When you mix a Ministry of Sound nightclub with Harakah, you get a good mix of irony.....

When school ended today at 3.40, i decided to take a walk to Sunway Pyramid. While at a bus stop, i decided to buy a copy of Harakah. Why? Well, it's for teh lulz.

Anyways, while reading, i walked through the soon-to-be opened club "Euphoria" by the Ministry of Sound. It will have it's preview party this Friday. And sadly, no one under-21 is allowed to come(stupid ageist fascists!).

Anyways, when i saw both Harakah and Euphoria combined in one single place, it reminds me of an article i read two years ago.....

Nightclubs and discos allowed in Kelantan
Posted on 17 December, 2006

In Kota Baru Kelantan Menteri Besar Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat has given the go-ahead for the opening of entertainment outlets specifically discos and nightclubs with certain conditions imposed : no alcohol served, segregation of men and women and no showing of aurat (body parts that must be covered).

Dancing is not an unhealthy activity and Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz is all for it but it must not involve members of the opposite sex.

“I do not see any reason to forbid them (discos operating under Islamic regulations). This is because dancing is just a form of body movement. When dancing is done with the aurat covered and there is no intermingling, everything should be okay.” said Nik Aziz on remarks by State Local Government, Housing and Health Committee chairman Takiyuddin Hassan that Kelantan would allow the setting up of discos or nightclubs to promote tourism in the state.

Nik Aziz explained that Islam is flexible although many do not realize that. He elaborated that this is because they do not understand Islam.

This new development in Pas-controlled Kelantan is bound to draw the attention of the national media with all quarters eager to add their two-sen worth of opinions on this issue.

Some may even question the same-sex dancing directive, no alcohol directive and the ‘no mingling’ directive within the discos will certainly ruffle some quarters. However let us be patient and wait and see further developments in the state. Is this a step forward or just a flash in the pan initiative to appease the voters and boost its image in the national arena?

Well, that's good. A typical PAS reform. But, something is wrong:

segregation of men and women and no showing of aurat (body parts that must be covered).

Is Nik Aziz nuts?!

I mean, if those nightclubs were made, do we men want to dance to each other while homoerotic tunes like YMCA and Love Can't Turn Around is being played? hell no!

The thought of a a mens only club where guys go to dance with other guys must probably send shivers of joy and excitement down the spines of all the PAS members and ministers.

Now I know what they do behind all those closed door meetings. I once thought that they were busy debating issues of national importance (such as whether women are allowed to have names, or should they all just be called 'awek'), but noooo...they are probably busy dirty dancing with one another.

Well to all PAS members, don't worry. With these mens-only clubs, you no longer have to be ashamed! Your penchant for boogeying with old senior assemblymen need no longer be confined to boring old meeting rooms and conference halls. Now you can bring your Menteri Besar, Ministers and Datos to the nearest disco and watch them shake their thang'.

Oh jolly, Tok Nikky must have regretted saying that.

PS: But hey, most Melbourne shufflers shuffle with those from the same sex. So, yeah Nik Aziz's word could've make sense.

Natasha Hudson is too hot for these douchebags

On the right is the super-hot model Natasha Hudson. On the middle, is Shahrin Zahari, her douche-looking husband. And the left, is the no. 1 twat Khairy Jamaluddin.

Recently, Shahrin has just secured a government approval for some 1,200 open approved permits (AP) for hybrid cars which will make him one very hot player in the auto industry.

Natasha's husband partners a 22-year Nik Iruwan Nik Izani, who aspires to be a Formula One driver, in this AP venture. Young Iruwan's dad is Nik Izani Nik Ibrahim, a senior VP in the Mofaz group. Shahrin's dad is the late Datuk Zahari Wahab, a deputy chief executive of the Ranhill Group.

Khairy Jamaluddin is in the picture above because he and Shahrin are buddies (Shahrin is also an exco of Umno Putera). KJ has been in the picture before where AP is concerned. His first cousin Datuk Haniff Aziz, a former official with the Ministry of Trade and Industry, is one of Malaysia's three ‘Heavenly Kings’ of APs. Haniff of Westar and Autostar fame is worth about RM300 million due to the AP business.

