Are Mr and Mrs Obama Muslim?

Some kindling for the fire...

I wonder how long till these photos become "talking points" on conservative television and radio as proof positive that not only is the President a Muslim, but his wife is as well. After all, photos don't lie, do they?

No apologies for posting these pictures (by way of Reuters). The photos are from the visit Mr and Mrs Obama (aka Mr. President and the First Lady) made to the Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta this morning.

MUI Facing Mecca...

One of the primary tenets of the Islamic faith is that no matter where you are in the world you are to face the holy city of Mecca when you pray. So, it is pretty important that you get your directions right. This is very much the case if you are thinking of building a new mosque and are thinking that you will have the mosque pointing in the right direction to start with.

Last time I thought about it, I thought that Mecca was in Saudi Arabia, and Saudi Arabia is generally in a north-west direction from the archipelago that is Indonesia. Nevertheless, in their infinite wisdom the talking heads at the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) issued a fatwa that instructed Indonesian Muslims to face west when praying to Mecca. Now, my guess is that even some rudimentary geographical knowledge might lead one to suspect that facing west from Indonesia is going to have you facing Africa, probably somewhere in Somalia. By all reasonable accounts on the subject, Somalis is quite some distance from where good Muslims want to be facing when in prayer. The MUI issued the misdirected fatwa back in March.

The solution according to Cholil Ridwan of the MUI is that Muslims slightly alter the direction they are facing when they commence prayer. He was also quick to point out that there was no need to knock down any mosques that have been built facing Africa in accordance with the previous fatwa. Ridwan went on to say that it was no big deal in the sense that Allah still would have heard the people's prayers even though they were facing the wrong direction. This might be some comfort to some, but it really is not the point, is it?

The point is that the MUI is supposedly the peak body in Indonesia that has become the self-appointed authority on all things Islam. It is a little disheartening, to say the least, that as a group no-one picked up at the time in March when the original fatwa was issued that the direction was wrong, particularly when the issue is one that is so fundamental to the practice of the religion itself.

What is interesting is that Said Agil Siradj of the Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia's largest Muslim organisation, suggested that this fatwa shows that the MUI does not necessarily think these things through thoroughly enough before issuing a fatwa.

The big question here is whether or not the MUI learns anything from this significant error, or whether it is just going to be business as usual with knee-jerk fatwa issuing reactions to whatever the popular issue is of the day.

In any event, it would be reasonable to suggest that the MUI has now got some work to do to restore public confidence (assuming there was any to start with) in their ability to be the arbiters of all things Islam in Indonesia. Let's face it, if they cannot get their directions right then how much confidence can one have in their interpretations of the Koran (al-Qur'an / the Holy Qu'ran)?

Story sourced from here and here.

Mosques Facing the Wrong Way -- Indonesia

The Ministry of Religion has done a survey of Mosques in Indonesia and has determined that at least 20% of them are getting worshipers to face in the wrong direction. Muslims are required to face Mecca when they pray no matter where on the globe (or presumably in the galaxy) they are.

It seems that the majority of the Mosques that are in error are also located in areas that have frequently suffered earthquakes. Nevertheless, the Ministry has suggested that rather than wholesale renovations, or the tearing down of Mosques, that the responsible parties make the necessary corrections by informing worshipers that they need to face in a slightly different direction in order to be facing Mecca.

The Ministry survey team relied on the use of GPS devices to plot the exact location of Mecca relevant to each Mosque.

This "oops" moment follows close on the heels of a statement from Mutoha Arkanuddin, an Islamic scholar, who claimed that as many as 80% of Indonesian mosques and graves (for Muslims) were not facing in the 'right' direction.

I am not a Muslim, so I really do not know how big a deal this is in the big scheme of things. But, I would imagine that if you were the family member of a Muslim whose grave was facing in the wrong direction, the you are like to be a little concerned about what this means for your deceased loved one.

I wonder if there is going to be widespread exhuming and repositioning of loved ones with the use of GPS?

