A MUSLIM undergoes several schools or madrasah throughout his life. The compulsory prayers performed five times a day is a form of daily madrasah to remind Muslims of the Almighty Creator. The Friday prayers are a weekly madrasah to forge unity and friendship amongst Muslims while at the same time, create better understanding on issues…
TOWARDS the end of last year, while the United States was still reeling from the aftermath of the Sept 11 tragedy, the country was rocked by another shock in the form of a cor-porate scandal. The Enron scandal has sparked numerous debates on issues relating to transparency, accountability and disclosure. For a country like the…
IN the next four weeks, about 23,000 Malaysians will be departing for Mecca, Saudi Arabia. They will be part of the two million or so Muslims from all over the world fortunate enough to be selected for this year’s pilgrimage or haj. Haj is one of the five pillars of Islam. Verse 27 or Chapter…
CIRCE in Greek mythology is a sorceress, the daughter of Helios, the sun god, and of the ocean nymph Perse. When Odysseus visited her island, Aeaea, Circe offered him and his men a potion mixed with cheese, honey and wine. When they had emptied their bowls, the men began to grow pig’s heads and bristles,…
MUSLIMS recently celebrated Hari Raya after a month of fasting. Except for those in the east coast who were bracing for the floods, others have had a wonderful Aidilfitri. Mosques were filled to the brim for the Raya prayers. Thousands, if not millions, ma-naged to return to the kampung to meet up with parents and…
AS Ramadan draws to a close, Muslims who have religiously performed the fasting begin to look forward to Aidilfitri. Among others, Aidilfitri signifies the reward for their success in the previous month to subscribe fully to God’s injunction to “think no evil, see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil and do no evil”,…
IMMEDIATELY prior to the “strike against terror”, the attention of the world was actually focused on another fight – “against human cloning”. Last July, the US Congress passed the Human Cloning Prohibition Act. This was in view of the insistence of several doctors and scientists on providing services to couples who are unable to conceive.…
AS the Northern Alliance forces strode into Kabul recently, there were scenes of non-Afghans lying dead in the city streets, presumably killed in their attempt to fight those out to oust the Taliban. For the foreigners who had given their lives to defend the previous Afghan Government against the American-led attack, they would probably be…
BUDGET 2002, currently being debated in Parliament, focuses on Government-led stimulus packages to counter the effects of the global economic slowdown. A sum of RM33.5 billion in gross development expenditure has been earmarked for next year, up 4.6 per cent from 2001’s RM32.1 billion. The latter includes the RM4.3 billion fiscal stimuli and the earlier…
IN contemporary discussion, biotechnology is most closely associated with gene technology. This includes the use or modification of genetic materials in developing products for virtually any application in the food, agricultural, pharmaceutical and medical industries. These applications imply some form of genetic engineering, or movement of genes from one organism to another (often in a…
