There are many version of English that being teach or speak in Malaysia. In our school, we learn standard British English, we watch American English movie, we read standard English newspaper, speak Malaysian/ Singaporean English. Our grammar mix up with Kantonis, Hokkien, Bahasa and Tamil language. This variety make our English so “rojak” (mix up).
In history, Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot or Mao Zedong banned religion, but also massacred millions. Science brought incredible and amazing advances, but also pollution and the atomic bomb. In the name of religion, many people have kill people, but the reality religion are so persistent to be deleted in history of human kind.
Ideology, religion, science, economy, geography, power, land, resources, race, health, education, family, wealth, communication, business and many more – all above required to sustain human being to live in society. This is a minimum requirement to sustain a good, moral and develop nation or society.
Reality
There are poor and rich people. There are sick and healthy people. There are happy and sad people. There are good looking and rich people. There are thin and fat people. There are black, white, brown, yellow skin’s color people. There are old and young people. There are knowledge and less educated people. So many example I show just to make you understand the world’s society.
Some of thing we can not change such gender, race, age, and health. Some of thing we can easily change such attitude, knowledge, moral, appearance (make up) and emotion. Some of this are in between, some time we can, and some time we can not. Example, appearance (age), knowledge, etc.
In almost every thing, moderation between 2 thing is always important. The balance are very important in sustain a proper life. Many people can not achieve this balance but at least we have achieve certain balance such 60-40, 55-45, 70-30 in every factor of life. The problem always come when we want to make it more than it suppose, i.e 90-10, 80-20, which totally unbalance. Some of us try to goes to 100-0 which totally one sided only.
Law & Life
I can not comment for other religion, but I understand from Islam from that I have learn – Balance and moderation are very important to achieve good life. Many verse in Quran that I can refer to understand the idea of balance and moderation. Some of verse talk about war and punishment, to balance it, it talk about about peace and forgiveness. Some verse speak about world and some speaks about afterlife or heaven and hell.
All people love to live in peaceful life, but it doesn’t mean we should neglect about defense, army, and power. All people love to live in moral and high attitude environment, but it doesn’t mean we should overlook in term of law, punishment and government. All people like to have a good family, but it need to have leadership, education, example and law. In every organization require balance to produce a sustainable society. That is most common nature law, but it always being forget.
If everyone can do what ever he want to do, we can just assume he is outlaws. When the balance are not being achieve, problem start to occurs. The rich become more rich, the poor become more poor. The pollution are become more serious, the green and tree become more less. The balance are start to crumble.
When wealth is disaster
We can categories wealth for people who have plenty of time, gold, money, healthy life, power, etc. So, how wealth itself is disaster? Rich people tend to be greedy, arrogant, lazy, suppressed people, etc. Their children become spoil because they have too much money and don’t have much love, etc. People like to play video game because they have too much time. This is disaster of the wealth.
Revolution and changes
For me, revolution and changes are important to improve our current life. Every time and every second we must always strive and challenge ourselves to become better and more better. In this journey, some people have pick a wrong road and listen to a wrong person. Some people have taken a proper path and excel in live.
For people who have taken the wrong road always have a change to return back, but can they return. Sometime a pressure from environment, ego, greed, persistent are keeping them from return to correct road, even they know they have selected a wrong road.
What I understand.
Ideology, religion, science, economy, geography, power, land, resources, race, health, education, family, wealth, communication, business and many more can not be blame as total. There must have a balance in everything, once you step out from that balance, the problem start to occurs. That is the law, but it also the most toughest.
Knowledge itself is have two side, good and bad. It matter of choice either you want to choose the right or wrong. As Quran stated:
And have shown him the two ways? (quran 90:10)
What Islam said
Quran have stated that:
Thus We have made you [Muslims] a Wasat (moderate) nation, that you be witnesses over mankind and the Messenger Muhammad be a witness over you.” (Quran 2:143)
Quran also mention:
And those, who when they spend, are neither extravagant nor stingy, but hold a medium (way) between those (extremes).” (Soorat Al-Furqan, Verse 67)
Iman Malik mention:
Whoever studied Tasawwuf without Fiqh is a heretic, and whoever studied Fiqh without Tasawwuf is corrupted, and whoever studied Tasawwuf and Fiqh will find the Truth and Reality of Islam.
