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Sunday, February 18, 2018

Bad blood between Dr Asri and Hindus?

FMT - Criminologist lodges report against Perlis mufti over FB post:


GEORGE TOWN: A criminologist has lodged a police report against Perlis mufti Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin for posting a “provocative” statement against Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy.

Shamsher Singh Thind said the post uploaded by the mufti was a lie and would only serve to infuriate the feelings of Muslims towards Ramasamy.

He lodged the report at the Bukit Tengah, Bukit Mertajam, police station today.

In his report, Shamsher said the police ought to investigate the matter for criminal defamation and also a violation of internet laws.

On Feb 15, Asri uploaded a picture of Ramasamy with the Thaipusam golden chariot in the background.



He also included a statement casting doubt over the country’s peace and harmony among races if Ramasamy held an important political position in the country in future.

“We are not sure what is going to happen to the future of our country’s harmony among races and religions if individuals like the DAP deputy secretary-general like this held an important political position in Malaysia.

“The harmony among the people of our country needs to be maintained.

“One wrong move and we stand to lose all the peace we have been enjoying thus far. ‘Jangan yang dikejar tidak dapat, yang dikendung berciciran’ (a Malay proverb which roughly translates to one being too greedy, despite having a lot, and later being left with nothing).

“We must strengthen our relations harmoniously, courteously, while understanding our country’s history. We are very worried about the enmity and tensions shown by some of the people when it comes to issues related to religion.

“Dear Allah, please save this country from the enmity between its people without a right cause,” Asri said.

The post was uploaded to his 1.1 million followers on Facebook, garnering 2,900 reactions, mostly giving him a “thumbs up”.

FMT has contacted Asri for comment and is awaiting his reply.


I am sorry to say this but in February 2017, that is, just last year, Dr Asri showed his dislike for Thaipusam.

The Mufti said he didn't like the breaking of coconuts along Lord Muruga's procession from Koil Vedu, Little India in Georgetown to the Nattukottai Chettiar Temple in the Waterfall (Botanical Garden) area.


Last year he warned Ah Jib Gor: Perdana Menteri boleh pergi untuk meraikan acara keagamaan kaum lain tetapi jangan sampai menyertai program yang diadakan sehingga dilihat menjadi sebahagian daripada mereka

Wakakaka, Ah Jib Gor - keep clear of nuts
 

As far back as 2013, he said of such Thaipusam processions:

"..... roads are not places for religious processions such as carrying idols and smashing of coconuts to the point of inconveniencing road users or messing up a public space, such as being carried out by followers of certain religions. If you want to streamline (the regulations), then do it for all."


notice the mainly Chinese crowd among the devotees?

they have been the most ardent devotees of Lord Muruga
 

Then Dr Asri was responding to Hindus' complaints about the Islamic ritual of slaughtering cows at a school in Selangor during Aidiladha that year (2013). He stated that while ...:

'... he agrees that schools are not appropriate venues for the Aidiladha cow sacrifice ritual, other religious acts in public places should also be similarly regulated.'



I had then replied on behalf of Hindus (wakakaka), saying in my post:

Come on lah, Dr Asri, where's the comparison between slaughtering live animals like cattle and sometimes even camels ... in front of young pupils and traumatising the kids, against the breaking of coconut fruits on roads which might have temporarily inconvenienced drivers.

Besides, all Thaipusam processions whether in Penang or Kuala Lumpur have been approved by the police who controlled traffic flows.

As for his claim that the ritual would mess up a public space (road), obviously, and strangely for a Penangite, he was not aware that once the Thaipusam chariot carrying Lord Muruga has passed, the so-called mess, namely broken coconuts on the road, would have been swiftly taken away by members of the public for their own use, like extracting santan (coconut milk) from the fruit, and even making use of the shells for fuel.





I didn't agree with Dr Asri on that Thaipusam issue, because we were talking about traumatising schools kids with the bloody slaughter of live animals (ones which additionally are sacred to Hindus) while the other merely broke coconuts on a road, which would not be insensitive to other religions (unless you're Raja Bomoh who worships coconuts, wakakaka).

Anyway, Dr Rama has consistently questioned the legitimacy of Dr Zakir Naik as a lawful guest here and who has allegedly been given VVIP treatment by the Malaysian government, when Indian authorities want Zakir Naik for questioning on terrorist-related issues.

