Islamic terrorists target Hindu temples in Malaysia

Security stepped up

Temples in Penang, Batu Caves on alert following threat
Jun 19, 2010

KUALA LUMPUR – Temples in Penang and Batu Caves will step up security following the threat by a group of alleged terrorists to blow up two places of worship.

The Sri Subramaniar Swamy Devasthanam temple, also known as Batu Caves Temple (picture), is a prominent religious site for Hindus around the world.

Temple chairman R Nadarajah said their 24-member temple committee would meet to discuss additional security, reported The Star. “I was shocked after reading about the threat. I knew it was Batu Caves after reading it,” he said.

Mr Nadarajah plans to request more police presence near the temple grounds. He said they might even consider screening people entering the site. “We will also install CCTVs within the perimeters of the temple and have more security guards to carry out patrols,” he said.

In Georgetown, the body managing the Kek Lok Si Temple urged police to set up a beat base at the entrance to the temple and other famous places of worship in Penang.

The managing trustee of the Nattukotai Chettiar Temple Trustees, Mr N Ramanathan, also said they would tighten security at the four temples under their purview.

Nine foreigners and a Malaysian who were arrested for alleged terrorist activity early this year were reportedly planning to blow up two places of worship because they felt that the government was not doing enough to uphold Islam.

The New Straits Times reported earlier this week that the group was led by a Syrian scholar with suspected ties to Al Qaeda. He held weekly Islamic classes at a home near Kuala Lumpur and allegedly tried to recruit members for Al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah in Malaysian universities.

Police sources said the group had also spread its tentacles into mosques and several non-government organisations. Agencies

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

Use of Allah word: Don’t play with fire and challenge the Muslims

Feb 2, 2009
Clash over use of ‘Allah’

Tan Sri Bernard Dompok says the word ‘Allah’ is widely used in Indonesia and also in Arab countries by Christians. — ST FILE PHOTO

KUALA LUMPUR: Two Malaysian Cabinet members are at odds over the use of the word ‘Allah’ by a Catholic publication.
The issue is now before the High Court with the Catholic Church seeking a ruling on the right to continue using the word.

Tan Sri Bernard Dompok, leader of the Upko political party in Sabah and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, said the terminology is widely used in Indonesia and also in Arab countries by Christians.

‘So it is a universal terminology used in the Christian world when they are praying in their vernacular language. There is no reason for the Home Ministry to continue harassing the Catholic Herald,’ The Malaysian Insider reported him as saying.

His Cabinet colleague, Datuk Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, hit back at him last Saturday when he told Mingguan Malaysia: ‘There are some non-Muslim leaders who are asking that permission be granted so that the word ‘Allah’ can be used, using Indonesia as an example.

‘This is Malaysia. Do not equate us with another country. We are an Islamic country as stated in the Constitution,’ he said, adding that there was a hidden agenda to use the word ‘Allah’ in the Herald, the Catholic publication.

In raising this issue, Mr Ahmad Zahid said a small group of non-Muslim leaders was trying to question the position of Islam in Malaysia.

Islam is the official religion under the Federal Constitution while the right of non-Muslims to worship is also protected.

‘Don’t play with fire and challenge the Muslims. We are willing to do anything to protect our religion,’ he warned.

Muslims have long feared that Christian groups are bent on preaching and converting followers of Islam. They see the use of the word ‘Allah’ as a subtle way of spreading Christianity to Muslims – a charge church leaders have dismissed.

The ‘Allah’ issue could have an impact on a by-election in Pensiangan, Sabah, which is likely to be called when a court rules on election irregularities soon.

Mr Dompok represents the Kadazandusun community in Sabah, many of whom are Christians.

Muslim passenger from Pakistan abuses Hindu in Malaysian Airlines flight:- ‘She’s a Hindu, I cannot sit beside her

orror flight on board MH161

Radhika Iyer-O’Sullivan | Jan 20, 09 3:55pm
I am a Malaysian currently residing and working in Dubai. On Dec 25, 2008, I flew with Malaysian Airlines flight MH161 to Kuala Lumpur to visit my parents. I was in seat 36H (an aisle seat) and the seat next to me, 36K (window seat) was vacant. The flight stopped over at Karachi for an hour.

