forward october issue 09 (preview)

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Forward October 2009

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And yet there are some among mankind who argue about Allah without

knowledge, and follow every evil one obstinate in rebellion

(QS 22:3, Al-Quran)

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OCTOBER 2009 I ISSUE 40

DepartmentsNEWSDAKAR - On the fi rst-ever World Hu-manitarian Day on 19 August, experts say a trend toward integrating aid goals into broader social and security agendas has contributed to an ero-sion of “humanitarian space”.............8

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COVER STORY

Asylum seekers in Malaysia have to fork out huge sums to access healthcare in Malaysia. With most surviving on meagre incomes and many more unemployed, paying the bills for a cure is almost impossible. Forward takes a look at the health issues faced by asylum seekers in Malaysia.

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www.forwardmagazine.com.my

LIVING ISLAMNot many know that there are Muslims in Serbia, let alone a Halal Certifi cation Agency. The agency is the oldest of its kind in the Balkan area.

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POLITICS & SOCIETYThe cow head incident would never have happened in Malaysia had the protestors practiced the very basis of Islam – peace.

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Tell us what you think. We promise to read everything you send, really. Write to: The Editor, Forward Magazine, No. 68-B, Jalan Kampung Attap, 50460 Kuala Lumpur or email us at [email protected]

Departments

Agenda

A Member of:

Maria Zain in Your Say writes:When Gen Y fi rst entered the workforce some 10 years ago, the crystal ball of the Boomers indicated evil omens fl ooding into their territory ................12

Dr. Mesut Idriz in GLOCAL SPECTRUM writes:Though little known locally, Ahmet Davutoglu was the chief architect in establishing the department of political science in IIUM, drawing the vision and mission of the department as well as developed its curriculum until 1993. Now, he is the Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister..................................................22

COMMENTARYAlthough buying and selling human organs are illegal almost everywhere, the World Health Organization estimates that worldwide about 10% of all kidneys transplanted are bought on the black market.

50TRAVELThe mere mention of Pasir Salak makes one recall the tragic event that happened at the time when the British began its invasion of Perak.

Also this month Other Dimension, Musings, Living Islam

Talent of young Muslims must be discovered “from the inside out”. Somehow, Muslim youth must explore themselves enough to discover for themselves what Allah’s unique gifts to them, each one individually, may be.

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SUNDAY

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

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October

2007: Mayor Harvey Rosen and the City Council of Kingston have proclaimed October 2007 to be “Islamic History Month Canada”. . Islamic History Month affi rms the values of Canadian multiculturalism and the universal values Muslims share with all their fellow Canadians. It

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Saturday, October 10

2007 Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, a Malaysian orthopaedic surgeon was the fi rst Malaysian to go into space. He was launched to the International Space Station aboard Soyuz TMA-11 with the Expedition 16 crew on October 10, 2007.

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2002: The 2002 Bali bombings occurred on 12 October 2002 in the tourist district of Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali. The attack was the deadliest act of terrorism in the history of Indonesia, killing 202 people, 152 of whom were foreign nationals, and 38 Indonesian citizens.

Monday, October 12

this month

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Th ursday, October 1

1996: Menara Kuala Lumpur, or KL Tower, was offi cially opened by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad on 1 October 1996. It is one of the world’s tallest telecommunications tower. The KL Tower is 421 meters tall, and sits on top of Bukit Nanas, Kuala Lumpur. The tower borrowed motifs from traditional Islamic design. Within the tower is the Observation Deck, located 276 meters above ground.

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Friday, October 9

2001:Yvonne Ridley a British journalist and Respect Party politician was released from the Taliban and subsequent conversion to Islam. She was captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan whilst working for the Sunday Express and she converted to Islam in the summer of 2003

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Friday, October 2

1187 AD - The City of Jerusalem was at last surrendered The twenty-seventh of Rajab was the anniversary of Al Mi’raj (Ascension) where from this Holy City our Beloved Prophet Mohamed (PBUH) made the famous Celestial journey or (Ascension), through which Jerusalem had become a part of Islamic history and piety since that date.

Th ursday, October 15

Muhammad Anwar Al Sadat, was the third President of Egypt, serving from 15 October 1970 until his assassination on 6 October 1981.

