Realistic about the Hijab

Yesterday I couldn't resist myself over putting up an idealistic post on the wearing of the hijab. Today I had the opportunity to bring balance to that post. I can afford to indulge in idealism on this blog because I do not have the responsibility of running this place. Now if you are the government, you have to be very careful.

This morning one of my Muslim friends was tagged on Facebook with this.

The Muslims are late, the Christians especially Evangelicals had been doing this for a long time including silly ones like "honk if you love Jesus" car decals.

You walk into some Christian bookshops you can even buy Christian foods! What else is coming is beyond my imagination.

Huff post put this up earlier too. Pope Francis kissed and prayed for a poor guy with boils all over him.

I was thinking about the "Dear Allah" post and this one. The former is what I call form and the example of Pope Francis substance.

The practice of religion with forms is dangerous. It is also definitely divisive sending a clear message of separation. On the other hand religion which express itself as Pope Francis is always inclusive. All of us could dress like the Pope but if we consistently act like him, the world is a better place. Their acts of grace far exceed the sartorial difference.

Question: On average is there greater love and commitment to good coming from Muslim women who don the hijab than those who do not? I doubt it. Cross wearing Christians in general are no different from those who do not, and I am uncomfortable with Christians driving their cars with, "honk if you love Jesus"

My take? I am with the government for not shifting the ground on the hijab. Allowing more opportunities for wearing the hijab will serve more to divide than unite us. In theory it could massively go the other way as in my earlier post, but that's theory.

Singtel Fire Incredible Explanation

No more than 20% of what I wanted to blog about eventually made their way here. It's a trade off. Blogging like photo taking was always for the long term. I didn't want to put in the effort to write this but a Whatsapp message from an old friend has made it convenient.

A good place to read Charlie Munger's wisdom on incentives here. I think Temasek Holdings should bear this in mind or we will have many Black Swans in their portfolio!

Adultery site coming this month

Saw this early this morning in our ST. They are coming sooner than later. They must be quite excited about this business opportunity. They must be confident that it would be profitable. They know quite a few people decrying them would end up as customers. In fact, the louder the noise the greater the profitability. If this business is to be done publicly it would fail. The more hypocritical a society is the more profitable for them. With rising public religiosity growth is assured as it help religionists support their double lives. Where they might find hardest to recruit are those who are already having no difficulty indulging in adultery without the help of their website.

This is really perverse. The guys who should be making the most noise are the unnamed incumbents (I don't know their names or brands) who would be losing market share to Ashley Madison. They would love for the Anonymous collective to hack and disrupt Ashley Madison but I guess not. They had stupidly went after our government and without our support to boot. They will and can be identified and caught. This is a lot easier and cheaper than hunting Osama.

Update: Nov 8, 8:30pm

Banning it like they do to that few sites the government doesn't approve of does not go far enough. To be serious you have to block or disrupt the business model e.g., by making it  hard for them to collect money from our people.

Tea Party Candidate Rubbished

I am happy to learn this! Uncompromising ideologues typically have no place in a democracy but in an American one there is a timed room for them. Time's up!

The Hijab: Form vs Substance

I had seen their sisters in one of our hospitals before. They were not banned. Nobody in his right mind would see their head scarves in religious terms. In India where they originate they are seen as Indian. These women are better known for what they do (substance) than how they appear (form)

All the major religions have this challenge: too much form and too little substance.

There is a global Islamic Revival. The older folks especially LKY's generation sense it more acutely when they compare the Muslims of their youth and now. Religious revivals always make people who are not adherents nervous. The process seems to be accelerating as moderates are beating retreat to the advance of rediscovered Islam. Yes, such revivals are never new. They are always presented as returning to the roots, to truth. They are irresistible or why would outsiders fear them otherwise.

Post by Yaacob Ibrahim Home Page.

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  Ab Kareem Khadaied Mr Yaa cob. I read yr post. Basically muslim Singaporean is only deserve to claim what is their rights.their constitutional rights. What u are saying is that the Prime Minister and your cabinet partners is not ready to uphold and honour their pledge to honour protect and preserve the constitution.
  
  The message that u are sending is that the singapore govt is handpicking what to honour in law. U choose what to honour n what to discard.
  The arguement that singapore needs time must surely be a lame excuse.
  Did the government ask singaporean before u brought in all those new residents. Did u ask the malays before u bring in chinese students from malaysia for more than 15 yrs.
  
