  argument that University of Malaya  cannot compete with the “older” better-ranked universities cannot hold water, as out of the 20 Australian universities in the Top 400 (eight of them in Top 200), only eight of them were founded before 1950, namely Sydney 1851, Melbourne 1853,  Adelaide 1874, Queensland 1909, Western Australia 1911, Australian National University 1946 and University of New South Wales 1949.

In the fifties and sixties, Malaysians pride themselves in having University of Malaya as one of the world-ranking universities comparable in academic excellence to Universities of Melbourne and Sydney (with all the other Australian universities at the time regarded as “countryside” and inferior universities).

It is sad and pathetic that  Malaysian universities have completely lost out in the world higher education stakes and is overtaken by 20 Australian universities, with over a dozen which are younger than University of Malaya!

Muhyiddin cannot continue to keep his silence about Malaysia’s dismal failure in higher education when not a single university could get into the THE Top 400 World University Rankings for five consecutive years – which is during his entire  tenure as Education Minister.

Is this going to represent Muhyiddin’s greatest failure as Education Minister?

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In New Front Against Islamic State, Dictionary Becomes a Weapon

By DAN BILEFSKYOCT

New York Times

October 2, 2014

PARIS — After the French mountaineering guide Hervé Gourdel was beheaded by an Algerian jihadist group aligned with the Islamic State last month, hundreds of Muslims gathered outside the Great Mosque of Paris to express their revulsion over the brutality of a group whose name and ideology, they said, was an insult to Muslims everywhere.

Some carried placards with the hashtag #NotInMyName, which has become a rallying cry on Twitter against the Islamic State.

Ahmet Ogras, vice president of the French Council of the Muslim Faith, which called for the protest on Sept. 26, said that the now-common use of the name Islamic State threatened to stigmatize France’s Muslims, Europe’s largest Muslim community. He also said that the name conferred unwarranted legitimacy on a group carrying out killings in the name of Islam.

“This is not a state; this is a terrorist organization,” he added. “I call them terrorists because that’s what they are. One has to call a dog a dog. One can’t play with words.”

As the United States-led battle against radical forces rages in Iraq and Syria, a new linguistic front is emerging. Muslim groups in Europe and beyond are lashing out at the Islamic State in protests and on social media, advocating alternative ways to refer to the militants, now known by an alphabet soup of labels including ISIS, ISIL, IS and SIC.

In a sign of the semantic war underway, Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general of the United Nations, last week railed against the Islamic State by calling it the “Un-Islamic Nonstate,” though few expect that the acronym UINS will have much staying power.

Those kinds of protests against the Islamic State were echoed in Britain, where members of the Islamic Society of Britain and the Association of British Muslims last month wrote an open letter to Prime Minister David Cameron suggesting that the group should be referred to instead as the “Un-Islamic State” or UIS. Continued use of the name Islamic State would only further radicalize young Muslims, they said.

France, which has joined the United States-led airstrikes against the group in Iraq and is fighting a propaganda battle against the group at home, has been leading the rebranding. The Interior Ministry said Tuesday that the number of those who traveled or planned to travel to Syria or Iraq to fight in the region had risen to about 1,000, making it all the more urgent for the government to discredit the militants.

Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius announced last month that the government would avoid the term Islamic State or its alternatives, Islamic State in Iraq and Syria or Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, and instead refer to the militant group as Daesh, the acronym many Arabic speakers use, which sounds like a word meaning to crush.

Addressing the National Assembly, Mr. Fabius declared that the Islamic State’s claim to represent a caliphate — a state governed by Islamic principles — in Syria and Iraq was geopolitically and linguistically false.

“This is a terrorist group and not a state,” he said. “I do not recommend using the term Islamic State because it blurs the lines between Islam, Muslims and Islamists.” Calling on news organizations to follow his lead, he added, “The Arabs call it Daesh, and I will be calling them the Daesh Cutthroats.”

The term Daesh — also sometimes referred to as Da’ish — is an acronym of the group’s Arabic name, Al-Dawla al-Islamiya fi al-Iraq wa al-Sham, according to Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, who studies the Islamic State and is now a researcher with the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel. It is also used without being meant as an insult.

But, Mr. Tamimi said, the acronym has also been embraced by critics of the group, as the word could have negative connotations in the Arab world, since it is close to the word daes, meaning to tread underfoot, trample or crush. (Several residents of Mosul, Iraq, which fell to the Islamic State in June, told The Associated Press that the Sunni militant group was so incensed about the use of the term Daesh that members threatened to cut off the tongues of anyone who uttered it.)

In the United States, Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, based in Washington, said his group had settled on ISIS, though he personally referred to the group as “Daesh — though sometimes I say ‘the Evil State.’  ” Because of its similarity to daes, he explained, “it doesn’t sound good.”

Several representatives of American Islamic associations said that any of the names used for the group were acceptable so long as they did not include the term Islamic. Salam al-Marayati, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, based in Los Angeles, said his group had stuck with the acronym ISIS “because we believe by using Islam in any description of these groups, it’s exactly what they want — a religious validation of what they’re doing.”

President Obama has made it clear why he shuns the formulation Islamic State. “ISIL is not Islamic,” he told a national television audience in early September, later adding, “ISIL is certainly not a state.” The White House and State Department have been slightly less clear about why they embraced the acronym ISIL, rather than ISIS.

Peter Neumann, director of the International Center for the Study of Radicalization at King’s College London, noted that the term Daesh was unlikely to resonate internationally since the acronym ISIS more easily rolled off the tongue. Nor, he argued, is it likely to have much effect on the thousands of Westerners keen to join the group in Syria and Iraq, who are contemptuous of Western governments and news media.

“While it is important to make clear that ISIS does not represent mainstream Islam, I don’t think Daesh is really going to catch on in the West, and the French have already lost the battle of the acronyms,” he said. “Merely uttering the words Islamic State doesn’t mean you recognize it as a state. People understand that they are impostors and that a name is just a name.”

Brian Knowlton contributed reporting from Washington, and Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura from London.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 3 October 2014, 11:08 am and is filed under
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ISIS– Largest, Richest $2Billion Terror-Based Enterprise: Financial Sophistication Rivaling Wall Street

Joe DePaola

BizShifts-Trends

September 28, 2014

ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ) is the world’s largest, richest terrorist organizations, ever. It’s a self-sustaining enterprise that runs mainly on extortion and crime networks, hostages, oil, donations… According to Martin Chulov; ISIS has grown from a ragtag band of extremists to perhaps the most cash-rich and capable terror group in the world with a $2 billion jihadist network. The scale of ISIS resources is unprecedented:  A terrorist organization while ruthless, but still able to occupy large areas of territory, quickly… for example; it controls several major cities in Iraq, which it occupied in just three days, it holds parts of several other cities and continues to menace still other cities throughout Iraq and Syria: It’s quite an accomplishment…  According to Michael Knights; some estimates of ISIS’s wealth are overstated, for example; the $2 billion estimate that’s been floating around is too high, but that’s not to say ISIS isn’t raking in a fair amount of cash– between $2 million and $4 million per day… ISIS is a wealthy terrorist movement or better yet an effective financial enterprise, which it run very much like a large-scale Mafia type protection rackets business across much of Iraq.

