恩母养育 » Kuala Lumpur

声音是老的好？

由 Issac Ng 寫下 | 標榜為敘述

为着功课的缘故，笔者到了刘蝶广场（Lowyat Plaza）去看场地。无意间发现这家音响店。
是被它（她）磁性的声音吸引过去。太好听了（虽然用着的是个烂喇叭）。

老板告诉我们，这是个很古老的科技。那个类似玻璃瓶的的东西叫做“胆（旦）”。
它（她）的功能就是把声音加热。最适合听慢歌，爵士曲。

老板补充，刘嘉玲在《无间道》里是用这台东西唱歌的。坦白说，我非常想拥有它（她）。
唯一能阻拦我把它（她）带回家的是 $。

Tags: D-Lux 4, Kuala Lumpur, Leica, Lowyat Plaza, Malaysia, 刘嘉玲, 刘蝶广场, 声旦, 声胆, 慢歌, 无间道, 爵士曲, 莱卡

阅读 | 留言 (1) | March 4th, 2010

也是因为 Allah 而被封锁的网站

由 Issac Ng 寫下 | 標榜為敘述

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/09/world/asia/09malaysia.html?ref=global-home

同样的，我也是使用 VPN 进入的。 Streamyx 仍旧封锁国外新闻。

Churches Attacked in Malaysian ‘Allah’ Dispute by SETH MYDANS

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Three Christian churches were attacked with firebombs Friday as tensions rose in a dispute over whether Christians could use the word “Allah” in this largely Muslim nation.

Later in the day, small crowds rallied outside two major mosques in the capital, in a growing protest over a court ruling that overturned a government ban on the use of “Allah” by Roman Catholics as a translation for God.

The government has appealed that ruling, insisting that the ban should remain in force, and made no move to bar the unsanctioned rallies, as it commonly does.

But a police helicopter hovered low over the front of the city’s central mosque, drowning out the words of the speakers on its balcony.

“Allah is only for us,” said Faedzah Fuad, 28, who participated in the rally. “The Christians can use any word, we don’t care, but please don’t use the word Allah.”

Despite escalating political rhetoric and the early-morning violence, the rallies of 200 to 300 people were far smaller than the thousands predicted by organizers.

Hand-lettered signs reading “Please respect the name of Allah” remained in a stack on the ground where Ms. Faedzah had prepared them.

Though Malaysia is 60 percent Malay and Muslim, sizable minorities of Chinese and Indians practice Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism in this country of 28 million.

Ethnic and religious politics have grown more intense since the government suffered severe losses in a general election last March. Much of the reverse came at the hands of minority voters who were disturbed by the government’s increasingly conservative Islamic tone.

The government has appealed and has been granted a stay of the High Court ruling on Dec. 31 that allowed a Catholic newspaper to use the word “Allah” in its Malay-language editions.

The word has been widely used as a translation for the word “God” in Malay-language texts and services, particularly among Christian indigenous tribes in the remote states of Sabah and Sarawak.

It is also the common word used to describe the Christian God in Arabic-speaking countries like Egypt and Syria and in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, whose language is a variant of the Malay language.

During the current dispute, many Muslims here have argued that the use of the word by other religions could confuse believers and tempt them to convert from Islam.

Prime Minister Najib Razak condemned the attacks on the churches Friday and defended the government against accusations that it had at least tacitly sanctioned the violence. “We have always been very responsible,” he said at a news conference.

In the first attack, shortly after midnight, the police said that a firebomb had destroyed the ground-level office of the Metro Tabernacle Church. They said that worship areas on the two upper floors were undamaged and that no one had been injured.

Two other churches were attacked by arsonists before dawn, with only one of them sustaining minor damage, according to the police.

Tags: Allah, Churcharson, Herald, Kuala Lumpur, Metro Tabernacle Church, New York Times, SETH MYDANS, Streamyx

阅读 | 留言 (2) | January 9th, 2010

因 Allah 而被封锁的网站

由 Issac Ng 寫下 | 標榜為敘述

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1952497,00.html

Streamyx 的用户都上不了这个网站。原因？
自己去猜吧。无论如何，我使用其他国家的 VPN 上到了。

原文：

Can Christians Say ‘Allah’? In Malaysia, Muslims Say No by Baradan Kupusamy

“Why are the Christians claiming Allah?” asks businessman Rahim Ismail, 47, his face contorted in rage and disbelief. He shakes his head and raises his voice while waiting for a taxi along Jalan Tun Razak, a main thoroughfare in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital. “Everybody in the world knows Allah is the Muslim God and belong to Muslims. I cannot understand why the Christians want to claim Allah as their God,” Rahim says as passers-by, mostly Muslims, gather around and nod in agreement.