In Karachi, more passengers boarded the plane. One male passenger boarded, showed his boarding pass to a stewardess and she pointed to seat beside me (36K). The man looked at me and said, ‘She’s a Hindu, I cannot sit beside her.’ The stewardess responded, ‘So what? What’s wrong with Hindu?’ The man then began to yell and shout that he would not sit next to a Hindu.

The crew insisted that he had to because there were no other seats available because the plane was full. Then this passenger sat down but began to verbally abuse my faith and the crew members. I sat in my seat but was physically cringing away from him. The flight supervisor was summoned and until then the man was still seated next to me. Imagine my shock, horror and fear in being next to a hostile, abusive person.

One steward did stand next to me but did not offer any help and I did not feel safe or reassured. I reached out and told that steward that I did not feel safe anymore. I said this to him softly in English and he told me to sit and wait. He then walked off and a female crew member took his place. All this time I was under the impression that this hostile passenger beside me was a Pakistani.

I then told the stewardess in Malay that this man should not be seated beside me after what he had said about me. There were other Malaysian passengers sitting in the same area and all of them heard me. She smiled and merely nodded.

Finally, the flight supervisor, ‘SB’, approached the passenger and after an angry exchange, the passenger said, ‘Move her then!’ and SB replied, ‘Yes, we will move her’. More angry words were exchanged and it was revealed that the passenger was actually a Malaysian. When this news was revealed, the passenger actually stood up with his fists up, ready to be physically violent. I was then hauled out of my seat and taken to the back of the plane. I was kept in the kitchen.

By this time I had gone into shock and was crying uncontrollably. I was shaking with rage because I was in a position where there was nothing I could do to defend myself. No one else seemed to be doing anything too.

I could not see what was happening from the rear of the plane but I did see uniformed security personnel approaching my original seat. I could not hear or make out what was happening as there was a group of people standing around my original seat. Eventually, the group left and it was announced that the plane would be taking off.

All this time I was in the kitchen, shaking and crying. All that was done for me was crew members taking turns to ask me if I was okay and offering me Coke and water! The plane began to taxi and I was then taken to another seat (42H). As I sat down, I asked the steward, ‘Is he off the plane?’ and the answer was, ‘No.’ I was appalled.

After the plane took off, the flight supervisor, SB, came and sat beside me. He explained to me that they could not put him off the plane because he was a deportee and if they had insisted on putting him off, then the plane would not have been cleared for take off. I was still crying at this point. I asked, ‘Why am I in a different seat? He should be!’ but my question was not answered.

The plane was not full. There were eight seats vacant in the rear, four on the right aisle and four seats on the left. Seat 42H, where I was put, was one of those vacant seats in the rear. If the MAS crew knew there was a deportee boarding, should they not have made arrangements to place him at the rear of the plane? What kind of airline policy allows a deportee to sit beside a female passenger travelling alone?

I spent the next five and a half hours on the flight in tears. I was not able to sleep because I knew that a hostile passenger was only six rows down from me. I was not afraid but in rage. My friends who are reading this would know the kind of person I am. I have always stood up for my rights and for the rights of people whom I love. I would not usually tolerate such abuse and I would not have hesitated in defending myself.

What stopped me was knowing that I was on a plane, in a confined space and that there were other passengers around me too, women and children. The abusive passenger was not removed from the plane and when we landed at KLIA, he disembarked like a normal passenger and was not escorted or arrested. I also disembarked knowing that I was now in the same terminal, on my own, as this hostile passenger.

I am very disappointed with the way MAS dealt with the incident. That passenger should have been taken to the rear of the plane and restrained. I was the victim of the incident yet I lost my chosen seat that I had paid for. Apart from offers of water, Coke and some verbal reassurances, the crew did not do anything else for me.

I have contacted other major airlines and this is how they would have dealt with the matter: I would have been moved to Business/First Class and I would have been escorted into the terminal until I safely exited the airport. MAS did not do anything for me. First of all, they jeopardised my safety and well-being by forcing the passenger to sit beside me knowing that he was hostile towards me and then they did nothing else to keep me safe.

I was in the same cabin as that passenger, wondering if he was going to walk by or pass me. I spent the entire five and a half hours in tears because I could not stand up for my rights and also because I had to keep my own rage pent-up.

