Doing Islam A Disservice

As Muslims we know that our religion is The Truth. There are no ifs and buts about it. However as Allah has given us the brain to think and with human's curiosity, it is natural that we want more answers and proof to strengthen our faith. There are plenty of things and happenings around us to show His Greatness and even science has proved it. However there are still people who makes things up in order to show the truth of Islam. Instead giving Islam more credibility among the non-Muslims, it makes us a laughing stock. Take the following calim I found in a forum. Bear in mind that there are still the truth in that guy's claim. However mixing made-up 'facts' with the truth doesn't make the story 100% the truth! 

"The Kaabah is not only the Qiblat, but also the focal point of Man in his everyday life. The simplest example is our Astro satellite dish. Did you notice that most of them faced the Qiblat? That is because Makkah is the centre of the world....."

Some things in this world remain mysterious and no amount of scientific exploration can find the truth; others can be revealed and shows the Truth of Islam. However, trying to justify Makkah/Kaabah as the centre of everything by using the Astro sat-dish as example is simply pathetic. Our Astro dishes receive their signal from MEASAT-1 and MEASAT-3 commsats sitting 23,000 miles (or something like that) above the Indian Ocean at longitude 91.5 degs East and so it happens that some sat dishes have their orientation coinciding with the Qiblat, so there. And the guy's third sentence contradicts himself - why did he write 'most' instead of 'all'?

The Headhunters!

When I was a kid, we children were warned not to wander or play alone because some nasty guy armed with a sickle might spot us and lop our heads off. The severed heads will then be buried underneath bridging projects so that the 'water spirits' are appeased and won't interfere with the projects. As kids we were really terrified of such stories and terrified still whenever we came across farmers who bring their sickle around (actually they need the sickle to gather weeds and grass for their livestock). The growth and development of Malaysia during the late 70s and early 80s with a number of infrastructure projects going around give more 'substance' to story, especially during the building of the Penang Bridge.

As time goes by, such stories faded from our collective mind, although it still surfaces from time to time although not as frequent as it was in the 1980s. The reason I wrote about this entry is because I probably have found out the myth behind such stories. It didn't even originate here, it was in London! Bored at the end of the office hour, I checked out the Wikipedia and it was theorised that the popular nursery rhyme 'London Bridge Is Falling Down' refers to the burying of children under the bridge's foundations so that the bridge won't collapse unless human sacrifices were made - which was debunked by archeological findings.

So, there you go. There were actually no sickle-swinging men looking for human sacrifices, it was just a tale brought by the Brits and adopted by us generation after generation....just like a bunch of other urban legends....

Man On The Moon Revisited (Again!)

The debate whether man has set foot on Earth's only natural satellite rages on 39 years after the last flight of the Apollo space program in 1972. Many conspiracy theorists point out the 'irregularities' showing up in the photos but recently a forumner said that his own SCIENCE teacher is not convinced that Neil Armstrong et al has reached the moon. His reason?

"The moon's too hot...even hotter than the volcano (lava that is)...At night its too cold...colder than the Poles (North and South Poles that is, not people from Poland!) so that engines and equipment  are unable to function"

And also "Combustion needs oxygen....how can the engines fire when there is no oxygen on the moon?"

Bear in mind that it was a SCIENCE teacher who said that.....

As a note:

1. The moon (or indeed, the space) is very hot during the 'day'...but not as hot as lava. Average 'day' temperature on the moon is 117 degrees Celcius whilst lava is anywhere from 700 to 1,200 degrees Celcius. At 'night', it is indeed colder than the Poles with an average of -203 degrees Celcius.

2. That range of temperature exists not only on the moon but also just outside our atmosphere where there were hundreds (if not thousands) of satellite operating perfectly since Sputnik in 1957.....

3. About the last point, has the teacher never heard of liquid oxygen?

The Hunt For Football Jerseys

Yes, I know, at the age of nearing 39 maybe I should no longer wear football replica jerseys as some might consider that age to be too old to be wearing one...but who cares? I'd rather wear a Manchester United home kit with 'Rooney 10' on the back rather than wearing bermudas or whatever they call the just-under-the-knee length garment in order to look 'urban'.

Anyway, during the rather long weekend recently, I managed to go to Padang Besar to buy some casual clothings - there is quite a selection for XX (or more)L-sized clothings there. So I managed to get myself some undies and a work shirt. I still have change from my shopping budget and I thought, why not buy Adham a replica shirt? OK, I'm not into pirated goods but in this case, I ignore my principles as i) it's hard to find toddler-sized original replica shirts in Malaysia and ii) even when available, it's too large for him.

