Category: General Media/News

Was there a Palestinian State in History? The Historical Facts

In this post, I shall focus only on historical facts and will not be making any definitive moral judgment on the current war between Hamas & Israel.

Without a doubt, the name Palestine was used before the founding of the state of modern Israel in 1948. There are maps from the 19th century which have the name Palestine printed over the region of the Holy Land. However, the name Palestine was used to describe a geographical area rather than an independent state or a region defined as a specific administrative region.

The word Palestine was derived from the Philistines, an Aegean people who migrated to the Mediterranean coastal plain between Tel Aviv-Yafo and the Gaza Strip in the 12th century BC. These Aegean people have no genealogical connection recent Palestinian people. The Philistines disappeared from history after they were destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylonia 2600 years ago. The Jews who were exiled to Babylon resettled in the land  under the Persian Empire and reestablished Jerusalem as their capital. The Romans who destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD and crushed the last Jewish revolt (the Bar Kokhba revolt, 132-136 AD) applied the term Palaestina to Judea in order to erase any Jewish legitimate claim to the land of Israel. The Arabic word Filastin is derived from this Latin name. Continue reading “Was there a Palestinian State in History? The Historical Facts”

Azril’s Call for Ban of Evangelicalism is Logically Flawed: Let the Facts on Conversion Speak for Themselves.

Azril Mohd Amin, CEO of Centhra explained to TheMalaysianInsight that his call for a ban on evangelicalism was prompted by the high number of Muslims leaving the faith for Christianity. He added that “there were some 400 conversion cases before the shariah courts and if the trend continued, it could have an impact on the … Continue reading “Azril’s Call for Ban of Evangelicalism is Logically Flawed: Let the Facts on Conversion Speak for Themselves.”

Azril Mohd Amin, CEO of Centhra explained to TheMalaysianInsight that his call for a ban on evangelicalism was prompted by the high number of Muslims leaving the faith for Christianity. He added that “there were some 400 conversion cases before the shariah courts and if the trend continued, it could have an impact on the country’s security.” [Azril: Why I said Christian Evangelicalism Should be Banned]

Azril’s charge against Evangelicalism is logically flawed and legally unjust. First, even if there are 400 cases of conversion before the shariah court, he has provided no evidence that they are converted by Evangelicals. Rather than blaming Evangelicals, an educated person like Azril should recognize that these people could be influenced by a variety of powerful media sources or by people they meet when they travel overseas, rather than by a small Christian movement like Evangelicalism in Malaysia. Second, Azril’s argument is logically flawed. Let me explain his flawed logic. Continue reading “Azril’s Call for Ban of Evangelicalism is Logically Flawed: Let the Facts on Conversion Speak for Themselves.”

Prominent Sabah-Sarawak Leaders Reject Hadi’s Bill

Sabah and Sarawak leaders: Reject Hadi’s Bill – The Star Online 8 May 2017 Prominent lea­ders in Sabah and Sarawak have refuted claims that amendments to the Syariah Courts (Criminal Juris­diction) Act, or RUU355, will not affect non-Malays and Muslims in the two states. Writing in an open letter, they urged the people to preserve … Continue reading “Prominent Sabah-Sarawak Leaders Reject Hadi’s Bill”

Sabah and Sarawak leaders: Reject Hadi’s Bill – The Star Online 8 May 2017

Prominent lea­ders in Sabah and Sarawak have refuted claims that amendments to the Syariah Courts (Criminal Juris­diction) Act, or RUU355, will not affect non-Malays and Muslims in the two states.

Writing in an open letter, they urged the people to preserve the country as a secular state and to reject Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang’s Private Member’s Bill to amend RUU355. The letter, signed by 20 leaders including politicians, former civil servants and the G25 group of eminent Malays, was made available in four languages – English, Malay, Kadazandusun and Iban.

Malaysia, they said, was founded together with Sabah and Sarawak as a secular federation, in which Islam as the “religion of the federation” only played a ceremonial role.
“Lest we forget, religious freedom was stressed and assured in the merger negotiations of Malaysia. Hudud punishments were never placed on the agenda. “Had hudud punishments been on the cards, the Malaysia project would have likely been rejected by the peoples of Sabah and Sarawak,” they added.

