Life is Healthy

Daily Mail, By DAILY MAIL REPORTER, 25th June 2010

Antara News, Sunday, June 13, 2010 14:04 WIB

Banda Aceh, Aceh (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian western-most province of Aceh will host the second national Islamic Mental Health conference here, July 29-30, which will be attended by medical specialists and paramedics as well as the foreign guest speakers.

The foreign guest speakers include mental health specialists from Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam, chairman of the conference organizing committee, dr Syahrial SpKj, said here on Sunday.

"The meeting will also gather information on mental health development across the country," he said, adding that a seminar on mental health will also be held featuring Prof DR dr Hatta Sharum, a lecturer of the Malaysian Kebangsaan University.

"We welcome the neighboring countries` participation although it is actually a national conference," Syahrial said.

According to him, the appointment of Aceh to host the conference has to do with the free shackling program promoted by the Aceh provincial administration this year.

Syahrial believed that the Banda Aceh mental health hospital will get much information from the conference in handling patients.

In the outer region of Aljier City, the capital of Algeria, people are preparing themselves to start a new day. However, bustle that took place did not necessarily break the concentration of some people who are diligent remembrance at a mosque.

There were more than 60 people involved in that activity. Sitting cross-legged in a circle while solemnly intoned Tasbih, Takbir, Tahlil, Tahmid, and blesses the Prophet Muhammad SAW, serve Allah the Almighty God and His Messenger.

They are members of an assembly of remembrance. And just like in Indonesia, the number of assemblies of remembrance in this North African country continued to grow from time to time. One thing is important, it is worth to note, the Assembly of remembrance in the Algerian adopted most of Sufism or Tasawuf.

The development is inseparable from the role of government. They want to encourage religious activity as a priority program, especially in order to spread the Sufi teachings.

The question is, what is the urgency of the policy? As is known, this country has long conflict involving government forces with Islamic groups, and has caused huge losses of spirit and possessions.

After going through security approach; raids, detention, and even gunfire, which proved does not give good results, the Algerian government to try a new effort to stop the conflict. Encouraging the spirit of religion among the public, is now the 'guns' of the government.

Incessantly, Sufism has been echoed throughout the country. Sufism is considered as an appropriate solution to overcome the turmoil and at the same time raise awareness of the importance of peace and togetherness.

Several steps unfold immediately. Among other things, the existence of television and radio programs to disseminate Sufism. A number of influential religious figures involved to introduce and provide an understanding of these related to Sufism. These activities of course are in control of the Government.

Basically, Sufism or Tasawuf can be found in almost all Muslim-majority country in the world. Sufi followers will come first of worship to draw closer to God, whether through recitation, remembrance, and other worships. They usually choose to distance themselves from political life.

On the other hand, the Salafi teachings also shared by members of the insurgents who want to change the conditions in the country according to Islamic values. Salafi who was developed the first time in Saudi Arabia is a movement to understand the political Islamism that takes understanding of the ancestors (Salaf) of the patristic period of early Islam as a basic of understanding.

Based on that, Salafi ideology trying to revive the practice of Islam as practiced at the time of the Prophet Muhammad S.A.W. They did not want innovations that have been made and will be added in the socio-religious life of Muslims. However, in Algeria, Sufi has not practiced widely. One of the reason is because most of the mosques is more likely to follow the Salafi movement.

How many followers of the Sufism in Algeria, not known for certain. However, according to George Joffe, a researcher at the research department of the Center of International Study, University of Cambridge, currently estimated there are about one to 1.5 million followers of the Sufi of the total population of 34 million inhabitants.

Government officials believe, Sufism can create a permanent peace in Algeria. Mohamed Idir Mechnane, an official at the ministry of religious, said they worked hard to popularize the traditional teachings of Islam that emphasizes tolerance, peace, and openness.

'And Alhamdulillah (Thank God), more and more members of the public who understand and are willing to follow the Sufi teachings,' he said, quoted by Reuters news agency.

