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KUALA LUMPUR ― A Malaysian deputy minister on Thursday (Nov 23) claimed that atheism is a “very dangerous” ideology that goes against the country’s Federal Constitution. Mr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki, a deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, said the ideology also goes against Malaysia’s Rukunegara that prescribes “Believe in God” as one of its tenets. The Rukunegara is a set of national principles formulated after the May 13 racial riots in 1969 to uphold Malaysia’s diverse religious and ethnic backgrounds. Mr Asyraf alleged that the freedom of religion in the Federal Constitution — which guarantees the freedom to worship...

Shelter is when your heart finds mine. So wont you come and abide deep within the covering of My armor against which there is no weapon and find "TRUE REFUGE " in the arms of Love . . . For as you call to me truly you shall find me and as you open your heart to me I will come in and it is then as one we share in the Kingdom I have promised you, for Zion is yours as is my undying love and as you enter into me you receive My everlasting promise of eternal forgiveness...

A Muslim-only laundromat operating in Malaysia designed to maintain “purity” of Islamic clothing is causing controversy among the country’s various religious groups. A photograph of a signboard advertising the “Muslim-friendly” laundrette in the state of Johor first caused a stir on social media last week.

A French woman whose jihadist son fought, and is thought to have died, in Syria was given a two-year jail sentence for financing terrorism on Thursday because she sent him money. Nathalie Haddadi, 43, insisted she did not know how her son Belabbas Bounaga spent the money she wired to him and said the conviction was a “double punishment” for a grieving mom. “I have trouble understanding how they can accuse me of financing terrorism,” Haddadi told reporters before hearing the verdict. “I helped my son,” she said, while insisting she had never sent money to Syria. […] Haddadi, a...

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – Malaysia has canned an annual craft beer festival after an Islamist party warned it would turn the city into “the biggest centre of vice in Asia”. Drinking alcohol is common among the large ethnic minorities in Muslim-majority Malaysia but there have been a growing number of protests against activities and events seen as un-Islamic by politicians and hardliners. The Better Beer Festival, billed as Malaysia’s biggest craft beer festival, was due to take place on October 6 and 7 at a shopping mall on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. But last week the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party...

In a speech to US business leaders, Najib says opposition politicians have blown 1MDB scandal out of proportion in a failed attempt to topple his government. WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump welcomed Prime Minister Najib Razak to the White House today, praising his country for investing in the United States while steering clear of an American investigation into a Malaysian corruption scandal. The visit is important for Najib, who faces elections next year and wants to signal he is still welcome at the White House despite a criminal probe by the US Justice Department into a state fund called 1Malaysia...

Fight of Gods pits deities from various pantheons, including Buddha, Odin, Zeus, and Anubis, against one another in one-on-one brawls for the right to lead the world to enlightenment (or something like that, anyway). It's not the first such game to take that angle—Faith Fighter, which enables you to "choose your belief and kick the shit out of your enemies," caused a stir nearly a decade ago—but it may be the first to so obviously capitalize on the easy and inevitable controversy caused by such an up-front inclusion of Christianity. And it worked, although perhaps not in quite the way...

Today is Independence Day in Malaysia, marking Malaya’s independence from Britain 60 years ago on August 31, 1957.1. It is also known as Merdeka Day, after the cry of “Merdeka!” (meaning independent or free) that went up when independence was declared. 2. The ancient astronomer/geographer Ptolemy called Malaysia Aurea Chersonesus, meaning “peninsula of gold”. 3. Malaysia is the world’s largest supplier of rubber gloves. 4. . The Malayan tiger, which is listed as endangered, is the national animal of Malaysia. 5. In 1963, the states of Sarawak and Sabah in Borneo joined the old Malaya to form Malaysia. 6. The...

President Donald J. Trump poses for a photo with General Zulkifeli bin Muhammad Zin, left, Director General of the Malaysian National Security Council, and Malaysian Ambassador Zulhasnan Rafique, right, Thursday, Aug. 24, 2017, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C. PETALING JAYA: United States President Donald Trump met up with officials from Malaysia to thank them for their search and rescue efforts for its missing sailors after its warship the USS John S McCain collided with a merchant vessel. "Trump expressed the United States' gratitude for Malaysia’s efforts to recover the fallen US sailors of the...

The Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN or Tentera Laut DiRaja Malaysia; TLDM) launched and named today its first Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) Gowind frigate. The ceremony took place at Boustead Heavy Industries Corporation Berhad (BHIC) Lumut shipyard (Western Malaysia) on August 24th. The first of class vessel is now known as KD Maharaja Lela. Dato Maharaja Lela (died on 20 January 1877) was a Malay nationalist from Perak. Dato' Maharajalela is generally celebrated as a folk hero by Malay nationalists, and seen as a symbol of the Malay resistance against British colonialism. In late 2016, the RMN ran a poll on...