Once I landed, I rang my husband in Dubai and related the events to him. He took immediate steps to contact MAS but to no avail. I stayed for one week in Malaysia and every single day, I tried to call their Customer Complaints Department. All I got was a voice mail. I left numerous messages but no one called me back. No one contacted my husband in Dubai. It is only after he put it up on the MAS blog that we have received some kind of response. Fourteen days after the incident, someone from MAS called me to offer an apology.

My husband also received an email from someone who has offered me 25 percent discount on a return flight from KL to Dubai and actually referred to that abusive passenger as a ‘fellow customer’! She also clearly stated that measures taken were to prevent that passenger from getting angrier. So in other words, they do admit that.

These are the questions I posed to MAS:

Why force a passenger who is racially abusive and hostile to my appearance and faith to sit beside me? There were other seats available at the rear as I discovered later.This was not a passenger who was merely fussing about his seat, this was a passenger who was potentially a threat to another passenger.

Why did the flight supervisor immediately give in to his demands and agree to move me? I was not the passenger causing trouble.

Upon retrospect, I think I was lied to. I do not think the passenger was a deportee. It was a lie told to me to keep him on the plane and keep me quiet. If a lie was told, that means that the crew took measures to protect the hostile passenger and themselves but not me, the victim. If so, then the MAS crew perpetuated the racism and discrimination initiated by the passenger.

If this is the case, then the entire crew participated in jeopardising my safety and appropriate action should be taken against them. If the passenger was truly a deportee or an INA (inadmissible because of visa) then the plane captain should have documents about him. If a deportee or INA caused trouble on a flight, the captain should have been informed immediately.

Why was the captain not informed and if he was, why did he not come to see me? I have been informed that KLIA security had been called but there was no one waiting when the plane landed. The abusive passenger disembarked like any other normal passenger. Why was he not nabbed or restrained? Why did not the crew ensure my safety in the terminal too?

I am demanding a formal, written apology from Malaysian Airlines. I want a truthful, reasonable explanation for all the five points I have listed above. I want some compensation for what I suffered. So far, I have only received an e-mail informing that the matter is under investigation.

Horror flight: MAS regrets incident

Disappointing response from MAS

Pakistani terrorists using Malaysia as transit point for fake rupees

NST Online
Pakistani terrorists using Malaysia as transit point for fake rupees
Balan Moses reporting from Chennai

PAKISTANI terrorists are using Malaysia as a transit point for the movement of counterfeit Indian rupees into India to destabilise the country.

Indian Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis senior researcher Brigadier S.K. Saini said the transfer of fake notes had been going on for some time but had worsened in the last five years.

“The latest incident occurred in October last year when Indian authorities intercepted a large consignment of fake Indian rupees en route from Malaysia to India.”

He declined to state the exact amount involved but said the overall figure from Malaysia and other countries ran into billions of rupees.

Saini said the movement of counterfeit currency continued unchecked despite concerted efforts by Indian and Malaysian authorities.

“The Pakistani elements behind this racket are doing this to create confusion and destabilise India,” he told the New Straits Times.

It is understood that counterfeit rupees are also being smuggled into India from Nepal and Bangladesh.

Saini said the Pakistanis behind the activity were engaging in “economic terrorism” by undermining the buoyant Indian economy.

He said Pakistani terrorists who used to smuggle the counterfeit notes across the Pakistan-India border had stopped doing so because of tighter border controls.

He said the notes were printed in Pakistan, which had equipment to produce high quality fake currency.

Saini said the terrorists’ objective were two-pronged — to undermine the Indian fiscal sector and set up legitimate companies and businesses to fund their terrorist activities in India. He said the fake notes were of such high quality that even experts in India could not tell them apart.

“We are working with the Malaysian authorities on a more concerted basis to put an end to this illegal activity.”

On why Malaysia had been chosen for this activity, he said it was because of the huge number of people travelling between Malaysia and India.

“Malaysia was on our intelligence radar well before the Nov 26 attack by Pakistani terrorist in Mumbai. We are continuing to monitor Malaysia in terms of it being used as transit point for Pakistani terrorists.”

So called moderate Malaysia bans yoga for Muslims, citing corrupting Hindu influence

Yoga forbidden for Muslims in Malaysia: official
22 hours ago

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) — Muslims in Malaysia should not practice yoga because it will erode their faith in Islam, a senior Islamic cleric said Saturday.