Introducing hudud, they warned, would breach both the Malaysia Agreement 1963 and the Federal Constitution…“Together with the dispropor­tionality of the offences and punishments, the introduction of these three hudud punishments (in Kelan­tan and Terengganu) will qualitatively alter the secular nature of the legal system,” they said. Sabahan and Sarawakian Muslims working and living in Peninsular Malaysia would also be subjected to hudud, they added…

“For Malaysia’s sake and to preserve our country as a secular fe­­deration, we must say no to Bill 355,” they said.

FULL STATEMENT  GIVEN BELOW:

Continue reading “Prominent Sabah-Sarawak Leaders Reject Hadi’s Bill”

Kota Kinabalu Declaration 2014 on Malaysia Day

An important declaration calling the Federal government to honor the Malaysia Agreement (1963) and implement just governance that gives due recognition and respect for the rights of citizens of Sabah and Sarawak. Highlights 7 AND WHEREAS the proliferation of oppressive laws that violates our fundamental civil liberties continues unabated, the legislative, executive and the judiciary … Continue reading “Kota Kinabalu Declaration 2014 on Malaysia Day”

An important declaration calling the Federal government to honor the Malaysia Agreement (1963) and implement just governance that gives due recognition and respect for the rights of citizens of Sabah and Sarawak.

Highlights

7 AND WHEREAS the proliferation of oppressive laws that violates our fundamental civil liberties continues unabated, the legislative, executive and the judiciary must take urgent measures to remove such offensive laws and selective prosecutions and to restore just, fair, and democratic principles of governance as envisaged by the framers of our Constitution and our founding fathers.

12 AND WHEREAS Islam is the religion of the Federation but other religions may be practised and people of other faiths shall have the constitutional right and freedom to profess, practise, propagate, and manage their respective faiths without interference and intervention by the State. 13 AND WHEREAS the Constitution provides for laws to be enacted for the administration of Islam, such laws shall not be applied to non-Muslims nor non-Muslims be subject to Shariah law.

14 AND WHEREAS freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Federal Constitution and set out in the first of the 18 and 20-point conditions of Sarawak and Sabah respectively to be part of the Malaysia Agreement, but the legislative, executive and judiciary have persistently and wilfully trampled upon such rights of people of other faiths by making laws and decisions that militate against such freedom. The prohibition of the usage of the word ‘Allah’ by Bumiputera Christians to refer to the one true God and the restricted ban on the use of the Alkitab, the Malay language Bible, since the early 1980s are instances of gross violations of human rights.

19 AND WHEREAS there are extremist dakwah elements who undertake aggressive Islamisation by both covert and overt means to convert Bumiputera Christians through intimidation, deception, or inducements particularly targeting remote and poor villagers as well as conversions of school children living in government hostels. The National Registration Department despite its denials are also classifying native Christians with ‘bin’ or ‘binti’ in their names as Muslims in their MyKad without their knowledge or consent. Such unlawful and oppressive practices must stop immediately. Continue reading “Kota Kinabalu Declaration 2014 on Malaysia Day”

Mourn for Maligned Alkitab

  Friends and Countrymen, lend me your ears. I come to share Alkitab’s goodness, not to use it to spread confusion. This evil from the government will be remembered even after its downfall; For the good Alkitab is suppressed by injustice of the Court. The honorable judges declared Alkitab is dangerous to Muslims. This is … Continue reading “Mourn for Maligned Alkitab”

 

Friends and Countrymen, lend me your ears.
I come to share Alkitab’s goodness, not to use it to spread confusion.
This evil from the government will be remembered even after its downfall;
For the good Alkitab is suppressed by injustice of the Court.
The honorable judges declared Alkitab is dangerous to Muslims.
This is a serious slander and Alkitab paid dearly for it.
Do Christians threaten violence like Perkasa when Alkitab is banned?
And the Court insists Alkitab is dangerous!
Dangerous books make men spiteful and vindictive;
But Christians offer a message of God’s love and forgiveness.
Yet the court insists Alkitab is dangerous;
And the Court judges are honorable men.
I am not here to refute the Court judgment,
But I am here to speak what I know;
You all who love justice and peace, and not without reason:
What holds you from mourning for maligned Alkitab?
O Sound Judgment! You have fled from brutish beasts,
And honorable men have lost their reason. Bear with me;
My heart is with Alkitab interred in dark storerooms of the authorities,
And I must grieve till it is returned to the Christians.

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NEWS LINKS:

MalaysianInsider – Christian paper loses battle to use ‘Allah’

MalayMailOnline – ‘Allah’ ruling vindicates Mais, Jais in bible tussle, says Perkasa