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Happy Merdeka Day. After 52 years of independence, we still have not moved from not respecting other races and religions. This year’s Merdeka Day was tarnished by an appalled act by some residences of a certain city in Malaysia. I can try to understand the frustration of the residences over the plan to build a Hindu Temple within the vicinity of their homes. But, does that justify their actions? I seriously do not think so, especially the Hindus are not the party to blame in this issue. The Hindus in the area has as much rights as their Muslim neighbours for a place of worship. That is one fact that no one could deny. But, it is the authority that has the power to decide where and the places of worship can and cannot be built. Of course this is a delicate matter, but an intelligent authority would definitely be able to handle this matter swiftly without this turned into a racial issue. I honestly have no solution because I have no access to population data of the area. And I certainly ...

As you can see, I only have three weeks left before my final exam starts. This would be my last exam as a university student. Monday 19th May 2008 - Statistics & Econometrics Wednesday 21st May 2008 - Human Resource Management Friday 23rd May 2008 - Financial Management Tuesday 27th May 2008 - Business Economics Wednesday 28th May 2008 - Business Information Systems Thursday 29th May 2008 - International Marketing "Oh Allah, make useful for me what you have taught me and teach me knowledge that will be useful to me. Oh Allah, I ask you for the understanding of the prophets and the memory of the messengers, and those nearest to You. Oh Allah, make my tongue full of your remembrance and my heart with consciousness of You. Oh Allah, You do whatever You wish, and You are my availer and protector and best of aid. Blessings of Allah be upon Muhammad and his progeny. Oh Allah, I ask you, the one who mentions goodness and actualizes it and commands it, remind me of that which satan ma...

What do you think about MMT – Mecca Meridian Time? Apparently, during a conference in Qatar, Muslim clerics and scientists are calling for the adoption of time as the point of reference instead of Greenwich Meridian Time (GMT). The reason for this is because geologists have found that lies in prefect alignment with the magnetic north. Mecca, has been the direction all Muslims face when they perform their daily prayers. I applaud them for actually having this kind of studies to enrich the knowledge of the Muslims about science and technology. And this news is a fresh breath to me especially because I am tired of hearing news about extremism among Muslims. However, regarding the call to change from GMT to MMT, I have only one thing to say – if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it. SOURCE: BBC

Freedom of speech – a very powerful phrase that can bring down a government or even someone’s life. There are people who are willing to die defending Freedom of Speech and there are also people who are willing to die making sure Freedom of Speech dies. Regardless of whatever we believe, we have to acknowledge that Freedom of Speech is very important to us. It allows us to speak our minds and allows us to think freely. It also allows to do things that we think are right without fear of being oppressed by anybody. However, we all should realise that Freedom of Speech is not a one-way street and with freedom, comes responsibility. I guess, you should see where am I going when I talk about this subject. Yes, I am going to talk about one short film that have caused the Muslims around the world to call JIHAD against the person who made the film. As a Muslim, I have watched the movie and I am appalled by two things. I am appalled by the way the maker of the film interpreted the Holy Koran...

I guess it’s time to tell everyone that I am already back in Wye. Third year has been so busy that I didn’t have time to write anything here since I got back. And I haven’t even called my family yet since I flew back to the UK last week. The only contact I had with them was an SMS saying that I had safely arrived at Wye. I guess I will give my family a call on Aidil Fitri this Saturday. Speaking of which, I’d like to wish everyone Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri of Eid-Ul-Fitr (whichever one is preferable to you). To be honest, I am not quite in a mood to celebrate Aidil Fitri this year. Don’t ask me why because I really don’t know and that’s why last night I came out with this idea of skipping Raya. Have you watched the movie Christmas With The Kranks? Yeah, in that movie the Kranks were planning to skip Christmas. So, can I actually skip Raya? I don’t think it will be possible since I already brought back with me from Malaysia two containers of tart and ingredients to cook Rendang and ...

I just received my accommodation offer for the next academic year. And just like my exam results, I received the offer through e-mail. For some reasons, everything seems to be done electronically these days. I have no qualms about moving into this IT era but it is irritating when these electronic systems have minor glitches. Take my results for example, the email says, in order for me to retrieve my results, I have to log on to student service website. Sounds easy eh? Not quite. It took me almost half a day typing in my username and password over and over again before it finally let me to log in. While my other friends already flooding my facebook wall with their results, I was still trying to figure out how to log in. Same thing happened with my accommodation offer. Only this time, it took me half an hour to log into the accommodation website. Cannot wait to see which room I get this time, I click on the ‘view offer’ link and turns out that, they just gave me my hall and not my room n...

So, how was Turkey? I cannot really answer that question because my holiday in Turkey was only in Istanbul. But what I can say is, Istanbul is GREAT! I think, my holiday in Istanbul is one of the best holidays so far. Firstly, my vacation in Istanbul is not like my any other vacation in a way that I did not stay in hotels or hostels, but I stayed with the Turkish themselves. In a way, it was more like a home stay programme rather than a normal holiday. Secondly, I went to Istanbul ALONE. I was supposed to go to Turkey with my Turkish friend who is in the same course with me, but he cancelled his plan at the last minute. So, I flew to Istanbul alone and spent my four days with his friends, who are totally strangers to me. Below is a picture of the Bosporus with the Europe on the left and Asia on the right. At first, I was a bit worried about the prospect of going to a foreign country and staying with people whom I had never met. I shared my concern with my friends like Fatih, Cheeno, Fr...

