TASEK PAUH blogspot

"This is tradition and there is no reason why they should not be continued," he said in reply to a question by Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timur) in the Dewan Rakyat (Parliament) today.

Lim had repeatedly asked Noh why there was no explanation from Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein on the matter, raised by Syed Hood Syed Edros (BN-Parit Sulong) more than a month ago.

Syed Hood had, on Oct 29, said the board of directors of mission run schools were partially administered by churches in foreign countries.

"I was also made to understand that the application to build suraus in some of these schools had to go through the approval of these boards of directors since they are partially administered by the church. It shames me that the school administrations are still controlled by the church," he had said.

Syed Hood said he was made to understand that many Muslim parents sent their children to these schools and complained that sometimes the school started the morning with "church songs".

Datuk Mohamad Aziz (Sri Gading) interjected and declared: "I am not shocked at all. During the last Hari Raya, I was told by a father, when Aidilfitri was celebrated, these types of schools were not closed."

Later, in the Parliament lobby, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz , asked on the matter, said the public could lodge a police report if they are upset over the remarks.

"They can't make seditious remarks even though they have immunity as MPs. MPs are not above the Sedition Act. I am not going to condone any seditious statements made by anybody," he said.

Nazri said no one from the BN had complained about Syed Hood's call on the mission schools.

Labels: BN, Islam Hadhari, Kristianasasi, Malaysia

AlJazeera, Sept 01 - The capture of 23 South Korean Christian aid workers by the Taliban in Afghanistan marked the start of a nightmarish period of waiting for their families back in Seoul.

Now that the crisis has blown over with the release of 19 hostages - two had been freed earlier and two had been killed by their captors - the families have heaved a collective sigh of relief.

In a series of exclusive interviews with Al Jazeera, the relatives have narrated how they lived through the ordeal, anxiously waiting for news of their loved ones and described how they dealt with the killings of two of the hostages.

Kwak Ok-kang told of the moment she discovered one of her daughters, Liu Jung-Hwa, had been captured.

She said she had been driving in her car when she heard the news.

"I called my youngest daughter to check the name list, and she said, 'Yes: she's being named and appears on the list,'

"I felt my blood upside down and the colour of the sky seemed to change into yellow.

"It was a true shock and I was terrified."

Noble mission

The 23 South Koreans were all members of the Saemmul Presbyterian Church in Seoul, who had travelled to Afghanistan to undertake a 10-day aid mission in the war-torn country.

Seong In-sook told how her husband, You Kyong-sik, fed up with the drudge of his daily life in Seoul, had joined the group hoping to "make a difference" in the world.

"My husband was an engineer at a computer company for 30 years, and he left his job three years ago because he wanted to change his life."

She said he had "realised that life is very important ... that is the reason he was planning to go to Afghanistan, to find some way of helping".

A photograph, taken before the group left, showed You and the others all smiling.

But, while travelling through Afghanistan's Ghazni province, they were taken hostage by Taliban fighters.

Afghanistan’s government made it clear it would not agree to Taliban demands to free prisoners in exchange for the hostages.

Each time a deadline set by the Taliban passed without these demands being met, the families feared the worst. But, though negotiations broke down on several occasions, the deadlines seemed to pass without any consequences.

Lee Seong-hyun was married only for seven months when his wife decided to go to Afghanistan.

He said he felt "helpless" and in "pain" knowing his wife was being held captive.

"Without her sleeping, waking and eating [life] is not only meaningless but painful," he said.

Traumatic times

In South Korea, protesters demanded the release of the hostages and called for their government to intervene. Some of the protesters gathered outside a mosque in Seoul and there were fears of a backlash against South Korea's Muslim community.

Then the Taliban killed one of the hostages.

"All the family members burst into tears and even screamed with deep sorrow," Lee Hyun-ja told Al Jazeera.

The bullet-riddled body of Bae Hyung-kyu, a Christian pastor and the group's leader, was left close to the road where the group had been kidnapped.

A Taliban spokesman announced it was "because the government did not listen to our demands".

One of the hostages was allowed to call the media. It was Jung-wa, Kwak Ok-kang's daughter.

She said the group was scared. "Sometimes they threaten us," she said in the phone call. "They are going to kill us one by one."

After another deadline passed, the Taliban killed Shim Seong-min, another male hostage.

For Nam Song-soon, whose 36-year-old daughter Ji-young was among the hostages, the news was almost too much to bear.

"The hardest thing was when I saw the news on the TV that Shin-Song-Min was killed," she said.

"I saw his body was covered by a blanket, and I could see part of his feet and that was terrifying – a very terrible thing for me to watch.

Really I could hardly watch the TV because I was so shocked."

Renewed hope

The South Korean group was made up of seven men and sixteen women and there was speculation that the Taliban might be coming under criticism on a local level for holding female hostages.

On August 11, the Taliban announced they would release two hostages, but it took a further two days for Kim Kyung-ja and Kim Jee-na to be set free.

Another hostage, Lee Ji-young, who spoke some of the local Afghan dialect and had been working as a translator for the group, had been offered the chance to be one of the two released.

She chose to stay behind so that her friends would be released instead.

