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Chelsea target Hiddink focused on Turkey match Posted: 01 Jun 2011 08:36 AM PDT In a newspaper interview, Hiddink said "nobody has knocked on my door yet." — Reuters file pic BRUSSELS, June 1 — Coach Guus Hiddink, strongly linked in the media with the vacant job at English club Chelsea, said he and his Turkey squad were thinking of nothing but Friday's Euro 2012 qualifier in Belgium. The Group A match is likely to determine who finishes second because Germany, with 15 points from five games, are favourites to top the table. Belgium are second with 10 points from six games and Turkey (nine points from five) occupy third spot, with both teams scrapping it out for a likely playoff berth. "Me and my team, we think of nothing but the Belgium game right now," Dutchman Hiddink said in an interview with the Hurriyet newspaper. "This is a key game. "Nobody has knocked on my door yet, there is nothing concrete to discuss. My contract with the Turkish football federation is until 2012. "It's not that easy to just leave and go away. Neither me, nor the football federation, has received any official offers." Both sides are without key midfielders — Hamit Altintop and Nuri Sahin for Turkey and Marouane Fellaini for Belgium. Belgium coach Georges Leekens said his players should not be too concerned if they fall behind. "They (Turkey) have reasonably attacking full backs so there might be some space at the back," said Leekens. "We will go into the match with the aim of scoring twice. We must also not panic if we go behind." Leekens appeared to want to keep the rest of his squad on their toes when he said goalkeeper Simon Mignolet and central defender Vincent Kompany were the only players certain to start. Belgium have not qualified for a major tournament since the 2002 World Cup. "I'm used to playing important matches for my club but with Belgium that's different. It is a long time since we had a match as important as this one," said Arsenal defender Thomas Vermaelen. "The Turks are practically ready to die for their country but a victory is an absolute must for us." Hiddink has been criticised for a lack of ambition after telling a news conference last week a draw would be acceptable as Turkey have a game in hand on Belgium. Turkey also have fitness doubts over Fenerbahce right back Gokhan Gonul. — Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price.

New West Ham boss Allardyce sees player exodus Posted: 01 Jun 2011 08:09 AM PDT Allardyce has pledged to instil "a winning mentality" at the east London club. — Reuters file pic LONDON, June 1 — West Ham United appointed Sam Allardyce as their new manager today with the Briton braced for an exodus of top players as he seeks to lead the relegated club back to the Premier League. The 56-year-old, whose last managerial post was at Blackburn Rovers before he was fired last December, succeeds the sacked Avram Grant and pledged to instil "a winning mentality" at the east London club who finished bottom of the table this season. "I wouldn't have taken this job if I didn't think we could bounce straight back into the Premier League," Allardyce said on the club's website. "More than that, I wouldn't have contemplated the job if I didn't think there was the opportunity to build something substantial at West Ham." Whatever he builds, though, may be without several of the current players with Allardyce saying it will be hard to keep hold of the likes of Footballer of the Year Scott Parker. "There will probably be an exodus of top players for financial reasons," Allardyce told talkSPORT radio. "There's a dramatic loss of revenue, even with the parachute payments, and you have to adjust, like every club does. "I don't know if I'll be able to keep Parker. We'll have to wait and see but it looks like it will be difficult." Other players who could leave the club are England goalkeeper Robert Green and England striker Carlton Cole. GOOD SQAUD "Whatever happens with some of the big players there's the basis of a good squad and some very, very good young players to rebuild quickly," added Allardyce. West Ham's move to London's Olympic Stadium for the 2014-15 season is a major incentive for promotion back to England's top flight and in Allardyce they have gone for one of the domestic game's most established names to mastermind that push. A no-nonsense centre back in his playing days, Allardyce managed Blackpool and Notts County before spending eight successful years at Bolton Wanderers from 1999, getting the team promoted and establishing them as a Premier League side. He moved to Newcastle United in 2007 but lasted less than a season and joined Blackburn in December 2008 before he was sacked two years later after the arrival of new Indian owners. Often criticised for his long-ball style, Allardyce said he would not sacrifice West Ham's traditions but it would be "a tale of home and away". "At Upton Park, we'll attempt to play the kind of passing game the fans want," he said. "We will aim to continue in the same way on our travels but we'll also be tough, hard to beat and utterly resilient." — Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price.

