Messages

1

Discuss Latest News/Events / Re: Malaysia women's group sued over 'Islam' in name

« on: March 26, 2010, 07:06:35 AM »

haha...

This group gets a lot of legal hassles, the members are mostly independent minded Muslim women professionals, going against a male dominated religious institutions. They're against moral policing, defending woman's rights, academically doing research on polygamy, calling for change in Family Laws.

Here's a snippet of their Mission:
Sisters in Islam (SIS) is a group of Muslim women committed to promoting the rights of women within the framework of Islam. Our efforts to promote the rights of Muslim women are based on the principles of equality, justice and freedom enjoined by the Qur’an as made evident during our study of the holy text.

We uphold the revolutionary spirit of Islam, a religion which uplifted the status of women when it was revealed 1400 years ago. We believe that Islam does not endorse the oppression of women and denial of their basic rights of equality and human dignity. We are deeply saddened that religion has been used to justify cultural practices and values that regard women as inferior and subordinate to men and we believe that this has been made possible because men have had exclusive control over the interpretation of the text of the Qur’an.

We believe that for the Ummah (Islamic community) to grow and flourish, everyone must have the opportunity to fully participate in all spheres of life. The participation of Muslim women as full and equal partners in the ummah's socio-economic development and progress is the need of the day. We conclude that it is imperative that the female experience, thought and voice are included in the interpretation of the Qur’an and in the administration of religion in the Muslim world.

link http://www.sistersinislam.org.my/

AS usually this kind of intolerance by those persecuting SIS has been picked up by Jihad watch
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/03/why-we-dont-see-more-islamic-reformers-pro-sharia-group-sues-muslim-reform-group-over-its-use-of-the.html

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Introduce Yourself / Re: From Malaysia: Still searching but here’s my story…

« on: February 17, 2010, 12:53:56 PM »

Hello noshield30..my apologies for the late reply. I have been tied up with work and havent been on this forum for a bit.

I'm glad to meet a fellow malaysian here too. This country is heading from bad to worse no? And its all because of religion/their interpretation of religion. No, I havent heard that particular hadith, but I can imagine THAT being a hadith! And its not only the hadith, its everything else, all their so called ijma and ijtihad. Ulama's here have too much power, and paid well too. Why do they have to be paid? They dont add value to the economy at all, they are just a cost. Hence they have to justify their existence with all these funky fatwas' with have no basis. I mean cmon, how can practising yoga be 'haram'? And coming out for guidelines to pray in space? Sigh..

Anyway, enough b*tching, . My email address is at maxthecat80@gmail.com . Do drop me a line sometime.

Take care, Salam bro.

Hey Max,

, I too am a fellow Malaysian. Been in FM for some time, note of caution, exercise your views with care now that you're back in our tanah air, Malaysia. We are considered deviant  . People here, I'm sure you're aware have generally forfeited their right to think on religious matters to thier unelected officials who hold religious office in the country.

Rumi

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Hadith Discussions / Re: Which Hadith Do You Believe Besides The Quran? (45:6)

« on: November 22, 2007, 08:20:52 AM »

What do the "scholars" say about these blatant contradictions? what's their point of view? Believe all? Believe some??

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Sunni/Shia Religion / Re: Why are "non muslims" not allowed in the city of mecca?

« on: November 21, 2007, 01:14:21 PM »

you calling west tolerant now?

I haven't said the west is tolerant. Intolerance breeds in men, in all races, on all corners of the earth. Look at the far right movements in Europe, the KKK in the states.

The difference is with regards to what the government does to the administration of a city. Especially when they've justified this in the name of my religion! I strongly disagree with the Saudi interpretation, the Quran in 9:28 clearly does not state that an entire city is should be off-limits, it merely concerns the place of worship.

The sad thing about it all is that this ruling has been attributed to the religion and I dare say that people, non muslims be they westerners or not associate this action as a reflection on the general Muslim attitude.

I'm not asking for American laws to apply in Saudi, or Singaporean laws to apply in England. That's ridiculous, because laws protect customs and norms. But to argue that this law is a religious ruling, not customs as what the Saudis have done, that it's divine in its origins, when infact it's a man made Saudi one presents a tainted and flawed picture of our religion, one of intolerance.

Now if the Saudi's barred people from entering the sacred mosque, then that would be logical, a few other religions bar persons not from the same faith entering their most sacred sites and places of worship. It would also be in line with Quran 9:28 . 

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Sunni/Shia Religion / Re: Why are "non muslims" not allowed in the city of mecca?

« on: November 17, 2007, 07:24:56 AM »

Peace all,
To be honest this is one of the issues we ought to be least concerned with. There are areas with defined boundaries all over the world owned by one or many shareholders and if the majority decides even something ridiculous like one may only enter their area if he/she can walk on his/her hands for at least a mile or so, then it is still their right. Just as anyone of you has the right to allow in or prohibit one from entering your houses even if you just dislike their faces. So i would be very careful on using these kinds of arguments or even putting them forward. They could easily backfire at us and the mullahs could use them to make us look hypocritical in the sight of their followers and indeed wed be trapping ourselves. GOD Bless!

I agree, a country should and does have the ability and legality to reject entry to anyone / to any place. Example, We aren't free to go visit every inch of any country, military sites are restricted.

But my bone is with how it's all being justified with respect to the city of Mecca.

And people wonder why Muslims are viewed as intolerant in the west..

6

General Issues / Questions / Re: Do we indirectly encourage murder?

« on: November 14, 2007, 05:08:03 AM »

The problem is: where to immigrate?

How about up north? To Canada!