For the success of this program, the government provides a broader role in society to the followers of the Sufi. For instance, organizing events like weddings, helping orphans, teach reading and writing the Al Qur'an, as well as fund for the poor.

'For more than 14 centuries, Islam has been present in this country,' said Hadj Lakhdar Ghania, one member of the Assembly of remembrance, Tidjania Zaouia. 'We're used to living in harmony and peace.' However, he continued, when the followers of Salafi said to the Algerian to practice Islam as they practiced, then began to arise differences of opinion.

How to spread the Sufi teachings actually not a new idea. Since 2007, a study from the Rand Corporation says that Sufism proved to be very effective to promote moderate Islam. 'Traditionalist and Sufism in Islam are an integral part, given the many similarities between the two,''the study said. The Salafi followers react immediately. They can not accept some Sufi ritual practices, such as pilgrimages to the tomb of the clergy.

Instead, they assess that the Salafi doctrine is the only one should be applied. 'The Salafi is very important to counter thought and worship that deviate from Islamic values. We encourage the younger generation to follow the true teachings of Islam and not affected by the Western lifestyle,' said Sheikh Abdel Fatah, one of the prominent Salafi figures. But, why then Salafi usually associated with violent? Sheikh Abdel Fatah denies. He argues, in any countries, salafi teachings always practiced in peace.

To prove his statement, Sheikh Abdel Fatah requested that the public back to the year 2001. At that time, after 11 September 2001 incident, a number of Salafi scholars are immediately condemned the violence. Similarly, other Salafi clerics who now live in Saudi Arabia, Abdelmalek Ramdani, called on followers to avoid violence and hostility.

Other ideas put forward by Mouloudi Mohamed, a local Muslim scholar. He believes, the best effort to stop the violence is by returning to traditional practices of Islam that has taken place in a civilized country since centuries ago. 'I'm not sure we need to 'import' solutions from abroad, but it would be better if we start practicing Islam as a father and grandfather had done first,' he stated.

Source: Muslim Ways

A government prosecutor hands over a whip to the executioner during a public caning in Aceh Besar in January this year. There is growing outrage after a man and woman caught committing adultery on were beaten and possibly caned under Islamic law by a mob on Wednesday. (AFP Photo/Chaideer Mahyuddin)

Indonesia on Friday promised a full investigation into the public humiliation, mob beating and possible caning under Islamic law of two people suspected of having an adulterous tryst.

The offences allegedly took place Wednesday after a 36-year-old teacher and a 28-year-old housewife were accused of having extramarital sex in Aceh province, where religious police enforce Shariah or Islamic regulations.

They were dragged from the woman’s home by an angry mob, paraded naked through their village, tied to a post and beaten almost to death, and now face nine lashes each in public, police said.

It is the latest incident to expose the conflict between local Shariah provisions and rights enshrined in the secular constitution of the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country.

“This is a barbarous crime and obviously against our rule of law,” an official at the justice and human rights ministry said.

“We will order police to launch an immediate probe and to take firm and concrete action against the perpetrators.”

Nearly 90 percent of Indonesia’s 234 million people are Muslims, but the vast majority practise a moderate form of the religion.

National human rights commission chairman Ifdhal Kasim urged President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to clarify that rights guaranteed under the constitution take supremacy over local regulations, including religious ones.

“This can be a bad precedent for other regions which have similar tendencies and which try to put religious values above the country’s constitution,” he told AFP.

“The directive should mention that Indonesia is a secular country and everything should be based on the constitution.”

Deeply Islamic Aceh adopted partial Shariah law in 2001 as part of an autonomy package aimed at quelling separatist sentiment.’

Last year the outgoing provincial government passed the Qanun Jinayat, a bill allowing adulterers and other religious offenders to be put to death by stoning.

It has not been signed into law by Governor Irwandi Yusuf and officials in Jakarta have asked for it to be withdrawn.

Agence France-Presse

Radio Netherlands Worldwide, 3 April 2010 - 9:00am, by Zainab Hammoud

More than half of all girls and women do not bleed when they lose their virginity. However, this loss of blood is still important in cultures where women are supposed to preserve their virginity until marriage. So women have found ways of meeting their environment's expectations.