The news portal KL Pos has a bit more on Shahrin here. Excerpts:

"Shahrin ini juga merupakan AJK Putera Umno yang terkenal kerana sebahagian besar ahlinya mat rempit. Dapat Pingat Cemerlang Melaka yang membawa gelaran Dato' pada hari keputeraan Gebenor Melaka Tun Khalil Yaakob tahun lepas."

I don't care if Shahrin is now the owner of hybrid imports, or if he's a friend to KJ. But why would Mrs.Hudson be married to a twat whose friend is also a twat?

Number 12 Looks Just Like Khalid!

Sunday June 15, 2008

Khalid tells why Maimunah was removed

SHAH ALAM: The sudden termination of Maimunah Mohd Saidas Selangor Museum director was to give way to young and fresh ideas in its exhibition methods, said Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim yesterday.

Commenting on the termination, he said the decision was made in consideration of the needs and demands of the future community.

On Friday, Maimunah said she had received a letter that stated her two-year contract with the museum, which had another five months to complete, was terminated on June 9.

State Secretary Datuk Ramli Mahmud signed the letter.

State Islamic Affairs, Malay Customs, Infrastructure and Public Amenities chairman Datuk Dr Hassan Ali was reported as saying that Maimunah was not sacked or terminated but had to be removed as she had reached the age of 60.

Khalid said that although the contract was terminated early the state government could offer compensation to Maimunah.

Asked whether he thought a 60-year-old could no longer come up with fresh ideas, Khalid said: “Of course they can but naturally young people will have a 10-year plan while a 60-year-old has a one-year plan. I don’t want the museum’s officers to be its own artefacts,” he said.

Hmm, kinda reminds me of a Twilight Zone episode,

BN:


PR:


My, my, my...and we thought March 8 heralded a new age of equality and non-discrimination....

I can't wait to be introduced to the new young museum director who has a 10-year plan for the museum (does that mean he's guaranteed a job for 10 years?)?

Small note: The MB was born on Dec 14 1946, which makes him 61.

This SUV Was Blown Away By An F-16

Imagine you’re driving along with your pal. It’s night time. Maybe you guys are going bowling, or maybe you’re going to drive over to his house to just hang out. You’ve probably got a pretty quiet night planned. And then a military fighter jet starts shooting at you.

Last April 9th, at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, two soldiers were driving a rented SUV about five kilometers from the part of the range used for live firing. It was at night, and an F-16 that thought it was firing at something in the live fire area, lit up the SUV instead. Only 70 20mm rounds were fired.

Fortunately, the two people in the SUV were only injured (both from flying glass, the passenger got a dislocated shoulder as he rapidly exited the vehicle when it quickly turned off the road and stopped.) The investigation of how this happened has not been completed.

That’ll teach that asshole not to put one of those yellow “support our troops” stickers on his car.

My experience of being in a new school....

It’s tough being a new student in a completely new school. You’ll find it hard to adapt to being in a new environment, especially in an environment so conformist that you just can’t conform to it. I’m different towards the attitudes of the Sri KL students. In my old school SMK Sri Cempaka Cheras, the students are basically people ranging from peace-loving hippies to self-thinking individuals. Most of them discover music from Myspace than hitz.fm, and some of them would know how to beat a game of Halo 3 in just three hours

But would you get the same type of students here in Sri KL? Here, the students listen to mainstream bands like Maroon 5 and Chris Brown rather than indie Myspace musicians like Hadouken or Talib Kweli. Is that a good thing? Well, Maybe. Or maybe not. I have yet to find one Sri KL who listens to Hadouken (And if you’re interested to listen to Hadouken, go their Myspace page now!).

But to me, that’s not a bad thing. Infact, some students here have introduced me to new music like heavy metal and electronic dance music. One student in my class is such a Metalhead, that he inspires me to dig into some heavy metal music from bands like Black Sabbath & Slipknot, while another fellow classmate of mine has such a hard on for DJs like Tiesto and Armin van Buuren, that I completely devoted myself to dance music, and now I have listened to my favourite DJs like Pete Tong, Paul Oakenfold, Alex Kidd and Aphex Twin. I have also learned the Melbourne shuffle, a dance I was pretty much a stranger to before I went to Sri KL.

