KUALA LUMPUR, April 7 (Bernama) — The Islamic Missionary Foundation (Yadim) has called on the media to be more active in correcting the perception of Islam among non-Muslims.

Its head Datuk Mohd Nakhaie Ahmad said the lack of articles on Islam in most newspapers had resulted in the manipulation of information on Islam and Muslims by certain quarters.

“When the reports are not clear or inaccurate, various issues would emerge such as Muslims being labelled as terrorists, giving the feeling that the negative image created by these irresponsible quarters was to cover up their own injustice or cruelty,” he told reporters in conjunction with the pre-launching of a tabloid, “The Criteria”, which is in English, here today.

It is jointly published by Yadim and Saba Islamic Media Sdn Bhd.

The tabloid aims to educate Muslims and non-Muslims on Islam, to help preserve understanding and harmony among the people

Source: Bernama

Datuk Mohd Nakhaie is most certainly right. And wrong. Right about the negative image non-Muslims have of Islam. And wrong that the negative image is created by “irresponsible quarters was to cover up their own injustice or cruelty”.

Who would not have a negative image of Islam when you hear reports such as the following?

BAGHDAD (AP) – An Assyrian Orthodox priest was killed in a drive-by shooting Saturday in Baghdad, police and an assistant said, the latest attack against Iraq’s Christian minority.

The priest, Youssef Adel, was shot by gunmen who drove up in a car and opened fire as he was opening the gate of his house near the St. Peter and Paul church where he presided, an assistant said.

Christians have frequently been caught up in the violence or been targeted in this predominantly Muslim country.

The body of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, one of Iraq’s most senior Chaldean Catholic clerics, was found on March 13, about two weeks after he was seized by gunmen in the volatile northwestern city of Mosul. (re AP news)

When even Islamic clerics indulge in paranoia and racism?

TEHRAN (AFP) — Israel and unidentified “oppressive powers” are behind the production of an anti-Islamic film by right-wing Dutch MP Geert Wilders, a prominent conservative Iranian cleric claimed on Friday.

“Behind these satanic acts can be found the oppressive powers and the Zionist regime,” Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami said during a Friday prayer sermon in the capital broadcast by state radio.

“This poor Dutch deputy has made 40 trips to Israel over the past 25 years,” Khatami said. “He has himself said he is close to (Israeli President) Shimon Peres and (Prime Minister) Ehud Olmert.

“We see the hand of the Zionist regime behind these satanic acts and we cry ‘death to Israel,’” he added. (re AFP)

Are the discrimination and violence against churches by Muslims in Indonesia also caused by “irresponsible quarters”?

JAKARTA, April 2 (Compass Direct News) – Islamic extremist groups and local governments in Indonesia closed 110 churches from 2004 to 2007, according to religious and human rights organizations.

The Wahid Institute, a moderate Muslim non-governmental organization, along with the Communion of Churches of Indonesia (Persekutuan Gereja-Gereja di Indonesia), the Bishops’ Conference of Indonesia (Konferensi Waligereja Indonesia) and the Indonesian Human Rights Commission reported that discrimination and violence against churches was most common in the provinces of West Java, Banten, Central Java, South Sulawesi and Bengkulu.

Radical Muslim groups attacking churches included the Islamic Defender Front (Front Pembela Islam, or FPI), the Indonesian Mujahidin Council, Hizbullah Front, Muslim Clergy Members Forum (Forum Ulama Umat Islam) and the Muslim Safety Forum (Dewan Keamanan Masjid). (re Compass Direct)

How can non-Muslims not have a negative image on Islam when there is, among other things, visceral hatred for the Jews?

SANAA, April 6 (Reuters) – Yemen’s Shi’ite rebels destroyed the vacant house of the mainly Muslim Arab state’s top rabbi, a security official said on Sunday.

Residents said the assailants from a group opposed to the U.S.-allied government destroyed the house of Yehia Youssuf in Saada, a northern province. The security official said it was not immediately known what weapons were used in the attack.

