Religious Burial

Man buried as Muslim amid conversion row

Jan 25, 08 4:53pm

An elderly ethnic Chinese man has been buried as a Muslim after his Buddhist family lost a battle with the Islamic authorities who said he had converted, his son said today.
Police seized the body of Gan Eng For, who died on Sunday aged 74, after his oldest son – himself a Muslim convert – said he had switched to the religion last year.
Other family members said Gan could not have converted because he was senile and paralysed after suffering two strokes.
“He could not even move his arms or talk,” his other son 42-year-old Gan Hock Sin told AFP.
“It is shocking that Islamic authorities say he recited some Islamic words when he was being converted last year,” he said.
Gov’t not being fair
The dispute, the latest in a series of conversion rows in Malaysia, came shortly after a court ordered a Christian woman’s body be returned to her family after Islamic authorities admitted she had not converted.
The cases have fed accusations over the growing “Islamisation” of Malaysia, where the population is dominated by Muslim Malays living alongside ethnic Chinese and Indian communities.
Gan criticised the conduct of the state Islamic authorities who buried his father in a Muslim cemetery yesterday on the orders of a religious court.
“They have been cruel to my mother and my family. We could not see his body before he was buried. This government is not fair,” he said.
“Before my father died, he had told my mother that he wished to be buried according to Chinese rituals.”

This is the report by Malaysiakini on the burial of a Chinese man as a Muslim and he is purported to have converted to Islam. The man was buried without the family being present. I am sure the wife would have preferred to see the body being buried but being denied this privilege, she is going to carry to her death the resentment the religious people were cruel. Consider her agony as a wife, would any wife demure in carrying out the last rites of her husband. The last rites are symbolic to her, it is the last rite to indicate she is now a widow. In practical sense, she becomes a widow once the husband dies, but to the world it signifies the breaking up of the husband-wife relationship as the body is lowered to the ground. In this case the man is buried as a vagrant and a nobody when by choice he has a wife, and a family to ensure he is buried according to his religious rights practiced by the family. Is she or the family ever going to be at peace the way the dead body has been disposed off and the other fear of the wrath of the Gods they pray to, for not ensuring their love one passed on graciously. Every religion has got its do and don’ts. It is universal.

At 74, and a paralytic after 2 strokes, his conduct and speech is suspect. He is not going to engage in a long conversation with anyone expect to indicate his needs and wants and this could have been a word(or grunt) here and there(but family claims he could not talk) accompanied by gestures. I have seen a lot of people who are paralysed and this is the norm. Your progress to senility is worsened by the stroke and since he could not even move his arms or talk. I assume most of his needs were met by gestures by eye and maybe a smile. Basically he is a vegetable and we are told he recited some Islamic words. The person who listened to this recital must have been a speech therapist to differentiate from a babble or a grunt which a 74 old sick man does normally and some quotation of words foreign to him. This to a man who finds it difficult as a result of strokes to articulate himself in his own mother tongue.

The old man was on his way to the other world, which I am sure the son and the religious authorities knew as the sun rises in the east. They had a year to play around, did it not strike them that the wife and family must be appraised of the situation. Would this not ensure the converted man carried out his new religious obligations like praying 5 times a day and not carry on as a Buddhist or follow the religious rites. Or does it suffice, he has been converted, and let him carry on the life he had done for 73 years. Who suffers, the religion, the new convert, the person or persons who converted the person or this is the way it happens.

This the religious authorities including those who performed the rites of death, and the son, a Muslim and surely who knows the obligations of a Muslim must answer. God is great in whatever religion.

Technorati Tags: Islam,Buddhist,Conversion,Death,Chinese

V.K.Lingam Bullshit

The people across the causeway are hilarious with laughter at the way the Royal Commission investigation goes on. Reading the Q&A series and the way Haider interjects questions by the defence lawyers, it is something like opening a can of rotten worms, but the commission will just stir the top with a stick and throw away the can. You got the drift. Read my earlier posting. The Judiciary will stay rotten and the commission doing nothing to clear the name.

Friday, January 25, 2008

The Lingam defence

The latest Off the Cuff column in the lifestyle section of Singapore’s Business Times is hilarious. I’m sure many Malaysians and Singaporeans can relate to it. Enjoy and forward it!

Looks like I wrote this – did I?

By JAIME EE

MY fellow lawyers, citizens and other distinguished friends who may have been caught in an incriminating video or two – greetings. Welcome to our workshop titled: ‘Never Say Die Even When Your Face Is Staring At You From The Video – henceforth known as the Lingam Defence.’

Now, this is a very interesting strategy, inspired not by a famous brand of chilli sauce, but by a well-known lawyer of the same name across the Causeway currently caught in a judge-fixing scandal. Upon watching a video allegedly of him talking on the phone and being asked to confirm his identity, he told the court, ‘It looks like me, and the voice sounds like me,’ but would not say if it was him, or not him, or even possibly him in the video.

Now, any armchair litigator or court kaypoh would pooh-pooh him for trying to pull a fast one. But, my friends, we who live by the mantra ‘open to interpretation’ have found this to be a ground-breaking defence that, with some modifications, can be used not just in court but in all manner of situations that require deflection of blame.

The focus of this workshop then, is to show you how to use the Lingam Defence in almost any scenario. For example, in the original case, it could subsequently be argued that if one does not look at oneself in the mirror all the time, it is entirely possible to look at a video and think ‘that can’t be me’, especially if one’s mental picture of oneself is 20kg lighter and with a more trendy hairstyle. Alternatively, one could also be struggling with philosophical issues, hence he could be referring to himself in the metaphysical sense as in ‘Is that really me in the mirror? Or is that just someone else with the same face?’