Imam Shafii mention:
(Be both) a faqih and a sufi: do not be only one of them, Verily, by Allah’s truth, I am advising you sincerely.
Imam Ahmad Zarruq mention:
“There is no tasawwuf without fiqh; because there is no other way to understand the commandments of Allah that concern the exterior except by fiqh. and fiqh is nothing without tasawwuf; because deeds have no meaning unless accompanied by sincerety (sidq) and dedication (tawajjuh).
Neither of them is of any use without true belief [wa la huma illa bi iman]. that is, neither of them [fiqh/tasawwuf] is valid unless true belief is present in the first place.”
Imaam Ibn Taymiyyah said,
“Islam as a religion is the midpoint among all other religions. The Muslims believe in the messengers of Allaah in a moderate way. For example, they do not go to extremes in their beliefs about the Prophets as the Christians do, nor do they put the messengers at such a low status, as do the Jews. The Muslims always stand in the middle when it comes to all matters of Deen.”
It says, Allah is – Al Khaliq (The Creator)
It also says, Allah is – Al Bari (The Evolver)
For the Muslim there is no need for separation between religion and science. It is understood from the Quran, revealed over 1,400 years ago, that there is both; “Creation” and “Evolution.” And in both instances, it is only Allah who is “Able to do all things.” In fact, it was the Muslim scientists, more than 1,000 years ago, who set the stage for the advancement of learning, technology and disciplines in science that we know today.
Allah has explained how He created everything in the universe and brought all life out of water. He created humans from earth (not monkeys) and there is no need to attempt fabrications of “links” to the animal world in Islam.
Muslims believe that souls are assigned to humans 40 days after the human inception. The Quran says that angels retrieve human souls on two occasions. One occasion is when humans die. The other occasion is every time humans fall asleep. When humans wakeup, the angels release those souls back to them:
It is Allah that takes the souls (of men) at death; and those that did not die, during their sleep: those on whom He has passed the decree of death, He keeps back, but the rest He sends (to their bodies) for a term appointed. Verily in this are Signs for those who reflect. [Noble Quran 39:42]
And Allah has Created every animal from water; of them are some creeping on their bellies; some walk on two legs; and some on four. Allah Creates what He wills: for sure Allah has Power over all things. [Noble Quran 24:45]
The Quran has set a precedent 14 centuries before modern science, explaining in simple and direct terms about his “creation” of animals and their various functions and then assures us it is He who has the Power over everything. This statement includes the fact Allah can if He Wills, reshape and alter his creation as He Chooses. There is clear evidence within many species of alteration and changes within the species. However, there is no concrete evidence to support a cross over in development from one type to another, such as reptiles turning into birds or alligators turning into cows. The statements made in Quran are quite clear when Allah tells us of having brought forth other life forms and then destroying or replacing them with others. This again, does not imply evolution in the sense of one type becoming or changing into another.
Allah tells us He is Al-Bari, (The Shaper or Evolver) but once again, this does not mean He has a need to bring about each individual life form all from one kind. Actually, while reading the Quran you learn He has brought many types and shapes and sizes as He Wills. Changes within species occur even as quickly as one or two seasons, not even taking a whole year, much less millions as was supposed by Darwin.
Speaking of Charles Darwin, he was only an armature naturalist and had only observed the finches (birds) on the Galapagos Islands for the first time in the mid 1850s. He noticed that on each island the birds had different shaped beaks according to the type of food available on their particular island. For this reason, he assumed, the birds had progressed over millions of years and only the hardiest of the species had survived the climate and vegetation changes. However, this is totally inaccurate and was dismissed as a mere humor in a TV series on the educational channel in October of 1998. According to the scientists’ discoveries in that very same year, the effects of the weather phenomenon known as El Nino, the climate on these same exact islands had drastically changed in a single year within a number of months. And to their surprise, the eggs of the finches on each island hatched open producing birds with beaks already altered to accommodate the changes of their environment.
The commentator even said this shoots Darwin’s theory completely down and he laughed.