This group has fashioned a small army out of a mix of foreign and local fighters, established oil refining and trafficking operations, and even collects taxes…. Despite longstanding rumors that ISIS has foreign patrons in Gulf States such as; Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar, there is little evidence that it ever depended on foreign largess… While there may be some foreign money flowing to ISIS, stopping these transnational flows will not stymie the group. Whatever its international influences, ISIS raises most of its money from the territories it feeds off of, making the problem of beating back the group exceedingly difficult… According to Howard J. Shatz; ISIS raises much of its money just as a well-organized criminal gang would: It smuggles, it extorts, it skims, it fences, it kidnaps and it shakes down. Although supposedly religiously inspired, its actions are more like those of an organized criminal cult… To quote  a U.S. mobster; you don’t get ahead just by being thugs but at some point you must also learn to be a racketeer as well…

ISIS’ most important revenue source is the smuggling of oil from the oil fields it controls in Syria and Iraq. It has been reported to control about a dozen oil fields along with several refineries. Estimates of revenue vary, but a range of $1 million to more than $2 million a day is reasonable… ISIS is a formidable fund-raiser. To its disadvantage, the group is also a formidable spender. It pays regular salaries to members based on family size and even has promised to maintain those payments if the member is killed or captured… It also pays rent for some members and medical expenses, maintains safe-houses and buys weapons and other equipment. As cash-based organization, it also has to guard against internal corruption, which is documented in the group’s own records… Historically, ISIS’ main outside revenue has come in small donations from local and foreign supporters… And while donations from the Gulf countries may have been welcome additions, neutralizing donations from wealthy Gulf sources will have little effect on their activities…

In the article Who finances ISIS? by Andreas Becker writes: ISIS is recognized as the richest terrorist organization in the world, ever… Iraqi officials estimate that the group now has about $2 billion in its war chest. What remains controversial is where bulk of its money comes from… Iraq’s Shiite-dominated government accuses Saudi Arabia of supporting the ISIS jihadis… According to Charles Lister; there is no publicly accessible proof that governments of any state has been involved in the creation or financing of ISIS as an organisation… Others take a different view. According to Günter Meyer; the most important source of ISIS financing to date has been support coming out of the Gulf states, primarily Saudi Arabia but also Qatar, Kuwait and United Arab Emirates… Additional key financing sources are the oil fields of northern Syria: ISIS was able to get the oil fields under their control, where they use trucks to bring oil across the border into Turkey– oil is an important source of funding for them…

According to Charles Lister; ISIS is largely able to fund itself, and it has established local networks in their occupied territories that generate a continuing flow of money, for example; systematic extortion of small businesses as well as large companies, such as; construction firms… and if the rumors are true, even local government representatives… Also, it levies taxes in the areas that it fully controls…  However, one of ISIS’ biggest financial coup so far was the looting of the central bank in Mosul, which brought them equivalent of about $429 million in cash. Additional banks in Mosul and other areas under ISIS control were also plundered… With $429 million, ISIS could pay 60,000 fighters $600 a month for a whole year… Also, ISIS fighters looted much equipment that U.S. left for Iraq military, like; weapons, vehicles… Also, with their financial power, it’s relatively easy for ISIS to buy high-quality weapons on international armaments markets…

In the article Iraq Interrogation Reveals ISIS Has $2 Billion in Financing by Cathy Burke writes: The interrogation of a trusted messenger for ISIS, led Iraqi commanders to a treasure trove of information on the terror group and its staggering $2 billion in finances… According to officials; before Mosul, ISIS’ total cash and assets was about $875 million, then afterwards, with the money they robbed from banks and the value of the military supplies they looted, its estimated that they added another $1.5 billion to that… In less than three years, the extremists morphed from a ragtag band of militants into the most cash-rich terror group in the world, and they are accomplishing these feats all by  themselves– these are very industrious people… According to some intelligence officials; there are no state actors behind ISIS– they just don’t need one…

In the article Who’s Funding ISIS? by Robert Windrem writes: There is a small but steady flow of money to ISIS from rich ‘individuals’ in the Gulf with Qataris being the biggest suppliers, according to some U.S. officials… According to one expert; these rich individuals serve as ‘angel investors’ for the most violent militants, providing ‘seed money’ that helped launch ISIS and other jihadi groups… These rich Arabs are like what ‘angel investors’ are to high-tech start-ups, except they are interested in starting up groups who want to stir up hatred: Groups like al-Nusrah and ISIS are better investments for them. The individuals act as high rollers early, providing seed money. Once the groups are on their feet, they are perfectly capable of raising funds through other means, like; kidnapping, oil smuggling, selling women into slavery… According to intelligence official; any outside funding represents a small fraction of ISIS’s total annual income… The largest source of cash now is oil smuggling along the Turkish border, with ISIS leaders willing to sell oil for as little as $25 a barrel, a quarter of the going world price. Since other previously lucrative sources, such as; kidnapping for ransom… is not as profitable as it once was.

In the article Islamic State: Where Does Jihadist Get Its Support? by Michael Stephens writes: Much has been written about the support Islamic State (ISIS) has received from donors and sympathizers, particularly in the wealthy Gulf States… Indeed the accusation I hear most from those fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria is that Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia are solely responsible for the group’s existence. But the truth is more complex and needs exploring… It’s true that some wealthy individuals from the Gulf have funded extremist groups in Syria, many taking bags of cash to Turkey and simply handing over millions of dollars at a time… This was very common practice in 2012 and 2013 but has since diminished and is at most only a tiny percentage of the total income that flows into Islamic State coffers in 2014.

Islamic State (ISIS) has put in place what appear to be beginnings of quasi-state structures – ministries, law courts, even a rudimentary taxation system… ISIS has displayed a consistent pattern since it first began to take territory in early 2013… Upon taking control of a town it quickly secures the water, flour and hydrocarbon resources of the area, centralizing distribution and thereby making local population dependent on it for survival… To understand how the Islamic State economy functions is to delve into a murky world of middlemen and shady business dealings, in which ‘loyal ideologues’ on differing sides spot business opportunities and pounce upon them… ISIS exports about 9,000 barrels of oil per day at prices ranging from about $25-$45 (£15-£27): It’s a traditional war economy… The point is that ISIS is essentially self-financing; it cannot be isolated and cut off from the world because it’s intimately tied into regional stability in a way that benefits not only itself, but also the people it controls…

In the article Where ISIS Makes Its Money by Tyler Durden writes: ISIS uses oil wealth to help finance its terror operations. Here’s how they do it… According to ‘Iraq Energy Institute’; the army of radical Islamists controls production of 30,000 barrels of oil a day in Iraq and 50,000 barrels in Syria… By selling the oil on the black market at a discounted price of $40 per barrel (compared to about $93/ barrel in free markets), ISIS takes in $3.2 million/day… According to James Phillips; oil revenue gives ISIS a solid economic base that sustains its continued expansion… The oil revenue, which amounts to nearly $100 million/month, allows ISIS to fund its military, terrorist attacks– and attract recruits from around the world… To be successful in counter-terrorism efforts, Phillips said; U.S. and its allies must push the Islamic State out of the oil fields it has captured and disrupt its ability to smuggle the oil to foreign markets…

Here’s how Phillips said the ISIS oil operation works: ISIS sells oil to consumers in territory it controls, roughly the size of Maryland, inside Syria and Iraq. The terrorist group also sells oil to network of smugglers that developed in the 1990s during Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s rule; that network smuggled oil out of Iraq to Turkey to avoid sanctions imposed by the UN. ISIS also reportedly sells oil, through middlemen, to Assad regime… When it comes to making a fast buck, the Middle East has no shortage of ‘strange bedfellows’ willing to do business with each other…

The growth of ISIS has been quite incredible: They are armed with– modern weapons, large fighting army, and an effective organization. All of which is bought and paid with real money supplied through a highly sophisticated funding strategy… According to Senator Rubio; ISIS’s criminal activities– robbery, extortion, and trafficking– have helped them become the best funded terrorist group in history. The wealth has helped expand their operational capacity and incentivized both local and foreign fighters to join them… ISIS has the resources, weaponry, and operational safe havens to continue to threaten the stability of the region, as well as;  U.S., Europe, other nations’ national security interests…

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Islamic State committing ‘staggering’ crimes in Iraq: U.N. report

By Stephanie Nebehay

Reuters

Oct 2, 2014

GENEVA (Reuters) – Islamic State insurgents in Iraq have carried out mass executions, abducted women and girls as sex slaves, and used child soldiers in what may amount to systematic war crimes that demand prosecution, the United Nations said on Thursday.