But today I’m not going to keep on talking about music. I want to continue to talk about being a new student in a new school. And the most important thing about being a new student is getting friends. And getting friends is easy, and conforming to a circle of friends is also easy. But maintaining yourself inside that circle is like the US Army being in Iraq 5 years after the fall of Saddam. It’s really tough, and the tougher it gets, you have no choice but to give up and quit.

You see, when you’re in a new environment, you’d have to surf the waves without falling. And I’ve fallen many times. I’ve embarrassed myself, I made myself look stupid, act rude in front of people, and it’s a really depressing experience. You felt disgraced and looked down upon for your actions.

And so, I’ve decided to quit the circle and be alone for the next few months. I don’t want to join other circles because they all look the same. I decided to only hang out with one or two friends during break or lunch, and sometimes I just eat alone at an empty table. I know it’s sad, but what can I do?

And what’s more sad about being in a new school is being in a class. I seat in the middle of the class, and behind me is a fellow classmate who is quite rude and mean towards. I tried tolerating him for atleast a week, but I just can’t. One classmate of mine is also a newcomer, but the bad thing is that she thinks I’m a “freak’ and bashed the previous school I’ve attended. And one classmate judges a book by its cover when it comes to me, and I felt really unpleasant towards such judgments. And aside from those, I had frequent fights with one classmate whom I can’t stand for months now. He’s quite paranoid, and seems to be quite sensitive whenever I made a remark about him. And some students find me rude and irritating because of my behaviour.

And because of that, I wanted to tell them that I’m sorry for all the mistakes that I’ve done, and I felt terrible for failing to make you guys like me. And In those months of horrible experience, I’ve suffered from depression, loneliness and anxiety as a result. I even had suicidal thoughts when I suffered those months of shame and embarrassments, especially on Thursdays.

However, it’s not really all that bad. This school does have some wonderful things I’ve experienced. The best things about this school are the teachers. They are fun, lovable, and have a great sense of humour. Pn. Kamala, my History teacher is really lovely and fun to interact with. My Science teacher Mr. Austin is hilarious in a mean kind of way, and he kind of resembles most British comedians like Chris Morris and Dylan Moran. And I finally have interests in Economics and Commerce thanks to teachers like Pn. Rosmawati and Pn. Norliza. It’s a wonderful experience having these teachers around.

And another good thing about this school besides music is the newfound individuality I’ve discovered during my first term. Sure, they don’t listen to the same music I do, and maybe they are more interested in American TV shows than most British shows I watch on BBC Entertainment, but atleast I felt free for some reason. I realized that it’s okay to be different than others, as long as I don’t make myself arrogant about it. And thank god, I’m one of the few lucky students who have managed to survive a term of Form 5 in a new school. Most students who took Form 5 SPM in a new school would drop out after 2-4 months after their first day. And I felt lucky because I’m not one of those students because I’m patient enough to survive in my first term being a Sri KL student.

And as the second term has already started, I’ll try my best to keep on until SPM is over, and I’ll make sure that this time, there will be lesser mistakes and embarrassments than those I’ve made during my first term. And if this time it really worked, I’ll probably remember my last and only year in Sri KL as the best year I’ve ever had..

5 Hotless Women The Media wants you to think they are Hot

In the Media, women play an important role in making them popular. Heroes depends on Hayden Panettiere's cheerleading costume and Ali Larter's hot body. Fox News wants you to see Kirsten Powers arguing with Michelle Malkin just so that you could imagine both having a 69. The media also helped appeal to fanboys by making characters like Princess Leia, Sarah Jane & Hermione Granger hotter than they were. Hilary Clinton would do anything to exploit Chelsea Clinton, even having her appear on FHM! The music industry features women like Kate Nash and Sheryl Crow, whom both we want to fuck! While Al Jazeera English would want you to drool at Ghida Fakhry and Amanda Holden just so that you can come all over your TV.