There is no DNA research pointing to a connection between apes and humans as was supposed by the scientists and those who had financed them over the years. In fact, the barnyard pig is closer to humans in many aspects, than a monkey or a gorilla. Consider the fact, doctors use the skin from pigs to replace needed tissue on burn victims and the famous movie actor, John Wayne had a pig’s heart valve installed in his own heart in a 1977 operation to save his life. It worked, too – until his smoking caused him to die of cancer.
The rational approach to the whole subject is rather simple. Just as He is able to Create the universe and bring forth life, it is simple also for Him to produce as many different types of forms of life as He Wills. No problem for Him, after all – He is the Creator and He is the Shaper. And most important, He can change anything as He Wills – even today.
Let read Non- Muslim’s view
1) http://allallt.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/how-can-the-religious-explain-evolution/
2) http://tedhowardnz.wordpress.com/2012/12/31/human-evolution-2/
3) http://brandonrobshaw.wordpress.com/2012/12/30/evolutionary-theory-maintains/
1. I was in Tokyo recently to participate in the celebration of the 30th year of the Look East Policy. Some 15,000 young Malaysians were educated or trained in Japan during those years. Strangely I have not heard anyone of them complain about the policy or their participation. They all seem to be happy with their experience under the Look East Policy.
2. There must be at least a few who may not be happy. But I have not met them.
3. They all seem to be employed and a few have started their own businesses in Malaysia or in Japan. Some are married to Japanese girls.
4. I would like to claim that the Look East Policy was good for Malaysia. Those trained under the programme seem to have imbibed some Japanese characters and values. Actually the Look East Policy was not so much about getting Japanese investments or technologies as it was about learning Japanese work ethics and the discipline of the work place. I believe strongly that the success or otherwise of a person, a race or a nation is dependent on their values, their work ethics and their discipline when doing whatever they have to do.
5. In 1961 when I went to Japan for the first time I observed their diligence and dedication in the work of rebuilding their nation. It was already 16 years after the near-total destruction of their country but there was hardly any trace of it. Everywhere I saw people busily constructing new buildings, everywhere I saw cement-mixer trucks being driven to worksites and back to the mixing plants.
6. I did not see any foreign cars but their cars did not look so good. What struck me most was their behaviour when there was a collision. The drivers came out, bowed to each other and then drove off. What happened after that I do not know.
7. Hotel workers did not accept tips but their service cannot be faulted. Japanese hotel staff, including managers, line up to welcome me upon arrival and to wave goodbye when I leave even after I cease to be the Prime Minister of Malaysia.
8. I was familiar with Japanese products before the Pacific War. They were shoddy and breakdown easily. When a Japanese exhibition ship came to Singapore during my student days, there were crude jokes about scratching the paint off their cars and finding the “Milo” label underneath.
9. By the time I went to Japan, the quality of their cameras and motorcycles could not be questioned. They were superb. So were their watches. Japanese brands had become the mark of quality.
10. Since 1961, I had visited Japan very many times and I was amazed at their progress and the speed with which they demolished their old reputation for low quality. And I wished we in Malaysia could be like them.
11. Everyone knows about “hara-kiri” or “seppuku” the Japanese practice of ritual suicide when they failed in whatever they were tasked to do. When Japan lost the war thousands of Japanese soldiers committed suicide.
12. I thought at first that this Japanese practice was quite inhuman and uncivilised. Then I realised that the Japanese have a strong sense of shame. When they fail they consider it so shameful that life was not worth living.
13. They do not commit hara-kiri now but some of their Ministers would resign if something wrong happened in their ministry. They would accordingly try not to fail in their work.
14. I noticed the quality and fineness of the handmade bamboo products. I believe that this is the result of their trying to avoid feeling ashamed of shoddy work.
15. I think that is why the Japanese produce such high quality products we are familiar with today. Their cars are of the best quality. Really they are as good as the top German cars. In fact in many ways they are better. And I believe this derives from their desire not to be ashamed of their work.
16. Japan is far more secure than most other countries in the East or the West. We don’t read reports of people being coshed in the parks or dark streets. Certainly burglary is not as common as it is in Malaysia.
