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| Southeast Asia |
| Muslims in Malaysian state can now retain surnames |
| 2007-03-12 |
| Malaysian Muslim converts in the northern state of Perlis will now be allowed to retain their family names, instead of changing it to “Abdullah” ["Slave of Allah"] following a state religious edict, reports on Sunday said. The fatwa, or religious edict, issued by the Perlis Fatwa Council said converts must retain their family or father’s name to avoid confusion in their family history or lineage, the News Straits Times reported. “It’s time that we correct society’s misconception that converts must assign the bin or binti, which stood for “son of” or “daughter of” to “Abdullah”, said state mufti Mohamad Asri Zainul Abidin. “From now on, the council has decided that it is haram, or forbidden, for them to do so,” Mohamad Asri said according to the newspaper. Mohamad Asri said changing a convert’s family or father’s name to “Abdullah” was commonly practised in Malaysia as most thought it was required by Islam. He said the practice was actually contrary to the teachings of Islam, which stresses fairness, equality and respect for one’s parents. He was quoted by state Bernama news agency as saying that changing ethnic Chinese or Indian surnames to a Muslim name was “awkward” and a mere tradition. He said it was unfair on the converts and their families. “This should not be the case because they are actually being denied justice and their right,” Mohamad Asri said, according to Bernama. Multicultural Malaysia’s almost 27 million population is made up of 60 percent Muslim Malays, 26 percent ethnic Chinese and 8 percent ethnic Indians. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #3 I've seen Mahomet used in 19th century American and English writings, JFM. And naturally his followers were referred to as Mahometans. But then the Europeans were most familiar with the Turkish and Algerian/Moroccan pronunciations. And, since it's all transliteration anyway, there can be no absolute proper spelling. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-03-12 11:16 |
| #2 Resistance to wahabificzation: wahabbi-funded activists are promoting imitation of Arabians in everything. An elder Algerian commented about the FIS people: Prophet used khol to protect his eyelids from the reverberation of the Sun in the desrt so they use khol even if they live hundreds miles of it, they wear 7th century Arbaic-style clothes becauise that is why prophet wore despite Algeria being much colder than Arabia, if the Proiphet had put a stick in his a... they would put a stick in their a..s Forgive me for using so prophane words in front of you but this old Algerian really hitted the nail about the Kim-Il-Sungian nature of Mahommet's (1) cult between islamists (1) I don't want to use the name Muhammad since this has been imposed on us by MSM aned Arabs. Noot sure what was the old name used in English. I suspect it is similar to Mahommet (French) or Mahoma (Spanish). O doesn't exist in Arabic and E has something like a half existance. A good reason to use both when referering to Meca, Medina or Mahoma. |
| Posted by: JFM 2007-03-12 04:26 |
| #1 And the significance of this is what, exactly? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-03-12 02:28 |