However, the media can be such pricks. They can deceive you by making ugly women look hot, even though they are ugly 24/7. Here are 5 women who are ugly, but the media wants you to think they're hot:

5.Amy Winehouse


Who is she: Grammy-Award Winning Singer and full-time cokehead
Why the media wants you to think she's hot: She's a good singer, but the media believes that no one would listen to "ugly" singers. Therefore, the media would make a creepy PR campaign to not make her look hot, but to call her "hot". The Daily Mirror and Vogue calls her sexy, while David Tennant calls her "fabulous" during his appearance in the shitty Friday Night Projet.
A Hotter Equivalent: Kate Nash


4.Ann Coulter


Who is she: Conservative commentator, William F. Buckley wannabe, and a total fucking creep!
Why the media wants you to think she's hot: The main reason why people watch Hannity & Colmes is because Sean Hannity is a handsome-looking dude who will attract many female conservatives. The same thing would apply to Ann Coulter. Fox News would do anything just to make men drool to Ann.
A Hotter Equivalent: Michelle Malkin, eventhough she looks like a malnourished Pol Pot victim

3.Lindsay Lohan


Who is she: Failing actress, and rumoured Lesbian
Why the media wants you to think she's hot: Because she used to be the hottest chick in the world, back in 2004. Sadly, her life falls apart and she became the ugly duckling version of Charly from Flowers for Algernon. However, her mom and full time bitch Dina Lohan wants men to keep on drooling to her till she dies, and therefore, an atrocious PR campaign is set up, including having her impersonating Marilyn Monroe.
Hotter Equivalents: Hayden Panettiere, Kristen Stewart, Megan Fox, Ellen Page & Emma Watson.

2.Paris Hilton


Who is she: Full time whore and useless daughter of a huge empire.
Why the media wants you to think she's hot: She has a sex tape, and she's a part of a huge empire of hotels. What else can i say?
A Hotter Equivalent: Ivanka Trump

1.Sarah Jessica Parker


Who is she: Star of the hit show Sex and the City who has a face like a horse
Why the media wants you to think she's hot: When you have a show called "Sex and the City", and your main character is a female, you have to make her hot. Therefore, she kept appearing in covers of magazines like Vogue, Vanity Fair and Fortune. However, we can still thank Maxim for awarding her "Most Unsexiest Woman".
Hotter Equivalents: Kim Cattrall & Kristin Davis, both co-stars of SATC.

Next time guys, be warned if the media fools. If you still like them, fine it's your personal choice but if you kept saying that one of these women are "HOTTEST CHICK EVER!!", you need to get out more.

What the fuck is wrong with DAP?

To wear or not to wear songkok
By NELSON BENJAMIN

JOHOR BARU: The four DAP assemblymen in the state are in a limbo over the wearing of the songkok at the opening of the Johor state legislative assembly.

The assemblymen from Bentayan, Mengkibol, Senai and Skudai, are in a dilemma as some members of the DAP central executive committee (CEC) don't want them to wear the headgear at the June 19 event where the Johor Sultan would be present.

However, a state DAP meeting decided on April 20 that the assemblymen could wear the songkok as a mark of respect to the Sultan.

(In 1990, the Sultan publicly ticked off three Opposition assemblymen for not wearing the songkok).

State DAP vice-chairman Norman Fernadez said it was unfair for the CEC members to practise double standards as assemblymen in Selangor wore the songkok at the opening of their state assemblies.

“Their (CEC) argument that the assemblymen in Selangor are members of the Government does not hold water.

“It is not fair to put the Johor DAP assemblymen in such a difficult position, especially with the Sultan,” Norman said, urging the four to wear their uniform, including the songkok.

Johor DAP chairman and Skudai assemblyman Dr Boo Cheng Hau said the state committee had made a decision but it was now up to the CEC to give the final nod.

Mengkibol assemblyman Ng Lam Hua said personally he did not mind wearing the songkok as a mark of respect.

“I asked my constituents and they said they do not care what I wear but are more concerned about what I say at the state assembly,” he said.

Senai assemblyman Ong Kow Meng, who also did not mind wearing the songkok, hoped the CEC would clear the confusion.

However, Bentayan assemblyman Gwee Tong Hiang said that he did not mind taking his chances by not wearing the songkok during the opening.

Speaker Datuk Ali Hassan advised all the assemblymen to wear their official attire including the songkok.

“Assemblymen in Johor are different. They may not be able to enter the assembly without the songkok,” he said, adding that he hoped the DAP assemblymen did not create problems on June 19.

