Penentuan Pahala Posa aka PPP.

Kalau ikut kata Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri Jamil Khir, posting ni akan mengurangkan pahala puasa kalau ada sebut pasai 1MDB yang ada berunsur fitnah atau seangkatan dengannya.

Like, Forward, Komen dan lain2 yang berkaitan yang banyak2 tu pun sangkut gak, katanya di sini.

Al maklumlah 1MDB kan ada jasa kepada agama dan negara.

Agaknya kalau tanya kemusykilan tapi dengan nada penuh sinis kurang tak yek? Kurang jugak rasanya.

DAP punya Tony Pua seronokla sebab dia tak posa. Boleh belasah sungguh – sungguh bab ni.

Sarawak Report punya Clare Rewcastle Brown pun okay gak.

Kita – kita yang Melayu Muslim ni sangkut la. Rafizi, SakMongkol, Aspan Alias, Kadir Jasin, Apanama dan lain - lain. Depa - depa la. Ramai baca lak tu..

Oleh sebab itu, saya akan posting pendek sangat2 hari ni dan ianya bukan pasal 1MDB dan isu - isu berkaitan dengannya.

Sebaliknya, saya nak cerita pasal beli komik Marvel “Secret Wars” (yang dulu, bukan yang sekarang; gambar sebelah kanan) dapat beli buku terbaru Tunku Halim “ A Malaysian Restaurant in London” (nun di sebelah kiri) murah 20%.

Nak tahu saya beli kat mana?

Kat Borders Mutiara Damansara.  Ala, Borders. Yang manager Melayu  Muslim dia tu pernah kena hambat ngan Jawi pasal buku la jugak. Cerita lama lah tapinya sebab la ni dah lepas dah.

Okay lah. Dah cukup setakat ni. Tak nak posting banyak sangat. Letih posa.

Kepada Pak2 Menteri yang berposa, selamat berbuka nanti, Insha-allah. 

Kalau nak bunyi Arab, iftar. Kat Kedai Mamak operate 24 jam pun boleh. 

Pahala dapat asalkan ber, ummm, iftar awal waktu no.

What the Sam Hill?!

Morality policing in Malaysia has certainly gone lopsidedly loony.

Who would have imagined a mere staff of Borders charged before the Syariah High Court for “distributing by way of selling the book entitled, Allah, Liberty and Love (The Courage to Reconcile Faith and Freedom”).

WTH???!

Technically, the charge could well be valid since Nik Raina Nik Abdul Aziz was the Mid Valley outlet’s store manager, but logically, neither the books by Irshad Manji nor the outlet, Borders, are hers to start with.

Nik Raina faces a RM3,000 fine or a maximum of two years' jail or both under Section 13(1) of the Syariah Criminal Offences Act (Federal Territories) 1997, if convicted.

Am really not sure how the charge is worded but going by the Star’s phrasing of “distributing by way of selling”; it seems to be one of strict liability. Legal eagles would definitely be able to explain this to all us layman.

A store manager, huh?

Didn’t have the balls to go after the real owner, is it? Borders, according to the Star, belong to Berjaya Books Sdn Bhd.

Look at the penalty for God’s sake and tell me if it’s just?

A bookstore staff…

Did she have like total control over the outlet? Over the procurement of all books?

How many books do Borders have in stock?

The one at the Curve in Damansara seems to have like a billion books from the most innocent My First ABC to the horrendously explicit Brian Azzarello’s 100 Bullets series (to cite an example).

But of course, the latter isn’t something that is "deemed to be against the Islamic Law (Hukum Syarak)" even if it does feature gratuitous sex and violence every other issue.

Is Nik Raina’s charging to set an example? Couldn’t she be just slapped with a mere warning to take the books out within a certain period - her convictions on the book’s contents and the banning act notwithstanding?

How in heaven’s name are Muslims supposed to show that Islam is the perfect Addin when you have something so logically, chronically unjust?

What others see is the authorities picking on the easiest of targets to make an example of.

Someone like Nik Raina. 

Tearing Away

I am positively bewildered with the “Girl convert no longer a Muslim” news piece in the StarOnline today.