17. Cleanliness is almost a fetish in Japan. Young school children would not throw rubbish on the road. They would carry whatever they wanted to get rid off until they find a rubbish bin. Japanese employees with ties on can be seen watering and sweeping the pavements in front of their shops. No Malaysian would do this, certainly not with their ties on.
18. Japanese factory workers often arrive early at the work place to discuss with fellow-workers their target for the day. They regard the next shift as their customers who must be served well. They would clean up their work-bench before going off, so that the next shift can start work immediately. They are constantly trying to improve their products. They call this “kaizen”.
19. They have workers unions but they seldom go on strike. Certainly we do not hear of a general strike which really is a political act. They remain loyal to their company for life.
20. In return the company looks after the workers. Until lately they do not sack their workers, preferring to reassign them if the company did not do well or the workers have become unproductive.
21. In recent years they have abandoned this practice. The sacked workers feel so ashamed that they refuse to go home to their families. During the recession the unemployed workers would erect huts of blue plastic in open spaces or wide road dividers and live in them. They would go around collecting tin-cans to shape them into toys to sell for a living. This is something that you do not see anywhere else. The unemployed always expect to be on dole provided by Governments. I have not seen destitute tramps in rags in Japan as I have seen in many Western countries.
22. The Japanese really work hard. This one single character contributes the most to the success of individuals, society or nation. They are not laid back. Akio Morita, the founder of Sony Corporation, tells in his book about how the Japanese worker was willing to be paid with a ball of rice with soya sauce in the early years after the war. That willingness must have contributed much to the recovery of Japan and high pay that Japanese workers enjoy now.
23. Working hard may not mean working smart, but certainly it is much more productive than not working or being laid back.
24. Watching the Japanese and their progress over the years convinced me that adopting their work ethics and the discipline of their work place would do the same for Malaysians and Malaysia.
25. And so hardly a year after becoming Prime Minister, with the authority vested in me I proposed the Look East Policy. Many in my cabinet the administration and the public questioned the wisdom of this policy. Many said why copy the copier; why not go to the source of modern industrial civilisation. But enough accepted the novel policy and so the Look East Policy was adopted and implemented.
26. I believe it is a success. At the Tokyo forum organised by Nomura Securities, Nikkei and Khazanah, the talk was about the future strategies and form that the Look East Policy would take. But whatever, the one single most important aspect of the Look East Policy is the development of a value system, a work culture and ethics that is compatible with success. And among them should be the cultivation of a strong sense of shame when delivering results which do not give pride to the person, the people or the country. This feeling of shame will make us work hard to deliver the best in everything that we do. That is the essence of the Look East Policy. May it continue for the next 30 years at least.
by : Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad – Prime Minister of Malaysia (1981 – 2003), chedet.cc
Yassin who survived the Palestinian Disaster (Al Nakba) of 1948 learned an important lesson that impacted his intellectual and political life forever, a lesson that says Palestinians can only depend on themselves and arm their people without depending on other nations or the international community.
Childhood
Ahmed Ismael Yassin was born in 1938 in the destroyed village of Al-Joura, Majdal district, near the present-day Zionist town of Ashkelon — or Askalan in Arabic. Yassin’s father died when he was five years old.
The young Ahmed Yassin joined Al Jora elementary school and continued studying there till the fifth grade until 1948. In 1948 Nakba or the usurpation of most of Palestine at the hands of Zionist gangs the young Yassin was forced to flee at the age of 12 along with his family and thousands of other refugees southwards to the Gaza Strip after Zionist forces overran his village and threatened to kill its inhabitants. This nightmarish experience seems to have had a particularly strong impact in shaping the psychological build-up of a boy who would later become one of the Zionists most trenchant enemies. His birthplace was bulldozed, along with nearly 500 other Palestinian towns and villages in 1948, following the occupation of Palestine.
Yassin who survived the Palestinian Disaster (Al Nakba) of 1948 learned an important lesson that impacted his intellectual and political life forever, a lesson that says Palestinians can only depend on themselves and arm their people without depending on other nations or the international community.