Dr Asri has also defended Dr Zakir Naik whilst on the sidelines of a forum entitled 'Moderation in al-Qur'an: Between two points of extremism' in Kuala Lumpur , stating:


"There's no proof that he [Zakir Naik] called for or incited people to commit terrorist acts, through a single word of his or his lectures".

"When there is, then we can talk."

In April last year, Dr Asri caused quite a stir when he composed an allegedly racist poem directed against Hindus. FMT reported:


Perlis Mufti Asri Zainul Abidin’s caustic poem about those who “idolised cows” has not gone down well with Malaysian social media users.

However the poem, posted on the mufti’s Facebook page this morning, was “liked” by almost 5,000 Facebook users, shared over 650 times, and commented on by more than 320 people at the time of this article’s publication.


While some expressed support for Asri’s poem, which they believed was directed at Hindus opposed to the presence of Mumbai-based preacher Dr Zakir Naik in Malaysia, others condemned it for being racist.

“Even the mufti is emotional in this ZN (Zakir Naik) issue. (But) as a mufti, (you) have to calm the situation down and not pour oil on the fire,” said Mukhlis Eddie.

“Don’t just because of him (Naik) alone, all Malaysians end up fighting with one another. (And) don’t forget that the continent has the largest Muslim population, larger than Indonesia.”

He was referring to a part of Asri’s “Friday morning poem”, which spoke about a continent that “teaches people to make castes, to the unfortunate point of being called pariahs”.

Another Facebook user, Tharmeni Narendran, called for Asri to learn about Hinduism first before making statements about the religion. She also said it was unfair of him to condemn Hinduism or any other religion being practised in Malaysia.


Undeniably there exists very bad blood between Dr Asri and Hindus, but I hope it's not just because of an asshole like Zakir Naik?




22 comments:

  1. There is always an underground as well as open hostility towards Hinduism among the Islamic religious leadership in Malaysia.

    Part of this is due to denial of the deep roots of Hinduism in traditional Malay culture, the vehement attempts to deny the historical fact that many Malay ancestors were at one time in history, Hindus.

    Parameśvara, ("Supreme Lord" in Sanskrit) the founder of Malacca , was a Hindu, who later converted to Islam.
    And, Yes, many so-called "Malays" in the country are converts from Hinduism or first-generation Muslims.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You should read 'Tuhfat al-Nafis' and also 'Ahlul-Bait Rasulullah & Kesultanan Melayu'.

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    2. Most of the inhabitants were hindu-buddhists before they came to nusantara, and pls tell me why most balinese still remain hindu-buddhists?

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    3. Hindu Majapahit in its declining years in the late 15th century was already being weakened from within by the spread of Islam.

      When Majapahit fell to invasion from Muslim Demak, the entire former territory of Majapahit became Islamised within a few short decades.

      The Kings of Bali has fiercely resisted Majapahit for centuries, both militarily and culturally. They continued to resist the spread of Islam from Java during and after the 16th Century. By that time the Muslim rulers in Nusantara were focused in a fight against European expansionism, instead of expanding Islam.

      So ironically, Bali was indirectly saved from Islamisation by European expansionist, though they themselves fiercely fought the Dutch colonialists.

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    4. Minta maaf, 'they' is referred to the ahlul-bait. Cheers!

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    5. Wakakakaka....

      Which one r more authentic:

      1) Ahlul-Bait Rasulullah & Kesultanan Melayu

      2) Tuhfat al-Nafis

      3) Sulalatus Salatin (aka Sejarah Melayu)

      Lepas tu, baru kommen lah!

      Mungkin semuanya part fiction, part bulls & three-quarter daydreams, with remaining 1% facts!

      Delete
  2. If muslim rulers fought against the europeans, how come they lost their positions after merdeka, only hamengko buwono survived.

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    Replies
    1. During the 16th and 17th Centuries they did resist the Europeans, mainly the Portuguese and Dutch.
      Later Kings and Aristocrats simply collaborated with the Dutch, and they were swept away by the wave of nationalism after WWII.

      The Europeans were never large in number, as they came mainly for trade in the beginning, but their gunboats and muskets were unbeatable.

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    2. Aceh, for example, resisted the Dutch from the beginning to the end. Today, they still struggle against central control from Bakar.

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    3. I always wonder why the Europeans never named it as the Hindu Archipelago or perhaps Straits of Thanggapura.

