Imagine...

There is hardly any way to prepare for this. Is this the true End of Days predicted for 2012?

This series of videos should be able to show us in some clarity what the world is abuzz about:

The US Debt:


How the US Dollar will collapse:



Imagine if all currency becomes worthless overnight...what do you have left to barter with?


On a lighter yet serious note:

Islamofascism - A New Buzzword? Listen To Tarek Fatah

Tarek Fatah on Islamofascism. Spend 15 minutes please. Then read RPK's latest posting below.

In other words, we have no say in the matter. Allah will decide when the time is right and whether it will happen or not. Allah will decide whether you are born a Muslim or born a kafir (infidel). Allah will decide whether you become a sinful Muslim or a good Muslim. Allah will decide whether the sinful Muslim finally repents and becomes a good Muslim. Without Allah’s will, nothing will happen.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Demos in Selangor and Penang to show support for Jais

(The Star) - Demonstrations were held in Selangor and Penang in support of the Selangor Islamic Affairs Department (Jais) operation during a multiracial dinner at the Damansara Utama Methodist Church (DUMC).

A group calling itself Gerakan Anti-Murtad (Anti-Apostate Movement) would lodge a police report in every district of Selangor so that investigations could be carried out against the DUMC, said spokesperson Datuk Zulkifli Noordin.

The Kulim Bandar Baru MP said this after Friday prayers at the Sultan Salehuddin Abdul Aziz Shah mosque in Shah Alam yesterday.

Also present were Senator Mohamed Ezam Mohd Noor, PAS members and the movement's supporters.

Ezam said the movement had nothing against non-Muslims, but would wage war against those “who were rude and who tarnished Islam”, including by burning down online news portals.

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You will notice one thing about the Malays-Muslims. They are very preoccupied with getting non-Muslims to become Muslims. And they are paranoid about Muslims renouncing Islam.

Maybe what happened at the DUMC did happen. Maybe the allegations are true. I was not there but I have been told that the allegations are not entirely false. Nevertheless, I go by what the Malays would normally tell me.

If you ask a ‘sinful’ Malay why he does not stop his gambling and drinking and womanising and go to Mekah to repent and to perform the pilgrimage, he would reply, “Allah belum gerak hati lagi.” This translates to ‘Allah has not moved my heart yet’.

When a non-Muslim becomes a Muslim, the Malays would say, “Allah buka hati dia.” And this means Allah has opened his or her heart (to become a Muslim).

If you ask an ustaz (religious teacher) why Allah made only 20% of the world Muslim while 80% are non-Muslims, and why did Allah not make 100% of the world Muslim, the ustaz would reply, “Only Allah knows.”

In short: this is all Allah’s will and Allah could make you Muslim or He could make you non-Muslim and it is up to Him to open your heart to receive Islam or to repent your ‘evil ways’ and go to Mekah to perform the pilgrimage.

In other words, we have no say in the matter. Allah will decide when the time is right and whether it will happen or not. Allah will decide whether you are born a Muslim or born a kafir (infidel). Allah will decide whether you become a sinful Muslim or a good Muslim. Allah will decide whether the sinful Muslim finally repents and becomes a good Muslim. Without Allah’s will, nothing will happen.

Now, that is a most interesting concept. This means I may be born a Muslim but be born a bad Muslim because Allah has not opened my heart to become a good Muslim. This also means, later on in life, Allah may open my heart and I will see the error of my ways and repent to become a good Muslim.

Then again, Allah may will it that I be born a non-Muslim and, later on in life, convert to Islam when Allah opens my heart to Islam. Or, Allah may never open my heart and I may die a non-Muslim like 80% of the population of the world.

The crux of this whole issue is Allah decides and wills it and what happens (or does not happen) can never happen without the will of Allah. And only when Allah wills it or opens our heart will we see something happen -- and not otherwise and not before that.

Okay, based on this ideology, what about when someone is born a Muslim and later leaves Islam? Could this ever happen if Allah does not will it? Would it not be Allah who opens your heart to make you leave Islam?

Everything that happens is the will of Allah and everything you do is because Allah has moved or opened your heart into doing it. So, when you leave Islam is this not also Allah’s doing?

This is the confusing part about the argument on the will of Allah. You will never be born a Muslim without Allah deciding this will happen. You will never convert to Islam without Allah deciding this will happen. When you decide to leave Islam does Allah not also have a say in the matter? Is this not His will?

As I said, Malays-Muslims are preoccupied with non-Muslims becoming Muslims and paranoid about Muslims leaving Islam. So we now have a Gerakan Anti-Murtad (Anti-Apostate Movement) organising demonstrations in the Pakatan states to protest those leaving Islam.

I am not so concerned about Muslims leaving Islam because if it is true that nothing happens without the will of Allah then no Muslim can ever leave Islam unless Allah wills it. What I am more concerned about is Munafiq(hypocritical) and Fasiq (sinful) Muslims.

