Is this mufti for real or what?

Malaysians from all walks of life are currently caught up in the euphoria of the Olympics especially the badminton matches which involved our players who are mainly of Chinese descent.  Walk into any public eatery, you will see Malays, Chinese, Indians and Eurasians huddled together cheering our teams on.

But here comes the anti-climax in the form of the Perak mufti (he doesn't even deserve a capital 'M' to his position) who now warns Malays to be aware of the nons.  He couldn't have chosen a better moment than this to make his statement, which like Berita Harian and Kosmo, will be roasted by netizens nationwide.

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Perak Mufti Harussani Zakaria admits there is nothing “haram” about non-Muslim maids working for Muslim families. However, he agrees with the Immigration Department’s move to bar Muslims from hiring non-Muslim maids in order to protect the faith of their children.

According to the good mufti, “non-Muslim maids are smart” and therefore could influence Muslim children to adopt practices from their own religions.

I never knew the mufti possessed this kind of sixth sense. However, since he is a mufti, I guess his advice does carry some weight. After all, muftis are people of great wisdom.

However, I am confused. According to an authenticated hadith, the Prophet had a personal servant who was a Jew. The servant’s duties included bringing him water for his ablutions.

Was the Prophet not fearful of having a non-Muslim around him when the Jew could easily influence his family members?

But then again, if our beloved Prophet was alive today, I am sure instead of supporting the ban, he would advise our Muslim mothers to stay home to care for their families and educate their own children without having to hand over this responsibility to a domestic helper whose task should be about maintaining the household and not the family.

For what it’s worth, allow me to say that we are indeed lucky to have our wise muftis and authorities who are always keen on protecting the faith of Muslims. After all, we, fragile Muslims are not capable enough to protect ourselves and are in need of a bodyguard team to always ensure the path we follow is free from those who can potentially taint our souls.

While we are at it, I would like to ask our wise mufti and other government authorities to also look into other possible situations that could likely expose our Muslim brothers and sisters, not forgetting our children too, to the influence of the non-Muslims. After all, we can never trust what goes on inside their filthy minds. They could be creating a master plan to spread their own beliefs among us.

Taking this into consideration, I suggest the following be banned too:

• Non-Muslim teachers teaching Muslim students
• Non-Muslim doctors and nurses treating Muslim patients
• Non-Muslim employers employing a Muslim workforce
• Non-Muslim caretakers attending to Muslim seniors at nursing homes
• Non-Muslim ministers in charge of the welfare of the Muslim population

Perhaps a much better idea would be to stop non-Muslims from getting involved in any area where Muslims have a presence. Therefore there should be no non-Muslim cooks, waiters, builders, contractors, firemen, policemen, guards, plumbers and even fishmongers who are directly involved with Muslims. For all we know, each of them is trying to shake our faith in one way or another.

So yeah, let us not only ban non-Muslim maids from working for Muslim families. Let us ban all non-Muslims from having anything to do with Muslims.

A good way to achieve this would be to segregate Muslims from non-Muslims. By the way, the filthy money made by non-Muslims and the filthy tax paid by non-Muslims shall not be used for the benefit of Muslims as well. We are after all dignified Muslims, are we not?

[Source: FMT]

The tenacity of the Malaysian Chinese schools

The perpetual struggles, persecutions, intimidations and challenges faced by the Chinese schools in Malaysia. Through it all, the stakeholders persevere to overcome all these obstacles to provide a quality education for our children sake. These human capital can compete globally with their multi-lingual literacy and skills.

How the Board of Trustees Make Vernacular Schools a Success...

The Denial:

The education or language nationalists don't want to touch on the real reason why vernacular schools seem to have higher quality: Accountability through the independent board of trustee system.

The Rejection:

Vernacular schools are essentially semi-private schools. They have had the gut to stand up against the Ministry of Education, and refused to let MOE have full control over the school land and building - especially the front lines of canteens and bookstores.

The Source of Anger:

That is very upsetting to the UMNO-controlled MOE, because then UMNO's local division chiefs' cronies can't get into the expensive business of selling questionable quality milk and stuff for perpetual profit in a neighbouring school near you. They also can't go secure huge contracts from MOE that costs 3-4 times needed to build and expand on these lands and buildings.

The Retaliation:

The UMNO-controlled MOE retaliates by refusing to pay for the capex - everything to do with more classroom, furniture, buildings, staffroom, toilet, fencing, sports facilities, utility, infrasturcture, etc. Naturally.

MOE still pays for the personnel - or else it would have even less leverage over the headmasters, admin and teachers. It wouldn't have been able to summon these staff to time-wasting, brainwashing, school-intefering, multi-day, seminars that cost another set of bombs to stage.

The Hardship:

So for their "recalcitrance," MOE makes sure the vernacular schools are the poor cousins in national education system - often having to beg for left over old desks, and chairs, etc, from nearby national schools where individual administrators are often very gracious to give.

Having refused them the capex, MOE also skims on the non-personnel operating expenses, such as for electricity, copiers, etc. Where some is provided, it is often indirectly via the completely unreliable crony contractors, such as for "security" guards service that are really insecure.

Then why do vernacular schools hold out?

Fortunately, by refusing to give up school land and building to MOE (unlike the well-intended but more naive missionary schools that did not insist on this), the vernacular schools got to keep their board of directors or trustees.

This is a crucial governance tool:

When there's a need for more capital expenditure, where school building expansion is constantly needed (wonder why) - the schools have had to turn to the board of directors to raise the funds. (The nationalists' most-hated NGO Dongzhong is their umbrella organization). It's always hard to raise money.

The accountability:

These board of trustees have to go yearly to the local communities to raise funds, to beg - one way or another - to promise quality, accountability, performance, more responsive teachers, better discipline, moral standards, safety, better traffic flow despite the hugely distorted student body ... in short everything good in education ....

They have to deliver on these promises to the local sponsoring businesses, hawkers, parents, beer companies, religious bodies, ... basically all stakeholders. For example, part of the money raised during the ghost season which noise annoys you so much always go to a local vernacular school. Often also part of the money you contribute to a funeral wake. (Is there a better model for local accountability and transparency in education?).

The personality:

These members of board of directors can be brash and confident - they have to - to take responsibility, do marketing, protect the head master/mistress from more MOE meddling, etc. Their independent characters grate on the MOE but they get things done. They guard the school like it is their own garden, to grow, to bloom. It is often their remaining purpose in life. They are accomplished business people who know how to grow things - business and people.

The motivation:

They do this for what? Because that is often the highest purpose in life for them - often doing it out of respect for their own deceased parents - who probably nagged them more than a few times: Son, if you can, when you can, make sure to improve our schools for the children.

The result:

Here you have it - The board of directors or trustees system - the decentralized power structure that the nationalists don't want to highlight in case you also ask for it. That is why Mahathir and others hate them so much. (By programming the media to hate DJZ automatically, they stop you from seeing how the educational system can be cleaned up and improved.) Yet they accomplish so much.

You do not know what joy and ecstasy is like until you are freed from the yolk of ISIS

Ecstatic Syrian civilians have been shaving off their beards, burning their burqas, smoking and dancing in the streets after being freed from Isis.

The jubilant celebrations were seen in the Syrian city of Manbij on Friday, where militants have been driven out after months of fighting by US-backed rebel groups.

Families ran through rubble-strewn streets, past the ruins of buildings destroyed in air strikes, carrying their babies and belongings.

[Read rest of article, and video here]