jelas.info

For all our goofs, we sometimes get some things right.

I thought this a very measured, and above all, extremely learned piece, which analyses the mosque entering controversy from a scholarly perspective.

Take away the hype, and the hate scented hyperbole, and this is what the facts and religious scholarship suggests.

I’ve met Dr. Manuty, and he seemed to me a very kindly gentleman – a man who knew his subject material very well.

On this issue, I remember fondly my time in Aceh, where there I was made very welcome in mosques and suraus.

Pleasant memories….

(In the off chance anyone was wondering, I believe the mosque pictured in the background of this blog is in Terengganu. Isn’t it a gorgeous photo?)

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Isu Bukan Islam Masuk Masjid

Bagaikan menahan lukah di pergentingan, UMNO dan para kuncunya tidak habis-habis menerkam apa jua kesempatan dan isu sebagai modal mempertahan survival politik perkauman mereka. Seperti biasanya, bagaikan jerat sudah mengena, UMNO dan para pendokongnya mengambil kesempatan ke atas tindakan beberapa pemimpin Pakatan Rakyat bukan Islam yang telah memasuki masjid dan surau baru-baru ini. Peristiwa Dr. Xavier Jayakumar berucap di dewan utama sebuah masjid di Taman Sri Andalas, Klang pada Ogos 2009 yang lalu, telahpun hampir dilupakan. Kini tindakan YB Teo Nie Ching (Ahli Parlimen DAP Serdang) masuk ke Surau Al-Huda, Kajang dan YB William Leong (Bendahari PKR, Ahli Parlimen PKR Selayang) masuk ke dalam Masjid At-Taqwa, Selayang Baru pula dijadikan isu besar.

Untuk menjelaskan pendirian kami mengenai isu ini, kami ingin membawa perhatian semua pihak kedudukan perkara ini dari perspektif fiqh (hokum Hakam Islam). Sekurang-kurangnya ada empat pandangan mengenai masalah ini. Pertamanya: Mazhab Hanafi yang membenarkan bukan Islam memasuki semua masjid. Keduanya: Mazhab Syafie yang membenarkan masuk kesemua masjid melainkan masjid Haram dan kawasan tanah haram Makkah. Ketiganya: Mazhab Hanbali yang membenarkan untuk memasuki masjidil haram dan lainnya setelah mendapat kebenaran dari umat Islam atas tujuan-tujuan yang munasabah. Akhirnya, Mazhab Maliki yang tidak membenarkan memasuki semua masjid melainkan kerana darurat kerja.

Beberapa peristiwa di zaman Rasulullah juga boleh dijadikan panduan. Baginda pernah membenarkan ramai orang-orang bukan Islam masuk dan tinggal lama di masjid. Rasulullah juga diriwayatkan pernah menerima tetamu Kristian dari Najran di dalam masjid Madinah, malah diizinkan oleh Nabi s.a.w untuk menunaikan sembahyang mereka di dalam masjid dan nabi menyebut kepada sahabat: “Biarkan mereka (untuk melunaskan sembahyang mereka)”

Kepelbagaian pandangan ini menggambarkan keluasan hukum Islam dalam persoalan yang digembar-gemburkan sebagai isu besar ini. Hakikatnya, majoriti ulama silam dan kontemporari jelas mengharuskan bukan Islam memasuki masjid-masjid biasa dengan syarat-syarat tertentu seperti keperluan mendapat keizinan umat Islam atau badan berkuasa Islam, mempunyai sebab yang munasabah dan menjaga adab-adab yang telah ditetapkan.

Oleh yang demikian, kami berpendirian bahawa adalah tidak wajar bagi siapa jua untuk menyempitkan sesuatu yang tidak jelas dari sudut nas-nasnya dan dalil-dalilnya. Apatah lagi jika kita sememangnya berpegang dengan mazhab al-Syafie sebagai mazhab rasmi umat Islam di Negara ini. Lebih jauh lagi, sikap menghalang bukan Islam memasuki masjid ini adalah bertentangan dengan semangat yang diputuskan oleh Muzakarah Jawatankuasa Fatwa Majlis Kebangsaan Bagi Hal Ehwal Ugama Islam Malaysia Kali Ke-90 yang bersidang pada 1 Mac 2010 telah memutuskan bahawa pelancong bukan Islam diharuskan memasuki masjid dan ruang solat dengan syarat-syarat yang telah ditentukan.

Amalan menerima bukan Islam memasuki masjid atas tujuan yang murni juga telah diamalkan di beberapa negara lain. Ia terbukti memberi nilai positif kepada keberkesanan pemahaman mereka kepada agama Islam, mengelakkan salah faham dan menjana interaksi yang harmoni dalam perhubungan di antara umat Islam dan bukan Islam.

Sewajarnya, para wakil rakyat PR demikian perlulah diberikan pujian kerana kesungguhannya dalam menjalankan tugasnya dengan baik kepada masyarakat majmuk di negara ini. Apatah lagi ia memang telahpun mendapat kebenaran pihak pengurusan masjid dan dilakukan pula atas tanggungjawab mereka sebagai wakil Kerajaan Negeri Selangor.

Kekecohan yang digembar-gemborkan hakikatnya akan memakan tuan. Inilah gambaran kegagalan UMNO selama ini dalam mendidik rakyat mengenai hakikat Islam. Sikap seperti ini akan menyuburkan pendirian fanatik melulu di kalangan orang Islam yang kurang berilmu. Lebih menghinakan apabila berita mengenainya ditokok tambah dengan pelbagai fitnah baru demi mencapai matlamat politik sempit yang diperjuangkan. Kita sentiasa mengingatkan bahawa umat Islam tidak boleh merelakan diri mereka terus dibelenggu dalam kerangka pemikiran sempit politik perkauman dan agama ala UMNO ini. Ini akan menjadikan kita semakin lesu dan masyarakat bukan Islam pula semakin menjauh dari kita. Yakinlah bahawa, kerja mereka ini akan menjadi sia-sia seperti mencari umbut di dalam batu.

