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Monday, August 4, 2014

The other statements by Shahul Hamid – Rama Ramanathan



Who should do what to Ustaz Shahul Hamid? This is a problem for the eleven corporations he maligned and for the Islamic authorities responsible for halal certification and the presentation of Islam in Malaysia.
More than 400 police reports have been made about the Islamic religious teacher, whom the media call “curry powder preacher”. The complainants are mostly Indians outraged by his comments about curry powder and a Hindu idol. His comments were in a video clip which surfaced on the internet last week.
Shahul has apologised. He has clarified that the troublesome comments were a small part of a speech he gave to a closed-door audience of Muslims. He has said he did not intend to offend. He has said he doesn’t know who uploaded the clip or why they did so.
Shahul insinuates that the tongue is sticking out so the idol can taste and approve ingredients which go into the curry powder. So, Shahul says, the curry powder is haram (forbidden for Muslims) and should not be purchased or consumed by Muslims – especially since curry powder is also made and distributed by Muslim businesses.
The video and its content
I wondered why Shahul targeted Hindus. I wondered who his audience was. I wondered where he spoke. I couldn’t find this information in the news stories I located. So I Googled and found the 90 minute speech from which the 1 minute segment (which begins at 1h 01m 10s) was culled; it was uploaded on 26 April 2014.
According to news reports, Shahul says he made the speech 4 years ago. What follows is what I found when I sliced up his speech.
Venue. Shahul, from Penang, had been invited by either a surau or a mosque in either Kuala Lumpur or Selangor to speak about what is haram for Muslims.  I say “either” because the evidence I have does not conclusively favour one over the other. He spoke for about 90 minutes to a full house. He received, at best, a luke-warm response – but his speech was posted online.
His training. Shahul says he has some Indian ancestry, and that he was educated in village schools (sekolah pondok) in Baling, Penang, Thailand, Indonesia and Egypt; he has a Masters degree from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. He seems fluent in modern and classical Arabic.
Dr Kassim Ahmad. Although Shahul’s assigned topic was “halal and haram in the life of a Muslim,” he spent a third of his speech attacking Dr Kassim Ahmad, Malaysia’s elderly and best-known Muslim critic who says many Muslims idolise the Prophet of Islam, give too much emphasis to the Hadith (“traditions”) and add burdens upon believers which Allah never intended to be mandatory for all.
Students. Shahul reveals that he has many students, and that on more than one occasion he, together with his students, has gone to public meetings to confront Dr Kassim about his teachings.
Alcohol. Shahul mocks Dr Kassim and his associates. He says he was prevented from asking further questions at one of the meetings. He insinuates that Dr Kassim and his associates teach it is okay for Muslims to consume alcohol, so long as they don’t pray while intoxicated.
Islamic Malaysia. Shahul says “the Federation” is Islamic; he says Islam is expected to be in the warp and woof of the Federation, not to be merely symbolic. He reveals no knowledge of the equal status Sabah and Sarawak have with Malaya in the Federation.
Eggs. Shahul has a materialistic view of halal and haram. In purple prose, he lambasts those who do not wash eggs before cooking them. He tells of occasions when he’s told stall owners to wash eggs before cracking them.
Shahul says he told an Indonesian he would have him deported if he didn’t wash an egg before cooking it. He says he went to a stall reputed to have “the best mamak mee goreng,” then refused to eat what was presented to him when, under interrogation, the cook admitted the eggs weren’t washed before being added to the dish.
Salted fish. Shahul says salted Tenggiri fish is not halal because it's a larger fish and it's innards have to be removed before it can be considered halal.
Ah Pek. Shahul repeatedly refers to Chinese as “Ah Pek,” in a derogatory tone.
Toothpaste. Shahul doesn’t approve of toothpaste made by Zaitun, a Muslim company which he says is unacceptable, even though the Chinese owners are Muslims. Go figure.
Halal logo. Shahul was invited to speak about halal and haram. He essentially told his listeners it isn’t sufficient for Muslims to make consumption and purchasing decisions on the basis of whether or not there is a halal logo on a product or establishment. He says Muslims (as is so often the case in Malaysia, he uses “Malay” as a synonym for “Muslim”) have to be super cautious.
Global brands. Shahul says Muslims should only patronise Muslims-owned enterprises. Corporations and brands he names and warns against include: AAA (canned Sardines), Alagappa, Baba, Boh, Burger King, Coca-Cola, Colgate, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Nestle, Pepsi, Pizza Hut and Zaitun. He claims HP sauce and Tabasco sauce used by Pizza Hut have been tested by the authorities in Malaysia and found to contain pig DNA.
Non-Muslims. Shahul mocks Buddhists, Christians and Hindus and all who don’t agree with him, though his purpose seems to be cheap laughs; he’s more serious about bodily hair and the left hand.
Bodily hair, rings, forks. Shahul says both Muslim men and women should remove their arm pit hair and trim the hair in their noses. He says Muslims shouldn’t wear rings on their thumbs and index fingers, shouldn’t wear bangles – as these are ostentatious displays of wealth.
Left handedness. Shahul says Muslims shouldn’t eat with a fork in the left hand. He says he was left-handed until he was thirty years of age. Then, he gave up the evil of his ways; he taught himself to use his right hand. He’s now ambidextrous.
Shaking hands. He says much about which women Muslim men can shake hands with: only shake hands with women you are forbidden to marry. He offers rules about what constitutes haram dress for men: essentially, singlets and shorts are out.
What does my slicing show?
Shahul is like the awful karaoke singer who not only won’t go and sit down, but goes and starts schools to teach others to sing karaoke “professionally.”
In my slicing of the halal-haram talk by Shahul, I didn’t find any discussion of the following: Is corruption haram? Is over-eating haram? Is rigging elections haram? Is falsifying information haram? Is watching or making sex videos haram? Is proclaiming a woman 'divorced' after her husband dies haram? Is non-payment of court-ordered alimony and child support haram? Shouldn't he at least have touched on behaviour?
Shahul is more concerned about potentially polluting substances than polluting behaviours.
In my DNA analysis of the halal-haram talk, this is what I found: he has the same DNA as the Islamic Religious Authorities (IRA) of Malaysia. He demonises people and promotes racism just like the IRA’s Friday khutbahs.
What offence has he committed?
It seems the only statute the Attorney General could consider charging him against is the Sedition Act – the dastardly act wielded against Karpal.
Has he committed any offence? He didn’t upload the video. He doesn’t incite anyone to do harm. He pollutes minds – many of them young minds. He demeans established local and foreign businesses. He sets his own personal standard of halal and degrades halal certification by Jakim.
What do the IRA of Malaysia have to say? What do they plan to do about the Shahul and his students?
What do AAA, Alagappa, Baba, Boh, Burger King, Coca-Cola, Colgate, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Nestle, Pepsi, Pizza Hut and Zaitun expect? What do they expect Jakim, Malaysia’s issuer of halal certificates and logos, to do about Shahul and those like him?
* Rama Ramanathan reads The Malaysian Insider and blogs at write2rest.blogspot.com.

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