In a report based on 500 interviews with witnesses, also said Iraqi government air strikes on the Sunni Muslim militants had caused “significant civilian deaths” by hitting villages, a school and hospitals in violation of international law.

At least 9,347 civilians had been killed and 17,386 wounded so far this year through September, well over half of them since the Islamist insurgents also known as ISIL and ISIS began seizing large parts of northern Iraq in early June, the report said.

“The array of violations and abuses perpetrated by ISIL and associated armed groups is staggering, and many of their acts may amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity,” said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein.

In a statement, he called again for the Baghdad government to join the International Criminal Court, saying the Hague court was set up to prosecute such massive abuses and direct targeting of civilians on the basis of their religious or ethnic group.

Islamist forces have committed gross human rights violations and violence of an “increasing sectarian nature” against groups including Christians, Yazidis and Shi’ite Muslims in a widening conflict that has forced 1.8 million Iraqis to flee their homes, according to the 29-page report by the U.N. Human Rights Office and the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).

“These include attacks directly targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, executions and other targeted killings of civilians, abductions, rape and other forms of sexual and physical violence perpetrated against women and children, forced recruitment of children, destruction or desecration of places of religious or cultural significance, wanton destruction and looting of property, and denial of fundamental freedoms.”

FEMALE “SEX SLAVES”

In a single massacre on June 12, the report said, about 1,500 Iraqi soldiers and security officers from the former U.S. Camp Speicher military base in Salahuddin province were captured and killed by Islamic State fighters.

However, the bodies have not been exhumed and the precise toll is not known. No one disputes that Iraqi military recruits were led off the base near Tikrit unarmed and then machinegunned in their hundreds into mass graves by Islamic State, whose fighters boasted of the killings on the Internet.

Women have been treated particularly harshly, the report said: “ISIL (has) attacked and killed female doctors, lawyers, among other professionals.”

In August, it said, ISIL took 450-500 women and girls to the Tal Afar citadel in Iraq’s Nineveh region where “150 unmarried girls and women, predominantly from the Yazidi and Christian communities, were reportedly transported to Syria, either to be given to ISIL fighters as a reward or to be sold as sex slaves”.

Islamic State pushed on with its assault on a Syrian border town on Thursday despite coalition air strikes meant to weaken them, sending thousands more Kurdish refugees into Turkey and dragging Ankara deeper into the conflict.

Islamic State and allied groups have attacked and destroyed places of religious and cultural significance in Iraq that do not conform to its “takfiri” doctrine, the U.N. report said, referring to the beliefs of Sunni militants who justify their violence by branding others as apostates.

But the report also voiced deep concern at violations committed by the Baghdad government and allied fighters, including air strikes and shelling that may not have distinguished between military targets and civilian areas.

(additional reporting by Ned Parker in Baghdad; Editing by Louise Ireland)

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Islamic State influence spreads beyond Iraq and Syria

Naila Inayat and Kaci Racelma

USA TODAY

October 2, 2014

LAHORE, Pakistan — In Pakistan, some are slapping pro-Islamic State bumper stickers on their cars and writing chalk graffiti on walls exhorting young people to join the terrorist group.

In China, the government fears that Muslim Uighurs — a restive ethnic minority in the country’s far west — have sought terrorist training from the Islamic State to establish a breakaway country.

In eastern Mali, an Islamic State-affiliated group called “Soldiers of the Caliphate in the Land of Algeria” has taken over much of Gao province, inflicting severe punishments for breaches of the Quran, like drinking alcohol. Those militants beheaded a French tourist in Algeria last month after France refused to halt its participation in U.S.-led airstrikes against the group in Iraq.

Bombs slam into Islamic State stronghold on Iraq-Syria border

“The situation gets more and more complicated as our region becomes the stronghold of radical Islamists who only use violence to express their will,” said Mamadou Idrissa, a businessman in Gao. “Our life has turned into a nightmare.”

After its lightning takeover of a third of Iraq and Syria this summer, the Islamic State appears to be spreading its influence across much of the Muslim world and even in such non-Muslim countries as Australia and India.

“The Islamic State’s appeal extends beyond the Middle East,” said Fawaz Gerges, a professor of contemporary Middle East studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science. “Their strategy is anchored on the simple premise that it is a winning horse. It has promised the entire ummah — the Muslim community — that it could deliver victory and salvation.”

A photograph from the British Ministry of Defense shows the result of a Brimstone missile strike on an armed Islamic State truck on Sept. 30 in Iraq. The Brimstone missile is circled in red moments before impact. (Photo: Ministry of Defense via AP)

The formation of the U.S.-led coalition trying to destroy the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria only enhances the legitimacy of the militant group, Gerges said.

But the Islamic State has limited capabilities outside its sanctuaries in Iraq and Syria, said Rick Nelson, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

“They have globalized rhetoric,” Nelson said, “As far as an aggressive overseas campaign, I don’t think the evidence is there.”

The group is effective at whipping up support through social media. It has sent emissaries to jihadist groups in North Africa and elsewhere, said William McCants, an analyst at the Brookings Institution. He said the Islamic State wants to build a global presence, but that will take time.

The Pentagon said it has no evidence that Islamic State militants are planning to attack targets in the United States, but if left unchecked the group could pose a direct threat to the U.S. and other Western countries.

The Islamic State’s popularity among some groups seems to be growing.

In Mali, Abu Othman, a former member of the Islamist group Ansar Dine, or “Defenders of the Faith” in Arabic, explained the appeal: The group’s aggression was simply payback for past oppression against Muslims.

“Violence was not condemned by the people when Muslims were massacred by Christians in central Africa,” Othman said. “So it goes without saying that the violence perpetrated by the Islamic State against the Christians is only one measure of retaliation.”

Pakistan denies that the Islamic State made inroads into the nuclear-armed country, where sectarian violence, political instability and tensions with its non-Muslim neighbor, India, have long raised concerns among Western leaders.

“I have seen media reports that some pamphlets have been found in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam, referring to a mountainous area of Pakistan formerly called North West Frontier province. “We have not seen any evidence of their presence on our territory.”

But Pakistan is fertile territory for the Islamic State, particularly among al-Qaeda sympathizers who have seen the terrorist group’s networks weakened over the past decade, analysts said.

“I don’t think it will take long for the Islamic State to develop a base from disgruntled ex-al-Qaeda militants,” said Ahmed Rashid, an analyst who has written about extremism in the region.

Talat Masood, a retired lieutenant general and independent defense expert in Islamabad, said Pakistan could become a battleground between the Islamic State and various rivals vying for power in the country.

“Power struggles between al-Qaeda and the Islamic State can aggravate the level of violence,” Masood said. “There is no doubt that we will see a dangerous battle of influence developing between these two in which many innocent people will die.”

In neighboring India — where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is wary of the threat from Islamist extremists in Pakistan — reports abound of Islamic State activity.

In August, the death of Islamic State fighter Arif Ejaz Majeed, a Muslim civil engineering student from suburban Mumbai, made headlines in India.

In the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, around 24 Indian Muslims were photographed wearing pro-Islamic State T-shirts. In the northern state of Srinagar, masked youths were filmed waving Islamic State flags.

“While the threat from Pakistan-based jihadist organizations remains current, India is also witnessing the rise of self-motivated, ideologically inspired, homegrown jihadists,” said Tufail Ahmad, director of the South Asia Studies Project at the Middle East Media Research Institute in Washington.

AFP_533461531

“They not only want to get training in terrorist techniques, but also to expand their connections in international terrorist organizations through actual combat to gain support for more terrorist activities in China,” the Global Times newspaper, the Communist Party’s mouthpiece, said recently.

Australia plans to ban its citizens from traveling to Islamic State-controlled territories, like Raqqa in northern Syria. European countries, which suspect hundreds if not thousands of citizens have joined the Islamic State, have started cracking down on travel to that region.

Raqqa was the scene of a now infamous photograph of a young boy holding the severed head of a Syrian government soldier that reportedly was taken this year.