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Leonard Cohen wins Spanish literary prize Posted: 01 Jun 2011 07:49 AM PDT The jury called Cohen one of the most influential writers of modern times. — Reuters file pic MADRID, June 1 — Canada's Leonard Cohen won Spain's top award for authors who do not write in Spanish for his decades of exploring great human issues in song and verse. The jury of the Principe de Asturias Foundation said the 76-year-old singer-songwriter, poet and novelist was one of the most influential writers of modern times. He won "for a literary work which has influenced three generations around the world by creating a sentimental imagery in which poetry and music are melded into an unchanging worth," the jury citation read. Cohen beat a field of 32 from countries including Argentina, France, Austria, Mexico and Britain. Past winners include German Nobel Laureate Guenther Grass and US playwright Arthur Miller. The Asturias Foundation awards eight prizes every year for fields ranging from science to the arts. Winners are due to collect 50,000 euros (RM217,052) each at the awards ceremony in October, and a statue by Catalan artist Joan Miro. — Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price.

‘The Hobbit’ films get titles and release dates Posted: 01 Jun 2011 04:17 AM PDT Cast members of "The Hobbit" attend a news conference at Jackson's Park Road Post facility in Wellington in this file photo. — Reuters file pic LOS ANGELES, June 1 — Peter Jackson's two upcoming movies based on J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" have been given official names and release dates. The first of the two films, which are currently being filmed back-to-back in New Zealand, "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," arrives in theaters on December 14, 2012. The sequel, opening December 13, 2013, will be known as "The Hobbit: There and Back Again." Both will be released through Warner Bros. The two prequels to Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy follow the adventures of Bilbo Baggins — to be played by Martin Freeman, with Ian Holm reprising his role as the elder Bilbo — in his quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the dragon Smaug. The sprawling cast includes a number of other "Rings" veterans: Ian McKellen as Gandalf the Grey; Cate Blanchett as Galadriel; Orlando Bloom as Legolas; Christopher Lee as Saruman; Hugo Weaving as Elrond; Elijah Wood as Frodo; and Andy Serkis as Gollum. — Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price.

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London tops ranking of destination cities Posted: 01 Jun 2011 06:53 AM PDT London will be the most popular destination in 2011, according to a MasterCard report. – Shutterstock LONDON, June 1 – London will lead the world in terms of international tourist arrivals this year, according to new research released June 1 by MasterCard. The global payment giant's new index of Global Destination Cities predicts London will receive 20.1 million inbound passengers in 2011, slightly more than Paris's 18.1 million. Bangkok is expected to welcome the third-highest number of visitors, followed by Singapore and Hong Kong – in fact, cities in Asia-Pacific account for eight of the top 20 global destinations. By contrast, MasterCard predicts that only one US city will be among the world's most visited this year, with New York taking 12th place and predicted to welcome 7.6 million inbound passengers. The Big Apple can perhaps take consolation that visitors will spend US$20.3 billion (RM61.11 billion) there this year, more than every other city save London, which will see cross-border expenditures of US$25.6 billion. As well as studying total arrivals, MasterCard also looked at visitor growth, forecasting that the Spanish city of Barcelona will see the biggest jump – 24.3 per cent growth in arrivals this year, followed by Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur at 21.8 per cent and Istanbul at 20.4 per cent. The places seeing the fastest growth in the amount we spend, however, will be Istanbul (expenditure up by 30.1 per cent in 2011), Barcelona (up 28.2 per cent) and Dubai (up 24 per cent). MasterCard compiled its predictions of international arrivals, one of the clearest indicators of the human dimension of globalization, by analyzing airline schedules and UN expenditure figures. The company says that many emerging markets were showing growth rates of over 20 per cent, adding that cities in Asia, Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, and Africa "will correspondingly play ever bigger roles in knitting the world together." View and download the study from http://newsroom.mastercard.com/2011/06/01/a-new-way-of-looking-at-the-global-economy-destination-cities/ – AFP Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price.