The Taliban allowed her to write a letter to her parents, saying she was "healthy and well fed".

The letter finished: "Please look after yourselves".

"I'm really proud of my daughter," Nam Song-soon, Lee's mother, said.

The release of Kim Kyung-ja and Kim Jee-na offered renewed hope to the families that the situation might be resolved.

South Korea had sent a delegation to Afghanistan for direct talks with the Taliban, but the discussions continually broke down over the issue of the prisoner release.

Then on August 29, the Taliban began to release the others, after South Korean authorities reiterated their plans to withdraw their troops and agreed to clamp-down on missionary groups travelling from their country to Afghanistan.

Both sides have denied rumours that a ransom was paid to secure the release of the remaining hostages, but for those back in Seoul that hardly mattered.

A deal had been reached and the agonising wait for the families was finally over. alJazeera

Labels: Afghanistan, Kristianasasi, Luar Negeri

South Koreans Apologize for Hostage Ordeal in Afghanistan

VOA, August 31 - Two of 19 South Koreans released by Taleban kidnappers in Afghanistan have apologized to the South Korean people and government for the ordeal.

At a news conference in Kabul Friday, one of the hostages, Yu Kyeong-sik, described losing sleep over the agony they caused to the country.

Yu described their July 19 abduction, saying the group of 23 church volunteers was on a chartered bus in southern Afghanistan when their driver picked up two locals. He said about 20 minutes later, the men began shooting and stopped the bus.

Yu said the Taleban split the hostages into groups. He said his own group changed locations 12 times throughout the six weeks of captivity, moved by motorbike or on foot.

The Taleban began releasing the 19 hostages on Wednesday, after striking a deal with South Korean negotiators. Two male hostages were executed last month and, then, two female hostages were released during talks with the Taleban.

Officials say the South Koreans are now on their way to Dubai.

As part of the deal to free the hostages, South Korea agreed to withdraw 200 of its non-combat troops from Afghanistan by year's end - which it had already planned to do - and to suspend missionary work in the country.

Some reports say South Korea paid a substantial ransom to the Taleban, but both sides deny any money was exchanged.

The deal has been criticized by some Afghan officials who say it will only encourage more abductions. VOA. Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.

Labels: Afghanistan, Kristianasasi, Luar Negeri

Located in the heart of Kabul, Flower Street is different at Christmas from any other time of year, transformed into a festive place full of trees decked with multicolored tinsel garlands and lights.

"After the Taliban, we started to make Christmas trees because lots of foreigners are around, and they are asking for them," said Eidy Mohammad as he decorated a tree at his shop, the Morsal Flower Store. "Business is growing — we had only the wedding season before, but now we have Christmas as well."

Picture: An Afghan woman clad with burqa passes by a decorated Christmas tree, which is displayed for sale, on Thursday December 21, 2006 in Kabul, Afghanistan. One of artificial Christmas trees, which weree imported, costs around US$25. The tree is pretty much expensive for an average Afghan working at an Afghan company: he earns about 50-60 dollars a month.

Unlike many non-Christian countries in Asia, Afghanistan does not recognize or celebrate Christmas. But thousands of foreigners who live in Kabul working with the United Nations, non-governmental organizations or international military forces, celebrate the holiday quietly in restaurants and behind military barracks.

Many shop at Flower Street for their holiday trees.

"Christmas is a good season for flower stores in Kabul," Mohammad said, adding that during the Taliban's rule, nobody was allowed to make Christmas trees in Kabul.

He has sold about a dozen Christmas trees, earning anywhere from US$20 to US$200 — a hefty sum for Afghans, many of whom make only about US$50 a month. The trees are from across Afghanistan and are adorned with Chinese-made artificial materials.

"They looked beautiful to me," he said with a smile. AP

Labels: Afghanistan, Berita, Kristianasasi, Luar Negeri

The Crafty Project: Christianization of Bangladesh

Western non-governmental organizations are operating in all parts of the world. Many are doing great work in alleviating poverty and helping with development efforts. Unfortunately, some have hidden agendas. Presently Bangladesh has the NGO density of 3.5 foreign NGOs per square mile. Most of the foreign NGOs, under the banner of "development partner", are working to remove poverty and to bring education, and progress to the country. Their failure to do so has instead brought about an increase in tensions and social problems in Bangladesh.

Their hidden agenda is now evident. Their activities can best be described as 'the revived form of imperialism' and 'neo-colonialism', a great threat to the entire nation and its majority Muslim population, estimated at 86%.

These organizations bring billions of dollars to help the poor people, but only 5% goes to the target group. The rest of money is spent to materialize their hidden agendas; to convert the indigenous population to Christianity.

In the 190 years of colonial rule in united Bengal, only 111,426 people were converted to Christianity. Out of this converts, about 50 thousand were citizens of Bangladesh. The number of Christians in the territory had risen by 400% from about 50,000 in 1947 to 200,000 in 1971. According to one estimate, in the period between 1971 and 1991, the number of Christian converts in Bangladesh has risen from 200,000 to 400,000.

Christian sources tend to underplay their numbers, but it is reported that their goal is to increase the Christian population to 10-12 million in the next 20 years.

Labels: Bangladesh, Kristianasasi, Ummah