“My unambiguous message to all Australians who fight with terrorist groups is that you will be arrested, prosecuted and jailed for a very long time,” Prime Minister Tony Abbott told Parliament last month. “Our laws are being changed to make it easier to keep potential terrorists off our streets,”

Racelma reported from Tizi Ouzou, Algeria. Contributing: Janelle Dumalaon in Berlin, Caesar Mandal in Kolkata, India, and Jim Michaels, USA TODAY, in Washington.

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Malaysia’s Opposition Alliance At The Crossroads: Beginning Of The End? – Analysis

Yang Razali Kassim

Eurasia Review

October 2, 2014

The Malaysian Pakatan Rakyat opposition alliance is at a crossroads following the recent crisis over the Menteri Besar (Chief Minister) of Selangor: Whether the three partners, PKR, DAP, PAS, part ways or remain together depends on how the surprising turmoil within the Islamist party PAS is resolved.

The Malaysian Islamist party, PAS, held its muktamar or annual congress, in the southern Johor town of Batu Pahat on 18-20 September 2014. Watching the tension-filled muktamar was like waiting for a slow burning fuse to explode, as one after another, the party leadership responded to delegates’ criticisms of their handling of the Selangor Menteri Besar or “MB” crisis. That was essentially an internal squabble of its opposition partner PKR over its attempt to replace its chief minister in Selangor state.

However what began as a PKR problem quickly and surprisingly spread to engulf PAS, primarily because the spillover was not well handled by PAS’ president, Hadi Awang. For some inexplicable reason, Hadi had refused to go along with PKR’s sole nominee for the post, Dr Wan Azizah – its president and wife of Anwar Ibrahim, even though the opposition Pakatan Rakyat (People’s Alliance) which also included the DAP had agreed to this. Hadi’s resistance divided PAS internally and even threatened to bring down the entire alliance. Though the PAS leaders defended their positions during the muktamar, they only succeeded in stirring up the deep division between the party’s two pillars – the ulama or clerics and the professionals whose influence has grown over the years.

Hadi’s Second Mandate?

PAS’ secretary-general Mustafa Ali tried to cool down the temperature by paraphrasing Albert Einstein, who famously said science without religion is blind, and religion without science is lame. Mustafa intoned that PAS without the ulama is blind, and PAS without the professionals is lame. Indeed, he added, PAS rested on a third pillar: the activists who were neither ulama nor professional, yet all three – the ulama, professionals and activists – were critically needed to pull PAS through.

But Hadi, whose speech was much anticipated, had other thoughts. He had been criticised for breaching agreed positions over the MB crisis. Shockingly, he argued that there was no written agreement. In a convoluted way, he ended up proposing three names other than Wan Azizah to the Selangor Sultan for royal assent.

In the process he alienated many within and outside PAS who were unhappy with Hadi’s highly controversial handling of the issue. One consequence was the breaking of ranks of two PAS assemblymen to give Wan Azizah the majority in the opposition-dominated state assembly, although to no avail in the end.

The divide between the conservative ulama and the professionals that the MB crisis resurrected was more threatening to PAS. At the core, the tussle was over the fundamental question of the leadership of the ulama and the leadership of the professionals, the latter variously known also as the ‘progressives’, ‘Anwarinas’ and ‘Erdoganists’.

Hadi has always been identified with the ulama leadership in PAS since the early 1980s, coinciding with the rise of Anwar in UMNO. Both came from the same source: the Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement (ABIM) which Anwar led before joining UMNO. But the Selangor MB crisis showed that notwithstanding their common origins, Hadi and Anwar had dormant differences which were waiting to boil over.

In recent years, the ulama in PAS have reasserted their leadership, triggered in part by the emergence of a younger generation of clerics, some even more conservative. Yet PAS members have, significantly, been supportive of the professionals/progressives, as seen in the last party election when they successfully defended their influential presence in the party.

Hadi’s dithering leadership

Against this backdrop, Hadi has been displaying a dithering – even confusing – leadership posture, swaying between conservatism and progressiveness. In the process, he sent mixed signals to the point of being accused of weakness, leading even to unconfirmed reports of an attempt to replace him. There is no doubt that he has been under severe stress and has failing health, but the Selangor MB crisis must have been his last straw. The old fiery Hadi resurfaced as he defended the ulama faction; it was nothing short of explosive.

He let loose a volley, targeting no-one in particular, yet clear enough to refer to PAS’ opposition allies, and to the party’s own leaders who had taken the non-PAS side in the MB crisis, using words that were unprecedented in PAS gatherings. Declaring that he did not want to lead PAS members to hell, Hadi lashed out at ‘baruah’ (stooges), ‘brokers’ and ‘hypocrites’. He also accused unspecified parties of ‘curi MP’ (stealing MPs) and ‘beli MP’ (buying MPs). In the end, it was a speech of many don’ts: don’t form ‘jemaah dalam jemaah’ (group within a group); don’t treat PAS like a ‘hotel’; don’t leak party secrets; don’t give your loyalty to others; and don’t help your enemies.

If Hadi’s first ‘mandate’ as a rising cleric in 1981 – Amanat Haji Hadi – had split Malaysia’s Malay community between PAS and UMNO – it would not be out of place to call Hadi’s Batu Pahat speech his second mandate – Amanat Haji Hadi Kedua – that would split the opposition.

Three possible trajectories

The Batu Pahat muktamar may go down in history as PAS’ most divisive. It pushed PAS, but also the Pakatan, to a new crossroads. The tension between the ulama and the progressives, may have been contained for now, but it is likely to resurface nearer the party’s election in a year’s time. Expect a battle royale that could make or break PAS.

Unless both factions consciously decide to close ranks, the first possible trajectory is a split – either the professionals get booted out; or they leave; or the ulama themselves part ways. The move to form PasMa, a pressure-group society within PAS, is a sign of the progressives getting restless with the way things are going.

The second trajectory is the collapse of the Pakatan alliance, following from a break up of PAS. The formation of PasMa shows that the Pakatan allies in PKR and DAP realise this distinct possibility but are making pre-emptive moves to save Pakatan. The third trajectory, however, has a happier ending: all three parties – PAS, PKR and DAP – come to their senses and reconcile, driven by the thought of possible victory in the next general election that must be called by 2018.

Although Pakatan lost the last one in 2013, they won the popular vote and are just a hair’s breadth away from power. They would realise soon enough that it would be foolish to throw everything out of the window. The question is will they?

Yang Razali Kassim is Senior Fellow with the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University.

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‘Saya hanya masuk DAP, bukan tukar agama’

Mohamad Fadli| October 3, 2014

Free Malaysia Today

Artikel yang melabel dirinya sebagai pelacur tersebut bukan sahaja memalukan dirinya malah memberi impak yang sama terhadap ahli keluarganya.

SHAH ALAM: Jamila Rahim meluahkan rasa kecewanya selepas dituduh sebagai pelacur dan telah menggadai agama oleh sesetengah pihak dalam beberapa artikel yang disiarkan di dalam beberapa portal media.

Jamila atau lebih dikenali sebagai Melati Rahim menegaskan pendiriannya bahawa beliau hanya ingin menyertai parti DAP dan tidak pernah sesekali menggadai agamanya.

“Saya hanya ingin masuk parti ini dan saya tidak pernah menukar agama saya.

“Saya masih Islam dan saya ingin tekankan perkara ini,” katanya kepada pemberita selepas membuat aduan mengenai dua artikel daripada portal media MYKMU yang berjudul ‘Melati lebih baik jadi pelacur dari sertai DAP’ dan daripada Free Malaysia Today yang berjudul ‘DAP dan Politik Onani’.

Hari ini beliau bersama dua ahli DAP yang lain, Dyana Sofya dan Syefura Othman serta peguam DAP, Gobind Singh telah membuat aduan di Suruhanjaya Komunikasi Multimedia Malaysia (SKMM) mengenai dua artikel tersebut.