“Yoga is forbidden for Muslims. The practice will erode their faith in the religion,” Abdul Shukor Husin, chairman of the government-backed National Fatwa Council, told reporters.

“We advice Muslims not to practice yoga. It does not conform with Islam,” he said in response to a call to ban Muslims from doing yoga.

Islam is the official religion of Malaysia, where more than 60 percent of the population of 27 million are Muslim Malays who practice a conservative brand of the religion.

Yoga, an ancient Indian aid to meditation dating back thousands of years, is a popular stress-buster in Kuala Lumpur.

Zakaria Stapa, a professor at the Islamic faculty of the National University of Malaysia, recently called on Muslims to stop doing yoga as it could cause them to “deviate from their faith”.

Abdul Shukor said yoga involved physical and religious elements of Hinduism including the recitation of mantras.

He could not say how many Muslims were practising yoga but called on state authorities to punish those who do.

The fatwa council, one of Malaysia’s highest Islamic bodies, recently banned women from dressing or behaving like men and engaging in lesbian sex, saying it was forbidden by the religion.
Malaysian Islamic body bans yoga for Muslims
By VIJAY JOSHI –

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysia’s top Islamic body fresh from banning tomboys issued an edict Saturday that prohibits Muslims from practicing yoga, saying that elements of Hinduism in the ancient Indian exercise could corrupt them.

The National Fatwa Council’s chairman, Abdul Shukor Husin, said many Muslims fail to understand that yoga’s ultimate aim is to be one with a god of a different religion — an explanation disputed by many practitioners who say yoga need not have a religious element.

“We are of the view that yoga, which originates from Hinduism, combines physical exercise, religious elements, chanting and worshipping for the purpose of achieving inner peace and ultimately to be one with god,” Abdul Shukor said.

News of the yoga ban prompted activist Marina Mahathir to wonder what the council will ban next: “What next? Gyms? Most gyms have men and women together. Will that not be allowed any more?”

The edict reflects the growing influence of conservative Islam in Malaysia, a multiethnic country of 27 million people where the majority Muslim Malays lost seats in March elections and where minority ethnic Chinese and mostly Hindu ethnic Indians have been clamoring for more rights.

Recently, the council said girls who act like boys violate Islam’s tenets. The government has also occasionally made similar conservative moves, banning the use of the word “Allah” by non-Muslims earlier this year, saying it would confuse Muslims.

Analysts say the fatwa could be the result of insecurity among Malay Muslims after their party — in power since 1957 — saw its parliamentary majority greatly reduced in elections because of gains by multiracial opposition parties.

Malay Muslims make up about two-thirds of the country’s 27 million people. About 25 percent of the population is ethnic Chinese and 8 percent is ethnic Indian, most of whom are Hindu.

“They are making a stand. They are saying ‘we will not give way,'” said Ooi Kee Beng, a fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.

Decisions by Malaysia’s Fatwa Council are not legally binding on the country’s Muslims, however, unless they also become enshrined in national or Shariah laws. But many Muslims abide by the edicts out of deference, but some, like Putri Rahim, plan not to follow the latest fatwa.

“I am mad! Maybe they have it in mind that Islam is under threat. To come out with a fatwa is an insult to intelligent Muslims. It’s an insult to my belief,” said Putri, a Muslim who has practiced yoga for 10 years.

In recent years, yoga — a collection of spiritual and physical practices, aimed at integrating mind, body and spirit — has been increasingly practiced in gyms and dedicated yoga centers around the world.

There are no figures for how many Muslims practice yoga in Malaysia, but many yoga classes have Muslims attending.

In the United States, where it has become so popular that many public schools began offering it in gym classes, yoga has also come under fire.

Some Christian fundamentalists and even secular parents have argued that yoga’s Hindu roots conflict with Christian teachings and that using it in school might violate the separation of church and state. Egypt’s highest theological body also banned yoga for Muslims in 2004.

Yoga drew the attention of the Fatwa Council last month when an Islamic scholar said that it was un-Islamic.

A top yoga practitioner in India, Mani Chaitanya, said the Malaysian clerics seem to have “misunderstood the whole thing.” Chanting during yoga is to calm the mind and “elevate our consciousness,” said Chaitanya, the director of the Sivananda Ashram in New Delhi.