You need to be selective in choosing the fakes as they come in many grades (my brother knows better about this...haha). At least nowadays they come with the original manufacturers' logo (adidas, Nike, Reebok etc) as compared to 'localised' logo (such as 'Fly Hawk', 'Joelouis' etc) of yesteryear. Anyway, I managed to buy the Malaysian home jersey in which the ways (to me) to know that it's a fake is that the fabric is not as soft as the original and that the tags and labels look cheap. The wife wants to buy him a MUFC jersey but alas, he spotted a toy truck and we had to settle for the Malaysian jersey only. 

Anyway, looking at Adham's new shirt makes me want to buy one for myself, this time an original item. So off we went to Alor Setar. I checked out the Seberang Perak branch of Al-Ikhsan-nope, they have none in my size. So we went to the Teluk Wanjah branch. Yep, they have one in stock. Unfortunately when I tried it, it's so tight it feels more like an XL rather than XXL. Somehow the allegations that they (Al-Ikhsan) sells counterfeit goods as original crossed my mind then. However, it cannot be, as it has the hallmarks of a genuine item. Perhaps Nike manufacture the Malaysian replica jerseys with 'Malaysian' size in mind...arghhhh.  So I don't buy it. Anyway, I cannot help but notice some discrepancies in shirt sizes. For example, my old Argentina World Cup 98 shirt is quite comfortable to wear whilst the German WC2010 (of the same size-XXL) feels a bit tighter. And to make it a bit silly, my New Zealand All-Blacks shirt from 1999 is quite loose despite being one size smaller! So, nobody can accuse me of being 'unpatriotic' for not having a Malaysian jersey in my wardrobe!

Anyway, for my next 'quest' I intend to buy jerseys from non-UK clubs such as Ajax, Inter, PSG etc However such jerseys are very difficult to find in Kedah (or for that matter, Al-Ikhsan stores outside KL). So perhaps a visit to my old haunt, the original Al-Ikhsan outlet at BB Plaza is in order whenever I'm in KL.....

Buta Sejarah (Edisi Spin Control)

Itu hari aku dah post pasal baghal yang buta sejarah. Kali ni aku nak post pulak pasal si baghal yang sama cuba nak kembalikan kredibiliti dia.......

"Sila lihat nama-nama yang terukir sebagai pejuang di Tugu Negara,ada anda lihat nama-nama yang kemelayuan? Adakah tiada askar melayu yang berjuang di dalam mempertahankan negara?

Adakah semua orang melayu ketika itu bersembunyi...takut? Atau hanya tentera Brittish yang berjuang dalam mempertahankan Tanah Melayu dari serangan atau tawanan Jepun?

The Naval War Memorial juga adalah sebuah tugu yang di bina untuk menghargai jasa semua askar yang terkorban di dalam peperangan.Memorial ini terletak di Plymouth Hole (Plymouth HOE la bongok) yang terletak di Bandar Plymouth,United Kingdom.

Kebanyakkan tentera dari Tanah Melayu ini adalah tentera laut yang berjuang bersama-sama tentera Brittish yang lain.
Sempena bulan kemerdekaan tahun ini kita sedekahkan Al-Fatihah kepada semua tentera Tanah Melayu yang terkorban. Al -Fatihah.

Gambar diatas jelas menunjukkan British lebih melayu dari melayu itu sendiri. Di England, nama melayu terpahat ditugu memorial tetapi ditanah air sendiri, melayu diabaikan.

Kepada anak muda Malaysia sesekali pergilah melawat tugu negara dan fikirkan fakta-fakta yang terpahat di situ kemudian cuba fikirkan dari siapa kita merdeka."

Artikel blogger berkenaan dipos dalam forum oleh orang yang sama menyokong idea bahawa Leftenan Adnan et al, anggota polis di Balai Bukit Kepong cuma berkhidmat untuk penjajah dan tak layak dipanggil wira....tapi kat sini anggota MRNVR yang terkorban ketika Perang Dunia Kedua  secara langsung atau tidak dianggap mereka sebagai wira pula walaupun situasi mereka sama dengan Leftenan Adnan. Double standard tahap terkeji atau cubaan nak menutup malu? (Yang menyebabkan dia terjerat sendiri...sampai sekarang mangkuk tu tak jawab pertanyaan aku kenapa anggota MRNVR tu patut disanjung tapi Leftenan Adnan dikeji..padahal ikut dia mereka semua tu sama-sama berperang 'untuk penjajah')

Dan pasal dua perenggan terakhir dalam posting blog tu...sekali lagi la aku jemput dia untuk ziarah Muzium TD kat Port Dickson tu. Dan aku nasihatkan kat dia, toksah la nak jemput-jemput orang, diri sendiri pun jahil lagi....pergi sendiri! Lagipun situasi 'nama kat tugu' tu pun sama aje....Nama-nama MRNVR tu kat Plymouth, bukan kat London..sama macam nama-nama anggota pasukan keselamatan...kat Tugu Negara kira secara umum, butirannya kat PD.....