No death penalty in Canada, freedom of speech protected in the constitution, no troops occupying Iraq, lower crime rate than the U.S. , better income distribution, universal health care for all, longer life expectancy, lower infant mortality. Canadian cities are also ranked one of the best places to live, Vancouver for example has been voted the most livable city in the world 2 years ago. 

Been thinking about migrating there myself..

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General Issues / Questions / Re: Why did Muslims set out to conquer the world?

« on: November 14, 2007, 04:42:02 AM »

I mean sub-saharan Africa. Why did they have to go to Europe to "save Christians and Jews", when they had the balck Africans without any book, and they were nearer to them?

Because black africans were generally slaves at the time, i don't know?? But you do have a point, logically sub-saharan africa would've been easier to spread the message and the book, could the reason have been racism?

Islam in East Asia was not spread by conquering armies but by traders and now centuries later after the arrival of the Quran, a once hindu Indonesia has the worlds largest number of Muslims. I believe it's a true testament to "Let there be no compulsion in religion".

8

Science / Re: 'Second Earth' found, 20 light years away

« on: November 02, 2007, 03:44:18 AM »

Peace "nerspi" and all,


JK- There are only two ways to travel or in the first case reach the planet within our life time. 1) Time dilation: Here all of us humans who wanna wtach the planet in our lifetime need to hop on a spaceship which would keep approaching the speed of light and thus speeding up the outside time in space as relative to ours. Hence although the disctance is 20 light yrs, our bodies would expeirence them as less. 2) Warp drive: This is a fictional method in which a subspace bubble is created which kinna bends space-time and allows for FTL "travel" without causing time dilation between travellers and those left behind. It would be very effective if it works. GOD Bless!

Warp drive? I thought that was star trek fantasy, actually I know nothing about it, how a warp engine works. I thought nothing can be faster than the speed of light, we can bend the rules though. What about using a hypothetical wormhole/Einstien-Rosen bridge, jumping from one point in space to another, it's not superluminal (faster-than-light) space travel, but would seem that way since, it's simply taking a short cut. The time in which the distance was traveled would appear faster than it would take light to make the journey through normal space.

A wormhole in string theory can be made by cutting and putting together two spacetimes allowing a low-energy string equations with a dilaton field. In spacetimes described by the `string metric', the dilaton energy-momentum tensor need not satisfy the weak or dominant energy conditions. In the cases considered here the dilaton field violates these energy conditions and is the source of the exotic matter required to maintain the wormhole.

But for now, wormholes are mostly speculation and theoretical physics.

I think string theory is a lot more interesting than a planet light years away, string theory suggest our universe is just one of zillions of alternate, invisible -- perhaps even inhabited -- universes where the laws of physics are radically different. Sting theory also suggests of time travel. It's all Mind boggling to me.

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Sunni/Shia Religion / Re: Why are "non muslims" not allowed in the city of mecca?

« on: November 02, 2007, 03:08:33 AM »

Exactly.

Apparently the French GIGN officers were momentary Muslims, conveniently converted to do his job people during the siege. It's scandalous.

But making an entire city off limits to Non Muslims, I find that hard to defend! Why stop at a city? Why not making an entire district, state, country, region off limits. Perhaps thats where it's heading...

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Islamic Constitution / Re: Constitution in Final Draft (Please Read)

« on: November 02, 2007, 02:39:10 AM »

Salam Rumi,

Thanks for the feedback.

I agree with you that government can be wasteful, but at the same time, I want to hold government accountable for the delivery of the `basic` services and needs (that is why we would be paying tax in such a state - so we get these services). I believe the issue of concern you have raised can be adressed in allowing the government some flexibility in the execution of the said projects/services (i.e. governmet has to do it, using our money, but they can be allowed to subcontract to private companies that can do the job better).

Salam Layth,

I personally believe paying taxes should be kept at the very minimum, not as high as 30% or over 50% like in Scandinavian countries. I believe the government should be kept at a minimum in regulatory roles, this should be in the power of the people not the executive, what the government should concentrate on is the enforcement and protection of private individuals and their property. So basically law enforcement of rights and defense.

Regarding education as an example, I think you still advocate a role for the government albeit subcontracting, I believe education should be provided as a private enterprise and can be, I don't think the government should be involved at all. Look at the evidence, public schools through out the world do poorly than private schools. The main reason is that private schools have the incentive, they are more answerable to the parents and students, not some education minister. Private schools attract talented motivated individuals to become teachers because of the wage differential, they are rewarded for their hard work, these individuals would have otherwise gone to work in the corporate sector. Public schools on the other hand tend to attract the less talented, under motivated, usually apathetic teachers, who are there not for the students but the monthly salary. What the government takes in the form of taxes for education spending should be given back to the parents, governments spend a sickly some of money, for generally poorer results. If this money were to be given back to parents, for their choice in private schools, it would achieve a better result. It would give talented individuals an option to pursue teaching who otherwise might be deterred as a result of a public school system. It's a bold idea, but as a transition, we can have a voucher system for public school as suggested by Economics nobel prize winner, Milton Friedman.

Basically my point remains, it is supported by empirical evidence, what the government spends from your money for your child's education, the private sector can provide better. This holds true for developing countries and developed countries.

"researchers were then able to gain an answer to the question: ‘for the same per pupil cost, how much more achievement would we get in private than in public schools?’ The answer ranged from 1.2 times (Philippines) to a massive 6.74 times more achievement (Thailand) in the private than the public schools." (Newcastle University Research paper, comparisons in developing countries) http://www.ncl.ac.uk/egwest/research/privateschools.html

http://www.reason.com/news/show/36333.html
http://www.cato.org/pubs/briefs/bp-023.html
http://www.friedmanfoundation.org/friedman/schoolchoice/why.jsp

I highly recommend reading Free to Choose: A Personal Statement by Rose and Milton Friedman