“It is not worship. It’s not religious at all. Yoga is universal. All religions can practice yoga. You can practice yoga and still be a good Christian or a good Muslim,” he said.

Malaysian yoga teacher Suleiha Merican, 56, who has been practicing yoga for 40 years, also denied there is any Hindu spiritual element to it. “It’s a great health science that is scientifically proven and many countries have accepted it” as alternative therapy, said Merican, a Muslim.

Associated Press writer Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur and Muneeza Naqvi in New Delhi contributed to this report.

After fatwa on tomboys, Malaysia Muslim body targets yoga

After trousers, Malaysia Muslim body targets yoga
Wed Oct 29, 2008
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters Life!) – Not content with banning women from wearing trousers, Malaysia’s top Islamic council now wants a ban on yoga, according to a report on state news agency Bernama.

The National Fatwa Council’s Deputy Director-General Othman Mustapha told reporters after a seminar on Islamic jurisprudence on Thursday that the announcement would be made soon.

Professor Zakaria Stapa of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s Islamic Studies Centre told the seminar on Wednesday that Muslims who had taken up yoga should stop practising as it could damage their faith, Bernama said.

Last week the Fatwa Council decreed that tomboyish behaviour by girls, including wearing trousers, was immoral as it may lead to the practise of lesbian sex.

Gay sex is prohibited in this country of 27 million people where over half of the population is Muslim.

2008/10/30
Fatwa on yoga to be made known
By : Melissa Darlyne Chow

GEORGE TOWN: The National Fatwa Council will soon announce its stand on Muslims practising yoga, Department of Islamic Development Malaysia said.

Deputy director-general of operations Othman Mustapha, however, declined to reveal the details when approached after opening a seminar on “Fiqh and Sustainable Islamic Thinking” at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) here yesterday.

It is learnt that the matter had been discussed at the council’s meeting in Kota Baru recently.

Othman was asked to comment on a statement by Professor Zakaria Stapa of the Faculty of Islamic Studies in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, who stated that yoga’s origins could be traced back to Hinduism.

On Tuesday, Zakaria called on Muslims not to take up yoga and asked those already doing so to stop practising its art of meditation. He said practising yoga could cause Muslims to deviate from the teachings of Islam.

“I do not understand why Muslims would want to practise yoga for the purpose of finding serenity when Islam, through its teachings, enables its followers to do just that.

“Muslims should just practise what Islam has taught them,” he said after giving a lecture entitled “False Islamic Teachings in Malaysia”.

Malaysia Muslim body issues fatwa against tomboys
Fri Oct 24, 2008
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters Life!) – Malaysia’s top Islamic council has decreed that tomboyish behavior and lesbian sex are forbidden in Islam, a newspaper said on Friday.

The National Fatwa Council issued the edict following what it said a spate of cases involving young women behaving like men and indulging in lesbian sex, the Malay language Berita Harian daily said.

“There are teenage girls who prefer the male lifestyle including dressing up in men’s clothes,” it quoted council chairman Abdul Shukor Husin as saying. “More worryingly, they have started to engage in sexual activities.”

He gave no other details.

Mainly Muslim Malaysia frowns on oral and gay sex, describing them as against the order of nature. Under the civil law, offenders — both males or females — can be jailed for up to 20 years, caned or fined.

Just over half of Malaysia’s 27 million people are Malay Muslims, practicing the moderate brand of Islam.

(Reporting by Jalil Hamid’ Editing by David Fox)

Islamic Malaysia Bans Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf)

Photo of temple demolition in Malaysia here and here

Malaysia bans Hindraf; Indians cry foul
Jaishree Balasubramaniam
October 16, 2008 08:59 IST

The Malaysian Government has banned the non-governmental Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), branding it as a threat to national security.

Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar on Wednesday issued a statement declaring Hindraf, which has been advocating ethnic Indian rights since late last year for the minority community, an illegal organisation.

He said the government move followed the result of monitoring and investigations by the country’s Registrar of Societies (RoS) since Hindraf was formed.

“As a result of the investigations, the Home Ministry, as per its authority under sections 3 and 5 of the Societies Act 1966, has declared Hindraf unlawful and detrimental to peace, public order, security and the moral values of Malaysia,” he said in the statement.