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Quotes“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”— Mohandas K. Gandhi

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself“—Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy “Charity sees the need, not the cause.” —German Proverb

“Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth. —Mohammed Ali

Jabir (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said, “When a Muslim plants a tree, whatever is eaten from it is charity from him and whatever is stolen is charity and whatever is subtracted from it is charity” —Muslim

Nobody can do everything, but everyone can do something. —Author Unknown

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Datuk Jamaluddin Mansor [email protected]

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER/GROUP EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

EDITOR RELIGION RAFLIS SABIRINrafl [email protected]

MMP Communications Sdn Bhd (I46938-W)68-B, Jalan Kampung Attap, 50460 Kuala Lumpur.Tel: +603-2273 5426 Faks: +603-2273 5425

PUBLISHER

PRINTER Times Off set (M) Sdn. Bhd.Bangunan Times Publishing, Lot 46, Subang Hi-Tech Industrial Park,Batu Tiga 40000 Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan.

PRODUCTION & CIRCULATION MANAGER

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

ZULKAFLY BAHARUDDIN [email protected]

AZAM AKBAR RAMAMAMZAKHWAN RIZAKAHMAD NASARUDDIN ABDUL RAHMAN

KHAIRI NG [email protected] ABDUL RAHMANMOHAMAD ZAIRULL MOHD YUSOFSHAHRUL AZRIN SHAHARUDDINZULKEFLEE ABDULLAHWIDYA NATASYA MD SALLEHRIDZUAN BESIRI

HARIZ KAMAL, FARIZA UZMAT, SHAHFIZAL MUSAJOURNALISTS

DATO IR DR A.BAKAR JAAFAR, DR MESUT IDRIZ, DR SULAIMAN DUFFORD, KURAIS ABDULLAHKARIM, SHAMSUL AKMAR, MUHAMMAD FIRDAUS ARIF,NABEELA NAEEM (WASHINGTON D.C)

CONTRIBUTORS

[email protected] ALBINA SARIGRAPHIC DESIGNER

YUSRI SHAKJEE, WAN NAQIUDDIN WAN YAACOB, JASMAN MD NOOR

ASRAF MOHD DAHARI SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

PHOTOGRAPHER

MOHD HAFIZI MD TAHIR

[email protected] KHAIRUDDINART DIRECTOR

OMAR [email protected]

SALES & MARKETINGSENIOR MANAGER

WEB

ARMAN YUSUFPHOTO RESEARCHER

PRODUCTION & CIRCULATION EXECUTIVE

ASSISTANT EDITOR

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

ZAKIAH [email protected] ZAIN

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October

1998: Nipah virus outbreak in Malaysia in October 1998. The virus, which induces fl u-like symptoms that often lead to encephalitis and a coma, jumped the species barrier from fruit bats to pigs and then to humans in a deadly outbreak. Nipah virus caused an outbreak of neurological and respiratory disease on pig farms in Peninsular Malaysia, resulting in 105 human deaths and the culling of over a million pigs.

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Saturday, October 31

2003: After 22 years in offi ce, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad retired on 31 October 2003, making him one of Asia’s longest-serving political leaders.

ASSISTANT MANAGER ACCOUNT NORIZAD MUHAMAD ZAIN

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your say

By Maria Zain

Generation Y are an intimidat-ing lot. They are young, brash, lackadaisical, obnoxious, self-

centred and are too busy twiddling with latest technology to sit in a meeting ta-ble for two hours in a row. Any employ-er could attest to that, some positively, and others not so – the latter being the bosses of the Baby Boomer generation.

When Gen Y first entered the work-force some 10 years ago, the crystal ball of the Boomers indicated evil omens flooding into their territory. Their ba-bies had all grown up and were invading their quiet places – the office. A sanctu-ary that was kid-free and only allotted for that ever-so important adult talk was now being invaded by teenagers who communicated with sulks, snorts and shrugs. The generation war was moving from the home to the office.

Yes, Generation Y is laden with bad images, mostly because they are seen through the eyes of their parents who had been financially re-sponsible for their welfare for nearly

Reset the Culture, Realign the Priorities

two decades. Technically, to them, this brood born between the years of 1978 and 1997 are still children.