Melati juga berkata bahawa artikel yang melabel dirinya sebagai pelacur tersebut bukan sahaja memalukan dirinya malah memberi impak yang sama terhadap ahli keluarganya.

“Pihak berkuasa perlu ambil tindakan segera,” jelasnya.

Sementara itu, ahli DAP, Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud turut menyelar pihak yang menulis artikel tersebut kerana mempunyai niat untuk menjatuhkannya.

“Setiap kali ada penglibatan ahli DAP daripada perempuan, ada sahaja dakwaan yang tidak baik dilontarkan.

sefura rara“Rara (Syefura Othman), Melati sudah kena dan ini semua jelas merupakan satu serangan berbentuk emosi. Bagaimana kita mahu lebih banyak wanita untuk terlibat dalam politik selepas ini?,” soalnya.

Tambahnya, DAP merupakan sebuah parti yang sah dan mereka berhak membuat pilihan untuk memasuki parti yang diingini.

“Kita sepatutnya bersikap lebih matang,” katanya.

Sementara itu, salah seorang ahli DAP, Syefura Othman pula berkata artikel berkenaan telah menjatuhkan maruahnya sebagai perempuan.

“Mereka ini telah menjatuhkan maruah sebagai wanita secara terang-terangan. Bagaimana kita nak tarik lebih ramai wanita memasuki politik? Bila kita masuk sesebuah parti, kita dihina seperti ini. Saya harap tindakan dapat diambil.

“Martabat wanita tinggi dan kita tidak perlu dihina seperti itu,” ujarnya.

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The Islamic State: Delivering Islam’s Reformation?

Cheryl Benard

The National Interest

October 3, 2014

“When the dust finally settles, we may find that IS has given the world a lasting, if expensive, gift: the long-overdue Islamic Reformation.”

Of all the reactions to the so-called Islamic State (IS) and its grisly, intentionally provocative brutalities, perhaps the most interesting one is surely unintended: it is inspiring critical and substantive debate about the nature of Islam, on the part of Muslims, a debate with the potential to bring about the modernization and reformation of that religion.

In decades past, it has been taboo even to hint at any possible anachronisms or problems in the Quran. And: “Islam is a religion of peace” was the universal obligatory mantra after 9/11. Only a daring few voices expressed the occasional doubt, to be instantly branded as Islamophobes.

And this politically correct version might have been true. Some of the theological observations made in this context had validity: it is true that almost all religions contain seeds of extremism and have engendered violent fringe movements. Certainly, the Quran also contains passages about justice, tolerance and communal peace. It is true as well that the Bible’s Old Testament contains multiple injunctions and sanctioned behaviors that shock us today—from infanticide to polygamy to rape. Judaism and Christianity have adapted their religions to changing mores by tacitly ignoring those passages that no longer fit the times, and by accepting that some aspects of religious doctrine are historic, rather than ethical or theological.

But the sentence about Islam being a religion of peace was never a theological statement. It always had an ulterior motive: the desire to be polite, to be politically correct, and to wish into being a desired reality.

 I have attended more than one academic conference where an incipient discussion of Islam was anxiously aborted with the warning that “one can’t go to war with 1.6 billion people.” This statement in itself, of course, pretty much negates the religion of peace premise, presuming as it does that an angry horde would be ready to rise up if it didn’t like your panel’s comments. “Religion of peace” was an invocation more so than a diagnosis.

IS allows for no such blandishments. IS wants no part of any religion of peace, which leaves us with two possibilities: either IS is not Islamic, or Islam is not peaceful. Our preferred answer is the first one, but IS is determined to beat that one out of us. IS gives Christians 24 hours to decide whether they want to pay a punitive tax, convert or be killed. It slaughters prisoners. It takes female captives as sex slaves and concubines. It expresses vitriolic hatred of Christians and Jews. And that’s its friendly face. Belong to any other religion besides those, and genocide is your destined fate. Its goal is to spread its dominion by the sword and to establish a Caliphate. And it claims that all of this is in fulfillment of Islamic doctrine and the word of the Quran. And, it regretfully must be said, that happens to be true.

The world can debate and dispute this claim if it wishes, but the matter is easily settled: just read the Quran. And what you will discover is that the things IS is doing are indeed contained chapter and verse in that document. The Quran explicitly permits the taking of prisoners of war as slaves. It specifically allows you to ignore the married status of any female prisoners that you fancy, and to force them to become your concubines or wives. It is filled with hateful descriptions of Christians and Jews, although it does grant them special status as followers of earlier prophets and “people of the Book” and provides for them to be tolerated as second-class citizens in exchange for paying, essentially, protection money or a blood tax. No such kindness extends to followers of other religions or creeds, who are idolaters to be eliminated, a policy that IS has diligently followed towards the Yazidis. Sure, there are other passages and sentiments expressed in the Quran as well; we have chosen to focus on those and sweep the rest under the carpet. IS has yanked that carpet out from under our feet.

Responses to IS include abhorrence, NATO alliances and air strikes. The deeper result may, however, be far more consequential: a reassessment on the part of Muslims of their religion, of that 1.6 billion minus the few thousand IS hardcore literalists. And indeed this is happening already, on platforms ranging from academic forums to social media. Things are being articulated, questions boldly raised, daring hypotheses uttered, breaking a generations-long silence. Take, as just one example, the article by Turkish scholar Necla Kelek: Muslims, she says, have neglected to develop habits of critical analysis and discourse, and instead have favored “taqlid,” the practice of blindly accepting whatever came before. This has given free reign to the regressive thinking of the Salafists. “Peace-loving Muslims will forever be helpless against the fundamentalists unless they begin to define the Quran, too, as a historical text subject to inquiry, critique and doubt. They must prove themselves ready to take their place in a secular world.”

Even more startling, you will find—for the first time in modern history—blogs and postings by ordinary Muslims, on websites in Islamic countries, not merely critiquing Islam, but even renouncing it in angry, sometimes obscene language. Some of these postings, from outside the Arab heartland, equate Islam with the Arabs and pour contempt upon them also, blaming them for the fanaticism and backwardness and violence that has plagued the religion. That’s the pendulum swinging to the opposite extreme, but it makes one thing clear: IS has succeeded in blasting away the polite veneer, unfreezing the dialogue. It says to the world’s Muslims: Is this what you are? A swaggering bunch of blood-drenched murderers and rapists? Is this the true spirit of that book that you wrap in brocade cloths and claim to aspire to follow down to each and every word and syllable, unquestioningly and literally? Or is it maybe time to unwrap it and take another look, and perhaps even—modern Christianity’s method—leave certain passages behind as the centuries pass and humanity, hopefully, advances?

In this new debate, the West should focus on practical and kinetic contributions: providing military and logistical support and moral encouragement to those who are combating IS, especially the Kurds. We should, however, stay well out of the theological discussion. When the dust finally settles, we may find that IS has given the world a lasting, if expensive, gift: the long-overdue Islamic Reformation.

Cheryl Benard is the president of Metis Analytics, a Washington based research firm. Her book Eurojihad, Cambridge University Press, will be published next month.

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The war against Islamic State – Unintended consequences

Oct 4th 2014 | REYHANLI and URFA

Economist

Are American-led air strikes creating a Sunni backlash?

WHEN America extended the war against the jihadists of Islamic State (IS) to Syria on September 22nd, it seemed to have a strategy: maximise Sunni support to isolate and ultimately defeat the extremists. America would not co-operate with the regime of Bashar Assad. Instead it would build up moderate rebels to the point where, with American help, they could take on both IS and, eventually, Mr Assad’s forces. Five Sunni Arab states joined the air campaign in Syria, where Western friends declined to go. Across the border in Iraq, a new prime minister was installed with the promise to work harder to win over disgruntled Sunnis

The first fortnight of operations has proven messy, however. Though IS has been pushed back in some areas, it is still making advances in others. It has crept towards Baghdad, causing jitters in the city, and this week was close to winning the Syrian Kurdish enclave of Ain al-Arab (known to Kurds as Kobane) on the Turkish border. More worrying for America, hardly anyone in Syria is cheering. Some complain that, instead of bombing Mr Assad, America is attacking his enemies; others claim that it is hitting civilians rather than IS; still others spread the idea that the whole business is a war against Islam. Almost all the rebels—including groups such as Harakat Hazm that receive anti-tank weapons from America and its allies—have criticised America. This raises a troubling question: is America causing a backlash among the very people it needs to win over?