Albar accused the Hindraf of exploiting “racial issues which caused an uprising against the government and created hatred between them and the Malays. I feel that if we don’t rein in their activities, they will continue to jeopardize security and public order, our country’s sovereignty, as well as upset the harmony among races.”

Hindraf came into international focus after it organized a massive rally on November 25 last year to protest alleged marginalisation of the ethnic Indian minority in this country.

More than 20,000 people attended the rally, which was branded as illegal by the government. The large participation took the Abdullah Badawi government by shock. A large section of the ethnic Indians supported the Hindraf as they felt that the Malaysian Indian Congress, led by Samy Vellu, had done little to uplift the community over the past several decades.

Syed Hamid said the decision to ban the movement was not made based on only one or two misdemeanours committed by Hindraf, but covered the entire gamut of activities the group had been involved in since its inception.

“Hindraf submitted a registration application to the RoS on October 16 last year. The application had not been approved, but it went ahead and organised several public gatherings and demonstrations without a permit,” he said.

“Considering all the facts and evidence we have, I am satisfied that Hindraf was and is being used in a manner detrimental to public order and national security,” New Straits Times quoted him as saying today.

An opposition MP has called the government’s decision to ban Hindraf as ridiculous and uncalled for, adding that he would move an emergency motion asking for an open debate in Parliament on Thursday.

“This is against the interest and aspirations of the Indian community that is seeking a more tolerant and fair government,” M Kulasegaran said, adding that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had agreed to hold a dialogue with Hindraf leaders but “nothing was done”.

Hindraf national coordinator, R S Thanenthiran said the ban was unfair as they had not committed any crime or broken any laws, adding that Syed Hamid could have done this in retaliation to the police reports Hindraf supporters lodged against him.

Thanenthiran said Hindraf chairman P Waythamoorthy, who is in self-exile in Britain, had instructed coordinators to wait for a day before making further statements.

Coalition of Indian NGOs secretary-general Gunaraj George said that by banning Hindraf, Syed Hamid had rendered the Indian community voiceless, but said it would not dampen the spirit of its supporters.

“I know that their struggle will go on especially to free all those detained under the Internal Security Act,” Star newspaper quoted him as saying. End

Background of Hindraf —

Hindu group protests ‘temple cleansing’ in Malaysia

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Posted online: Tuesday, May 23, 2006 at 1404 hours IST

KUALA LUMPUR, MAY 23: A Hindu rights group charged that there appeared to be an ‘unofficial policy of Hindu temple cleansing’ in Malaysia after eight worship places were torn down or given demolition notices in three months.
The Hindu Rights Action Force, a coalition of 50 Hindu-based NGOs, urged Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to halt what it called local councils’ ‘indiscriminate and unlawful’ demolition of Hindu temples.

Ethnic Indians, mostly Hindus, make up about 8 per cent of Malaysia’s 26 million people. Many of them still earn a living tapping rubber and doing menial labor, and have minimal participation in the corporate sector.

The community lags economically and politically behind ethnic Malays, who comprise about 60 per cent of the population, and Chinese, who make up about a quarter.

Since February, three Hindu temples have been knocked down, while one has been partly destroyed and threatened with further destruction, and two have been served demolition notices-mostly in the Malaysia’s biggest city, city Kuala Lumpur and neighbouring Selangor state-said group chairman P. Waytha Moorthy.

“There seems to be an unofficial policy of Hindu temple cleansing in Malaysia. The reason given was that the temples are illegally occupying land, but demolishing places of worship is unlawful under our penal code,” Moorthy said.

“The Indians are very angry. If the local authorities keep on demolishing temples, it will incite racial hatred and we are worried that the community will turn violent,” he warned.

In the latest incident, Moorthy said Kuala Lumpur City Hall officials with firearms and riot gear on May 11 forcefully demolished part of a 60-year-old suburban temple that serves more than 1,000 low-income devotees.

Kuala Lumpur City Hall officials are not immediately available for comment.

Another 150-year-old temple in southern Negeri Sembilan state has also been served a demolition notice, but the temple committee is fighting the case in court, he said.

“These state atrocities are committed against the most underprivileged and powerless sector of the Hindu society in Malaysia. We appeal that this Hindu temple and all other Hindu temples in Malaysia are not indiscriminately and unlawfully demolished,” Moorthy said.