Russian police offer smokers lollipops to drop the habit Posted: 31 May 2011 08:31 PM PDT Russian police officers exchange cigarettes for sweets on May 31, 2011 during World No Tobacco Day at Yaroslavsky railway station in Moscow. — AFP pic MOSCOW, June 1 — Russian police yesterday coaxed hardened smokers to kick the habit by offering lollipops in exchange for cigarettes at Moscow rail stations to mark World No Tobacco Day. "The Russian police support a healthy lifestyle," a spokeswoman for Moscow transport police, Yelena Bobylkova, said as the campaign began at Yaroslavl mainline station. Russia has one of the highest smoking rates among developed nations, with the growing numbers of women smoking raising particular concern. Teams of three police — one carrying a bucket of water to snuff out cigarettes, another with a box of lollipops and a third carrying leaflets about the dangers of smoking — patrolled the station in search of smokers. The stunt was to reinforce a smoking ban in suburban commuter trains, Bobylkova said. Surprised by policemen brandishing lollipops in front of television cameras, most smokers meekly threw their cigarettes into the buckets of water and studied the anti-smoking pamphlets. "May 31 is the day when you must say no to tobacco. Forever," one leaflet said. Some smokers murmured they would try, but others were less convinced. "I won't give up smoking until they stop selling cigarettes," said Ivan Mityaikin, 30. Pensioner Yury Nosakov, 65, praised the campaign. "They should organise this more often. I gave up smoking 30 years ago. Neither my children nor my grandchildren smoke. I am proud of that," he told AFP. The Russian government recently introduced large warnings of impotency and death on cigarette packs, but the packs cost just around 40 rubles (RM4) each and smoking is allowed in almost all restaurants and bars. Six out of 10 Russian men smoke as do 21.7 per cent of women, a figure that is constantly growing, Russian health services say. — afprelaxnews.com Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price.

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Nur Jazlan: Jual tanah tak rugi Bumi, tapi kukuh kewangan UDA Posted: 01 Jun 2011 02:10 AM PDT KUALA LUMPUR, 1 Jun – UDA Holdings Bhd memutuskan untuk menjual tanah di Jalan Sultan Ismail di sini, 1.15 hektar, kepada Mutiara Goodyear Bhd pada harga RM215.5 juta selepas mengambil kira pelbagai faktor terutama bagi mengukuhkan semula kedudukan aliran tunai kewangan GLC itu yang kini hanya RM90 juta. Pengerusi UDA Holdings, Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed berkata, keputusan itu yang diputuskan oleh Lembaga Pengarah juga membolehkan UDA Holdings menggunakan wang yang diperoleh hasil daripada penjualan berkenaan untuk mencari bank tanah syarikat yang baru bagi membangunkan bandar baru terutama sekali dalam kawasan Lembah Klang. Sehubungan itu Nur Jazlan juga berkata, beliau mewakili Lembaga Pengarah UDA Holdings menafikan kenyataan Ketua Penerangan Pemuda Umno Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican dan Exco Pemuda Umno Tengku Azman Tengku Zainol Abidin, yang disiarkan semalam bahawa penjualan tanah berkenaan merugikan golongan Bumiputera. Bagaimanapun katanya, penjualan tanah di Jalan Sultan Ismail itu tertakluk kepada kelulusan Kementerian Kewangan sebagai kementerian yang bertanggungjawab penuh kepada UDA Holdings. Kata beliau, UDA Holdings tidak lagi mempunyai bank tanah yang luas bagi membangunkan bandar baru, yang sedia ada hanya Bandar Tun Hussein Onn di Cheras dan tinggal 24 hektar lagi tanah yang belum mempunyai sebarang perancangan untuk dibangunkan manakala bakinya lebih 60 hektar sudah dan akan dibangunkan. "Atas pertimbangan itu, UDA Holidngs Bhd perlu menjual tanah berkenaan terus kepada Mutiara Goodyear yang menawarkan harga terbaik lebih RM1,400 kaki persegi berbanding harga pasaran iaitu sekitar RM800 kaki persegi," katanya. Selain itu kata beliau, UDA Holdings juga sudah menjalankan kajian terhadap Mutiara Goodyear dan mendapati statusnya adalah sebagai sebuah syarikat Bumiputera. Pada masa sama, tambah beliau, ahli Lembaga Pengarah UDA Holdings juga mempertimbangkan supaya tanah berkenaan dibangunkan secara usaha sama dengan syarikat lain tetapi selepas kajian mendalam dilakukan didapati kerjasama itu akan mendedahkan syarikat kepada risiko tinggi terutama sekali daripada segi aliran bebas tunai. "Ia berikutan pelbagai projek pembinaan yang akan dan sedang dibangunkan syarikat sekali gus memerlukan UDA Holdings mempunyai sumber kewangan yang mencukupi bagi membiayai. "Ahli Lembaga Pengarah UDA Holidngs juga berpendapat melalui penjualan tanah berkenaan, syarikat akan dapat membayar baki premium tanah tapak bekas Penjara Pudu berjumlah RM104 juta yang masih tertangguh, memandangkan KPTG menetapkan tarikh akhir untuk menjelaskannya adalah September ini, selain membiayai projek lain yang tergendala akibat kedudukan kewangan yang meruncing," katanya. Sebaliknya, kata beliau, penjualan tanah berkenaan adalah untuk manfaat masyarakat Bumiputera secara keseluruhannya terutama sekali UDA Holdings dalam memastikan syarikat terus berdaya saing hasil kedudukan kewangan yang kukuh. "Selain itu, antara tahun 2004 dan 2005, UDA Holdings yang ketika itu, berada di bawah MRCB turut menjual tanah di Bangsar kepada UOA untuk mengukuhkan aliran kewangan tunai keika itu," katanya lagi. Oleh itu, kata beliau, ia membuktikan bahawa dari semasa ke semasa, UDA Holdings terpaksa menjual tanah miliknya untuk mengukuhkan aliran tunai syarikat bagi membiayai pelbagai keperluan berikutan tidak mendapat suntikan dana kewangan daripada kerajaan. "Malah, kerajaan juga kini melaksanakan dasar penjualan tanah kepada syarikat swasta yang menawarkan harga tinggi bagi mendapatkan pulangan lebih baik selain membantu perkembangan kawasan bandar," katanya. Sehubungan itu, kata Nur Jazlan, beliau bersedia untuk bertemu dengan Reezal Merican dan Tengku Azman bagi mendapatkan gambaran serta penjelasan sebenar berhubung penjualan tanah berkenaan. Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price.