One cause of Syrian disquiet is that, as well as bombing IS, America also targeted Jabhat al-Nusra, one of the strongest groups fighting the Assad regime. America says it only bombed a faction, dubbed the “Khorasan group”, claiming it was planning imminent attacks on the West. Jabhat al-Nusra, is affiliated to al-Qaeda but is nevertheless accepted by more moderate groups for its fighting prowess. IS, by contrast, initially fought rebels and Kurds to carve out territory for its “caliphate”.

The danger is that, out of jihadist solidarity, Jabhat al-Nusra may now join forces with IS to confront the common American enemy. The two fell out in 2013. But since the air strikes they are said to have declared a truce. Both are trying to rally fighters and civilians to their cause— and against America and its allies—by portraying the bombing as a war against Islam. Their international reach is probably limited, but their call for revenge may inspire others. On September 24th Jund al-Khilafah, an Algerian jihadist offshoot that has pledged allegiance to IS, kidnapped and beheaded a 55-year-old French tourist.

There is a second, perhaps more corrosive impact on Syria as a whole. Many note that Mr Assad’s regime has killed many more people than IS, yet Syrian forces have not been touched by American bombs. “Assad kills tens of Syrians every day,” says a father of four from Aleppo province, pulling out his smartphone to show a picture of a dusty, bloody, dead child pulled from the rubble after a regime airstrike. “America spent three years rejecting our calls for weapons and a no-fly zone, but now won’t help us directly.” Syrians, he says, want help to fight on their own, rather than to rely on foreigners’ air strikes.

Mainstream rebels complain that America has not co-ordinated its attacks with them. No bombs hit IS in eastern Aleppo, where its fighters threaten the rebel-held town of Marea, notes Hussam al-Marie, a spokesperson for moderate fighters. And the American plan to train at least 5,000 Syrian rebels has yet to get under way. No group has yet been asked to nominate personnel for training. “When we ask about this, we get more promises,” says a rebel who deals with the Americans. “We have heard a lot of them before.”

America stands accused of compounding the agony of Syria’s civilians. Although its bombs are precision-guided, it faces allegations that its strikes have killed non-combatants. It has acknowledged that its rules to avoid civilian casualties are looser in Syria than those for drone strikes elsewhere. A grain silo was reported hit in the town of Manbij where, military officials say, IS had a logistics hub. The bombing of oil refineries may deny jihadists an important source of revenue, but it has driven up fuel prices in much of Syria.

Rumours are rife that Mr Assad’s air force has bombed civilian areas close to military targets struck by America, creating confusion over who should be blamed. In any case, many Syrians think air strikes are not seriously hurting IS, which had already moved its men and equipment out of some of its bases before they were struck. “They’re like mosquito bites,” says a Syrian living in the Turkish city of Antakya.

Thankfully, from America’s perspective, few Syrian Sunnis regard IS as a desirable ally. And Syria’s sectarian divide is less deep than Iraq’s, so it should be easier to persuade Sunnis to work with other sects. In Iraq, by contrast, military intervention to help the Iraqi government, and to stop IS massacring Yazidis, an esoteric sect, means that America is often seen by Sunnis as the air force of the Shia and minorities. Despite the appointment of Haider al-Abadi to replace the discredited Nuri al-Maliki as Iraq’s prime minister, it is proving hard to prise Sunni tribes and former Baathists from the arms of jihadists who offer protection from, and a challenge to, Shia power. A recent Iraqi opinion poll found a gulf of perceptions between Iraqi Shias and Sunnis: whereas most Shias trusted the Iraqi army, Sunnis were overwhelmingly suspicious of it.

Anti-American griping by rebel groups may be intended to fend off accusations of being America’s pawns; in private, many rebels say they are “not unhappy” to see Jabhat al-Nusra hit; and many civilians dislike IS’s brand of extremism. To some analysts, there may be benefits in forcing zealous Islamists straddling the murky ground between extremists and moderates to decide where they stand. America and its allies could then train and arm moderate fighters with less fear that they will co-operate with jihadists. Yet the complaints carry a warning, too: unless America can convince the majority of Syrians that it is on their side, the biggest winners may be IS and Mr Assad. That was not the plan.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 3 October 2014, 11:16 am and is filed under
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Muhyiddin should initiate a review  to end the  policy of  boycott of UM and UKM in the annual  THE World University Rankings to demonstrate our seriousness in wanting to restore the international reputation and academic excellence of Malaysian  universities

For the third day in succession, the Barisan Nasional owned/controlled mainstream mass media has maintained a blanket of silence on the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2014 in tandem with the Education Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and Barisan Nasional leaders also going dumb on the latest world’s Top Universities Ranking because of the shame and disgrace of not  a single Malaysian university able to crack a placing among the Top 400 Universities listing for the fifth consecutive year.

This is a most strange and abnormal international behaviour, for  in the past three days in  countries which realize the critical importance of education in determining the future of their economies, the THE World University Rankings 2014 released on Thursday had dominated the public  domain and debates, with their mass media and public opinion leaders either celebrating the success of their universities or lamenting their setbacks in the latest THE Top 400 University rankings.

For instance, while the US and UK media reported on the continued dominance of their  universities in the Top 400 Universities Ranking, they also warned that “Western leading universities risk declining, Asian institutes keep rising in new rankings”.

Similarly while Australian media take pride in not only having world-class universities but  a world-class university system, they worry whether  such world standards could be maintained with the full deregulation of tuition fees underway in its radical reform programme, as reflected in headlines like “Australian universities rise in world rankings but report questions proposed tertiary education reforms”.

Other  world headlines of the THE World University Rankings 2014 include:

“World university rankings show ‘power shift’ from US and UK towards Far East”;

“Canadian universities slide down world ranking scale”;

“Fewer Dutch universities in latest Times Ed ranking”;

“Indian universities fail to make it to top 200 of Times list”;

“Moscow State University Ranks in Top-200 on Times’ University List”;

“Four Israeli universities ranked in world’s top 300”;

“South Africa’s best universities”.

The Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin should stop all this “make believe” about Malaysia’s prowess as an educational superpower and should initiate a review  of the policy to end the  boycott of  University of Malaya (UM) and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) in the annual  THE World University Rankings to demonstrate our seriousness in wanting to restore the international reputation and academic excellence of Malaysian  universities.

No good reason has been given as to why UM and UKM have refused to participate in the annual THE World University Rankings exercise.

Muhyiddin must tell the University of Malaya Vice Chancellor Professor Datuk Dr. Mohd Amin Jalaludin that his argument that the university has not participated in the THE rankings because the UM is not yet in a strong enough financial position to compete with other richer, older and better-ranked universities until  2018 does not hold water and is completely unacceptable.

In fact, out of the nine South Korean universities in the THE Top 400 University Rankings, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) ranked No. 51 was founded in 1971, Pohang University of Science and Technology (Postech) ranked No.66 was founded in 1986 while Korea University, ranked No. 201-225, was founded in 1993.

Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), ranked No. 148, has as its Mission Statement the objective to become by 2020 “a global leading university in the Asia top 10 and global top 50”!

Equally instructive are the Hong Kong universities,  with five of its six universities in Top 400 formed after the University of Malaya. They are Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, ranked 51, founded in 1991; Chinese University of Hong Kong, ranked No. 129, founded in 1963; City University of Hong Kong, ranked No. 192, founded in 1984; Hong Kong Polytechnic University, ranked 201-225, elevated to university status in 1994 and  Hong Kong Baptist University, ranked No. 301-350, founded in 1956.

