Mufti: Allow Chinese to build mosques

28 Jan 2007
Wan Hamidi Hamid


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KUALA LUMPUR: It’s time for Malaysia to have Chinese mosques run by the Chinese for the Chinese community.

Perlis Mufti Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin said state governments, particularly religious departments, should allow Chinese Muslims to build mosques and surau for their community.

He said it was unfair of state governments to deny the right of the Chinese Muslims based on the misunderstood conception that Islam could only mean Malay language, customs and traditions.

"The idea that Islam in Malaysia must be Malay in all forms is wrong.

It discourages non-Muslims from wanting to know about Islam and at the same time denies the non-Malay Muslims the right to worship in their mother tongue.

"Chinese from China have been Muslim hundreds of years before the Malays accepted Islam. I believe state authorities should give permission for Chinese Muslims to build their mosques."

There are about 57,000 Chinese Muslims in Malaysia, according to the 2000 census, making up one per cent of the 5.69 million Chinese population in the country.

The late Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra, who tried to bridge the racial gap between Malays and Chinese, formed the Islamic Welfare Association (Perkim) to enable more Chinese to understand Islam, and if possible, to embrace the religion.

Dr Mohd Asri said Perkim and other associations continued to exist but the right for Chinese Muslims to worship was limited due to language and cultural barriers.

"We can no longer pretend that Islam means Malay. The Chinese and, the Indians who accepted Islam are equally Muslim and must have the full rights as Muslims," he said.

He also said the current situation made it difficult for Chinese who converted to Islam because they had to "masuk Melayu" (assimilate into the Malay culture), too, alienating them from their non-Muslim family and friends.

"If a mosque or a surau for the Chinese is allowed to be built, their non-Muslim community will still accept them as they are still considered Chinese by continuing to practise their language and traditional customs, which are not at odds with Islam," he said.

Dr Mohd Asri called on state governments and state religious authorities to provide the permit to build Chinese mosques and surau.

"For example, if there are enough Chinese Muslims in Perlis wanting to build a mosque, I will gladly advise the state government to issue the permit.

"But I hope state governments in Penang, Perak, Selangor, Malacca and Johor would approve the applications to build Chinese mosques.

"I’m sure when permission is granted, the wealthier Chinese community would be able to contribute to the building of the mosques on their own. To deny this is racism, discrimination and against Islam."




The Great Mosque of Xian, China - A 17th century gate (360 years old) providing entry into the first courtyard.
http://www.orientalarchitecture.com/xian/g...mosqueindex.htm

That sounds fairly reasonable to me

Why can't the chinese muslims pray in Malay mosques?

^they can pray in malay mosques its up to them. i think a mosque should be a place for everybody which it is

who owns the kabah in Mecca?

wow, even that's an issue? how is that possible...

Ka'bah is not owned by any particular organization/country/groups. Ideally it should be maintained by an international consortium of Muslims.

the idea of chinese and malay mosques annoys me. they should all pray together rather than all this seperation. it'll help with malay chinese relations cos its pretty crap atm, so some people have said to me.

IMO, this news says Chinese Muslim must given right to run it own mosque, to conduct khutbah in Chinese not in Malay.
So in that sense all Chinese Muslim can feel that they are Chinese not Malay.

my first impression of the chinese mosque is that it looks like a buddhist temple

of coz not silly! dis is Malaysia not China!

I believe there shouldnt be any separation between Chinese and Malay nor Indians

Like in churches here...we do conduct services in Chinese as well as Tagalog to caters for certain group needs.

However, if the majority is Chinese or Indian....they might as well setup their own Mosque to facilitate smooth administration of the latter

The reason why the mufti asked this because some Chinese Muslim feel threatheaned that they will lost their cultural identity if they become muslim. So for me, I agree with the mufti suggestion because if any Chinese want to be Muslim it doesn't meant you have to be Malay... but to be Malay you have to be Muslim (only in Malaysia)...

That logic should apply to all mosques around the world. Anybody irregardless of their language and race shouuld be allowed to pray in mosques in whatever language, be it arabic, swahili, english, malay or chinese. Right?

Why shoudl there be separate mosques for Chinese and malays?

It doesn't mean that Chinese are not allowed to pray in Malays mosque. It only mean that Chinese want their own mosque where they can read "Khutbha" or Islamic Sermon in Chinese and conduct other activity in Chinese. Malay also allowed to pray in this Chinese mosque as long as him/her Muslim.

oic... why do the chiinese want a separate mosque to pray in chiinese language? why can't they pray in malay mosque in chinese language?

