Muslim residents protest against Hindu temple in Malaysia, severe cow head, stamp and spit on it

“Before dispersing, several protesters spat and stomped on the cow head. The cow is considered sacred among Hindus.”

Some 50 residents enraged with the proposed relocation of a Hindu temple to their area staged a noisy protest with a severed cow’s head this afternoon.

The residents – from Section 23 in Shah Alam – who gathered after the Friday prayers, placed the head outside the gates of the state secretariat building for a short period before removing it.

Before dispersing, several protesters spat and stomped on the cow head. The cow is considered sacred among Hindus.  malaysiakini.com

For video, click here: Residents march with cow’s head

For photos,  click here Protesters threaten bloodshed over Hindu temple

Cow killed in Malaysian temple row
Venkatesan Vembu / DNA  August 28, 2009

Hong Kong: Muslim fanatics in Malaysia on Friday severed a cow’s head and warned of “bloodshed” unless a provincial government halted construction of a relocated Hindu temple that the protesters said “disturbed” their own praying.

The group of about 50 protesters left the cow’s head outside the entrance of the Selangor State Secretariat as a warning to local leaders, eyewitnesses told DNA.

The group gathered after Friday prayers at the Shah Alam state mosque in Selangor, near Kuala Lumpur, and marched to the secretariat. Ibrahim Haji Sabri, deputy chairman of the local resident’s committee that is opposed to the Maha Mariamman temple, warned of “bloodshed and racial tension” if local leaders did not halt the temple construction.

Sabri demanded that the state government relocate the temple to a neighbouring district as “as originally scheduled”. In particular, he branded Selangor minister Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim a “traitor to the Malay race and to Islam”. Ibrahim had visited the temple site on Thursday, one of the eyewitnesses told DNA.

The controversy began with the proposed relocation of a 150-year-old Mariamman temple in a plantation area in Section 19 neighbourhood; since that area is being redeveloped as a residential area, authorities proposed that it be relocated to Section 22, but since it was an industrial area, it was later assigned to Section 23.

The protest could whip up racial and religious tension, and PM Najib Razak has ordered the police to take action against the protesters. Malaysian Indian Congress president S Samy Vellu, who represents Indian interests in the ruling coalition at the centre, condemned the beheading of the cow.

Malaysian Muslim ‘cow head’ demo criticised
(AFP) – 5 hours ago

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysian lawmakers have condemned a group of Muslim protesters who trampled on a severed cow’s head in protest at the building of a Hindu temple, and remained defiant on Sunday over the act.

In the latest religious dispute to erupt in multi-cultural Malaysia, local media said 50 Muslims on Friday took the head of the cow — a sacred animal for Hindus — to the central Selangor state government office and stamped on it.

The protest was against the relocation of a Hindu temple to a Muslim-majority neighbourhood in the state. News websites Malaysiakini and The Malaysian Insider published pictures of the bloodied cow head.

Around 60 percent of Malaysia’s 27 million people are Muslim Malays, but the country is also home to large Chinese and Indian minorities, variously practising Buddhism, Christianity and Hinduism, among others.

Lawmaker Khairy Jamaluddin, leader of the youth wing of the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), criticised the protest as “emotional and insulting”.

“(This) act did not consider the sensitivity and respect for other religions which is needed to maintain the country’s harmony,” he wrote on his blog.

“The act definitely will anger the Hindus and Malaysians,” Khairy added.

Veteran opposition legislator Lim Kit Siang said the act was “deplorable”.

“In a multi-religious society, the act of sacrilege to one religion must be regarded as an act of sacrilege to all other religions and the entire nation,” Lim said.

State police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said the protesters will be investigated for sedition, according to English daily Sunday Star, but the demonstration organiser told AFP they would not apologise and rejected responsibility for the incident.

“There is no point in us apologising as it was not our work. The cow head was brought in by an individual and we don’t know that person,” Mahyuddin Manaf, who led the group of local residents, said.

“Maybe that was just a way of expressing the anger. We just want the Hindu temple to be relocated to another area as this is a Muslim-majority area,” he told AFP.

Issues related to religion, language and race are sensitive matters in multi-racial Malaysia, which witnessed deadly riots in 1969.

A comprehensive report is available in this blog

Mali Muslims Protest Increased Rights for Women

Mali Muslims Protest Increased Rights for Women
By Anne Look
Dakar, 26 August 2009

The adoption of a new family code aimed at gender equality in Mali has sparked protests and threats of violence.