Hakikatnya, tanpa mereka jangka, krisis yang mereka wujudkan ini akan menjadikan orang Melayu dan masyarakat Islam lebih memahami agamanya secara total dan lebih berkeyakinan bahawa Islam dan masyarakat Melayu akan lebih terjamin di bawah Kerajaan Pakatan Rakyat pada masa depan. Inilah keyakinan kita kerana Islam itu tinggi dan merupakan agama yang membawa rahmat untuk seluruh alam.

DR MUHD NUR MANUTY
Pengerusi
Biro Pemahaman & Pemantapan Agama
Parti KeADILan Rakyat
28 Ogos 2010

Much work to attend to, but just a quick chronicle of yesterday’s events. First stop was a press conference on the confiscations of Kim Quek’s book.

Along with Body 2 Body, 1FunnyMalaysia, Where is Justice, and hot on the heels of dismissals of TV producers and radio DJ’s, I think we are seeing a systemic clampdown on responsible free speech.

Thereafter, went upstairs for the launch of Say Sorry Day, inspired by the case of Yong Vui Kong.

I think it’s a great initiative with universal appeal – hope everyone will stay tuned!

Went to seen an ex-colleague who filled me in on lots of recent political dynamics, after which had a nice visit to Pasar Ramadan!

This is really too much. Trying to pick on some unknown bookstore owner?!?

A book vendor, who was initially investigated under the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA), had discovered yesterday that she now faces a sedition charge instead.

Police officers paid Hawee Othman’s bookshop a visit in May and informed her that they were there to inspect a publication that had no permit.

During the search they confiscated four copies of ‘Isu Dalam Kartun’ monthly magazine by cartoonist Zulkifli Anwar Ulhaque, popularly known as Zunar (left), under the PPPA 1984.

They did not inform her of the particular section that she was charged with nor did the police charge sheet specify it.

Hawee tried to challenge the officers by showing them the publication number but was given another reason that the magazine “might have made reference to someone”.

She was stunned that the charge had been changed to section 4(1) of the Sedition Act 1948 when she was called to give a witness’ statement at the Segamat district police headquarters yesterday.

:| Had trouble getting the usual suspects so decide to take it out on a bookshop owner in.. Segamat?!?

Thank goodness Malaysiakini picked this up.

During a good lunch yesterday, talked about this insidious strategy by the authorities to really give book sellers a hard time, because they don’t want to attract foreign attention and bad press by ‘banning books’ outright.

Well, y’all can suck it ok? We will scream this nonsense from the rooftops.

This is no longer 1984, where you control all the media, and can decide what information is hidden any more.

STOP BULLYING!!

Hawee Othman: we all stand with you, and won’t let this bullshit go unnoticed.

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In other book banning news, the Home Ministry is deciding to play semantics again with “seized” and “taken to undergo scrutiny”.

They can call it whatever they want, we know it’s intimidation.

And you know what the worst part is?

Like Amir’s other book, this action is taken like a year after this book hit the shelves.

So what does that mean? If there really was some hardcore porn, or truly seditious material on the shelves, it’ll take a year before the authorities find out? wtf.

On another book:

Meanwhile, Zaitun told Malaysiakini that the ministry is not responsible for any seizure of the book ‘The March to Putrajaya’ by columnist Kim Quek.

“Perhaps the police took those books, but not us,” she said.

??

Once again, I think we are seeing (a very Malaysian) lack of coordination on their part, and maybe different factions with different power struggles of their own.

These book burners should really just relax. Battle ideas with ideas, not brute force!

Knowing full well how they feel, I wanted to express solidarity with Kim Quek, Amir Muhammad, Pang Khee Teik, Jerome Kugan, et al. Their two books pictured above have been confiscated from bookstores – years after their publication :P

(I can just imagine our government officials pouring over Body 2 Body: “Eh, maksud ‘and gave it to him’ itu… homoseks ke?” You got more speculation to add? :)

That’s not the only clampdown of today – looks like the government is also coming down hard on Chinese radio. Feeling that 9% heat there, BN?

This ridiculous clampdown on fundamental rights of responsible freedom of expression is deplorable, and puts paid any delusions we might have of a reformed BN government.

It’s almost impossible to believe that they’d be so stupid as to think this would make them more popular in the long run. Perhaps they really have written off the urban areas completely.

Malaysians for Beng Hock Campaign:

Dear fellow Malaysians, please lend your support to Dr. Pornthip and Beng Hock’s family by present at inquest on 18/8/10 (Wed), 9am, Shah Alam High Court. Dr. Pornthip will testify at the inquest that day. Please contact Yap Hwa at 012-2658448 if you have any queries.

关心明福冤案的大马公民，我们呼吁您出席8月18日（三）早上9点的验尸庭，以行动支持泰国法医普缇和明福的家人，地点是莎阿南高等法庭。普缇将于当天出席供证。如有任何疑问，请联络业华（012-2658448）

Rakyat Malaysia diminta memberi sokongan kepada Dr. Pornthip dan keluarga Beng Hock dengan menghadiri inqueks pada 18/8/10(Rabu), 9am di mahkamah tinggi Shah Alam. Dr. Pornthip akan beri keterangan pada hari tersebut. Sila hubungi Yap Hwa pada 012-2658448 jika ada sebarang pertanyaan

Map 地图： Mahkamah Tinggi Shah Alam