“They turned to the houses of other Jews after,” one resident said.

About 200 Yemeni Jews who lived in Saada, including Youssef, have been living in the capital Sanaa due to sporadic fighting between government forces and the rebel group, known as the Houthis. (re Reuters)

When non-Muslims are daily faced with these kinds of news and images of paranoia, discrimination and violence perpetrated by Muslims in the name of their religion, is it any wonder that the non-Muslims associate terrorism and violence with Islam?

Good luck trying to rehabilitate the image of Islam as a religion of peace.

Muslims say “Fitna” was offensive and an insult to their Prophet and Islam. But did Geert Wilders go far enough in exposing the more important teachings of Islam?

Folks at Islam Watch do not think so.

Geert wilders film, while good, failed to explain to the ‘hear no evil, see no evil, do nothing about evil’ naive infidels that all Muslims believe ‘the Koran is the eternal divine word of God and and a copy of it is in heaven. Muslims must be obeyed without question. Most people think that the Koran is like the old testament. That Muslims can ignore the parts they don’t like. But in truth, the Koran is the eternal laws of God. Its laws and commands are valid for all times and places forever. To question it is to question the very word of God, and hence blasphemous. A Muslim’s duty is to believe and obey those divine commands without question.

The Muslims will tell the infidels what they all desperately want to hear — that the Koran is all peace and love and Osma bin laden is an aberration, not following the true Islam. But bin Laden is a true Muslim.

Wilders also did not include the 3 most important teachings of Islam:

9:5 – extermination of all non believers i.e. Infidels,

9:29 extermination of all Christians and Jews and

9:111 – those Muslims who kill and are killed performing 9:5 and 9:29 will ascend to paradise filled with full breasted, lustrous eyed virgins to sexually molest for all eternity.

Therefore, the 9/11 is Koran’s 9:111.

Read the full article called “Geert wilders film: The important points it missed” here.

Tun Mahathir, well-known anti-Semite and former Prime Minister of Malaysia, said “Islam is a good religion” and urged Muslims worldwide to boycott Dutch products.

Behold, the faces of the practitioners of “Islam is good religion.” Just what Geert Wilders was trying to warn the world about.

Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad today condemned the decision by a far-right Dutch lawmaker to post an anti-Islam film online.”We are very annoyed about this video. This is the result of misunderstanding of Islam, and of course there is some political motive behind it,” he said.

“If Muslims unite, it will be easy to take action. If we boycott Dutch products, they will have to close down their businesses,” he told reporters after officiating at an Islamic gathering.

“If the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims unite and say they won’t buy, then it (the boycott) will be effective,” he said.

The film Fitna (Discord in Arabic), featuring violent imagery of extremist attacks which it linked to verses from the Quran, was posted on the British-based website liveleak.com on Thursday.

Malaysia’s foreign ministry also slammed Geet Wilders for producing the film.

“Portraying Islam as a religion advocating extremism is not only misleading and erroneous but also blatant disregard and utter disrespect for Islam and the sensitiveness of the Muslim world,” it said in a statement.

Malaysia is a multi-racial country with a majority Muslim population.

Full story here.

Right thinking Muslims should use the film to ask themselves why non-Muslims are associating extremism with Islam.

The Koran clearly has passages in it that are used by radical Muslims to justify their acts of violence against Jews and infidels. Moderate Muslims should fear and condemn the actions of the radicals because in the eyes of the radicals those who do not follow their brand of Islam are not true Muslims.

In Iraq the Sunnis and the Shiites are killing each other because neither consider the other as true Muslims. The Wahabis hate both the Sunnis and Shiites.