Similarly, depending on what situation you find yourself in, the same principles can apply. Say, for example, you are presented with a video of yourself having sex with a florist-cum-personal friend. You could delay a public resignation by arguing, ‘It looks like me and uh, sounds like me, wait a minute, oh wow, is that really me? Am I that athletic? I didn’t know I could do that . . . no no that definitely can’t be me. But you know, if it was me, I think I’m pretty hot. But I’m not saying it’s me.’

Or, in another scenario where you are caught feeding monkeys in the nature reserve and are being fined $4,000. ‘Sir, it may look like me and sound like I was feeding the monkeys, but have you considered the possibility that I was minding my own business when a monkey which did not like the bread someone else gave him, came and shoved it in my hand just before I was filmed? It sounds like I was saying ‘here, monkey, have some bread’, I was actually saying, ‘Eee, monkey, loathsome breed’. Hence, I feel that you should send this tape to an overseas expert for verification and to prove that it was a human who taped it and not another monkey.’

Or, in the case of a chikungunya-carrying mosquito mistaken for a dengue-causing one: ‘It looks like me and sounds like me, the resemblance is so uncanny that when I look in the mirror I try to swat myself.’

And there you have it. The Lingam Defence workshop – it looks and sounds like a workshop, but it may or may not have been one. We might offer more, but I can’t confirm or deny it.

Technorati Tags: V.K.Lingam,Bullshit,Haider,Judiciary,Rotten

Kota Raja Parliament Seat

Good news readers. According to Dr Xavier Jayakumar’s blog, Kota Raja Parliament seat has a majority of 67.51% Indian voters. Read below. This seat is held by Vigneswaran, the MIC Youth chief since 2002. He is a law graduate and is currently a director with a hauler company. He is MIC central working committee member, Barisan Nasional Youth vice-chairman and Barisan’s social and welfare bureau chairman. The 39-year-old, a first-time candidate in the 2004 general election, won the new Kota Raja parliamentary seat. He is married and has two daughters.

Something to look forward to, is it not.

Kota Raja – parliament

It is highly anticipated and hoped that in the coming General Elections, that Dr Xavier Jayakumar will be standing as a candidate for PKR in the Kota Raja parliamentary seat.

After spending almost all of his working life (from 1985) in Klang, and being involved in numerous social projects and issues, it is hoped that the constituents understand that it isn’t the flag that matters but who the person is and what he represents.

However, what is most interesting at this point in time, is that as it stands the total voters in Kota Raja are 68,333.

Originally, this constituency consisted of 50.7 % Malays and
49.3 % non-Malays.

However, from August to December 31, 2007, there was a total of 4183
new voters who were registered.
The breakdown is as follows:
Indians – 67.51% – 2824
Chinese – 15.13% – 633
Malays – 16.47% – 689
Others – 0.88% – 37

With these new figures, Kota Raja becomes a non-Malay majority seat with approximately 51% non-Malay to 49% Malay.

The ground swell is huge and our expectations are that a Keadilan candidate will contest this seat, since Barisan National has given the privilege to MIC.

In view of this, PKR wants to show the Rakyat that all communities play an important role in nation building. We stand a better chance of convincing the people that we are sincere by the calibre of the candidates that we put forth.

But in saying so, it has always been and always will be a challenge to sell to the Rakyat the person and his qualities instead of the flag. The extent of indoctrination and brain-washing that the Rakyat have been subjected too is sad for the “democracy” we dream and hope this country should have.

Unfortunately we know, that when elections come, even after 50 years of Merdeka, you can be sure of the typical BN antics, and the their propoganda of fear and unrest against the opposition.

But we will campaign on !! For justice, fairness and transparency at all levels and for all Malaysians.

Dr X Team.

Technorati Tags: Dr Xavier,elections 2008,Kota Raja,non-malay

Bollywood star Salman Khan had a fatwa issued against him

This is a report from Fox News.

Report: Muslim Cleric Issues Fatwa Against Bollywood Star for Wax Figure

Thursday , January 24, 2008

Bollywood star Salman Khan had a fatwa issued against him for allowing Madame Tussauds in London to make his image in wax, the Daily Mail reported.

Mufti Salim Ahmad Qasmi, a Muslim cleric in India, issued the fatwa, saying the statue is illegal according to the Sharia, which forbids depictions of all living creatures, Mohammed in particular. A mufti is a Muslim scholar who interprets the Sharia, or the religious law of Islam; a fatwa is a legal opinion or ruling handed down by an Islamic scholar.

Khan, star of more than 50 Bollywood movies, unveiled the statue himself last week and described it as an honor. (Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Mumbai-based Hindi-language film industry in India.) Major celebrities like Jennifer Lopez, Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie have also had their wax likenesses displayed at Madame Tussauds.

The Dioband Seminary which the mufti runs has already issued a fatwa against Khan for dancing at a Hindu festival last month.

The Indian actor says his “bad boy” image is to blame as fellow Muslim and even bigger star Shah Rukh Khan is also in the wax museum and hasn’t been singled out.

Film critic Parsa Rao feels Khan doesn’t have much to worry about, he told the Mail.

Click here for more on the story from Daily Mail

“This is just nonsense that no one pays any attention to,” he said. “These fatwas are becoming a joke.”

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then Supreme Leader of Iran, issued a fatwa against author Salman Rushie over his 1988 novel “The Satanic Verses,” which called for him to be killed.

As a result, he spent nearly a decade largely underground, appearing in public only sporadically. Earlier this month, a leading Indian Muslim group threatened to boycott a major conglomerate’s products after its owners hosted Rushdie at their home in suburban Mumbai.

Technorati Tags: Bolltwood,Salman Khan,Fatwa