Selangor perkenal Skim Pemilikan Kediaman Persendirian Posted: 01 Jun 2011 02:06 AM PDT KUALA LUMPUR, 1 Jun – Kerajaan Selangor yang diterajui Pakatan Rakyat (PR) sejak 2008 hari ini meluluskan Skim Pemilikan Kediaman Persendirian bagi memudahkan rakyat negeri itu memiliki kediaman dengan bayaran premium fleksibel. Akhir tahun lalu kerajaan pusat Barisan Nasional (BN) memperkenalkan Skim Rumah Pertamaku yang bertujuan memudahkan golongan muda pendapatan kurang daripada RM3,000 sebulan memiliki rumah mendapat sambutan positif daripada pelbagai persatuan pengguna. Dalam satu kenyataan dikeluarkan hari ini, Menteri Besar Selangor Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim berkata, skim yang berkuat kuasa mulai hari ini adalah hasil kajian bersama pejabat tanah dan galian, pejabat daerah, dan pejabat Setiausaha Kerajaan Negeri yang dijangka dapat melengkapkan Skim Pemberian Geran yang bermula sejak tahun lepas. "Kajian telah dibuat setelah kerajaan negeri mendapati bahawa tidak ramai rakyat Selangor dapat menikmati sepenuhnya skim pemberian geran kerana tidak mampu membayar premium," kata beliau. Katanya, melalui skim itu, rakyat yang tidak mampu menjelaskan keseluruhan premium tanah boleh menjadi pemilik hartanah yang sah dengan hanya membayar bayaran RM1,000. "Mereka yang memilih cara ini, hanya perlu menjelaskan keseluruhan premium, mengikut harga semasa, jika hartanah itu dipindahmilik, dijual," katanya. Menteri Besar menambah, skim itu juga memberi peluang kepada mereka yang membayar premium penuh dalam tempoh enam bulan dari tarikh tempoh notis dikeluarkan untuk diberikan diskaun 30 peratus secara automatik. Khalid juga berkata, skim itu boleh dipakai untuk permohonan pemberimilikan baharu, pemberimilikan disebabkan oleh tamat tempoh pajakan, lanjutan tempoh pajakan dan pemutihan langgar syarat kegunaan tanah. "Bagaimanapun pindah milik melalui mahkamah, turun milik dan perwarisan adalah dibenarkan," katanya lagi. Khalid juga berkata, skim tersebut hanya ditawarkan kepada satu pegangan hak milik kediaman persendirian dan tidak boleh dipakai untuk hartanah komersial. Katanya, inisiatif itu adalah satu reformasi oleh pentadbiran kerajaan Pakatan Rakyat di Selangor bagi menyelesaikan masalah rakyat dalam pemilikan hartanah. "Ini adalah kali pertama sebuah kerajaan negeri di Malaysia memperkenalkan skim mudah bayar demi menggalakkan pemilikan harta persendirian," katanya. Oleh itu kata beliau, kerajaan negeri berharap ia dapat menolong mengurang beban rakyat yang berdepan dengan kos sara hidup yang makin meningkat, terutamanya dengan peningkatan harga minyak dan elektrik. Katanya, skim itu akan dilancarkan sepenuhnya pada tarikh yang akan diumumkan kelak. Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price.

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Remembrance of things past Posted: 31 May 2011 05:06 PM PDT JUNE 1 — Since we came home from Dubai, I have avowed to pull off "Ops Kemas" ("Project Clean-up" doesn't sound as urgent) within the walls of our residence. This ambitious endeavour of mine (it is ambitious if you see how much junk we have accumulated over the years) is not confined to just the tangible items scattered all over the house, but also to the digitised/electronic rubbish on my computer.  In the process of doing so, I stumbled upon the passwords for some long-forgotten email addresses of mine. You see, in the days before email accounts could hold more than 1GB of storage, I thought I was being clever when I tried to "spread the fat" by having a few concurrent email addresses. But as age crept in, unsurprisingly, I forgot the passwords.  Oh, what a discovery those email accounts turned out to be! Quite similar perhaps to when one discovers old diaries or journals that documented thoughts and feelings during that particular period of time.  Frivolous or heart-to-heart bouncing of emails between good friends, painfully sad emails that were a reminder of friends who have left this world, argumentative emails that were churned out when I sought to enforce my rights over some dispute. I didn't just discover old emails in the accounts, here's the best part — I also unearthed archived entries from my blogs of yore. For reasons that I am unable to recollect at this present time (although I'm inclined towards placing a bulk of the blame on the irrational state of post-partum depression), I had deleted my earlier blogs a few years ago — something that I have since regretted. And so it came as a wonderful surprise to find that sometimes when I published a blog entry back then, I had activated a function for a copy to be archived in one of those email accounts. It wasn't nearly all of it, but a huge chunk of valuable history nonetheless. Poring over those blog entries brought back a flood of bittersweet memories about my blogging days. Nowadays, almost everyone blogs or owns a blog. It's just a question of how adept or inept they (or their anointed blogwriters) are at it, and how active they are at maintaining the blog.  