  When malay want to excercise their constutional rights u ask for patience n tolerance. Of what?

  Like · Reply · 71 · 9 hours ago via mobile

71 likes.

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  Wanfatam Kakwan Cut the crap...hijab is a must...if the government forbid us...we still wear hijab..we have faith in our god..we dont have any faith in this kind of government..i dont give a damn on what i should wear or not..for me religion comes first..nothing..i mean nothing can overwrite it..if the mufti failed to convince the government..so let it be..if we still wear hijab..what can the authority do..jail us..shoot us..fine us..we dont even care..this is our right n to protect it os jihad..so as for me ..i ll stick to my religion..

  Like · Reply · 39 · 9 hours ago via mobile

39 likes

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  Nurulhuda Binti Mohammad The time will come when we should stop using the term malay muslim and identify ourselves as malay. Theres malay muslims, malay hindus, malay christians, malay buddhist.....all are malay in their own right. Not all malays are muslims remember that.

  Like · Reply · 67 · 10 hours ago

67 likes

More and more Muslim women wants to wear the hijab. If we refuse to allow them in our uniformed services and the frontline staff of our public service then the saddest thing could be not that they would be assertive but they would stop applying for those jobs. It is reasonable to think that some would switch jobs to those that permit the hijab.

On the other hand there is another problem. The quiescent majority might begin to verbalize their anxiety if we fail to draw them out and engage them in discussing this issue. Right now they assume the government would not bend. I agree with the PM's approach of constructive engagement but again I give him and Yaacob an F for communication. They must seize the initiative and respond quickly and clearly.

By and large people here take our religious and racial harmony for granted. Will not be pretty when they suddenly become alarmed. Yes Yaacob, what were you doing? Letting the ball drop again eh?

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  Elias Lye By the way, Dr Yaacob, next time don't need to wait till there's a big hoo ha. You should have taken your own initiative to bring this up. You are the minister of muslim affairs for a reason and it's not like you're not paid.

  Like · Reply · 34 · 9 hours ago via mobile

34 likes

Go ahead wear the hijab (Form) and wear it with a smile at all times too (Substance) seizing every opportunity for good works. The Taleban needs an opposite and equal response. Mas Selamat need it as much too.

But the non-believing public need to truly understand what this is all about. Then we would take our religious harmony to the next level. In this way whilst it appear we are shrinking our common space we are also enlarging it as well. Other societies fight over form but let's engage in jihad over substance. This is the spirit of the Gospel. You win by meeting the irresistible with irresistible, by fighting form with substance.

Update: 7:15 am

Two examples from the WSJ email I got this morning. All form and no substance.

Roman Bluetooth Earphones

My Roman 535 bluetooth stereo earphones took a while to get here (23 days) but it is every bit worth the wait.

Very good sound quality and I always like micro-USB charging.

Cost: Approx SGD $12

PM: SG must stay successful & relevant

This is from Saturday's papers and I have been thinking about it for the past couple of days. The logic of the PM's thesis is simple and compelling but there is a big problem which eventually must appear. What if the success we are enjoying is actually an exhilarating ride to the edge of the falls? Let's say the world is riding along and we are relevant because we are a poster child of that success. Everyone comes to us to learn how to do better.

We would have gone full steam ahead into dotcoms if we could. Ditto in financial services. That would have ended in an epic train wreck. We were lucky and as we had so often.

What about the times when we know we are right and everyone is wrong? Do we go along with the trend? Like Buffett turning his back on dotcoms vs our Phillip Yeo who was over the moon about them. You see survival for us goes way beyond being successful and relevant. It calls for great foresight without which courage is not helpful.

And as a price taker, what choice do we have? Some hard truth eh?

Another hard truth beyond LKY's set is that people must inevitably learn some lessons the hard way. People underestimate America because she is indulging in that all the time including the latest "near miss" debt default. A strong and vibrant democracy means you must have room for people to have the right to fail, learn and pick themselves up. One person one vote eventually you will face an electorate that cannot learn some key lessons except by the hard way. If our leaders insist that failure is not an option, it is as good as commanding that you can't use the toilet when you need to. You just failed. This approach to governance is no smarter than the Euro, flawed from its conception. They are now learning its hard lesson but they will survive. We will not be so lucky. We are ignoring a fatal weakness in our system.