I can still vividly remember that some ten years ago, University of Malaya was in a celebratory mood when it was ranked No. 169 in  the THE-QS World University Ranking 2005, although it had fallen 80 places from the previous ranking of 89th in the 2004 listing.

The then University of Malaya Vice Chancellor launched a three-phase media blitzkrieg campaign to celebrate UM’s fall in 80 places, though still within the Top 200 Universities at the time, viz:

•	The first phase of  what I had at the time described as the  “Seven Billboards of Shame and Dishonour” where the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and the Higher Education Minister  were drafted by the then VC to celebrate UM’s 80-point fall from 89th to 169th position  in  the Top 200 Universities Ranking.

•	The second phase of  150 banners/buntings hung on lamp-posts in the campus to celebrate UM’s “achievements” in the THES World University Ranking 2005;

•	The third phase when   tens of thousands of leaflets, 37 cm by 37 cm, flooded the campus, whether  residential colleges or  faculties, reproducing an article by VC  in the local media  extolling UM’s “achievements” in the THES World University Ranking 2005.

Unless there can be good and proper reasons, which should be fully made public,  Muhyiddin should ensure that UM  and UKM participate in the annual THE Top 400 World University Rankings.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 4 October 2014, 11:20 am and is filed under
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Once we were glorious in sports, in life, now…

COMMENTARY BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER

4 October 2014

The capitulation of the national sepak takraw team at the Asian Games in South Korea this week pretty much sums up sports and increasingly life in Malaysia.

Once, the sport brought us glory in regional competitions. But we have yet to win a gold medal in the home-grown game since it became a medal sport in the 1994 Asian Games.

And this week, we lost in the semi-finals to Thailand.

Now it is only a reminder of what once was – that Malaysians were the sportsmen to beat in the Asian region. And we are constantly harking back to the old days when we talk about sports.

The same story with football and our never-ending love story with SuperMokh, Chin Aun, Santokh or Spiderman Arumugam.

And even hockey or badminton – sports that were dominated by Malaysians in the 20th century.

But Malaysia missed the gold medal target at the 2014 Asian Games and nearly lost out to Singapore for the second straight international competition after the Commonwealth Games.

Our target was eight golds but our contingent could only haul five. We have done better in the past. Not any more.

And think how more dismal it would have been without squash queen Datuk Nicol David. One day soon, we will scour the landscape of international squash and wonder what happened to Malaysia’s dominance in this sport, as we do with badminton.

And it is the same story with life in general in Malaysia.

We are constantly looking back with nostalgia to a better time, when governance was better, when race relations was better and when our leaders, actually led.

These days, we treat some national leaders and politicians as national jokes with some even better than stand-up comedians every time their lips move. We even wonder where they are, let alone wonder if they can lead.

We used to punch above our weight class in sports and politics.

Founding prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman led the boycott of South Africa over apartheid and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was vociferous about Palestine, the Bosnian conflict and the Gulf War.

Today, we speak of moderation in the United Nations General Assembly in New York but allow extremists to dominate the national discourse. Reason has given way to shrill intolerance and our leaders remain silent at home.

We have had better days, in sports and life. And we wonder where did it all go despite the economic and technological progress that has kept us in the top 20 trading nations in the world.

Yes, this seems to be the sport we are best at – reminiscing about a time when we once were better. – October 4, 2014.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 4 October 2014, 7:26 am and is filed under
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Our political climate is rife with sexism

By Syerleena Abdul Rashid

Free Malaysia Today

October 4, 2014

COMMENT

Sexual jibes from close-minded individuals will not stop women from being heard in politics.

Interestingly, the media tends to work up a frenzy every time a Malay woman joins DAP. Most recently, Melati Rahim – a niqab donning activist, announced her membership and less than 24 hours later, the vicious attacks ensued with hell bent fervour.

Already she has been accused as being an apostate, a traitor and worse yet, a suggestion by an irresponsible blogger, that any woman joining DAP, for that matter, would be better off vacationing as prostitutes.

What warrants such extreme contempt and disapproval? Aren’t the scandal-tainted politicians who waste billions of public funds and attempt to destroy any notion of racial harmony in our country worse than all of us who join the opposition?

Being women, a minority in a male dominated setting, makes us easier targets for sexist remarks and revolting suggestions. We are often singled out and ridiculed for our political choices; as if we have committed terrible crimes against humanity.

Some men in our society continuously berate us, as if in an attempt to ‘put us in our places’; it is as if our opinions on issues lack merit and we’d be better off playing into whatever gender stereotype these bigoted men have laid out in our society.

Well, society is changing and that is a fact that they have to fathom sooner or later and such bigoted attitudes must stop.

Taking verbal jabs and branding us as traitors is unjustified and cowardly. The hardships Malaysians experience are too real for us to back down and meekly accept.

DAP presents a positive platform for women in politics. For those already in politics, their voices can be heard across the Federation and the impact of their contributions in our socio-political landscape can be felt.

Judging from the accomplishments so far, these women are not simply playing second fiddle to a relatively male dominated landscape. They have demonstrated fortitude, perseverance, and prudence in their decision over tackling important matters (i.e. the inequalities and imbalances certain policies have created over the past decades) and they do all of these with such profound articulation, intelligence and finesse – virtues we seek in those elected to govern. Such traits are extremely inspiring for women and definitely something sexist bloggers or pseudo-intellectuals can learn a thing or two from.

Of course, we understand how politics works. After all, politics is often recognised as being a breeding ground for misogyny and this is evident from the crude remarks made towards women leaders and aspiring politicians.

If anything the continual personal attacks happen because it is required. The motives that warrant such appalling attacks are purely a survival tactic played out by those who know that their time is almost over. Such biased dominance is slowly losing relevance in a multi-ethnic nation that is seemingly embracing progressiveness and liberal education.

Instead of engaging in personal attacks and slander, BN-friendly parties and individuals should focus on highlighting pressing issues and enlightening us on pro-active policies that can help eradicate poverty among the marginalised as quite a number of Malaysians (and Malays for that matter) still belong in this category in spite of government-backed Bumiputera policies and rights that have been championed by Umno for decades.

Why not focus on improving our education system? The never ending ‘flip flopping’ and ‘U-turns’ will do nothing to improve our universities’ reputation. None of our local universities made the cut in the latest list of top 400 global institutions and this is worrying especially when our education system is supposedly on par with developed countries like Germany.

Malaysians are beginning to embrace a new chapter in politics and politically, we are maturing. Many of us have already broken down the barriers of race, religion and gender in politics.

The women in DAP represent all of that and such presence will inspire more bright and young Malaysians to join the struggle regardless of ethnicity. There are plenty of women in politics who are highly educated, extremely intelligent and beautiful in their own right. These women too have had their fair share of discrimination and know the frustrations of being perceived as the “weaker sex” all too well.

The toxicity of sexism seems to be a permanent fixture in our local politics but that can be dealt with – easily. We need to change the mindset of Malaysians and educate them that “whistles”, “howls” and threats are not acceptable to any woman. As a matter of fact, it is hostile and boorish. I dare say that it is getting old.

So far, these women have been handling their new found popularity – both good and bad, extremely well and eloquently. At the end of the day, it is through quality and dedication that politicians will have more supporters than enemies. Creating fear through threats will no longer work, if anything, it will only be advantageous to us who sit on the other side of the political spectrum.

And this is a notion that scares the ruling elite more than anything else.

Syerleena Abdul Rashid currently serves as DAPSY Bukit Bendera Secretary and DAP Wanita Bukit Bendera Political Education Director

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 4 October 2014, 3:51 pm and is filed under
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At haj, Saudi Arabia clerics step up anti-Islamic State drive

By Amena Bakr

Reuters

MINA Saudi Arabia

Oct 4, 2014

(Reuters) – Taking aim at Islamic State, Saudi Arabia has mounted a battle for hearts and minds at this year’s haj, warning pilgrims that the hardline group is “evil” and seeking to recruit their children to fight in Iraq and Syria.