Most of Malaysian mosque conduct all Islamic Sermon and teaching in Malay language. So most Chinese feel that they have to become Malays not Chinese anymore if any of them want to embrace Islam. So the mufti suggest there is no need for Chinese to become Malay or anything else because being Muslim doesn't mean you have to give up yur ethnicity.
So if Chinese want to build up their own mosque and designed it like temple or whatever, they can have that.


I think they can if they want to. But FYI, all muslim prayer is conducted in Arabic language.

malay is a race lar....muslim is a religion



betong is right.....muslim prays in one language unlike other religion

in SG we do have mosque erected and administered by indian. In Kl also. I have many frens who comes from indonesia and go and pray at bangladeshi mosque. Its because we were in serangoon and that is the nearest mosque available...

the prayers are always in arabic i know, but the sermons (u know talk-talk) are conducted in malay right?

why can't the muftis have a chinese sermon session?

Because the mufti was Malay and he cannot speak Chinese. But if he can speak Chinese and all people who attend his sermon understand Chinese, why not.

doesn't that make more sense? having chinese speaking muftis hired to give sermons in the mosque, rather than building a separate chinese mosque? why segregate the believers on language?

here, the african churches got sermons in swahili, english, spanish, italian and even tagalog!

makcik,.....churches can have 7 or 8 session in one day...friday prayers only 1 session la honey...

oic.... why not make 2 sessions then?

havent you learn anything in SG.............

yes....to have strategic pragmatism as a way of doing things in life

(that one is EDB philosophy lor..)

But why you want to make 2 sesions if u can just make 1?
They best way was always to give a sermon in language that understandable for everyone. So in that respect in Malaysia, Malay was the language that understandable for everyone.

But the real question asked by the mufti was why the religous authority didn't approve the effort by Chinese Muslim community in some Malaysia state to build their own community mosque with their own cultural influance. In this community mosque, Chinese can give a sermon in Chinese if they want to and I can even go there to pray even if I didn't understand anything what the sermon in Chinese said and it didn't effect my prayer.

Well, I see that this mufti is trying to divide the muslim congregation into separate places of worship, when in fact, the ideal thing should be to combine all muslims of whatever race language & color into the same place of worship.

That is what makes a faith strong and colorblind.

Like the kabaa in Mecca. Do they have a separate kabaa for chinese ? no right?

And I have been told during the hajj, several international languages are spoken to direct the sermons in the same place. No one is expected to hear all the instructions on how to get to the kabaa etc... in one language.

No, his real idea was to educated people because there always misconception happen especially in Chinese community that if any of them convert to Islam automatically they become Malay. and aborted their own culture. That all.

that means the chinese muslims have a serious problem with their identity, which can surely be resolved by having chinese sermons in the mosques...no??? rather than building a separate mosque for chinese muslims

wow. in this thread there's a malay (i assume betong is) defending chinese right. you malaysians should be doing this more often to each other, IMO.
but i agree with wizi, why not having a mosque or two giving friday sermons in english, for instance? i mean before all malaysians accept BM as their language, not only malay's. after all, chinese are not speaking in a single language either.


come again?

come what again?

during the hajj. you were told it "during the hajj"?

alamak....no la

my fren went to the hajj and told me that 'during the hajj...bla bla bla..."

ooh

i will go to the hajj one day though. maybe not this lifetime, but next... i wanna experience the kabaa circumambulation. it is already a sight to behold, but what an experience it must be



Here's a pretty wierd picture of the kabaa after a flooding in 1960's.. can you imagine so much rain in Saudi Arabia? I can't...



http://www.toursaudiarabia.com/images/mecca-1.html

actually thats not quite true. in my local mosque in europe. the pakistani sunni muslims have two sometimes three sermons on friday due to not enough space at the mosque.

malaysia is different. muslims here would rather pray on a hot pavement just so they can have only one friday session.

separate mosque have pro and cons. I rather see that muslims of any races are not divided during the prayer time. besides, if they are a malaysian chinese, they should be able to speak and understand passable malay language. it's a national language. i don't understand how praying at the same mosque should erode ones cultural identity. it's not like you pray differently according to ethnic. besides, you're free to pursue your own way once you're out of the mosque. if it's abbout clothing, Islam did not specify what type of cloth you should were during prayer. islam only say's that it should cover the aurat and clean. if you wish to wear a traditional garb in the mosque, please do so. just don't wear something to shiny and colorful so as not to disturb the concentration of other jamaah. IT'S PRAYER TIME FOR GOD SAKE, NOT A FASHION SHOW.