The session ends on July 4.

This is the dumbest form of political correctness ever. Sure, the songkok is a Malay headgear, but it is also a Malaysian headgear. No?

Riong Kali as Tan Sri? It's The Apocalypse!

Riong Kali be made a Tan Sri?

NTSP Deputy Chairman Dato’ Kalimullah “Riong Kali” Hassan highly probable be awarded the Panglima Setia Mahkota (PSM) from the Federal Government which carry the title ‘Tan Sri’ as early as tomorrow, most probably for his role in spinning the stories and the ‘control’ he was able to enforce in most of the mainstream media, to make PM ‘Flip-Flop’ Dato’ Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi look bloody good (though not many people actually thought he even did an adequate job at it!).



For someone who failed ‘security’ scrutiny when he was appointed Press Secretary to then Deputy Prime Minister En. Abdul Ghafar Baba more than fifteen years ago, Riong Kali later managed to wiggle himself as the speech writer to Foreign Minister and later Deputy Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

He also tried to get himself as the ‘Spokesman’ for the Seri Perdana (Just like The Whitehouse in Washington D.C. has a Spokesman) during the final leg of Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad as the Prime Minister, twice! Of course, he did not get anywhere. However, he really tried.

Now, it seems the Federal Government under the weak leadership of PM ‘Flip-Flop’ Abdullah is now bestowing an award fit for a national hero to a much talked about Singapore intelligence service operative in this country!

All-Blogs pro tem President Rocky and now Tangents blogger A M Ubaidah S had talked about this investure, in accordance with this year’s official birthday celebration of the Seri Paduka Baginda Yang DiPertuan Agong. What has he done, as a service to the nation and rakyat, to deserve this?

On the contrary, he had caused a ruckus more than two years ago by insulting Islam and the Muslims. On 11 June 2006, he vehemently lied about PM ‘Flip-Flop’ Abdullah meeting former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad in Tokyo. He created history whens sued two prominent socio-political bloggers Ahiruddin “Rocky” Attan and Jeff Ooi, on 11 January 2007. On the same note, he gave Khairy Jamaluddin, the son-in-law a leg up and abetted in making him one of the richest unemployed nobody in this country (of course, for his own personal gain as well!).

It was said since the recently organised various meetings of UMNO Liaisons, one of the topic highlighted was about Riong Kali. Of course Penerangan UMNO had brought this up numerous times, throughout these years about the same matter and conveniently shot down as PM ‘Flip-Flop’ Abdullah was believed to have said “Dia kawan saya” when these complaints were brought up to the UMNO President’s attention.

This remarkably look like a ‘golden handshake’ and ‘face saving exit’ from NST. In retrospective, he has brought the paper from one new record low to another over these five years. NST had digressed from a less credible paper to an amazingly incredible major English daily!

The thirteen million plus Ringgit question now is, how more stupid can the weak leadership get?

*Updated as of 7.00pm

According to blogger Lee Kok Liang Jr. of Hard-T, Riong Kali will be awarded either the PJN or PSD, which will carry the title ‘Datuk’. Apparently HM SPB YDP Agong was said to have vetoed his PSM and decided to award him a lesser investure.

*Updated as of 11.00pm

During one of the breakaway session in the UMNO “retreat” at the Glenmarie Holiday Inn today, one of the three groups deliberated extensively on the media and its failure in the context of UMNO. They insisted that Riong Kali be sacked from his position and he and Khairy Jamaluddin should no longer have any role in either the party nor the Government. On the contrary, The ‘Level Four Boys’ were the persons responsible to recommend Riong Kali be given a ‘Tan Sri-ship’.

http://bigdogdotcom.wordpress.com/2008/06/06/riong-kali-be-made-a-tan-sri/

Datuk-ship or Tan-Sri, he's still a piece of shit. There are many Malaysians who deserves a knighthood more than this douchebag.

Oh, shit!

Petronas could go bust by 2018
By WONG SAI WAN

KUALA LUMPUR: Petronas will go bust within 10 years if all its profits are handed to the Government to continue subsidising fuel, said its president and chief executive officer Tan Sri Hassan Marican.