In this age of Facebook and Twitter, blogging has even been pish-toshed as being archaic. "Blogging is so 17th century lah," declared a friend who himself used to blog. "We were on the blogging bandwagon when it was cool," he said. And he was right. At the time when I started blogging back in 2004, blogging was still somewhat of a technological novelty, at least in Malaysia. The online world had been introduced then to the likes of Friendster and Myspace, but those forefathers of social networking sites were simply that — sites for you to socialise in. However, because your Friendster or Myspace account was, like Facebook, identifiable to you, it wasn't often that users would pour out their thoughts and feelings on those sites. Blogging, on the other hand, provided the anonymity that some, if not most of us sought (at least initially), as we wrote about things which mattered or shouldn't have mattered in our lives, and at the same time, opened up a whole new avenue for friendship.  From my trawls through the blogosphere, I discovered a whole spectrum of bloggers with a plethora of stories, histories and aspirations to share.  The stay-at-home-moms (or SAHMs) with a dozen children who still found the time and energy to study, create culinary masterpieces, or run online businesses selling anything from cupcakes to clothing.  Overworked and disgruntled employees who satirised their workplace and bosses from hell. Those battling life-threatening cancers, some surviving and some finally succumbing. Penitents undergoing spiritual upheavals, seeking their place in this world and in the next.  Frustrated and overstretched single parents, PhD students who were missing home, those bracing for impending divorces or caught within the throes of a messy one, happy wives and husbands who shared their feel-good stories, foreigners who married locals and were trying to adjust to life in Malaysia, businessmen who lost their wealth, health and family but were determined to bounce back, even retired public servants and professors sharing fatherly wisdom. The stories and backgrounds were as varied as you could get. And perhaps best of all, the world became a much smaller place when a commonality was established with the Malaysian diaspora the world over.  We were a web of friends wired together by technology rather than in the flesh. Occasionally, gatherings would be organised in the real world so that the bloggers could put a face to the person they had come to know (and quite well, at that) in the virtual world. These get-togethers were often a huge success for the simple reason that all in attendance were armed with the shared knowledge of each other's lives — not your typical blindsided "networking/meet-up" sessions. No twiddling of fingers or breaking into a sweat in awkward discomfort.  You are, after all, meeting friends you already know. You just hadn't met them face-to-face. I remember being asked by some cautious "real world" friends as to how I could simply drop all inhibitions and write to an online audience I didn't know. Wouldn't that draw the lurking psychopaths in droves, they asked. Ah, but therein lay the beauty to blogging — at least among the sincere.  There was an unspoken rule of conduct that we, the reading audience, would "listen" as the blogger shared, and then we readers would share our thoughts in response. Not much different from how we view the comments that are left on online articles nowadays, but in a more sociable and friendly way.  We respected each other's points of view even though we didn't always agree with them, and did our best to "jaga hati" or maintain cordiality as we would with friends in real life. It was like a group of friends sitting together and chatting — their families and stories became ours, and ours, theirs.  The great irony about blog-initiated friendships as opposed to friendships initiated in the real world is how much easier it is to drop the barriers and share our stories. Sometimes in the real world, even though we have befriended someone for decades, the invisible barriers still hold strong. I do admit, however, that I must have been fortunate in that, save for the occasional visits by spammers and "cybertroopers" who seemed to think that some of my armchair politically-leaning rants rendered me, a whimsical housewife, as a cause for national security concern — my blogs didn't attract the lunatics or diabolics.  Some of my closest friends now are those I found through the blogosphere. Like when we were in Dubai, it just so happened that four of my blogger friends also lived there, and although we didn't meet up with each other as often as we would have liked, whenever we did, it always more than made up for the periods of absence and left us longing for more.  With life becoming increasingly more hectic as the years pile on, I doubt that I will revive my blogging habit, but the takeaway from the whole blogging experience has been priceless. Strange as it may sound, especially to the more old-schooled amongst us, I am immensely grateful to the wonderful world of technology and the Internet for helping me find some of my kindred spirits and other significant acquaintances.  In fact, if it wasn't for a chance encounter with Dina Zaman on blogosphere all those years ago, I wouldn't have had the privilege of writing this column.  And on a side note, just in case you were wondering — no, I didn't meet my husband through the Internet or blogging. I took the traditional real world route for that. * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist. Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price.