Education
Yassin graduated from secondary school in the year 1957/1958 and managed to get a job as a teacher despite objection to his health condition. In 1959 he went to Egypt where he spent some time studying at Ain Shams University. There he received a college diploma and, more importantly, was deeply influenced by the ideas of the Muslim Brotherhood.
In 1962, shortly after his return to Gaza, Yassin was briefly detained by the Egyptian authorities in connection with his activities within the Muslim Brotherhood in opposition to the regime of then Egyptian President Gamal Abdel-Nasser. He was put in a solitary confinement cell for a month, until he was released after he was proved not to be involved with the Brotherhood. His detention period affected him significantly, and “rooted the hate of injustice” in his soul, as he said in an interview.
Work under the life of agony:
In Gaza things changed and he and his family lived the life of refugees, similar to most of the Palestinians at that time, tasting the bitter feelings of hunger and deprivation. He used to go to the Egyptian army camps near Gaza to gather the soldiers’ leftovers and go back with it to his family.
Yassin quit school between 1949-1950 to support his seven-member family working in one of the restaurants in Gaza, and then returned back to school. In 1952, Yassin was injured while playing sport, leaving him a quadriplegic for the rest of his life. However, paralysis did not put an end to his ambitions. He worked as an Arabic and religion teacher and later a preacher in the Gaza mosques. He turned into one of the most vociferous and most famous Khatibs in the Gaza Strip following its occupation in 1967.
Political life
In his 20’s, Yassin participated in the demonstrations that broke out in Gaza to denounce the 1956 tripartite aggression on Egypt, and showed immense public speech and political intellect . He became actively involved in the calls opposing to an international supervision over Gaza, stressing the need to regain Egyptian administration on the lands again.
Working as a preacher in Gaza allowed him to spread the MB ideas and to gather hundreds of supporters who later came to form the nucleus of Hamas. The message he spread was that the loss of Palestine in 1948 was merely a symptom of the stagnation of the Islamic Ummah. The solution he demanded lay in the reinstatement of Islam as a unifying political force by overthrowing all existing Arab secular regimes which he described as un-Islamic or anti-Islamic.
After the 1967 war, in which the Zionists occupied all the Palestinian territories including the Gaza Strip, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin continued inspiring the Muslims and Palestinians from the Al Abbasi Mosque’s rostrum, calling to the resistance of the occupation. He turned into one of the most vociferous and most famous preachers in the Gaza Strip following its occupation in 1967. At the same time he was involved in gathering donations to help the families of the martyrs and prisoners, later to work as a president of the Islamic Complex in Gaza.
Sheikh Yassin follows the principles and ideology of the Islamic Brotherhood that was established in Egypt in 1928 by the Imam Hassan Al Banna.
Yassin Began to Work with Mujahedin
In 1982, Yassin started to form local resistance cells under the code name Majd, with the help of some prominent Muslim Brotherhood figures in Jordan who financed his weapon purchases. Soon afterwards the Zionist occupation authorities found out and Yassin was arrested and sentenced to 13 years in prison for forming a resistance group and possessing “illegal” weapons. He also worked as a chairman of the Islamic Complex in Gaza before his arrest in 1984
In 1985 he was released from Zionist custody as part of a prisoner swap between the Zionist entity and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command, headed by Ahmed Jebril.
The Sheikh Founded Hamas -1987
After his release, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin founded the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in mid-1987, along with a group of Islamic leaders including Dr. Abd al Aziz al Rantissi in the Gaza Strip. Hamas’ aims are to resist the Zionist occupation in order to liberate historical Palestine. Hamas had a significant role in the Palestinian Intifada that broke out at that time, and was known as “the revolution of the mosques”. Since that time, Sheikh Yassin was considered the spiritual leader of the movement. Hamas carried out a number of effective attacks mainly on Zionist occupation troops in the Gaza Strip, killing a number of Zionist occupation soldiers and officers.
Arrested again
As the Intifada stepped up its momentum against the Zionist occupation, the Zionists began to think of means to stop Yassin’s activities, so Zionist soldiers raided his home on August 1988, searched it and threatened him of punishment to Lebanon.
In 1989, two years into the first Intifada, Yassin was again arrested by Zionist occupation authorities. This time he was sentenced to 40 years in prison, charged with calling to armed resistance and charges of inciting to kill and kidnap Zionist occupation soldiers as well as founding of Hamas movement and its military wing.
