Obama and Smoking

Image via Wikipedia

Ha..Ha..Ha.., Mr President-Elect struggled to explain himself about his smoking habit. I do smoke occasionally although I don’t really enjoy it. Smoking is definitely bad but smoking does not make a person bad, it is merely an escapism…..

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Religion and Politic

Image by Elias Pirasteh via Flickr

“Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Adha to everbody”!! Haj is one of the pillars in Rukun Islam and it is highly demanded to Muslims who can afford. For Malaysian, we are quite lucky because we have Tabung Haji which has been providing good service to Muslims when they perform their Haj. There was a report recently that our Malaysian hajjs are in good condition.

Most Malaysians do not really follow what is actually going on in Mecca during the pligrimage because it’s an annual event. It’s common to them unless their parents, siblings, children or relatives are there this year or if an accident or mishaps happen. Otherwise it’s just a routine timetable to Muslim in Malaysia. Before, it was a big deal when somebody in the family decide to do Haj. It’s like the whole Kampong would celebrate and pray. Nowadays it is not such a big deal because the number of Malaysian performing Haj is much greater than during our grandfathers and their ancestors. Good job Tabung Haji!!

Now, the pligrims amounting to three million are gathering at Arafah, Mina and Mudzalifah to perform the required rituals. But, some of them are taking this opportunity to stage a protest against the USA. It’s was allowed because it’s being organised in tents. Notwithstanding, we are not at all times in agreement with the superpowers, but to show our anger during this important time between man and their god, I don’t entirely agree with the action taken by the pilgrims from Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and Bahrain. This instance will definitely offer a chance to the Westerners to continue linking Islam and Terrorism. They will label Muslim as exteremists. But on the other hand, who are we to condemn the protesters who are mostly in a war against the USA and its alliances. We do not actually understand their suffering neither that we are doing enough to help them in this difficult time. How can we help if we ourselves cannot even be united. May be, staging such protest is their only avenue..only god knows.

Islam is a religion of peace. Muslim can only go to war to protect themselves. We are forbidden to initiate an aggresive act against anybody regardless of religion. Muslims of many madh’hab (school of thoughts) are struggling to unify themselves in this dire time, and it’s ironic because muslim’s population in the world is huge. So, Muslim can not use this saying “the more the merrier” as we pray to Allah to bless us. The question is, religion and politic, should they mix or not?

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