Instead of getting “annoyed” and trying to speak for all Muslims, Mahathir should apologise on behalf of peace loving Muslims for the vicious acts of violent Muslims. Mahathir should use this occasion to explain that Malaysia’s brand of Islam does not subscribe to violent acts against other Muslims and non-Muslims. Mahathir should explain that even though there are passages in the Koran that can be construed as endorsing violence again Jews and infidels, Malaysian Muslims do not subscribe to those views. Mahathir should condemn the clerics in the videos who were encouraging violence against Jews and infidels.

But instead, Mahathir chose to be annoyed and offended. The people who should be offended are the non-Muslims who have to hear rhetoric that encourages violence on them.

Geert Wilders is only trying to raise awareness that Muslim extremists are using passages from the Koran to do violent acts. Geert Wilders has said many times that his problem is not with Muslims but with the violent ideology that can be found in the Koran. He is only trying to tell non-Muslims that they cannot continue to bury their heads in the sand and not acknowledge that certain passages in the Koran are being used by extremists when carrying out their violent acts.

When Muslims riot and start killing each other and non-Muslims, the claim “Islam is a Religion of Peace” flies in the face of such violence.

Fitna has been taken off LiveLeak but it can still be found elsewhere.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – An anti-Koran film made by a Dutch politician is tantamount to propagating the politics of hate and xenophobia and cannot be justified, Pakistan said on Wednesday.

Anti-immigration member of the Dutch parliament Geert Wilders has given few details about the content of his film “Fitna”, in which he intends to present his views about the Koran, the Muslim holy book which in the past he has called to be banned.Wilders has said he had completed the film and was in negotiations with television stations for its broadcast, slated for March or April.

“Wilders’ anti-Koran film reflects his biased, bigoted thinking,” Pakistani foreign office spokesman Mohammad Sadiq told a weekly briefing. “It has nothing to do with the right of freedom of expression.”

The Netherlands fears the film could spark protests like those triggered by Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, in which at least 50 people were killed, including five in Pakistan, in early 2006.

The film has drawn protests in Muslim countries including Pakistan, whose upper house of parliament adopted a resolution last week condemning efforts to denigrate Islam, referring to Wilders’ film and the Danish cartoons, one of which was recently reprinted.

“Bigoted and blasphemous acts such as the Danish cartoons and Wilders’ film (are) tantamount to propagating politics of hate and promoting xenophobia in Europe,” Sadiq said.

“This cannot be justified on any pretext.”

Turkey has also voiced concern about the film and Iran called it a “provocative and Satanic” act.

A Dutch newspaper said this week the government was looking into whether it could stop Wilders from releasing the film.

Full story here.

Propagating the politics of hate and xenophobia?

They haven’t even seen the film and already they are condemning it!

Geert Wilders will be proven, many times over, to be stating the truth about Islam if Muslims riot and kill over the release of the film.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – Protesters already have torched Dutch flags in Afghanistan ahead of a new Dutch film portraying Islam’s holy book as a “fascist” text that incites violence and preaches the oppression of women and homosexuals.

A Dutch Cabinet minister postponed his trip to Somalia on Friday due to “specific threats” linked to the film, and the Dutch government has urged lawmaker Geert Wilders to scrap his film for the safety of its citizens abroad.

But Wilders said Monday he has begun negotiations with Dutch broadcasters about airing the 15-minute film, “Fitna.” He said he will only allow them to show it in its entirety, and if they refuse, he plans to show it to the media and post it on the Internet.

“We have never learned to be intolerant toward people who are intolerant toward us, toward cultures that are intolerant toward us,” he said in a recent Associated Press interview.

Full story here.

One can only hope that the TV stations in the Netherlands will have the balls to allow the film be aired.

BAGHDAD — After almost five years of war, many young people in Iraq, exhausted by constant firsthand exposure to the violence of religious extremism, say they have grown disillusioned with religious leaders and skeptical of the faith that they preach.

In two months of interviews with 40 young people in five Iraqi cities, a pattern of disenchantment emerged, in which young Iraqis, both poor and middle class, blamed clerics for the violence and the restrictions that have narrowed their lives.