Some 50,000 people demonstrate in Bamako to protest legislation that would boost women’s rights in Mali, 22 Aug 2009
Tens of thousands of Malians have protested since the National Assembly adopted a controversial new family code in early August. The country now waits to see if President Amadou Toumani Toure will sign the code into law, a move that Muslim leaders warn would divide the population and destabilize the country.

The code’s more than 1,100 new articles aim to increase equality between men and women by reforming laws with regards to land ownership, inheritance, education, employment and marriage.

Supporters of the code, more than a decade in the making, have praised it as enhancing the rights of women and girls, who they say have been traditionally viewed as second-class citizens. But Islamic leaders say the new code contains provisions that are direct affronts to the country’s traditional values and religious beliefs. They have vowed to block enforcement of the code, even threatening violence.

The problem at the heart of new code

At the heart of the controversy are changes to marriage laws, including articles that set the legal minimum age for marriage at 18, recognize only civil marriages, allow joint property ownership, expand parental rights, and extend inheritance rights to girls.

Though included in the development of the code, Islamic leaders have said they feel their protests and suggestions were ignored, in favor of external pressure from the international donors, like the European Union.

Islamic Council President Mamoud Dik says they are urging the president to listen to the voice of the people and not sign the code.

He says he and other religious leaders are not against the promotion of women. They are against the provisions of the code that clash with their religious and societal values. He says the religious community participated many times in the development of this code, but each time they had reservations about certain measures. He says he hopes in time they can find a common ground.

Muslims comprise 90 percent of Mali’s 12 million people. Religious and traditional marriages are common, and Amnesty International estimated in 2005 that more than 60 percent of Mali women are married before the age of 18.

Even as women’s groups are applauding the code as a way to combat the forced marriage of young girls and give wives more economic power, other women are opposing it as an attack on traditional values.

Women were among the approximately 50,000 people protesting the code Sunday in Bamako. They held banners that read: “No code which divides Maliens” and “Women should remain women, and men should remain men.”

Khatrine Sylla opposes the code and says it is unrealistic to think that women would consider themselves independent and equal to men.

Sylla says a wife should be submissive. A wife is always dependent on her husband and should take care of her children and her family. Nowadays, women can take on different roles, like a government minister, but that has nothing to do with her duties in the family. She should always take care of her husband and her children.

Supporters: Reform is always hard

Supporters of the code say it is natural for people to resist reform at first. In this case, they say the controversy stems from misinformation and a lack of understanding of the code.

Cisse Oumou Ahmer Traoure is communications advisor for the Ministry for the Promotion of Women, Children and Family.

She says the code is written in French, a language that almost 80 percent of the country’s population does not know how to read or write. The code contains 1,144 articles written in legal language, which has made it difficult to understand.

For example, it has been rumored that in defining marriage as purely secular, the code would legalize same-sex marriage. In reality, though, Traoure says the code defines marriage as a secular union between a man and woman.

Mali’s family code has not been changed since 1962, a year after independence, and Traoure called the new code “a real advancement” that reflects the changes their society has undergone since then.

She says the reality is that women are more financially independent and the rights afforded them under the new code will contribute to family stability and allow them to help support their households.

President Toure is meeting with Islamic leaders before making a decision about the code.

Pak based Islamic terrorist organisations targeting major South Indian cities

30 August 2009
South India on terrorist radar

Pramod Kumar, New Delhi

Aug. 29: The latest inputs with the Central intelligence agencies reveal that big cities in South India are the next targets of Pakistan-based militant organisations.

According to the new intelligence, the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Jaish-e-Mohammad have been assigned the job of setting up the maximum number of sleeper cells in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala.

Talking to this newspaper, a high-ranking official of a Central intelligence agency said, “The inputs reveal that sensitive installations and big cities of South India are the next targets. Pakistani agencies, including the ISI, have assigned this job to the LeT and JeM. There are confirmed reports that they have asked for a large number of sleeper cells in cities like Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Thiruvan-anthapuram and other important places in South India.” “There are several sensitive installations located in South India. The state police forces have been alerted in this regard. Besides, Central security agencies guarding sensitive installations have been alerted. They are already on high alert after the Mumbai terror attacks of 2008,” said the official.

The official added, “Some people from Kerala have been spotted near Poonch and Rajouri districts of Jammu and Kashmir. These two districts are close to the international border. The state police is keeping a close vigil on their activities. Despite repeated efforts by state security forces, the people from Kerala failed to provide satisfactory reasons for their presence in these two border districts of J&K.” Further, the interrogation of some militants in J&K has revealed that their next targets are big cities in South India, said the official.

There are reports that LeT and JeM have started recruiting agents for sleeper cells in South India. While in Kerala and Andhra Pradesh they have already started the process, in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu they are looking for trained hands, said the official.