Why don’t these people also launch a Gerakan Anti-Munafiq dan Anti-Fasiq (Anti-Hypocrites and Anti-Sinners Movement)? We should perang (declare war) on Muslims who kill, rape, rob, steal, cheat, swindle, abuse their power, lie, and do all sorts of evil things that give Islam a bad name.

We should not worry about the quantity. After all, 80% of the world is non-Muslim anyway. We should worry about the quality. We do not want Muslims who have no scruples, compassion, honesty, ethics, values, etc. We want Muslims who demonstrate the ideals and ethics of Islam. We want Muslims who demonstrate what a good Muslim should be like. We want Muslims who show what a good Muslim is so that we can be proud of Islam.

That should be the perjuangan (struggle) for Muslims.

Mummy's Boys

JJ 4-Eyes

JJ finally joined the 4-eyed brigade; mild but still... Too much face time with computer screen probably.

Check out his blogpost:

http://jiejuan.blogspot.com/2011/08/never-knew-this-day-would-come.html

Prince Cheah

HRH Prince Cheah turned 11 on 27th July. His cake? A slice of Mille Crepe from Food Foundry.

Most dogs will rush to eat the cake rather than pose for a photo first. But then, most dogs are not like Prince who does not think he is a dog and justifiably so!

Luis Alberto Suárez

Where can Luis Suarez take Liverpool this season? Nowhere...if the defensive leaks are not plugged.

Eh? Apa Ini?

A direct salvo aimed at Najib? IJ is obviously the driving force behind Najib's transformation plans and implementations.

Pot calling kettle black? I can hardly make sense of Idris Jala's PowerPoint slides myself but Khairy Jamaluddin who makes some sense this time, what track record has he got? Does this dispel rumors which were floating around when Sleepy Head was PM, that KJ was behind Air Asia? Well, maybe not. So many questions these days with nary a straight answer.

This was in The Malaysian Insider.

Khairy questions Idris Jala’s track record

By Shannon Teoh

August 09, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 9 — Khairy Jamaluddin ridiculed today Datuk Seri Idris Jala’s track record during his tenure as Malaysian Airlines Bhd (MAS) boss as well as the minister in charge of Putrajaya’s Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu).

The Umno Youth chief posted on micro-blogging site Twitter that “running a beleaguered premium flag carrier needs more imagination than being able to give a slick ppt presentation or unbundling its assets.”

“I think one of Idris Jala’s best career move was leaving MAS to become Minister. He didn’t actually need to run MAS beyond ‘turnaround’,” the Rembau MP added, referring to questions raised over Jala’s record as MAS chief executive.

The imminent share swap between the national carrier and thriving budget airline AirAsia has cast the spotlight on Jala’s four years at MAS.

After being appointed to the position by the Barisan Nasional (BN) government in 2005, he implemented a turnaround plan from a nine-month loss of RM1.3 billion in 2005 to a record profit of RM850 million in 2007.

But Khairy’s (picture)tweets today reflected criticism levelled at the minister in the Prime Minister’s Separtment, that he achieved healthy figures through asset stripping, a strategy that he has repeated as part of the administration’s Economic Transformation Programme (ETP).

The ETP, which aims to double per capita income by 2020, will see “non-core” government and government-linked-company assets being divested, a move some say reflects the Treasury’s need for additional cash.

“While we’re on IJ, Pemandu officers should not be briefing re latest NKRA KPIs. Should be the Ministers. Accountability. Pemandu unelected,” Khairy said, an apparent reference to criticism that Jala’s unit has taken over operations in the Najib administration.

He also said that as Jala could not save MAS operationally, the government should not rule out any candidate to take over as chief executive from Tengku Datuk Azmil Zahruddin, who replaced Jala in 2009.

“Can’t rule anyone out. Even pilots,” he wrote.

The state-owned airline has already had two rights issues since Jala took over, raking in RM1.6 billion in 2007 and RM2.67 billion in 2010 to fund its operations and fleet purchases.

Industry experts said that a further injection of cash will not save MAS as “operational fixes” are required.

Most recently, it recorded a first-quarter net loss of RM242.3 million against a profit of RM310.6 million in the same period a year ago. 

Brilliant On Brilliance

A brilliant comment by MN Taib in my Tigers EGroup about that 8TV advertisement. Please read:


Tigers,

As Paddy Nordin said that the advert from Grand Brilliance was really stupid (Grand brilliance, my ass). What is even more stupid is making mountains of Pamela Anderson's tits, as it were. Utusan Malaysia is making a racist "pig's b'fast" out of it.  We are, today, in a hysteria mode, and it does lower the morale of those who believe that the Malaysian plural society is a fait accompli.

The JAIS raid accompanied by the PDRM was the height of stupidity. It was impulsive, like a drunk from Ole Scool Pub in Jalan Gasing. The OCPD who approved the allocation of his policemen to the task must be mad. No research was done, and only to discover that the dinner was for a HIV/AIDS charity.