Disease but No Release
Yassin spent nearly eight years in jail where he suffered a number of other disabilities and diseases including loss of eyesight in his right eye due to Zionist blows during round of interrogations, in addition to weakness in his left eye, as well as chronic otitis and lung allergy, also caused by harsh detention conditions in the Zionist jails. He also suffered from chronic inflammation in his ear, lung infection and other stomach diseases.
On 13/12/1992 a commando cell affiliated with the Qassam Brigades, military wing of Hamas, kidnapped a Zionist soldier and offered to set him free in return for the release of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and a number of other detainees in Zionist jails including sick and elderly Arab captives. However, the Zionist government refused the offer and stormed the house where the soldier was held leading to his death along with commander of the attacking unit and two other soldiers before the martyrdom of the three members of that cell in Bir Nabala near occupied Jerusalem.
Released by Fate but it was not too late
In 1997, Yassin was freed from prison after the late King Hussein of Jordan insisted that the Zionist government of Benyamin Netanyahu release him in exchange for the release from Jordanian custody of two Mossad agents who carried out an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Khaled Meshaal, the head of the Hamas contingency in Amman. Yassin’s subsequent triumphant return to Gaza significantly enhanced Hamas’ status and granted the movement the position of “second among equals” vis-a-vis the Palestinian Authority.
Yassin and Oslo Accords
Yassin vehemently opposed the Oslo Accords, which he viewed as a “disgraceful capitulation” and “great deception”. Indeed, the intensive construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, along with the continued confiscation by successive Zionist governments of large swathes of Palestinian land, seemed to vindicate his views in the eyes of many Palestinians.
Yassin Rejects the Civil War
Prior to the outbreak of the second Intifada in September 2000, Yassin was placed under house arrest, with severed telephone communications by the PA, which was under tremendous pressure from the United States and the Zionists to “rein in” Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The Hamas leader was always careful not to allow recurrent frictions with the PA which may evolve into some kind of civil war, which he viewed as “the ultimate Palestinian red line”. Believing that a divided leadership would undermine Palestinian interests, Sheikh Yassin sought to maintain good relations with the Palestinian Authority and with other regimes in the Arab world.
Yassin insisted on the Palestinians Right of Peaceful life
During the ongoing Al-Aqsa Intifada, Yassin consistently held fast to the “robe of resistance”. He argued that freedom is earned, not granted on a silver platter, and that which is taken by force can be only recovered by force. He vehemently defended martyrdom bombings against the Zionist entity, explaining that they constituted only weapon available to the Palestinian people in the face of the enemy with far more powerful military capabilities that is hell-bent on exterminating and crushing the Palestinian people. He repeatedly demanded an end to all attacks targeting Palestinian civilians and un-uniformed Zionists. However, the Zionist entity consistently rejected all initiatives to that effect.
The first attempt to assassinate the Sheikh
Thousands of cheering supporters turned out to watch him vow revenge for the first Zionist attempt on his life in September 2003. This was mirror by millions of Muslims worldwide, having sent shock waves and new calls for Jihad throughout the Ummah.
However, for a staunchly ideological movement like Hamas — where the idea is more important than the leader — it is unlikely that Yassin’s death will seriously undermine the movement in any permanent way. In fact, he had already effectively stopped running the movement’s day-to-day affairs several years ago due to his deteriorating health and relatively old age.
Sheikh Yassin lived his life in his humble home in the Al Sabra neighborhood in Gaza City. He survived with minor injuries a failed attempt on his life by the Zionist occupying forces on September 6, 2003 while he was visiting a friend in Gaza. He was only lightly injured in his right arm. Nonetheless, he remained until his death the most effective and eloquent spokesman of Hamas and the entire Palestinian Islamic camp, despite his severe physical disability.
As most Muslim celebrate Maal hijrah today (15th Nov 2012), today we have been surprised by bombing at Gaza stripe by Israel. Seriously they know when to pick the date.
“We’ve sent a clear message to Hamas and to other terrorist organizations,” Mr Netanyahu said in a televised address on Wednesday evening.