And here we are thinking that people convert due to a newfound faith in religions (whichever it may be).

It’s not supposed to be a flippant act. Today a Muslim, tomorrow a Hindu then a Christian next Sunday. THAT would be beyond blasphemous.

The article seems to suggest that if the legal procedures are not followed, the convert will revert back to whichever religion (if any) he/or she was professing to.

This contention is simply mindboggling.

So what happens if the said convert still hold his/her newfound beliefs? Are they supposed to wait until they reach legal age to proclaim so?

Sure enough, there are cases where children became the unfortunate fodders in a battle between Masters and Missuses.

The assumption is that both parents want the best for their child and that would include being in the faith they believe is the true belief. Sometimes the battle gets nasty and you can easily traumatize a child forever with the tug and pull.

The Penang news itself is unclear on how the girl “had been converted to Islam without her family’s knowledge”. What happened? Who did what? How did the conversion occur?

What color was her kebaya and did it match her tudung?

Okay… Now I am being flippant.

Seriously, for someone to convert to Islam, they have to cite the Syahadah, and from the news article, it could also be deduced that this was done without her parental consent.

If your children wanted to convert to a different religion from the one they were brought up with, would you?

.......

Exactly.

So what now? Where do we go from here?

Or do we sweep in under the carpet as per norm?

Kramer vs Kramer (1979)

Constantine-ous Defiance

I’ve finally succumbed to my eldest daughter’s insistence in watching a movie at the cinema and off the whole family went to catch Alvin and the Chipmunks 2.

(We wanted to see Disney’s "The Princess and The Frog" but, alas, the show’s run had already ended. )

As many would probably agree, the “coming soon” trailer that precedes a movie is part of the fun of going to cinemas as opposed to lounging at home.

Alvin being a kiddie show and all, I was sure the cinema would not let slipped a non PG rated trailer but on came a gold and red armour-suited Robert Downey Jr with a sexy blond atop a building.

Fortunately, the trailer itself was pretty much U rated so there weren’t any awkward “Q&A” or “Eww” moments, and the sisters were more engrossed with popcorn to watch anyway.

I counted my blessing afterwards as they could have well shown “Legion” with its maggoty steak, wall-crawling granny and gun-toting “Angel” – all of which would’ve given them sleepless nights.

By the way, a two-page feature appeared in The Star today on “Legion”.

Am I drawn to watch it? Nope. Never been a great fan of either the theologically slanted nor horror movie genre.

Furthermore, the movie takes itself way too seriously from the brief snips provided by its trailer.

Curious, though, as to how this one slips our usually conservative Censorship Board, but I suspect this is probably due to its Christianity-orientated storyline.

The movie features (if I am not mistaken) two “Angels” - Michael and Gabriel – with the former supposedly defying the coming of the Apocalypse.

It sort of reminded me of Keanu Reeves’ “Constantine” where Gabriel was also a prominent “cast” in the movie based on DC’s Vertigo "Hellblazer" series.

Movies like these will always get you in a bind if you really engrossed into reading between the lines, looking at meanings and picking out symbolism.

Big IF there, actually, since no one – at least hardly anyone I know – goes to movies to search for the meaning of life and what not.

Explaining to the younger ones would however be a far more tedious and difficult task especially if you’re are yourself NOT a 100% solid in your theological (religious) studies.

I suppose people will still watch “Legion”, but some others will be put off with the crass commercialisation of sacred concepts(for want of a better word).

Me? I’d rather sit through Simon Pegg’s excellent “Shaun* the Dead” re-run(s).

No pretense of greatness there, you see.

Just plain wit.

Or twit, in Pegg’s case.

*Not to be mistaken with the hilarious sheep bearing the same name.

Copious Thoughts

I wanted to post something on the continuing PKFZ scandal and had actually completed the draft when this thought came to mind: “Nahh… What’s the use.”

There is this Kedahan (or maybe it is a national one I wouldn’t know) which fits exactly the overall situations Malaysians are faced with currently: “berjejeh”.

The word roughly means non-stop talking without anything being heeded.

That is also how I feel about things nowadays.