I met a Mormon last week, which will make that my first encounter with a Mormon. Mormon, for those of you who haven’t heard of it, is actually a religion. It is another branch of Christianity in a way that both religions accept Jesus as the son of God. The difference between the two is, Christians believe in Trinity while the Mormons don’t. To be honest, I first came to know about Mormon from South Park. At first I thought Mormon is more popular in the US, but this friend of mine told me that Mormon is actually a bigger organisation in Europe compared to the US. In his own words, “We are everywhere.” Well, it sounded creepier when he said that to me last week. Ha-ha. He actually pointed out that there is a Mormon church being built in Ashford and the fact that there is also a church in front of Tanaka Business School in London. He also told me that in as a Mormon, one cannot drink alcohol, one cannot smoke, and one cannot have pre-marital sex. And since he had been a Mormon from the ag...

There are just too many pretentious Muslims in Malaysia right now. I received an email saying that the latest advertisement by DIGI advocates Christianity. It seems that the song played in the advertisement was one of the songs sung by Christian choir. Since I am in the UK, and have no access to Malaysian television, I looked up the advertisement in YouTube and I found the advertisement and watched it. Honestly, I found the advertisement quite creepy because it shows a yellow thing following you wherever you go. The message is to show that DIGI network coverage are expanding and will follow its customers wherever they go. It is amusing but in a creepy kind of way. And the background music was indeed a remake of a song called I Will Follow Him. Then I tried to find the connection between the song and Christianity, and all I could find is a clip from film Sister Act which shows the scene where Whoopi Goldberg and her colleagues singing I Will Follow Him to the Pope. OK, first of all, the...

Today is a very significant day to me. Six years ago, today was the day where my life changed and brought me to where I am now. There were some regrets and mistakes, but that was what we all called, life. We did certain things and we learn from it and then we became a better person for each new day. Last term, I learnt about contract law in my Business Law course and I always wonder what the Quran says about contract law. Today, I found what did the Quran says in Surah Al-Baqarah verse 55. يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ إِذَا تَدَايَنتُم بِدَيْنٍ إِلَى أَجَلٍ مُّسَمًّى فَاكْتُبُوهُ وَلْيَكْتُب بَّيْنَكُمْ كَاتِبٌ بِالْعَدْلِ وَلاَ يَأْبَ كَاتِبٌ أَنْ يَكْتُبَ كَمَا عَلَّمَهُ اللّهُ فَلْيَكْتُبْ وَلْيُمْلِلِ الَّذِي عَلَيْهِ الْحَقُّ وَلْيَتَّقِ اللّهَ رَبَّهُ وَلاَ يَبْخَسْ مِنْهُ شَيْئاً فَإن كَانَ الَّذِي عَلَيْهِ الْحَقُّ سَفِيهاً أَوْ ضَعِيفاً أَوْ لاَ يَسْتَطِيعُ أَن يُمِلَّ هُوَ فَلْيُمْلِلْ وَلِيُّهُ بِالْعَدْلِ وَاسْتَشْهِدُواْ شَهِيدَيْنِ من رِّجَالِكُمْ فَإِن لَّمْ يَكُونَا ...

“Dengan nama Allah yang pemurah lagi penyayang, segala puji-pujian bagi Allah pentadbir sekalian alam, selawat dan salam ke atas semulia-mulia nabi dan Rasul iaitu penghulu kami nabi Muhammad s.a.w. dan di atas keluarganya dan para sahabat sekalian. Ya Allah! Engkaulah yang kekal, qadim lagi azali dan di atas kelebihan Engkau yang besar dan kemurahan Engkau yang melimpah dan ini adalah tahun baru yang sesungguhnya telah mendatangi kami, kami memohon kepada Engkau pemeliharaan padanya daripada syaitan yang direjam, pembantu-pembantunye dan tentera-tenteranya dan kami memohon pertolongan di atas nafsu yang banyak mendorong kepada kejahatan dan kami memohon kepada Engkau bagi melakukan sebarang pekerjaan yang boleh mendekatkan diri kami kepada Engkau. Ya Allah! Tuhan yang mengubahkan segala keadaan, ubahkanlah keadaan kami kepada sebaik-baik keadaan dengan kekuasaan dan kekuatan Engkau wahai Tuhan yang mengerasi lagi maha tinggi. Wahai Tuhan kami! Kurniakanlah kepada kami kebahagiaan di d...

After reading Yazid’s entry ‘Sadly Misunderstood’ , I also feel sad that many people misunderstood Islam as a violent religion. And the Pope’s statement last year certainly did not help to correct this misunderstanding. I’ve mentioned about the Pope’s statement here . Speaking of misunderstood about Islam, I have a video showing how a little history of Islam was systematically erased in Spain. This is actually a documentary which runs for approximately 1 hour and 42 minutes. I know it is quite long, but I seriously recommend you to watch it if you are on a broadband connection. You can still watch it with a dial-up connection, but it will take a while before it finishes uploading. You can watch it here . Thank you Farouk for the link. “In a world where people are surrounded by darkness, ignorance and fear, it is a sign of hope to be celebrating Islam’s message of peace and light, and the last great Messenger, born and chosen to deliver them to all mankind.” – Yusuf Islam.

Don’t you think Muslims today are just a bit pretentious? I do. I seriously think that the Muslims today are so afraid that they are not going to heaven and they will do anything to ensure their positions in heaven. Just look around us and you can definitely see that some Muslims are scared of their own shadows. They are afraid that ALLAH might not see their good deeds that they will do just anything to associate themselves with the religion. Example number one is from the controversial Danish cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him). The whole Muslim world was so mad about the cartoon and I see no problem about being mad. But did we realize that more than half of those people who protested on the streets had never seen the cartoon? How can they be so mad about something that they personally had never seen? It’s like being mad and angry about something but not knowing the reason for that anger. Why were they acting like that? The answer is simple they just want to be ...