He warned that many national petroleum companies in the world have ceased to exist or were in financial trouble today because all their profits were taken away from them.

Speaking at a special briefing on Petronas’ contribution to the country, Hassan said that in the oil business it was important to reinvest profits in search of new technologies, reserves and continued revenue. Petronas has so far reinvested RM178.9bil of its profits.

“Petronas has played a major role by giving back a substantial amount of its profits to the Government,” he added.

At the close of its financial year in March last year, the national petroleum company had given the Government RM52.3bil in taxes, royalties and dividends which worked out to be 32% of the Federal Government’s revenue.

“Since the formation of Petronas in 1974 to last year, the company gave the Government RM335.7bil out of a total profit of RM570bil,” Hassan said.

Commenting on the fuel price increase, the Petronas boss said the corporation did not make a sen from the increase.

“All the oil companies get full market price for the petrol and diesel that they sell and the Government pay them the difference from the fixed price. This is where the subsidy comes into play,” he added.

Hassan revealed that oil companies operating in the country spent RM40bil a year in drilling and exploration works and a lot of this money wasinjected into the local economy.

Hassan also pointed out that it was now more expensive for Petronas to explore and extract oil.

“A lot of focus is placed on the high oil prices. There is very little talk about costs. The costs to explore and to drill for oil have increased by about 200% over the past three years.”

Hassan said Exxon Mobil made about US$40bil (RM130.31bil) last year, an increase of only US$1bil (RM3.26bil) from 2006, in an environment of higher crude oil prices.

“That is the world’s biggest, most efficient and most well-run oil company. Margins have eroded,” he said.

Hassan said Petronas was now “ scraping the bottom of the barrel” as far as finding and extracting oil was concerned.

Asked about criticisms that Petronas' accounts and profits were not transparent, Hassan said the corporation published a very detailed annual report which was deposited in the Parliament library.

“For all intents and purposes, Petronas is a public-listed company because we are rated by agencies like Standard and Poors, and Moody. We do not hide anything,” he added.

Wawasan 2020 is over.

Just because it's "cool" to be atheist nowadays, that doesn't make you a smartass

The absurd world of Martin Amis
Chris Morris
The Observer, Sunday November 25 2007

Look, I'm busy. I'm writing a script and I won't be disturbed. Except that because I'm writing about terrorism and Islam, I keep being distracted by Martin Amis. He prowls the thickets of my research like a demented flasher. Sometimes Christopher Hitchens pops up, too, and flashes along with his friend. They rail against Muslims. They're obviously daft. But people take them seriously.

No matter that they act like senile 12-year-olds on the Today programme website - smoking illegal fags to look tough and cool. No matter that Amis coins truly abominable terms like 'the age of horrorism' and when criticised tells people to 'fuck off'. Surely we all chuckle at the strenuous ennui of his salon drawl. Didn't he once accidentally sneer his face off? His 'insight' about Mohammed Atta involved pretending the hijacker was constipated for six months - brilliantly smuggling into our subconscious that idea that Atta was 'full of shit'. He abandoned his satire on terrorism in which a Muslim unleashes mass rape on America because 'faced with Islamism, even satire withers and dies', not because his idea was obviously rubbish.

Despite his manifest absurdity (he called the World Trade Centre attacks 'edificide' and the towers' destruction an 'apocollapse'), people take him seriously and if they do then we must.

Last week Amis was called a racist. I saw him speak at the ICA last month. Was his negativity about Islam technically racist? I don't know. What I can tell you is that Martin Amis is the new Abu Hamza.

To recap, Amis was called a racist because he said Muslims were backward, violent, homophobic, paranoid, boring, retarded and stupid. Hitchens said no, he's conducting a 'thought experiment'.

Now Amis should be allowed to wonder aloud about anything. He can suggest Muslims should 'experience painful discrimination until they get tough with their children' if he likes. Thought experiments are fine. But if he bundles his thoughts on Islam together and iterates them one after the other as he did when I saw him, he displays not unguarded musing but the forging of an incoherent creed of hate. It goes roughly like this: 9/11 was horrific, its driving ideology was totalitarian, the totalitarians were Muslims, all Muslims follow a book they believe to be the immutable word of God, I don't believe that, therefore all Muslims are idiots, and basically bastards. Idiot bastards moping around the Middle East in a paranoid funk just cos they lost their empire, and what a rubbish empire it was, too, by the way. Now, what is your balanced view of these primitive wife-beating idiotic bastards?