The reason for their anger is a recent judgment by Malaysia’s High Court that the word Allah is not exclusive to Muslims. Judge Lau Bee Lan ruled that others, including Catholics who had been prohibited by the Home Ministry from using the word in their publications since 2007, can now use the term. She also rescinded the prohibition order freeing the Malay language–edition of the Catholic monthly The Herald to use Allah to denote the Christian God. After widespread protests, however, the judge granted a stay order on Jan. 7. The same day the government appealed to the higher court of appeal to overturn the ruling.

The anger seemingly turned violent late Thursday night after masked men on motorcycles firebombed three churches in the city, gutting the ground floor of the Metro Tabernacle Church located in a commercial building in the Desa Melawati suburb of the capital. The attacks, which police said appeared uncoordinated, were condemned by the government, opposition MPs and Muslim clerics alike. On Friday Muslims demonstrated in scores of mosques across the country but the protest was peaceful. In the mosque in Kampung Baru, a Malay enclave in the city, Muslims held placards that read “Leave Islam Alone! Treat Us As You Would Treat Yourself! Don’t Test Our Patience!” This, amid cries of “Allah is Great!”

Because of its ethnic makeup, religion is a sensitive issue in Malaysia and any religious controversy is seen as a potential spark for public unrest. Some 60% of Malaysia’s 28 million people are Malay Muslim, while the rest are ethnic Chinese, Indians and indigenous tribes, practicing various faiths including Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and animism. Among Christians, the majority Catholics number about 650,000, or 3% of the population. Despite Malaysia’s diverse national complexion, political Islam is a growing force and the country operates under two sets of laws, one for Muslims, the other for everyone else. The authorities regard such compartmentalization as essential to maintaining social stability.

To many Malay Muslims, Judge Lau’s ruling crosses that line. Prominent Muslim clerics, lawmakers and government ministers have questioned the soundness of the judgment. A coalition of 27 Muslim NGOs wrote to the nine Malay sultans, who are each head of Islam in their respective states, to intervene and help overturn the verdict. A Facebook campaign by Muslims started on Jan. 4 has attracted over 100,000 supporters. Among them: Deputy Trade Minister Mukhriz Mahathir, son of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who also waded into the controversy saying the court is not a proper forum to decide on an emotive religious issue. “The judgment is a mistake,” says Nazri Aziz, Minister overseeing Parliamentary Affairs, speaking for many Malaysian Muslims. The few Muslims who have urged respect for judicial independence have been shouted down as “traitors.” “I can’t understand how any Muslim can support this judgment,” said legislator Zulkifli Noordin in a statement.

The case arose after the Home Ministry prohibited the Herald, a Catholic monthly newsletter, from using Allah for God in its Malay-language versions in 2007. “We have been using the word for decades in our Malay-language Bibles and without problems,” the Rev. Lawrence Andrew, editor of the Catholic publication, told TIME. In May 2008 the Catholics decided to take the matter to court for a judicial review — and won. “It is a landmark decision … fair and just,” says Andrew. During the intermittent trial in the closing months of 2008, lawyers for the Church argued that the word Allah predated Islam and was commonly used by Copts, Jews and Christians to denote God in many parts of the world. They argued that Allah is an Arabic word for God and used for “decades” by the Church in Malay-language Bibles and other publications in Malaysia and Indonesia. And they said that The Herald uses the word Allah for God to meet the needs of its Malay-speaking worshippers on the island of Borneo. “Some people have got the idea that we are out to convert [Muslims]; that’s not true,” the lawyers said on behalf of the Herald.
Government lawyers countered that Allah denotes the Muslim God, is accepted as such around the world and is exclusively for Muslims. They said that if Catholics were allowed to use Allah, Muslims would be “confused.” The confusion would worsen, they said, because Christianity practices a “trinity of gods” while Islam is “totally monotheistic.” They said the proper word for God in the Malay language is Tuhan and not Allah. Judge Lau held that the constitution guarantees freedom of religion and speech and therefore Catholics can use the word Allah to denote God. She also overturned the Home Ministry order prohibiting the Herald from using the word. “The applicants have the right to use the word Allah in the exercise of their rights to freedom of speech and expression,” she said.

Non-Muslim Malaysians worry that the vehement opposition to the Allah ruling reflects a growing Islamization in a multireligious society. Last October a Muslim Shari’a court sentenced a Muslim woman who drank beer to be caned in public; in another incident in November, Muslims enraged over the construction of a Hindu temple near their homes demonstrated their anger with a severed cow’s head. They kicked and stomped on the head, as Hindus — to whom the cow is sacred — watched helplessly. As for the court ruling, bar council president Ragunath Kesavan met Prime Minister Najib Razak on Thursday to discuss how to cool emotions. Says Kesavan, “We need to get the Muslim and Christian leaders together. They need to meet face to face and work out a compromise and not let this thing escalate.”

Tags: Allah, baradan kupusamy, Churharson, Jalan Tun Razak, Kuala Lumpur, Rahim Ismail, Streamyx, TIME

阅读 | 留言 (0) | January 9th, 2010