Buta Sejarah

Aku rasa ramai yang tahu pasal kenyataan buta sejarah oleh seorang Timbalan presiden sebuah parti politik di Malaysia ni. Aku tak nak komen pasal kenyatan dia...tapi kenyataan penyokong dia yang aku rasa lebih merapu dari asal....

Ni dipetik dari blog seorang blogger yang boleh tahan kebaghalan dia....

"SILA lihat tugu negara (sebut tokong negara) ini baik-baik! Selama ini, setiap kali hari pahlawan, perdana menteri akan meletakkan kalungan bunga di tugu ini kononnya sebagai tanda memperingati pejuang kemerdekaan yang terkorban.

Kononnya inilah pejuang kemerdekaan yang terkorban atas nama keamanan dan kebebasan. Malah terpahat tulisan "May the blessing of Allah be upon them". Pejuang-pejuang ini didoakan agar memperolehi rahmat dari Allah.

Namun hakikatnya, siapa yang percaya bahawa nama-nama pejuang yang terpahat di tokong negara ini sebagai pejuang, maka dia telah berjaya ditipu oleh British. Lihat bukti di bawah ini.

Kenapa banyak nama Mat Saleh? Mat Saleh penduduk majoriti Tanah Melayu ke? Orang Melayu semua pergi mana? Kah kah kah...

Rupanya negara ini negara British! Sebab itulah pejuang kemerdekaan adalah askar-askar British! Orang Melayu semua dipanggil komunis kah kah kah...

Kenapa ukiran wajah muka patung macam muka orang putih? Orang Melayu zaman dulu macam muka orang putih ke? Kah kah kah...

United Malays No Otak kata, ini fakta sejarah, siapa tak percaya sejarah ini dia penyokong komunis kah kah kah...

Mari sama-sama kita doakan askar-askar kafir British ini semoga roh-roh mereka dicucuri laknat kah kah kah... (kalau ada askar British yang beragama Islam doa ini terbatal)"

Faktanya, senarai nama Inggeris tu adalah nama anggota tentera British yang berasal (mungkin lebih tepat lagi menetap atau bekerja?) dari Negeri-Negeri Melayu Bersekutu (Federated Malay States - FMS) yang mati ketika PERANG DUNIA PERTAMA, bukan Darurat (lihat tahun 1914-1918 pada gambar tu!). Dan nama-nama tu diukir pada Cenotaph yang dibina oleh British pada 1921. Selepas Perang Dunia Kedua dan Darurat, British menambah nama pada Cenotaph tersebut dan sebab Cenotaph tu dibuat British maka hanya nama tentera bangsa mereka sahaja yang ditulis disitu! Perlu juga aku nyatakan yang Cenotaph ini lebih kurang tugu negara asal di Cenotaph Road (sekarang Jalan Tugu) dimana lokasinya ialah bulatan depan Masjid Negara/Stesen Keretapi KL lama. Bila kompleks Tugu Negara dibina pada 1963, Cenotaph ini turut dipindahkan ke lokasi sedia ada.

Juga cadangkan kat blogger bangang ni supaya rajin-rajin le pergi Port Dickson, bukan nak berpiknik tapi ke Muzium Tentera Darat...dan tolong baca pelan-pelan nama-nama yang terukir kat tugu dalam perkarangan muzium tu...dan juga ingat2 le bahawa PKM tak letak senjata hingga 1989...32 tahun lepas merdeka.

Jadi siapa yang last sekali ketawa dan siapa sebenarnya yang 'No Otak' wahai blogger bangang?

Johnny Foreigner

OK, I know, this entry is terribly outdated but I have to write it somehow.

The Malaysian national football team has been eliminated from getting a place in the Group Stage of the Asian Qualifying Rounds for World Cup 2014 by Singapore. Many of the local supporters felt that Singapore 'cheated' by fielding naturalised players (up to 5, IIRC, during the second leg). In actuality, the FAS simply exploited the loophole in the FIFA regulations regarding naturalised players, so they can simply say they are not cheating...plus the Singaporeans can claim that their population base is relatively small!

Even though allowed under FIFA regulations, I feel that creating a national team which includes frustrated footballers who can't get into their respective national teams is morally cheating. Players who until several months (at most, a few years) before were citizens of PRC, Bosnia-Herzegovina and England were suddenly Singaporeans! Then, there is another FIFA ruling, the 'Grandfather rule' which allows players to represent the country of his grandparents' origin. This ruling allows players like Vinny Jones (who is English) to represent Wales, or that a number of Jamaica's players at World Cup 1998 have never set foot at Jamaica! At least the Grandfather Rule tie the player (more-or-less) with his roots....