civil rights

Prof: Here’s how you curb Islamic extremism

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Source: FMT News

Among other suggestions, Prof Mohamad Tajuddin Mohamad Rasdi says emphasis should be placed on the fact that no one has complete knowledge over everything. Pic taken from FMT News.

Among other suggestions, Prof Mohamad Tajuddin Mohamad Rasdi says emphasis should be placed on the fact that no one has complete knowledge over everything. Pic taken from FMT News.

PETALING JAYA: Islamic extremism in the country stems from the education and training of everyday Muslims, according to Professor Mohamad Tajuddin Mohamad Rasdi of UCSI University.

Speaking to FMT, Tajuddin said to curb extremism, Muslims have to look at how they educate their children, including emphasising that no one has complete knowledge over everything.

He cited the fact that many Muslims in the country believed that non-Muslims were damned.

“How do you know this for certain? Are you saying you know for sure what God has in store for the non-Muslims?

“Even in the Quran it says that all our knowledge is only a drop in the ocean compared with divine knowledge.” Read more →

Engendering freedom — Tunku ‘Abidin Muhriz

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Source: The Malay Mail Online

BY TUNKU ‘ABIDIN MUHRIZ

MARCH 18 — Over the course of last week and this week, there have been many events celebrating International Women’s Day, which fell on March 8 — in very different ways from its first commemoration by the Socialist Party of America in New York in 1909.

When asked whether I am a “feminist,” I reply “of course, because I believe in individual human rights for everyone, regardless of the various attributes we happen to possess.”

On the whole, this answer is met with approval. But occasionally, I meet the more militant type of feminist who insists this is not good enough, due to historical exploitation by men and persistent institutional biases against women, and therefore extra measures or additional privileges are necessary, even if temporarily.

In such cases, I cannot help but think of the more militant type of ethnonationalist who routinely argues for authoritarian measures to “correct” racial imbalances, usually using the power of the state. Unfortunately, the record of well-intentioned affirmative action policies, especially in our country, is discouraging. Read more →

Understanding the phenomenon that is terrorism – P Sundramoorthy

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Source: FMT News

By P SUNDRAMOORTHY

Pic taken from FMT News

Pic taken from FMT News

The social phenomenon of violent acts of terrorism has an intellectual and behavioural context that needs to be objectively analysed without prejudice. Many would argue that the way to counter acts of terrorism is to address the supposed grievances that arise from deprivation of civil rights, human rights and democracy. Then is the deliberate targeting of civilians, to indiscriminately murder and maim innocent children, women and men, not the deprivation of such rights? If it were not, then national and international conflicts and struggles for civil rights, human rights and democracy by using violence may be justified by extremist and terror groups. This mindset is most dangerous. Read more →