Like Hamza, Amis could only make his nonsense stand up with mock erudition, vitriol and decontextualised quotes from the Koran. To risk a familiar example, it won't do for Amis (or Hamza) to state flatly that the Koran exhorts Muslims to kill Jews without even asking whether this means all Jews or some particular group of Jews with whom the Muslims were fighting in the seventh century, or indeed, whether there are other verses that modify the message by deploring killing of any kind, or describing how 'people of the book [Christians and Jews] shall have nothing to fear or regret'.

I claim no great knowledge on this subject - level-three SATs perhaps - but Amis couldn't pass the test for morning playgroup. If my Shetland pony looks like a high-horse it's only because Amis is trotting round the paddock on a chihuahua.

So how does Amis manage to move from condemning the horrors of suicide bombings to pouring scorn on anyone who can believe in paradise - effectively all Muslims? He muddles his terms. Even Hitchens concedes Amis wrongly conflates Islamism with Islam. By fudging, Amis adds the weight of his reaction against terrorism to his contempt for Muslims in general. Take 'Islamism'. What does it actually mean?

For many it means 'political Islam'. Amis calls it a 'murderous ideology', equating it with terrorism. Now look at the following statement: 'The terrorist killings in New York, Madrid and London were wrong. They were indiscriminate, un-Islamic and based on ideas abstracted to the point of insanity.' I was firmly told this by an ex-Mujahideen who fought in Afghanistan 20 years ago. He was an Islamist. I strongly doubt he was murderous.

These concepts are more complex than Amis would have us believe. This lack of clarity allows him to group Muslims who stop teenagers shooting one another with a man who cheerfully saws the heads off Jews.

It's not easy. Even ex-Islamists seem confused. Ed Husain - whose Hizb ut-Tahrir memoir The Islamist made him the summer's top ram-raid sound-biter - condemns Islamism as 'totalitarian' but later allows for 'moderate Islamists'. What sort of braincrash is a 'moderate totalitarian'? I doubt it could even walk.

These distinctions matter because the way out of this mess (and it is a mess, fuelled by ignorance, stupidity, prejudice and weapons) is to clarify and discriminate rather than hurl abuse at anything that goes near a mosque.

I doubt many Muslims can be bothered with Amis. But he nurtures in his audience a corrosive prejudice against people they've never bothered to meet. It is culturally dim for us to form confident opinions about people based upon how they look and what we've heard they think. It is also against our interests. Nonsense abounds on the causes of terrorism but it is hard to argue that alienation doesn't channel potential foot soldiers towards radicalisation. As one solitary Muslim asked him at the ICA, 'Why such contempt for Muslims?' Amis must have known something was up because he dropped his drawl and called the man 'sir'. But he could hardly unspeak his views. And those views are certainly alienating.

With ignorance on his side, Amis can stare east through the salon window and convince us of a single advancing horde. He's clever. He might put it brilliantly. He might call it a 'Meccalanche' or an 'Attaclysm'. But when he speaks, think 'Hamza'.

· Chris Morris is making a comedy about jihadis for Channel 4

· This article was amended on Friday November 30 2007.

· This article was amended on Sunday December 9 2007. Homophone call: '... Amis can stare east through the salon window and convince us of a single advancing hoard.' This has been corrected.

Great article - what Chris Morris says here needed to be said. Martin Amis may or may not technically be 'racist', but he's certainly an idiot, and a pretty unpleasant one at that. I have no idea why so much of the British press gives respect and publicity to a man who so obviously knows absolutely nothing about what he's talking about.

The modern fears about 'Islamism' - as some of the comments on this very thread show - are overblown to the point of ridiculousness. Muslims make up a very small proportion of British society, and adherents to Abu Hamza-style extremism are a smaller group still; yet apparently they are the imminent threat we should all be worried about. "They'll ban atheism/Christianity/Hinduism/SubGenius/bla-bla-bla!" we're told, "and homosexuality! And force all women to wear headscarves!", and so on, without it ever being explained what kind of radical demographic and political changes would have to take place before those wingnuts represent a group with any kind of political power in this country.