But that was before they began unveil-ing their fresh and zesty personalities in the workplace. And that was when the true war began.

The Baby Boomer generation generally view their jobs as their life. They come into work, sit on a desk, attend four meetings a day, enjoy a lunch and a snack – then wrap up their dealings for the day and go home to their families – everyday


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Nor can a soul die except by Allah’s leave, the term being fixed as by

writing. If any do desire a reward in this life, We shall give it to him; and

if any do desire a reward in the Hereafter, We shall give it to him. And

swiftly shall We reward those that (serve us with) gratitude.

(Verse 145, Surah Aali-Imran, Al-Quran)

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glocal spectrum

It should be pointed out that Muslim scholarship and in-tellectual history had two important personalities with quite similar names, except one letter that made it dif-

ferent in spelling. Th e fi rst one was Ahmed Davudoglu and the second, Ah-

met Davutoğlu. Of course, the former is with the Ottoman-Turkish and the latter, with the Modern Turkish spellings.

Although the concern here is Ahmet Davutoğlu, for the knowledge of a global reader, it is nevertheless highly signifi cant to pay a short visit to the former as he was known mostly locally and not globally.

Born in 1912 in Bulgaria, Ahmed Davudoglu gradu-ated from the well-known school of the Ottoman-Bulgaria namely Madrasah al-Nuwwab (Nüvvab Medrese) and then pursued his specialization at Al-Azhar University in Cairo.

Upon his return from Egypt in 1936, he taught in the same school of Madrasah al-Nuwwab until 1944. He was sent to the concentration camp by the Communist regime and in 1949, managed fl ee to Turkey, where he held various high positions in number of cities.

First he was appointed as imam and khatib, then to the of-fi ce of mufti, caretaker of the library at the mosque of Fatih

in Istanbul, lecturer at the faculty of Islamic studies, and fi nally the director of the Institute of Higher Islamic Stud-ies (Yüksek Islam Enstitüsü known to-day as Faculty of Divinity [Ilahiyat]).

Davudoglu translated, edited and authored many works into Turkish language, among them are Sahih Mus-lim wa Sharhuhu (Sahih Muslim and its Commentary), Tafsir al-Tibyan (al-Tibyan the Commentary of the Qur’an), and the translation of the Qur’an with a commentary.

After having a short sketch of Da-vudoglu’s biography, now the other

By Dr. Mesut Idriz

Rise from IIUM Lecturer to Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister

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musings

By Dr Sulaiman Dufford

A professor friend from Saudi has recently decried to me the loss of Mecca to property develop-

ers, and, in general, whom he calls “the great god mammon”. It seems that the boundary still known as “miqat” has be-come meaningless. If outside of “miqat” was the profane world, inside was sup-posed to be the sacred area.

According to him, the formerly sacred heart of Islam has been given over totally to the builders of high buildings, as men-tioned in one of the Hadith about signs of the End of Time. What kind of peo-ple would destroy the sanctity of a city that had served throughout its history as the symbol, if not the actual location, of the end of humankind’s earthly journey, and the doorway to heaven itself?

I remember well when a certain cult smuggled guns into the Masjid al-Har-am area in 1979, then tried to install its leader as the Caliph of all the Muslims. The Saudis could not get them out, so

…coming back from Hajj or Ramadhan Umrah with respiratory

problems due to the cement dust and

other pollution from constant construction of five-star hotels on

land immediately surrounding the Holy Mosque. Where will

the poor people stay?

If outside of “miqat” was the profane world, inside was supposed to be the sacred area.

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Forward October 2009Forward October 2009

cover story3�

We Just Cannot Afford It

Accessing treatment and hospitalization in Malaysia can be costly for the refugees and non

documented asylum seekers. As most of them are only able to live on meagre incomes, and with many more not able to find any employment, paying the bills for a cure is almost impossible.

Zakiah Koya investigates.

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The Balkan region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains, which run through the centre of

Bulgaria into Eastern Serbia. Th e iden-tity of the Balkans is dominated by its geographical position; historically the area was known as a crossroads of vari-ous cultures. However, in the course of history, the Balkans often became a bat-tlefi eld of civilisation confl ict between East and West. Th ese events shook the development of the Islamic community in these areas.