Australia's main scientific agency said yesterday it believed with "unprecedented precision and certainty" that a missing Malaysia Airlines aircraft crashed into the sea north-east of an area scoured in a fruitless, nearly three-year underwater search. Its assertion is based on satellite pictures taken two weeks after MH370 went missing on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board a flight to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur. But the Australian government rejected the conclusion of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), saying it was not specific enough. The Boeing 777 is thought to have been diverted thousands of kilometres off...

[The groom, Dennis Muhammad Abdullah, converted to Islam in 2015] The daughter of one of Malaysia’s most powerful sultans married her Dutch fiancé on Monday in a lavish ceremony steeped in centuries of tradition. Princess Tunku Tun Aminah Sultan Ibrahim, 31, the only daughter of the Sultan of Johor, tied the knot with Dennis Muhammad Abdullah, 28, following a three-year romance. The Dutchman, who has converted to Islam, and the princess were married according to Muslim Malay custom at the Serene Hill Palace, the royal family’s residence in the southern city of Johor Bahru. The private ceremony was attended by...

AFTER her husband secretly married the second time in Thailand 15 years ago, Salmah Khalid has been supporting her four children on her own, working long hours and sometimes borrowing money to make ends meet. The 43-year-old nurse said she only found out about the second marriage two months after her husband remarried, following which they had a huge row. Salmah said she didn’t see her husband for a year after that. “In the past, he would give me RM300 for household expenses and we would split the loan repayment for the house. After he married, I had to take...

“STICK me in this jet, and I’ll take her anywhere,” said a Royal Malaysian Air Force F/A-18D Hornet ‘driver’.” The pilot’s confidence in the much-vaunted strike fighter’s ability to handle modern threats is due to the fact that the RMAF’s 20-year-old fleet recently underwent a comprehensive upgrade that gives it an even more lethal “sting”. The best just got better. The programme, carried out in phases, was to enhance the Hornet’s combat effectiveness in its primary tasking in the air-to-air and air-to-ground roles. This included the integration of four primary elements — Boeing’s Joint Helmet-Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS), the super-agile,...

Kim Jong Nam's son did not want body handed over to N. Korea By MASATOMO NORIKYO/ Correspondent July 2, 2017 at 13:10 JST KUALA LUMPUR--The son of Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, pleaded with Malaysian authorities not to turn over his father's body to North Korea following his assassination in February. However, the pleadings made by Kim Han Sol fell on deaf ears as Malaysian authorities chose instead to secure the release of their diplomats and repatriated the body in compliance with North Korean demands at the end of March. According to...

The Malaysian Air Force has announced that they have modified their Russian-made Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets to be able to drop GBU-12 laser-guided bombs, having successfully tested the new platform in late 2016. The Royal Malaysian Air Force put out a video showing their Su-30MKMs, supermaneuverable fighters specifically designed for use by Malaysian forces, dropping 500-pound GBU-12s made by Lockheed-Martin and Raytheon. The video's accompanying caption said that the test occurred in November 2016 at the Air Force's weapons testing range. However, the segment has since been deleted from the video. The GBU-12s are laser-guided, using a passive heat-seeking homing...

A Malaysian air force plane is missing, the Royal Malaysia Air Force said on Thursday (Jun 15). The aircraft departed from the Kuantan air base at 11am and lost contact at 11.30am near the Pahang-Terengganu border, the air force said in a media statement. A search and rescue mission has been launched. This story is developing. Please refresh this page for updates.

Kim Jong Nam had $120,000 in cash on him at time of slaying By MASATOMO NORIKYO/ Correspondent June 12, 2017 at 15:25 JST KUALA LUMPUR--The estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had $120,000 (13 million yen) in cash in his possession when he was killed at Kuala Lumpur's international airport in February, triggering speculation the money was a payoff from a U.S. intelligence contact. Malaysian investigative authorities also speculated that Kim Jong Nam's meetings with an American male believed to have links with a U.S. intelligence agency may have been behind North Korea's decision to silence him....

A chess coach in Malaysia demanded an apology after organizers humiliated one of his players, a 12-year-old girl, over the dress she was wearing, ultimately leading the young girl to back out of the tournament voluntarily

A 12-year-old chess champion in Malaysia was forced to withdraw from a youth tournament in the country after tournament organizers deemed her knee-length dress too "seductive," the girl's coach said. The tournament director of the National Scholastic Chess Championship held April 14-16 made the call personally, the coach noted, after finding the dress to be "temptation."