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    4. Or u think the Europeans named it Malay archipelago?

      Wakakakaka..... How far back have u traced the etymology of the nusantara?

      Do remember even yr trusted Sulalatus Salatin had no names for the region where it was supposedly originated!

      BTW, Strait of Malacca refered to the tree not the orang asal inhabitants, who didn't knew & used the waterway.

      Oooop... Perhaps u should recalled where was Golden Chersonese!

      Wakakakaka.....Was that name ANYTHING to do with religion ke?

      Oooop, my bad - yr religion was not even 'born' yet when the ancient Greeks named this place.

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    5. Stamford Raffles lost all his books written by and collected from the Malays, packed in 122 cases, when Fame caught fire and sank.

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    6. Using yr poorly construed argument, Shi Huangdi burnt many of the knowledge/records of the Cinapek.

      These r priceless human treasures le!

      Perhaps, there were historical notes relating to Golden Chersonese or Golden Khersonese. Wakakakaka..

      Many of the great human knowledge of the ancient Greeks were lost during the great fire of the library of Alexandria in 48BC.

      Some duplicated handcopied scripts were saved in the Arab world. But these knowledge were eventually claimed by the Arab scholars as their inventions! These towel heads conveniently forgotten about the accumulation of knowledge, especially the scientific one, has to be standing on the shoulders of the past giants!

      The point here is there WOULD be alternative records no matter how the originals were lost/misplaced.

      Your argument is the chronic denial of the level of Melayu origin/culture as reflected in the laughable excuse of no ancient Melayu monuments remain nowadays bcoz ALL of them were constructed with rottable woods.

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    7. They destroyed the Istana and built A Formosa. But there are still many old mosques though. Well, tidak akan hilang Melayu di dunia. There are Cape Malays in South Africa and a lot of mosques too.

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    8. Wakakakaka.....yaloh, there r Melayu all over.

      But bila budaya asal, sejarah tulin melayu yang bolih betul2 dikaji sepenuhnya tanpa crack-pot ketuanan influences?

      Mosques?? Bloody Melayu palsu, u ingat sejarah Melayu di tubuh mengikut FedConst article160 clause 2's defination of 'Malay' ke!

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    9. Ah.. that's why we want to bring back Hukum Kanun Melaka.

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    10. If Hukum Kanun Melaka really exist, WHY do u think those ketuanan freak wouldn't want to frame it into the FedConst?

      The Reid commission was asking for submission le during the consultation period.

      U probably don't (later don't want) to know that if the half-cooked Hukum Kanun Melaka was accepted then the FedConst would have to done away with all the special jazz about clauses 160, 135 etc etc lah!

      Perhaps, u write faster than u could think/realise.

      But then, nothing could be done about this meme-ed mentality, otherwise there wont be that many 'entertaining-cum-embarassing' foot-in-the-mouth showpieces happen daily in bolihland le!

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    11. Have you visited the Melaka Museum at Bandar Hilir? You can read and see Hukum Kanun Melaka there inside the Museum.

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    12. U just don't want to understand!

      1) Malay history doesn't start with the conversion of Hindu Malacca into islamic.

      U people just want to ignore the earlier part which has nothing to do with Islam! R u ashamed of that portion of the sejarah Melayu?

      2) Hukum Kanun Melaka is

      (a) a feudalistic elitist rule,
      (b) a adulterated form of Hukum Syriah.

      Hukum Kanun Melaka merupakan peraturan yang tidak bertulis.

      Hence, it was subjective & based on the prevailing human feelings (especially the elites).

      3) That script in Melaka Museum is an unauthenticated duplicate of doubtful origin.

      It is displayed there for syiok-sendiri-ism lah.

      Just bear in mind - Hukum Kanun Melaka merupakan peraturan yang tidak bertulis.

      Tau apa tu tidal bertulis?

      Delete
    13. CK...no point 'dealing' with one who just do not want to understand or, more likel, UNABLE to understand ! In Chinese lingo..it is known as 'Sai Hei', wakakaka. Although I have admit that your efforts here, and elsewhere too, indicates the width and depth of your knowledge in almost every field and it was a pleasure to read and spur one to look up and learn more :)

      Delete
  3. I think MAZA is referring to Ramasamy's statement on that Naik whom Ramasamy called setan, and later apologised.

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  4. Tariq Ramadan in jail in France?

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