Islam arrived in Serbia 500 years ago through the Ottoman Empire but the Islamic Community of Serbia has only been offi cially recognised in Serbia for the past 142 years. During the war and breakage of Yugoslavia, the Islamic community of Yugoslavia was divided into six new republics – Bosnia, Ser-bia, Macedonia, Croatia, Montenegro and Slovenia.

Th e present Is-lamic Com-munity of S e r b i a (ICS)

By Hariz Kamal

in Serbia

living islam

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politics & society

reality check“To build a nation, first build a school” is a famous saying by Tagore.

Referring to this quote, wouldn’t that make Malaysia a divided nation? Has Malaysia’s nation-building failed on the basis of its divided schools? Wouldn’t divided schools mean a divided nation? Well, perhaps in that

context, Malaysia is indeed a nation divided. So what does it take to unite Malaysia once again? Hariz Kamal questions and explains.

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politics & society

1Malaysia has been emphasised not as a new concept or formula but a familiar one with stronger

message. The ultimate goal of 1Malay-sia is to foster national unity among the multi-ethnic people of Malaysia. Unity as envisioned through the 1Malaysia concept is said to be the opposite of as-similation where ethnic identities are wiped out and replaced with one ho-mogeneous national identity.

1Malaysia values and respects the ethnic identities of each community in Malaysia, and proudly regard them as an advantage. 1Malaysia underlines the value of “Acceptance” among its multi-racial people, where one race embraces the uniqueness of the other so that they may live in mutual respect for each oth-er as a nation.

How do we communicate this to the future generations of Malaysians? Per-haps to ensure Malaysians to know, learn and understand about each other, in the spirit of 1Malaysia, the Malaysian education ministry should introduce Social Studies subject in all

through Education…. Social Studies perhaps?

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politics & society

Prophet Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace) said: ‘Whoever persecuted a non Mus-

lim or took work from him beyond his ca-pacity, or took something from him with evil intentions, I shall be a complainant against him on the Day of Resurrection.’ (Abu Dawud)

He (Allah bless him and give him peace) also said: ‘Whoever hurts a Non-Muslim citizen of a Muslim state, hurts me, and he who hurts me annoys God.’ (Bukhari)

Th e cow head incident would never have happened in Malaysia had the protestors practiced the very basis of Is-lam – peace.

On August 28, three days before Malaysia’s 52nd year of independence, a group of Muslim men, clad in Baju Melayu and skull caps, decided to pro-

test the relocation of the Sri Maha Mari-amman temple from Section 19 to Sec-tion 23, a Muslim-majority area in Shah Alam, Selangor.

Th e demonstrators carried along a bloody head of a severed cow. Th ey dragged the head of the dead animal and stamped, spat and threatened bloodshed in front of the Selangor state secretariat building. Th is was right after comple-tion of the obligatory Friday congrega-tion prayers at a nearby Masjid.

Any Muslim in the true spirit of the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (Al-lah bless him and give him peace) would have been ashamed of his or her broth-ers who made up this disgusting protest. If they had to protest at all, there was no need to curse the other religion and insult their belief structure.

According to Emeritus Professor

Not Islam’s Style

Th e protestors in the recent protest involving a cow head had a right to protest against the relocation of a Hindu temple to their Muslim majority area.

Yet, the question is : have they transgressed Islam’s values in their anger? Zakiah Koya and Maria Zain off er their answer.

Not Islam’s StyleNot Islam’s Style

Cow Head Protest

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Cow Head Protest

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On the authority of Abu Hurairah, who said:

the messenger of Allah said:

Allah the Almighty has said: “Whosoever shows enmity to a friend of

Mine, I shall be at war with him. My servant does not draw near to

Me with anything more loved by Me than the religious duties I have

imposed upon him, and My servant continues to draw near to Me

with supererogatory works so that I shall love him. When I love him I

am his hearing with which he hears, his seeing with which he sees, his

hand with which he strikes, and his foot with which he walks. Were he

to ask [something] of Me, I would surely give it to him and were he to

ask Me for refuge, I would surely grant him it.”

(related by Bukhari)

forward october issue 09 (preview)

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