malaysia: yoga haraam

according to malaysia's national fatwa council, yoga's hindu origins would 'corrupt' muslims and therefore should be banned:

The National Fatwa Council's chairman, Abdul Shukor Husin, said many Muslims fail to understand that yoga's ultimate aim is to be one with a god of a different religion — an explanation disputed by many practitioners who say yoga need not have a religious element.

"We are of the view that yoga, which originates from Hinduism, combines physical exercise, religious elements, chanting and worshipping for the purpose of achieving inner peace and ultimately to be one with god," Abdul Shukor said...

The edict reflects the growing influence of conservative Islam in Malaysia, a multiethnic country of 27 million people where the majority Muslim Malays lost seats in March elections and where minority ethnic Chinese and mostly Hindu ethnic Indians have been clamoring for more rights.

Recently, the council said girls who act like boys violate Islam's tenets. The government has also occasionally made similar conservative moves, banning the use of the word "Allah" by non-Muslims earlier this year, saying it would confuse Muslims...

In recent years, yoga — a collection of spiritual and physical practices, aimed at integrating mind, body and spirit — has been increasingly practiced in gyms and dedicated yoga centers around the world.

There are no figures for how many Muslims practice yoga in Malaysia, but many yoga classes have Muslims attending.

In the United States, where it has become so popular that many public schools began offering it in gym classes, yoga has also come under fire.

Some Christian fundamentalists and even secular parents have argued that yoga's Hindu roots conflict with Christian teachings and that using it in school might violate the separation of church and state. Egypt's highest theological body also banned yoga for Muslims in 2004.

among those practicing yoga in malaysia are cancer patients, for whom yoga, qi gong and line dancing sessions are organized as methods of relaxation and light exercise, as well as group interaction to "promote positive thinking and unity among survivors of different race and religion".

hmm, i wonder what the reaction to this will be at my markaz yoga group?!

someday

i will not think of the friends i have lost
of the friends i could not make
of the time wasted
of the memories forgotten
of hearts broken.

i will not think of the places i never visited
of the journeys i never made
of the roles i never played
of a me i never found.

i will not think of the opportunities i did not take up
of the articles i did not write
of the presentations i did not make
of name cards thrown away.

i will not dwell on what could have been,
on a time long gone

i will not think.

someday, i will not think.

soul satisfaction

the past three weeks or so have been awesome in terms of reading and music satisfaction. it started with 'bee season' by myla goldberg. while the plot was not bad, it was the prose that really engaged me, as well as several unique perspectives. the 'kaleidoscope' room at the end took the cake, i think. before finishing 'bee season' i also started reading kate atkinson's 'when will there be good news?'. apart from the aptness of the tile (this was around the time the usd 700 billion bailout plan was making waves), atkinson is one of my favorite authors. admittedly, she hasn't written anything as brilliant as her debut 'behind the scenes at the museum', but her recent foray into the literary mystery/suspense world has been very fruitful. i am already anticipating her next novel, in which two of her protagonists have to get together.

while in the middle of these two novels, i started listening to new music as well: jason mraz, travis' 'ode to j smith', leona lewis (not worth mentioning though) and ani difranco's 'red letter year', which is the best of the lot, not to mention 'nicer' than her previous music. on my waiting list are still new albums by keane, tracy chapman and dido; these should happily get me through the rest of the year (and beyond).

to top it all off, i have just started reading 'the guernsey literary and potato peel pie society', which is great; i am already in love with the characters. it's a very short novel and i can see myself soon mourning its end.

to have read three highly enjoyable books in succession is not such a common experience. to have the experience interspersed with wonderful new music is even rarer. i don't know what i will read next, but i will thoroughly enjoy tglappps first. recommendations are always welcome.

horoscope

"you need to come to terms with the fact that a certain situation has altered irrevocably and things will never be the same again. the time has come to move on. it should not be a problem as you like challenges. whatever comes next will be even better than what has passed."

de-radicalizing terrorists

indonesia's fight against terrorism includes trying to 'de-radicalize' militants by debating religion with them. their greatest success is nasir abbas, a senior commander of jemaah islamiya, the group responsible for the bali bombings of 2002.

His remorse over the massacre of civilians and the Indonesian police's careful handling of him transformed Abbas. From a terrorist commander he became a terrorist counselor, working with the police to try to convince other captured militants that their interpretation of Islam is wrong.

"I (came to) understand that the Bali bombings were a crime, not a jihad," he says.

[...]

"Because terrorism is an ideologically motivated crime, it is not possible to stop it using mere physical operations," said Ansyaad Mbai, the head of the Indonesian government's Counter-Terrorism Coordinating Desk. "Based on our experience, the harder we hit them with military force, the more radical they become."

Mbai is critical of the Bush administration's approach to fighting terrorism. The war in Iraq, in particular, has made the job of handling terrorism in Indonesia harder, he said: "Even the moderate Muslim leaders find it difficult to explain that the war taking place in the Middle East is not a war against Islam."

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, treats terrorism as a crime, not a cause for war.

there are of course disputes about how effective this method has been in combating terrorism, but it seems an interesting alternative, one that could be developed further.

political will

here's an interesting comparison: writing off third world debt would cost approximately "500 billion dollars or even less. Five hundred billion is a figure that has been tossed around (in recent weeks) to bail out bankers who have behaved irresponsibly and so on. But there is a political will to save this banking system, so resources can be found."

so says the ceo of the World Alliance for Civic Participation (CIVICUS) and one of the founders of the Global Coalition Against Poverty (GCAP), dr kumi naidoo. meanwhile, he notes that not even 20 per cent of the committments pledged by the G8 summit in 2005 to fight poverty and fund development in the south has materialized.

there are popular concerns that amidst the present financial crisis, aid and funding for food, climate change and development will be reduced/lose priority, despite the huge numbers of people affected.

memories

last weekend i hung out with two friends; the three of us hadn't spent such quality time together in a LONG while. we laughed, argued and shared. it was like lip balm for the soul. not surprisingly, towards the end, we began a short walk down memory lane. some of the moments and individuals that flashed up had been pretty deeply buried, and my excitement at 'seeing' them was akin to being back in that time.

many of the memories are of places and individuals no longer part of my life, which is perhaps why i do not think of them much when i'm on my own (it would be too depressing). on that day though, it was not at all depressing. it felt good just to remember: the events and how they made me feel, as well as to acknowledge the pleasure (and thankfulness) of having those memories, of having had those moments. it was one of those rare occasions when it didn't matter that friends were no longer around, that places had changed, that people had moved on; when it was enough just to have been.

rereading this post will be my solace on all those days when it is not enough!