When you're muslim, you're different from your non-muslim friends and relatives. it's unavoidable. they don't pray 5 times a day, you did. they eat non-halal food, you don't. they drink liquor, you don't.

This idea that when you're muslim, you're automatically different from non-muslims, probably explains why Malaysia continues to struggle with a failure to engender a strong and unified sense of the Malaysian National Identity for its diverse citizens.

I'm unique to myself only. The where only one me in the whole universe

there is a few things that I salute the muslims:

1. Pray - one language...die die muz learn the language of God

2. Before Pray - must clean one self

3. When going for prayers - everyone wears simple clothes for prayers

Islam is the way of life as what people say....I agree if you follow strictly

In contrast to the church I less frequent.....

1. Pray - many language.....go to anglican church....God knows what the priest is talking about. Go to Catholic church makes some sense a bit.....I take holy communion as well. People say I cannot cuz I am from different denomination.....I tell myself..anglican are separated because of England stupid King....whats the name I forgot already

2. Before Pray - up to you whether clean or dirty

3. WHen going to church - oh man...singaporean sometimes wear shorts.....on eve of holidays....they come is short skirts....spike hairs...sexy clothes....and the list goes on....go to church for what I dun understand...

That king was Henry the VIII la! He wanted to be polygamous and have more than 1 wife, that's why he broke from the Catholic church la...... why didn't he just convert to Islam hor?


i kid!

Actually, he was fed up of paying taxes to the Papacy, England's coffer was scarce, and they were fighting the Scots and Frenchies, so he wanted to raise his own coffer to keep England's sovereignty aloof from the Papacy.

In the end, it's money mooney mooney.... and power

I knew about it as well.....dats why I heck care which church I go to.....I always say its between me and God

what I dun understand is why people is still stuck in being anglican....people are so proud by saying we follow the church of england....

anyway....I stop going to one....unless when my dad comes to spore...die die muz go...if not kena rotan...aduh

My dad is also church of england, all due to his ma... she was a die-hard anglican.

I stopped going to church when I went to Uni in the UK. All the freaking scary fundamentalist groups like Jesus Army, Mormons etc.. and especially those voodoo christian cults from the Caribbean students scarred me for life!!!

So this means your dad can practice polygamy too Tanga, since he Angalican, rite???

Hullo, Betong? U better go back to school la....

Henry the eighth either divorced or beheaded his wives. he didn't practice polygamy like duh!!!!!!

Henry the eighth is the founding father of anglican and a murderer to say the least.....and we still follow what the anglican's belief...

Am glad that I go catholic church these days...sooner or later, I might jump over

I know that. I think he divorced his wife. -According to my school text book

\

bro sumtimes auntie very serious you know....so dun play play ...wait she yo-yo you than problem deh

This Chinese plan of Makkah dates from the early 19th century, and it was probably produced for the use of Chinese pilgrims. With buildings carefully drawn and major sites labeled in both Chinese and Arabic, it is a valuable rendering of the pre modern city. ISAAC, THE ARABIAN PROPHET…, SHANGHAI, 1921



Melaka Mosque


Kampong Kling Mosque

Architecturally intriguing, it is one of the oldest surviving mosques in the country. The Sumatran influence is readily apparent from its three-tiered pyramid-shaped roof, in place of the more conventional dome. The free-standing minaret resembles a pagoda, again reflecting an infusion of Oriental influences. Freshly painted, it continues to serve faithfully as a popular venue of worship for the local Muslim community.







State Mosque

i don't know whether building a chinese mosques is good idea or not..it's up to the chinese muslim to build it right..even indian muslims in malaysia have their own indian mosques but i don't think that there are many of them..imo i think that all muslim should pray together in the same mosque in one direction..the jumuah is not about that you need to change your identity or culture..it's about to be together..to be united..to bulid a stronger community between different races and backgrounds..also to remind about god..man i could be a preacher..anyway, i'm in the states right now and muslims with different races here all go to the same mosques together and the jumuah are in english..most of them use english as a second language and yet they still go to the same english jumuah..that's the beauty of islam..why can't malaysia be like that..why do we need a separated mosques to separate malay, chinese or indian..too much politics in religion i guess..peace be upon you..

I think when he fancied a new wife he just had his other one beheaded.