The coalition, which has sent appeal letters to the Prime Minister, urged the government to set aside the affected land as Hindu temple reserves, and ensure that alternative sites and compensation are given to help Hindu temples relocate if necessary.

Human Rights Forum Highlights Hindu Minority Plight

Human Rights Forum Highlights Hindu Minority Plight 
By ASHFAQUE SWAPAN
Special to India-West

MILPITAS, Calif. — Three activists drew horrific pictures of the predicament of Hindu minorities, sometimes backed by poignant video presentations, in far-flung parts of the world at the Hindu Human Rights Forum hosted at the Vaishnav Mandir here July 20. Hosted by the Hindu American Foundation, speakers talked about the plight of Hindus in Kashmir, Malaysia and Fiji. HAF also presented its recently released fourth annual human rights report, “Hindus in South Asia and the Diaspora.”

The plight of evicted Kashmiri Pandits, and Hindus in Fiji and Malaysia was highlighted by impassioned presentations by Jeevan Zutshi, a Bay Area community activist and Kashmiri Pandit himself; southern California-based engineer and Malaysian Tamil human rights activist Bhuvan Govindasamy; and San Francisco Bay Area-based attorney of Fiji Indian descent Sadhana D. Narayan.

The statistics are staggering: An estimated 350,000 Kashmiri Pandits have been hounded out of their homeland in the Kashmir valley; and Malaysia’s egregious discriminatory policies have resulted in a drop of Indian-descent student enrollment in Malaysian universities from 20 percent in 1957 to just five percent in 2003. In Fiji, harassment and discrimination has led to an exodus of Fiji Indians: From around half the population in the 1970s, the Fiji Indian population has dropped to 38 percent in 2004.

To be sure, only in Kashmir can it be argued that Pandits have been targeted because of their religion. In Malaysia and Fiji, Hindus have been part of a broader, xenophobic attack against immigrants. Malaysia’s decades-long troubled race relations led to Singapore leaving the Malay federation and a Chinese guerilla insurgency, while in Fiji, the plight of Hindus has been driven by the schism between indigenous Fijians and Indians who immigrated in the 19th century, a point made by Narayan.

“The civil rights issues in Fiji do not boil down to a Hindu-Muslim type of conflict,” she said. “The Hindus and the Muslims in Fiji live in peace, and live in harmony.

“The conflicts that we have as Hindus in Fiji relates more to the fact that ethnic Indians, primarily Hindu, have been discriminated against in the last 10-20 years or so as a result of the ethnic Fijians and their actions. . . If anything, the Muslim community has suffered with us.”

Zutshi’s presentation was augmented by the screening of a documentary film on the plight of the Kashmiri Pandits by Ashok Pandit, which presented poignant images of destitute Pandits in refugee camps and distraught women talking about the murder of their husbands by Islamists.

Zutshi refused to recognize the anti-Indian movement in Kashmir as the freedom movement that its supporters claim it is. He said it was an Islamist insurgency fueled by Pakistan. “The Islamic colonization of Kashmir has been supported by Islamic terrorists and fundamentalists who committed crimes of genocide against the community of Kashmiri Hindus in Kashmir. . . (including) targeted attacks on Sikh community,” he said.

He was scathing in his condemnation of the Indian government’s role. “Unfortunately, Indian leaders have been romancing with the Islamists, anti-Hindus and anti Indians,” he said. “So much so that the self-confessed killers and anti-nationalists, they have been wandering scot-free in the streets of Kashmir. . . The government of India has established two standards of justice. One for Indians, one for Kashmiri Muslims.”

The U.S. role had been equally egregious, Zutshi said. “The (George W.) Bush administration has been cozying up to the Taliban regime in the same way . . . (as) the earlier administration of President (Bill) Clinton.,” he said. “Thousands of Kashmiris Hindus have been murdered . . . Hindus are suffering, and the government is silent.”

He said the recent violent protests in the Kashmir valley against leasing of forest land to the Amarnath temple was a “sad and painful portrayal of the exclusivist and illogical mindset that rules the roost in Kashmir.”

“The government’s approach towards this issue is reflective of its subjugation to the Islamic diktats which . . . cannot be accepted,” he said.

Govindasamy painted a grim picture of the plight of Hindus in Malaysia. “From 1957 what was a trickle of removal of rights became, under the rule of Dr. Mahathir Mohammed, a torrent, a waterfall,” he said.