This 'nightmare scenario' that we keep being presented, of evil Muslim men with scary beards taking over our country and enforcing sharia law, simply isn't going to happen. It's just not possible, not in Osama bin Laden's (or Christopher Hitchen's) wildest dreams. Britain's Muslim population may slowly grow, but 99% of its members will continue to pose no threat to mainstream liberal British society whatsoever. Despite the occasional, desperate efforts of the lunatic fringe, there is nothing worth getting terrified over.

What does scare me, though, is the continued demonisation and victimisation of Muslims as a whole. Perhaps society will always need its scapegoats, but nothing justifies the vitriol they routinely suffer simply for trying to practise their religion. I remind myself that this has happened time and again with British history, with the Irish, the Afro-Caribbeans, and the Jews, and every time the supposedly 'dangerous' minority group has proved itself to be anything but; eventually, society moves on and finds a new group to torment. One day, views like Amis' will thankfully be history; until then, we should take pleasure in treating them with the ridicule they deserve.

And judging by the majority of the responses at the Guardian comments section so far, anyone who dares approach Hitchens and Amis bigotry with even a scrap of objectivity is subjected to the same frothing-at-the-mouth abuse that one might expect from members of the BNP.

I'm sure that Hitchens and Amis would be quite horrified if they knew who they're now in bed with.

Subsidised petrol and the Singapore PR

Ever since the government’s decision to ban sale of subsidised petrol to foreign registered cars there have been numerous complaints by Singapore permanent residents but domiciled in Johor Bahru and using Singapore registered cars that they are being discriminated against.

These people work in Singapore and earn Sing dollars use Sing registered cars and so don’t pay our road tax but enjoy our facilities. I wonder whether they also pay income tax here? If my guess is right fat hope that they will pay their income tax here since they will say that they are already paying tax in the republic where they work.

Isn’t it ironic that they are deemed by the republic to be its permanent residents, yet they are not residents there but stay in JB where they not only enjoy lower cost for a house or house rental.
On top of this they also enjoy subsidised cooking gas, cooking oil, beras, flour, sugar and many other food items and subsidised goods. Why should these foreigners enjoy these subsidies and yet don’t even pay tax here.

They have no loyalty to this country and I am sure if you talk to them they will find all kinds of faults with this country and will praise the republic sky high.

And now when they are being denied just one subsidised item they are making all sorts of noise.

I think we should not be bothered by these ungrateful kind.
In the first place they should not be staying here in Malaysia at all. Since they so revere the Zionist influenced republic they should stay put there. Why must they stay here in Malaysia. It is their presence in JB that have to a certain extent made the cost of living in JB high even higher than in KL.

And as has been the case with our authorities known for their complacency (that was why we lost Pulau Batu Putih), I can bet that we don’t even know how many of these Singapore PRs are domiciled here.

Steps must be taken from now to identify and register them and perhaps discourage these foreign PRs from staying put in Johor.

One colleague has made a simple back of envelope calculation. If say one Singapore PR enjoys just RM30 of subsidy a day, a thousand of them would enjoy RM30,000 and if there are 10,000 of them staying in Johor then the subsidy would cost the country RM300,000 a day!

Since these are Singaporeans working in the republic, that is contributing to its economy, is it then wrong to conclude that Malaysia to a certain extent is also subsidising the republic?

We are always getting the wrong end of the stick in our relations with the Zionist influenced republic. Previously we have been selling them sand on the cheap to enable the republic to reclaim more lands which they sold off at thousands of S$ per square foot.

So they make money out of our sand just as they make money out of our cheap water when the resold the treated water to ships using their busy harbour.

So should we just keep quite and do nothing about all these merely in the name of good neighbourliness? But at whose expense?

If we were to reverse the roles, do you think the republic will keep quiet?


Rejal Arbee
June 3rd. 2008

http://www.mykmu.net/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=6659

Datuk Rejal is corek, corek, corek...

Support Ellen Page in the US Campaign for Burma

Yes, Than Shwe is a douchebag.

http://www.burmaitcantwait.org/