“I hate Islam and all the clerics because they limit our freedom every day and their instruction became heavy over us,” said Sara, a high school student in Basra. “Most of the girls in my high school hate that Islamic people control the authority because they don’t deserve to be rulers.”

Atheer, a 19-year-old from a poor, heavily Shiite neighborhood in southern Baghdad, said: “The religion men are liars. Young people don’t believe them. Guys my age are not interested in religion anymore.”

The shift in Iraq runs counter to trends of rising religious practice among young people across much of the Middle East, where religion has replaced nationalism as a unifying ideology.

While religious extremists are admired by a number of young people in other parts of the Arab world, Iraq offers a test case of what could happen when extremist theories are applied. Fingers caught in the act of smoking were broken. Long hair was cut and force-fed to its wearer. In that laboratory, disillusionment with Islamic leaders took hold.

It is far from clear whether the shift means a wholesale turn away from religion. A tremendous piety still predominates in the private lives of young Iraqis, and religious leaders, despite the increased skepticism, still wield tremendous power. Measuring religious adherence, furthermore, is a tricky business in Iraq, where access to cities and towns far from Baghdad is limited.

But a shift seems to be registering, at least anecdotally, in the choices some young Iraqis are making.

Professors reported difficulty in recruiting graduate students for religion classes. Attendance at weekly prayers appears to be down, even in areas where the violence has largely subsided, according to worshipers and imams in Baghdad and Falluja. In two visits to the weekly prayer session in Baghdad of the followers of the militant Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr this fall, vastly smaller crowds attended than had in 2004 or 2005.

Such patterns, if lasting, could lead to a weakening of the political power of religious leaders in Iraq. In a nod to those changing tastes, political parties are dropping overt references to religion.

Full story here.

About time the young Iraqis speak up against their religious leaders. About time they realized they have been pawns in the the sectarian violence perpetuated by their religious leaders.

The three Indonesians sentenced to die for the 2002 Bali blasts say that they are ready to be executed and their only regret is that Muslims were among the 202 killed in the attack.Imam Samudra and the brothers Mukhlas and Amrozi are held at the top-security Batu prison, off the southern coast of Java. They were allowed to meet relatives yesterday in what is likely to be the last such visit before they face a firing squad, probably within the next two months.Amrozi became known as the smiling bomber because of his constant grin during his trial. “People ask me, why am I smiling? I am happy because I will be united with 72 angels in heaven,” he said in an interview with Reuters and a local television network. “I have killed many with my bombs. I have been tested by spending time in this prison, but if you make infidels angry you will be rewarded.”

….

“We have no regrets at all,” Mukhlas said. “The Bali bombing was intended to uphold the divine order. My brother Amrozi was visited by a dead friend in a dream last night, who told him that a flying creature with a golden saddle is waiting to take him to heaven. This is why we will not ask for pardon. This is about heaven and hell. Asking for pardon is a big sin.”

Full story here.

No regrets. It is a divine order. That is why Islamists like Muklas cannot be ignored. If we do, we do it at our peril. We cannot underestimate the willingness of those who believe that their killing is divinely inspired, to kill more.

The followers of the Religion of Peace have no problems killing other followers of the same religion. They can do that all they want with each other, but stop doing it to others who do not want to be followers of this suicidal religion!

Iraq: Suicide bomber kills 9 in attack on mosque in Fallujah
Associated Press , THE JERUSALEM POST Aug. 27, 2007

A suicide bomber detonated an explosives belt among worshippers at evening prayers Monday in Fallujah, killing nine people, including the mosque preacher who had been an outspoken opponent of al-Qaida, police said.

Police said 10 people were wounded in the attack, which occurred about 9:30 p.m. at the Raqeeb mosque in the northern part of the city.

The main target was beliebed to be the preacher Abdul Sattar al-Jumaili, whose two sons were also killed. Al-Jumaili had returned to Fallujah from Syria the day before. Police said he often visited Syria because he was on an al-Qaida death list.