This issue have been disgrace Muslim for many decade.
All Israel’s neighboring country are Muslim country: Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. Next neighboring country are Turkey, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Libya. Still, No single country can put a STOP to them.
Now, they openly declare a war. What are we going to do?
Still listen to PBB that do nothing for 5 decades? Still listening to America’s government who obviously Israel’s ally?
Today we are suppose to celebrate Maal Hijrah. A day of new dawn, a day of new revolution, a day of new beginning, A day of changes.
May be it was a sign. Insya Allah.
MANILA – The Philippine government and the country’s largest Muslim group signed Monday, October 15, a peace deal that serves as roadmap to establishing a Muslim homeland in the south.
“This is the sound of peace,” Ebrahim Murad, the head of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), told President Benigno Aquino ahead of signing the deal, Reuters reported.
The deal begins a roadmap to create a new autonomous region in the Muslim-majority south.
The new region will be called Bangsamoro — the term for those who are native to the region.
It is expected to include five provinces under the existing autonomous region plus parts of Lanao del Norte and North Cotabato provinces.
The Muslim homeland will gain powers such as the right to impose taxes to cut central government subsidies, a bigger share in revenues from natural resources and a more active role in internal security.
But the Philippine government will continue to hold exclusive powers of defense and security, foreign policy, monetary policy, and citizenship and naturalization.
“We are committed to enabling our partners to transform themselves to a genuine political party that can help facilitate the region’s transition towards a truly peaceful and progressive place,” he said.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, whose government has facilitated the start-stop negotiations since March 2001, was present at the signing ceremony.
Foreign dignitaries and international aid agencies that helped in the peace process were also present.
The Philippine president is expected to issue an executive order shortly to form a 15-member transition commission that will formulate new legislation by 2015 to create a new Muslim local government for the new area.
A plebiscite later in Muslim-dominated areas in the south will determine the shape and size of the new Bangsamoro area.
“Much work remains to be done in order to fully reap the fruits of this framework agreement,” Aquino said before the signing ceremony at the Malacanang palace.
“We have commitments to fulfill, people to lead, and dreams to achieve.
Optimism
The new framework deal has sparked high hopes for peace among Filipino Muslims.
“Negotiated political settlement is the most civilized and practical way to solve the Moro problem,” MILF leader Murad said in his speech.
“We in the MILF central committee did not waver and vacillate in pursuing it to the end, despite the devastating three all-out wars in 2003 and 2008 waged by previous Philippine regimes.”
MILF, the country’s biggest Muslim group, has been struggling for an independent state in the mineral-rich southern region of Mindanao for some four decades now.
More than 120,000 people have been killed since the conflict erupted in the late 1960s.
Happy with the deal, hundreds of Muslims, many in a 20-vehicle caravan from Mindanao, gathered on a busy street about 200 meters from the presidential palace to lend support to the peace agreement, shouting “Allahu Akbar”.
They also waved banners and held placards which read “Give peace a chance” and “We support lasting peace in Mindanao”.
“There’s no room for pessimism,” Norhaiya Macusang of political group Anak Mindanao, told the crowd.
On Sunday, about 200 hijab-clad women took part in a run for peace with soldiers near the main army base.
“We are just at the starting point of a long journey to lasting peace, let’s join hands together,” Macusang said.
Mindanao, the birthplace of Islam in the Philippines, is home to more than 5 million Muslims.
Muslims make up nearly 8 percent of the total populace in the Philippines, which Islam reached in the 13th century about 200 years before Christianity.
Heart touching.
From Thai Life Insurance (Thailand)
Al Ghazali wrote the “Nasihat al-Muluk” or “Advice for Kings” to a Seljuq Sultan in which he gave ten different ethics of royal administration:
Today is 3rd Ramadan and some of us already used to fasting. One of the purpose of fasting is to remember the poor and hunger. To feel their hunger, to feel their suffering, to feel their hard life.
By doing that, we hope, we can be more generous and patient to poor people, especially us who have money.
We just fasting from dawn to night. Look at them who fasting everyday and every time. They do not know when they can eat.
We should remember them more in this holy month of Ramadan.
Photo Source : Google Image