Manohara Odelia Pinot -- Part XV -- Learning Indonesian and Building Mosques

It seems that there are plenty of part-Indonesians in the news of late looking at learning Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) for one reason or another. For example, the recent winner of a Miss Indonesian pageant confessed to not being a fluent speaker of Indonesian and to a need to learn more (I wrote about this here).

It seems that Manohara, or Mano to her friends, is also looking to brush up on her Indonesian language skills before making her debut in a locally produced sinetron (Indonesian soap opera). The local Indonesian media have been following this unfolding issue and there is an article at detikhot on it, here. It is probably a good thing that Mano has decided to brush up on her Indonesian seeing that she is reportedly receiving at least IDR 1 billion to star in the soap opera that bears her name, Manohara.

Mano's story is certainly an interesting one. She has been at some point or other the one-time underage squeeze of Anindra Ardiansyah Bakrie, an under-age bride for a Prince from Kelantan State, and now a bona fide sinetron star. The story has some unsavoury undertones in that there are still outstanding allegations levelled at the prince that he was abusive towards her. This physical and sexual abuse was reportedly extreme. Nevertheless, Mano seems to have recovered sufficiently well to move on and take the next step in her evolution.

Mano is not taking her recent good fortune lightly and is going to allocate some of her sinetron earnings to establishing a foundation. Presumably the foundation will be for those less fortunate in there post-domestic violence lives than Mano. Even more of the earnings are going towards buying land and building a mosque. Maybe the foundation and the mosque building initiative are related.

When it is all said and done, I hope that she finds success and peace in her life. If starting an foundation and building mosques is what does that for her, then so be it.

Alan Jones, Lebanese Muslims, Vilification

Alan Jones is no stranger to controversy so it is not surprising to see him embroiled in more controversy even though this is something that has been on the horizon since 2005 and never fully resolved. Alan Jones broadcasts on 2GB radio. This is an interesting case and will test the vilification laws and the lengths that elements of the community can go to in order to suppress criticism. It also has the potential to test the bounds of free speech in cases where discrimination has not been made out.

The crux of the matter will turn on whether you can vilify a religion or an idea. Simply, can an idea or a religion have rights? I can see and understand the arguments for vilifying a person and can comprehend the idea that a person has rights. However, I am less convinced that an idea, and religions are ideas, have rights which can be protected by a vilification or hate speech law.

The issue stems from two incidents. The first is where Sheik Faiz Mohamad told a gathering at an Islamic Youth Centre in Liverpool that women who dressed in skimpy clothing only had themselves to blame if they were raped. Essentially, the Sheik said that a woman is to blame where a man cannot control his sexual urges.

This brought on an outburst from Jones that saw him saying that all Lebanese Muslims were "vermin" and "a national security problem". It did not stop there for Jones, as over the next several days in April 2005 he referred to the "much discredited Lakemba Mosque" and added it was time to "take the gloves off and teach these bastards" (presumably a lesson in the Australian way).

But the words keep coming with, "we are far too tolerant of these people, we have to take out the root cause". On another occasion Jones said, "They have no connection to us. They simply rape, pillage and plunder a nation that's taken them in. I can't believe what I'm seeing. What did we do as a nation to have this vermin infest our shores? Tell me we don't have a national security problem in the making."

This prompted Keysar Trad of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia to lodge a complaint at the Anti-Discrimination Board. After two years the Board failed to reach a decision but instead referred the matter to Administrative Decisions Tribunal Equal Opportunity Division.

The gist of Trad's complaint is that Jones had "expressed hatred towards, serious contempt for, or severe ridicule of a person or a group of persons on the grounds of [their] race". Furthermore, Trad alleges that the Jones tirade suggested that Muslims and particularly Lebanese Muslims are "despicable people", "unsuitable immigrants" who "do not and cannot assimilate". The Trad complaint also alleges that Jones suggested that members of Muslim communities were "prone to commit sexual assaults", were "parasites", and "an internal danger to the security of the country".

It is unclear whether Trad is going to have any more luck at the Equal Opportunity Division but the EOD has asked Trad to elaborate his complaint. This would suggest that the complaint is not going to be dismissed out of hand.

I will try and follow this case and post on it if and when juicy stuff becomes available (photo is from the SMH).

No Sleeping

The photo can be found here.