An insult to Islam? Posted: 31 May 2011 05:00 PM PDT JUNE 1 — First and foremost, having a Christian prime minister is not an insult to Islam, nor is allowing a nation to become secular or even Christian. Take a look at Germany. Their president and chancellor belong to the Christian Democratic Union Party. Yet, Islam is still alive and well in their nation. If that's too much for you to imagine, take a look at Netherlands then. Ruled by a monarch and extremely secular, their prime minister is from the VVD and his deputy is from the Christian Democratic Appeal party. Yet still, Islam is there, alive and well enough to be the cause of Theo Van Gogh's death. Should Malaysia become a secular or Christian nation, it will not be Islam that is offended. It's just people who obviously were not granted the brains, patience or even sensitivity to understand that the first basis of the religion itself is to find moderation. If a Muslim does wrong, he or she is told to repent. If a non-Muslim says something wrong, we are told, through Islamic teaching, to educate them and find a peaceful solution. What I believe this means is that if we were to understand our religion properly, and if our muftis had any interest in preaching moderation, they would tell people to shut up and mind their own business instead of forwarding text messages of conversions to Christianity like a certain mufti, wreaking havoc and turmoil while fuelling Malay tabloids with enough material to incite hatred. Islam dictates that we are only to resort to violence when there is clear provocation, not before. And a cartoon by a Norwegian newspaper is not a provocation enough to kill anyone nor is it a justification for a call to jihad and protest with placards written in bad English that just shows how bad your level of education is. Muhammad (pbuH) and his followers would never have called for a jihad on the basis of a blog stating that there were people in Penang who said that they would make this 60 per cent Muslim nation a Christian one. You know what he would do? Or what any rational leader would do? Bring in the journalist and the bloggers, and ask them to produce witnesses to this so-called declaration. If he fails, cane him for the spreading of fitnah. A leader, in this case, our prime minister, should know better than to just simply shrug the accusation off and explain parliamentary conduct to amend the Constitution. I think this is where Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his home minister of a cousin failed. The lack of swift action or any action whatsoever against people like those in Perkasa, now that is an insult to Islam because, if anything, Islam cherishes harmony and tells us to act swiftly against rumours. It also tells us to forgo belief in rumours without witnesses. But somehow, Malay genetics being what they are — a low brain cell count and a high hormone imbalance somewhere down the line — resulted in the Malay male population going out and protesting the dumbest things. There is no greater insult to Islam than those who selectively preach the religion for personal gain. That goes for any religion. We saw it with George Bush, we saw it with PAS, and now, we're seeing it with Perkasa. What we are looking at is a warped version of Drew Carey's game show, which I personally call Who Is More Delusional Anyway, which stars politician after politician trying to prove they are more Malay, more Indian, more Buddhist, more atheist, more Christian and even more Muslim. Somehow, this concept was abandoned by our religious scholars and political leaders who think banning condoms would stop pre-marital sex. These are the same bunch of ignoramuses who would rather deal with finding dead babies in dumpsters by excommunicating the child's parents instead of even talking about contraception of any kind. It is this same bunch of idiots who think that our religious authorities have every right to invade a person's privacy; to catch him committing adultery, or let him die trying to escape these theocratic hacks who were tipped off by someone accepting a bribe. Our people don't need to defend Islam from the Christians. We're doing such a bang-up job besmirching our own religion to ruin, by being a bunch of emotional, unruly, uneducated hacks who would use Islam as a tool to win votes and public support. In fact, with that in mind, I think if Allah can forgive such a large number of hypocrites, he sure as there is a Heaven and Hell can forgive Muslims who are gay. * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist. Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price.

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