The powers that be are always talking about getting this feedback or that feedback, and then do exactly whatever it is that they wanted to do in the first place.

Case in point: the U-turn on the teaching of Maths and science in English.

There are others where words have come out loud and strong to no avail: PKFZ, a former Menteri Besar’s palatial home, the Perak state government, MACC, the Internal Security Act, et cetera.

Every now and then there will be some lip service paid on how the people’s interest yada yada would be looked after bla bla bla.

What happens?

A big fat nada.

Or something neither here nor there.

Whateverlah.

Meanwhile, in Libya, a wholly inappropriate (in my humblest of opinion) celebration took place during the welcoming home of the sole person convicted for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing tragedy.

News reports told about hundreds of flag waving young Libyans greeting Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi as a “hero” when he was flown home on compassionate grounds after serving 8 of a scheduled 27 years in Sottish prison.

27 years for 270 lives lost in the incident when a bomb blew up Pan Am flight 103.

Abdel Basset - who continue to protest his innocence and offers his sympathies to the victims’ family members and relatives - is suffering from terminal prostate cancer and said to be three months away from death.

My sympathies are with him.

He has but three months left to his life.

There was no real need for any pomp and grand welcome for his homecoming.

All this would do is to tear open long healed wounds of those who had suffered the deaths of their loved ones in the incident.

How many of these people would now be wishing (nay, praying) the worse for Abdul Basset?

Whatever closure there was from Abdel Basset’s convictions all those years ago is torn wide open by this truly insensitive gesture on the part of the Libyans.

It will be Ramadhan soon and Syawal soon after, the two months when some muslims become their pious best.

We can take Abdel Basset’s words that he is innocent, or we could dismiss them.

What we should not have taken from him is the opportunity for solace these few months he's left with.

Unfortunately, some are now branding him villain yet again.

To whose benefit then the grand welcome?

Meaty Discourse

My wife and her secretary joined an after office hour Yoga class sessions sometime back.

They went for a whole stretch of days and were quite pleased with the progress made in terms of their fitness levels, and the ability to fit into blue jeans again.

And then it got to the stage of mind over matter. Or something. Oneness, and what not.

I wouldn’t know as I wasn’t there but both decided that it was not something they’d want to venture in.

Did I mention that my wife’s secretary is a devout Christian?

Being stuck in routine 8am to 6pm job, my wife found the idea of social exercise club heaven sent, and yoga – early on – seemed a good idea with an all-female membership, close vicinity to her workplace and a structured fitness system.

She didn’t fancy hitting the gym or swimming, and walks in the park are basically a weekend thing so Yoga was it.

The National Fatwa Council’s recent decree on Yoga just affirms what both she and her secretary felt at odd with.

(My wife is now eyeing Pilates as her fitness regime and learning the ropes via the idiot box and a VCD. Her secretary meanwhile practices "speed marketing" in Singapore.)

Couldn’t have the Council be a bit more proactive over such matters? Nip whatever “kesangsian” there is at the bud, so as to speak.

Yoga has been around for a long, long time and is not even a recent phenomenon in the country.

There are things that are more current and shimmering which the Council should look at in earnest; issues that have more meat for discourses such as the right to practice religions, the amalgamation of Civil and Syariah laws, or the controversial ISA, for a few examples.

What of the study by Suhakam for children attaining the age of majority to be given the right to choose their religions ?

These are some of the worthy issues the Council should discuss and reveal their thoughts on.

Things like chants and mantras accompanying Yoga moves or any other activities - Silat, for example - most Muslims know and accept as wrong anyway.

Hence the oft-quoted defense of only practicing the moves from their practitioners.

Being dismissive of an issue's seriousness would only lead ignorance to rule public discourse over such matters and half measured efforts are equally damaging.

During an assignment of covering a Malaysian Nature Society’s function in an Orang Asli’s village in Gopeng, I walked upon a group of women cooking curry in a huge pot, supposedly for lunch.

Their answer when I queried what dish it was: “Babi hutan. Boleh makan sebab dah sembelih. (Roughly translated: Wild boar. Can be eaten as it’s been slaughtered.)

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Ignore the practitioner and enjoy the scene.