“What was a trickle of temple demolitions about 25 years ago, has now grown, and till now, 15,000 Hindu temples have been demolished.

“They have taken away our economic rights, they have deprived us in education,” he said. “They cannot even leave our religion to us.”

Five Indian leaders have been unlawfully incarcerated, he added.

In 50 years, the Malaysian government has turned the Malaysian Indian society into the underclass, Govindasamy charged.

“Hindus are an endangered species in Malaysia,” he said. “If this goes on for the next five to 10 years, there will be no more Hindus. All will either have left, or will have forcibly converted to Islam.”

Although Fiji Indians had gone through a difficult time, there was a glimmer of hope, Narayan said. Ironically, following a coup in 2006, things are looking up. Narayan made it clear that although she applauded the positive developments, she in no way endorsed the military coup.

“Currently, we are in the process of trying to have another constitution put in place which essentially would go back to the original constitution . . . which would allow race neutral policies,” she said.

A rise in indigenous nationalist fervor and four coups in 20 years, including the toppling of democratically elected Fiji Indian Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, had exacerbated the plight of Fiji Indians, Narayan told the audience. “We were put in a position where all of a sudden we were interlopers and we did not belong,” she said.

“Fiji Indians were . . . essentially told to leave,” Narayan said. Temples have been attacked repeatedly, she said.

“The second thing they did was to make people homeless. . . Individuals who had lived on the same land for three generations were forced to leave their lands and tear down their homes and go away. Now where would they go?,” she asked.

“So we have squatter camps that have developed around Fiji.”

There are now huge squatter camps in the Fiji cities of Suva and Ba, and Amnesty International estimates that 12 percent of Fiji Indians live in squatter camps.

The worst part was a lack of security, Narayan said. “In Fiji if you are Fiji Indian and a Fijian came and robbed your home, nobody would come,” she complained. “Nobody would come to assist you. . . If you have no personal safety or security in your own home, you start feeling very frightened.”

Consequently, Fiji Indians left the country in droves, and now Fiji faces an economic crisis.

Former Fiji Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, who is now Fiji’s finance minister, has told Narayan that the nation is bankrupt.

“The exclusionary policy of the last 20 years of keeping out Indians, making them feel not wanted, has eventually helped to destroy the economy of Fiji,” she said. “And he was asking Indians to come home.”

The government is promising lease restoration of land and possible government payment. “Understandably, a lot of Fiji Indians are not interested in coming back,” Narayan said. The government is promising 30-year leases on land with automatic 20-year renewals. “It’s a situation where the government may end up having to rebuild the homes of the Fiji Indians and that’s something that we are hopeful will end up happening,” Narayan said.
:by indiawest

Indian Muslims in Malaysia want to be called Malays

Indian Muslims in Malaysia want to be called Malays
March 03, 2008, Indian Express

Kuala Lumpur, March 3: A section of the ethnic Indian Muslim community living in Malaysia want to be known as Malays rather than Indians and have petitioned the government to streamline the laws accordingly.
Members of the Malaysian Indian Muslim Youth Movement (Gepima) want to be known as Malays and not Indians since the the country’s constitution states that an Indian is a Malay “if he professes the Muslim religion, habitually speaks Malay and conforms to Malay custom”.

“I am a second generation Malaysian and I can safely say that from wedding rituals to the food we eat and the language we speak, we conform to Malay customs all the way,” said Gepima president Mohamed Kader Ali.

He said since these traits are widely practised by Muslims of Indian origin today, “Gepima is appealing to the government to streamline the laws and recognise Muslims born after independence as Malays in their birth certificate.”

“We have written several letters to the National Registration Department but it keeps saying that it can’t do anything about this,” Ali was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times online. “We have been facing this problem for the past 50 years.”

Ethnic Indians in Malaysia are mostly Hindus with origin from Tamil Nadu. They have become increasingly vocal with claims that they are marginalised in this multi-racial country.

Syed Osman Mohamed, Ali’s 24-year-old son, said we “feel uncomfortable to be known as Indians, because people automatically think we are Hindus when we are actually

Muslim.”

Ali said our children do not even know how to speak Tamil. “They only converse in Malay and our wives wear baju kurung or kebaya nowadays, no more the saree,” he said.