Episodes like the above are very divisive for our interaction in the multi-religious milieu that we live in.

These unfortunate blunders emanate from Dr. M's and DSAI's ill-conceived "penerapan nilai-nilai Islam" - It drove the Malays retrogressively way back beyond Siput Sarawak, Saloma, Kasmah Booty and Romai Noor. There's so much asininity, and lack of thinking. Everything the Agama people does is reaction. We now have a parallel civil service of the offices of Agama Islam and the civil service based on the old Brit system. The Agama officers are flexing their muscles, and as I see it, nobody has the moral courage to discipline them. The efficiency of our civil service is eroded by the lack of understanding of the English Language. Have you heard of the expression, " buta huruf"?

Anyway. I shall carry on as usual with my Christmases and New Year celebs, and I shall osculate lovingly the bird that stands under my mistletoe.

The Weak Should Not Fast?

I do not know if this video is now banned but since it is freely available on You Tube, I suppose banning it would be as silly as airing the advert in the first place. But one never knows for sure these days.




Anyway, as I have said before, if there are more Muslims like Art Harun there would be more Muslims. In his latest blogpost he says everything I wanted to say on the matter. Please read:

Syabas 8TV!

By now, many of us would have been aware of the “public service” advertisements which have been pulled out by 8TV.

For those who have not seen it yet, the  awesome “public service” advertisements could be accessed via a Malaysian Insider report yesterday.

It is amazing that some people could take leave from their intelligence in full public view nowadays. And we seem to be doing it with the consistency of Datuk Nicole Davids in the squash courts. Syabas.

The thing which struck me was the nonchalant attitude shown by Media Prima chief operating officer Ahmad Izham Omar when the advertisements were creating a storm in cyberspace yesterday. He was reported as saying, on his twitter account:

“Chill guys. Don’t overthink the ads. Its written, produced and directed by a multi-racial team. If you overanalyse, anything will be bad.”

As a media man, he should know that a message driven public service advertisement would at some point of time be dissected and analysed by the very target of those advertisements. And when the advertisements turn stereotyping into an art, surely they will touch on raw nerves.

One does not have to “overthink” about those advertisements to find them offensive and insensitive. The fact that it was produced by a “multi-racial team” does not negate the somewhat insidious stereotyping contained in the advertisements.

The advice to “chill out” was, to me, even more insulting than the advertisements themselves.

Speaking of insult, I am sure many Muslims would find those advertisements insulting as well. How weak are we, Muslims? We would be breaking fast when we see other people eat or drink? Or we would be having a hard-on at a pasar Ramadhan when we see girls in sleeveless tank top showing their arm pit eh?

The ritual of fasting is meant to cleanse not only our physical body but also our soul. We are supposed to be humbled by the experience of fasting. We are supposed to learn the sufferings of those who are not as lucky as we are, those who do not have food and drinks like us day in day out throughout the year as opposed to only 30 days or so a year.

Why are we so weak so much so that we have to ask people of other faith not to drink or eat in front of us? For God’s sake, the Prophet and his followers fought the Badar battle on the 17th day of Ramadhan in the year 624. And here, now in 2011, we seek the non-Muslims’ understanding not to eat in front of us in Ramadhan. Awesome.

I just love seeing how the Chinese-looking girl was portrayed as a greedy person trying to make a pig out of herself with all the food. If 8TV crew could go to one of those hotels which serves the RM100++ buka puasa buffet, perhaps they would see that Muslims too put mountainous amount of food on their plate too which at the end is not consumed.

There are many messages which could be delivered during Ramadhan. Messages about how we all should be moderate in our buka puasa meals; about how we all should not forget the sufferings of those in poverty and those children who have to work on the streets of Chow Kit to fend for  themselves; about how we all should not just think that Ramadhan is all about avoiding food and drink in day time; about how we should all strive to respect each other, to treat each other with good manners and in civility; about how we should all detoxify our soul from greed, corruption, intoxication with all things materials etc etc.

Instead we chose to demean our neighbours and friends with insensitive and almost senseless stereotyping this Ramadhan. Just a few days ago I remember our Honourable Prime Minister preaching for acceptance instead of tolerance. What have the people at 8TV learned from that exhortation?

Well, the advertisements have been pulled out. The  chief operating officer of Media Prima had  reportedly said:

“Ok guys. We’re pulling out the ads. Thank you very much for your concern.”

He followed up by asking:

“And now to more important things... Does a horn section sound better with 4 trombones? Or would just 3 trombones be enough?”

Yes, life goes on, isn’t it? There are much more important things in life.

As for the horn section with 3 or 4 trombones, I would surely hope 8TV is not going to air a programme on it. Because I fear they might just go and inspect some horns on some cars and air their findings.