As millions of pilgrims visited the holiest sites in Islam on the second day of the annual pilgrimage on Saturday, global leaders condemned the fourth beheading of a Westerner by Islamic State insurgents.

Saudi Arabia declared Islamic State a terrorist organization in March and sharply stepped up denunciations of the group after its fighters made rapid territorial gains in Iraq in June.

U.S.-led air strikes on the group has allowed some of the lost territory to be recaptured, but the well-armed militants continue to make gains in Iraq and Syria. Last week, Saudi air force planes pounded militant targets in Syria.

The group’s radical Sunni Islamist ideology is gaining traction elsewhere in the Muslim world: A group in Algeria pledged allegiance before killing a French hostage last month, and Pakistani Taliban also declared their support on Saturday.

Saudi Arabia follows the ultra conservative Wahhabi school of Sunni Islam, which disdains Shi’ites as heretics and demands a strict literal interpretation of Sharia Muslim law.

Although Islamic State, like al Qaeda, draws some of its ideology from the Wahhabi school, it rejects the legitimacy of the Saudi government and has vowed to topple the ruling Al Saud dynasty.

Riyadh also fears that thousands of Saudis who have gone to fight with Islamic State will return to target their own country.

“Your religion is targeted. Your security, ideology, strength and intellect are all targeted,” the kingdom’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh preached to the vast crowds of pilgrims in Mecca on Friday.

About three million Muslims, among them 1.4 million from abroad, are expected to perform haj this year.

“The enemies of Islam are making preparations against you, so be wary of them,” the Grand Mufti said in his sermon at mount Arafat’s Nimara mosque.

DEVIANT THOUGHTS

Sheikh Abdallah bin Ali Basfar, a religious lecturer who is involved in the kingdom’s “awareness” campaign, said the Ministry of Islamic Affairs had instructed preachers to denounce Islamic State as a “terrorist organization” in their sermons and teachings.

“We have a job to warn people against the evil these groups present and how they use concepts in Islam like jihad as a cover for their unjust causes,” Basfar said.

“There are 70,000 sheikhs and preachers in Saudi Arabia who have an incredible amount of influence on people. That’s why we are concentrating our efforts to fight these deviant thoughts, especially during haj,” he said.

The campaign also includes the distribution of religious material representing what the government believes to be more moderate views of Islam, as well as broadcasting more religious programs on radio and television to spread these views.

In addition, preachers have also been warning parents to monitor the actions of their children.

“These evil groups prey on our youth through mediums like the Internet and parents must start to know what their children are doing and who they talk to,” Basfar said.

“WE BELIEVE OUR SHEIKHS”

As the second day of the journey began on Saturday, security forces in Mina, the site just east of Mecca where pilgrims symbolically stone the devil, remained on high alert.

For the most part, Saudi pilgrims seemed to agree with the campaign.

“The Mufti in Nimira told us today that they (Islamic State) don’t represent Islam and Islam is innocent of them,” Raaed al-Khozai, a Saudi government employee, told Reuters.

“We follow our preachers and we follow the Saudi government which opposes them and we believe our sheikhs.”

Religious leaders in the kingdom who have expressed sympathy for Islamic State fighters had been identified to the authorities, Basfar said. Some were peddling a theory that the group was formed by the West to weaken the Muslim world.

“Even if some think this theory is true, that’s not an excuse not to fight these extremists,” Basfar said.

“Muslims are the only ones that could defeat them. Islamic State in the end is an idea, that can only be fought with another idea.”

(Editing by William Maclean and Raissa Kasolowsky)

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 5 October 2014, 8:51 am and is filed under
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DAP wins over six Pitas villages

Joe Fernandez| October 5, 2014

Free Malaysia Today

“Hearts and minds” initiative to improve quality of life in rural areas reaches poverty-stricken Northern Sabah.

KOTA KINABALU: Impian Sabah, a DAP Sabah outreach programme, seems determined to rub the ruling Barisan Nasional’s (BN) nose in the dirt.

An Impian Sabah team turned up this time in Pitas, one of the poorest spots in Malaysia, to fund a basic access road for six villages with about 3,000 people to connect with the nearest town about 7.4 km away. Pitas is situated in the right wolf’s ear of Sabah on the map.

“We handed over RM33,000 on Saturday to the people at a ceremony in Kampung Dowokon, Pitas, for them to build the road,” said Sandakan MP Stephen Wong who also co-ordinates the Impian Sabah Programme.

“The money, sourced from the public, will cover phase one of the project. It will cover 3.8 km of the road,” Wong explained.

Dowokon will share the funds with five other villages viz. Mandamai, Kobon Seberang, Perupok, Maliau Pusat and Maliau Layung.

“At present, the villagers are completely reliant on the Sungai Bengkoka which has become increasing shallow and difficult to navigate due to extensive silt,” said Wong who is also DAP Sabah Deputy Chairman.

“A 12 km river journey takes more than two hours to complete,” he added.

With the completion of the first phase of the project, the villagers don’t have to rely solely on the water level of the river to travel in and out, he added. “They can sell their cash crops easily and the children can attend a school nearer to the village.”

The next phase, he stressed, will cover the installation of basic infrastructure like culverts and drainage.

Impian Sabah and Sarawak is a DAP “hearts and minds” initiative to provide basic infrastructure, education and economic-uplifting projects in the rural areas of Malaysian Borneo.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 5 October 2014, 10:16 am and is filed under
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Find out who wrote Beng Hock’s alleged suicide note, family tells cops

The Malaysian Insider

5 October 2014

Fed-up with Bukit Aman quizzing them about a so-called suicide note written by political aide Teoh Beng Hock, his family has decided not to give any further statements to the police until someone is arrested over the incidents which led to his untimely death.

The family’s lawyer, Teo Nie Ching, said this after Beng Hock’s wife, Sor Cher Wei, and his sister, Lee Lan, were questioned by federal police yesterday at the Batu Pahat district police headquarters.

According to Teo, senior investigating lawyer ASP Tony Lunggan had called up Soh and told her he wanted to record statements from her and Lee Lan over the “suicide note”.

Tony is part of a Bukit Aman six-member special unit tasked with re-investigating Beng Hock’s death.

The political aide had gone to the MACC office on July 15, 2009, to give a statement in the agency’s probe into graft allegations against his boss, Selangor exco Ean Yong Hian Wah.

He was found dead the next day on a landing on the 5th floor of the building. He was believed to have fallen to his death from a window on the 14th floor of the building.

The suicide note had emerged more than two months after Beng Hock’s death in 2009, and the coroner in the inquest into his death had noted that he could “only assume the authorship of the note was by the deceased”.

Last month, the Court of Appeal set aside the open verdict, ruling instead that “a person or persons were responsible for his death” and instructed a re-investigation.

“The death of Teoh Beng Hock was caused by multiple injuries from a fall from the 14th floor of Plaza Mazalam, a result of which was accelerated by an unlawful act or acts of person unknown, inclusive of Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission officers involved in the arrest and investigation of the deceased,” the court said,

But Teo said they were disappointed that so far, no arrests had been made even though the court had ruled that MACC was responsible for Beng Hock’s death.

“He (Tony) wanted to know if they can confirm it was written by Beng Hock and if the family can provide any handwriting sample, such as a diary or birthday card.

“However, we told the police five years ago that the family did not have any handwriting sample and there is nothing to add,” Teo said.

She added that given the latest development, the family would not be giving any further statements to the police until someone is arrested over Beng Hock’s death.

Teo also said that the Court of Appeal’s judgment was very clear – that the suicide note could have been forged.

“The police should be investigating who forged the note and not come back and ask the family the same questions,” she said. – October 5, 2014.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 5 October 2014, 11:05 am and is filed under
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