Karima, a Dutch/Moroccan woman in her early twenties, has a secret: she had hymenoplasty, or hymen reconstruction surgery, shortly before her marriage. The hymen is the membrane which encloses the vaginal area.

"In my culture you cannot tell your parents or your family that you were not a virgin when you married. My mother would not survive it," she says. She only allows herself to be interviewed with a distorted face and voice so that she cannot be recognised.

Gynaecologist Ineke van Seumeren has doubts about the procedure. "I have always found it a problem to do something that really isn't necessary. It is not a disease." A few years ago she thought up a different solution. She wants to inform people that the correlation between an intact hymen and virginity is a myth.

Not only is smoking deadly, but new research alleges that pigs' blood is used in the manufacture of filters of the kind used in Indonesian cigarettes.

In a claim likely to cause consternation to many Indonesians of the Muslim faith, a Dutch author has published a book that claims that pigs’ blood is used in the manufacture of cigarette filters.

Professor Simon Chapman from the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney was quoted on the university’s Web site as saying, “Many devout Islamic and Jewish smokers and some vegetarians would be horrified to think they were putting a filter in their mouth which contained a pig product,” Chapman said.

Pig 05049, written by Christien Meindertsma, lists 185 different ways that pigs’ bodies can be used, including, according to the Web site, the manufacture of sweets and shampoo, to bread, body lotion, beer and bullets.

Pig hemoglobin is, according to the book, used to filter harmful chemicals contained in cigarettes.

Kartono Muhammad, the former head of the Indonesian Doctors Association, told Detik.com that Indonesia imported filters for locally made cigarettes.

The Muslim Consumer Association of Malaysia has called on authorities there to investigate the claims.

Jakarta Globe, Anita Rachman & Nurfika Osman, March 26, 2010

Makassar. Taking Islamic law as its guide, leading Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama on Friday issued a fatwa declaring underage marriage acceptable as long as the purpose of the union was to build a happy family.

Cholil Nafis, secretary of the committee for religious issues for this past week’s 32nd NU congress, said the gathering had agreed that there should be no age restrictions on marriage because sacred Islamic verses or regulations had not stipulated a minimum age.

“They can get married at any age, even girls who haven’t started menstruating,” he said. “And they can have intimate relationships and intercourse, as long as they are able.”

Cholil said Islamic law only suggested that marriages would be better after a woman had her first period.

“As long as the objectives of the marriage are positive, it is allowed,” Cholil said. “Mind you, we don’t encourage people just to get married to fulfill their desires, no,” he added.

NU was aware that some groups might disagree, he said. While NU looked at the issue from a religious point of view, others might focus on different aspects, such as human rights.

“If people disagree with our fatwa, so be it. We never force people to follow what we say.”

Cholil said an NU report mentioned underage marriages in some regions, but added that they were mostly traditional engagements between families who wanted their offspring to marry.

Under such a marriage, the minors are wed under Islamic law as if they were adults, but live separately with their families until they are judged mature enough to assume adult responsibilities.

Friday’s edict drew immediate criticism from the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), as well as the nation’s second-largest Islamic group, Muhammadiyah, and the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan).

“Girls need mental maturity to be responsible for their husband and children,” MUI chairman Amidhan told the Jakarta Globe. “Based on the 1974 Law on Marriage, girls can only get married after they are 16.”

Yunahar Ilyas, Muhammadiyah’s fatwa committee chairman, said NU should not issue edicts and recommendations based solely on an Islamic perspective.

“They are supposed to see this matter comprehensively. Menstruation is not a measurement of a girl’s maturity,” Yunahar said.

“She needs to be mentally and intellectually mature to be able to be a good mother and wife.”

Komnas Perempuan vice chairwoman Masruchah told the Globe that the edict violated the Law on Child Protection, which defines children as being younger than 18 years old.

Girls can begin to have their periods as early as the age of 9, but their reproductive system is still fragile and they are “not ready to be a sexually active person,” she said.