Critical Thoughts

This has to be one of the most silliest ideas ever promulgated by the Barisan Nasional government…to taint the Merdeka eve celebrations with the introduction of Western values and culture, contrary to the Malaysian spirit of struggle against those very same influences 51 years ago.  I simply do not understand the “logic” behind this. It defies basic common sense and makes mockery of the religious values that we have practised in this country for so long.

DPPWP issued a media statement on the issue and are working towards stopping this event from taking place and tainting our history.

Who was Dr Ismail Raji Al-Faruqi?

Ismail Raji al-Faruqi (January 1, 1921 – May 27, 1986) was a Palestinian-American philosopher who was recognized by his peers as an authority on Islam and comparative religion. He spent several years at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, then taught at several universities in North America, including McGill University in Montreal. He was Professor of Religion at Temple University, where he founded and chaired the Islamic Studies program.

The Ismail Faruqi Online website was first initiated by myself after I contacted DSAI and he put me in touch IIIT to work in collaboration with them in 2006. Due to several outstanding issues and personal matters that I had to deal with, the site was put on a backburner in 2007 but remains active.

I have collected various papers published by Dr. Faruqi during this period (and with some help from IIIT) but I have decided to take over the project 100%.

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Coming soon…a name card fit for a “Muslim Internet Activist” (oh yeah, that’s yours truly!). I already had a business card done previously which I am planning to send to the printers soon, so I thought, “why not make another name card that covers my Islamic activism side”? Hence the name card that you see above. I kinda like it, it reflects my personal identity and reflect strong Islamic roots that I would like to present to others. It still needs some work though but I expect it to be done very soon for a final version.

Here’s another reason for you:

A British lady was arrested in Dubai and faces up to six years in jail for having drunken sex on the beach and calling a police officer a “f***ing Muslim”, press reported Wednesday.

Michelle Palmer, 30, was having sex with a British tourist, identified only as Vince, on Dubai’s trendy Jumeirah beach when a police officer spotted the pair, The Sun tabloid revealed.

The police officer initially let the pair off with a warning, but was forced to take action when he returned to find they had ignored him. When he tried to stop them Palmer allegedly tried to hit him with her shoe, while shouting you “f***ing Muslim ****”, the paper said.

And you still wonder why Westerners are not welcomed in the Muslim world? I wonder what will happen if a Muslim were to do the same on British soil?

It is a common Christian argument that Jesus’ (P) original name is “Yeshua`“, which they claim means “salvation” in Hebrew. However, the entry “Yeshua`” in Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon elicits an interesting entry that is contrary to what they are claiming.

[H. W. F. Gesenius (S. M. Tregelles [tr.]), Gesenius’s Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon To The Old Testament Scriptures, 1881, Samuel Bagster & Sons: London (UK), p. 373]

We can see from the scanned entry above that the word means “that which is delivered, safe”, with the evidence of usage in Isaiah 26:1, 18. “Yeshua`” does not exist as a word other than as this name. Another name involving this root is “Jeshua`” (Joshua), which means ‘God + save’, just like many other Hebrew names, such as “Yehonatan” - ‘God gave’, “Yehoshafat” - ‘God judged’. In other words, “Yeshua`” is clearly related to a group of words meaning “save”.

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